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Formed out of the remnants of a Punk-based band called Deep Wound in
the sleepy college town of Amherst, Massachusetts USA, Alternative-Rock
pioneers Dinosaur Jr. began with J Mascis, born Joseph D. Mascis, on drums
and Lou Barlow on bass; when J Mascis moved to guitar, jams started happening,
based upon the buckets of new songs that Mascis was writing. Drawing from
a wildly messed-up mix of influences from Venom to New
Order to Neil Young, Dinosaur began
to assemble their hair-raising first set of tunes in the fall of 1984.
Realizing that life as a duo might be difficult, they quickly recruited
a drummer named Murph, real name Emmett Patrick Murphy.
Released before the group was forced to change its name to Dinosaur Jr.
by an obscure psychedelic group, the band's debut, "Dinosaur",
was issued on the indie label Homestead, in 1985.
Touring with Sonic Youth and on their
own, Dinosaur Jr. slowly built up a dedicated fan base and in 1987 they
churned out their critically acclaimed sophomore album "You're Living
All Over Me".
1988's "Bug" expanded on the strengths of its predecessor and
established Dinosaur Jr. as a major band in the American underground,
it contained the college radio hit "Freak Scene".
A year later the members went their separate ways. Mascis wanted to fire
Barlow, so he continued on with Murph and hired a new bass player for
a tour of Australia.
J Mascis released Dinosaur Jr.'s first major-label album, "Green
Mind", in February 1991 on Sire Records; more of a solo project than
a group effort, the disc slipped into The Billboard Top 200 chart backed
by a Modern Rock top 30 hit, "The Wagon ".
It would be two years before the next album, "Where You Been",
appeared. Recorded with a full band, Mike Johnson and Murph lay down the
driving rhythm section playing bass guitar and drums respectively, while
Mascis has tackled almost everything else, "Where You Been"
rocketed into the top 50 of The Billboard 200 and Dinosaur Jr. with the
release of "Start Choppin'" achieved its career-highest Modern
Rock Tracks chart position, at #3.
Although the band's popularity continued to grow, J Mascis fired Murph
before the recording of "Without A Sound" which came out in
August 1994, it peaked at #44 in U.S. Top 200 chart led by the Modern
Rock top 5 hit single "Feel The Pain".
The band's seventh album, "Hand It Over", was released in March
1997 and was hailed as a masterwork by critics, even though it only scraped
the lower reaches of The Billboard 200 chart.
The end of the '90s saw the release of two Mascis solo albums: "Martin
+ Me" and "More Light". When J Mascis and Lou Barlow split
in 1989, it seemed the band would never regroup, but Dinosaur Jr. regrouped
in 2005 and toured.
Reunited alt-Rock trio Dinosaur Jr. has signed with Fat Possum Records,
which will release in the spring unveil the band's first album with its
original line-up since the late '80s. The 11-track "Beyond"
is due May 1, it includes the single "Been There All The Time".
Dinosaur Jr. biography is an exclusive of 100xr.com
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