In his “Spiegel” column, Jan Müller talks about his 35-year-long love for Dinosaur Jr.
1988
Dinosaur Jr? Never heard! Our “Spex” reading friend Marco from Münster was ahead of Arne and me. He drags us to the concert. Make a stamp. A matter of honor. What I experience on this October evening in the Hamburg market hall both fascinates and disturbs me. Guitar noise and melodies. Wildness and casualness. Noise from tape loops can be heard between the songs. No announcements, the musicians’ faces are hidden by long hair. The stage show is free of any macho posturing. No posing, no sporting event. Since I’m used to a political message at the punk concerts I usually attend, I’m looking for it here too. Vain. I’m not quite ready for that much freedom yet. Nevertheless, from now on I think Dinosaur Jr. is great!
1993
As I often do, I enter the record store Michelle Records in downtown Hamburg. Unlike today, where everyone gets excellent advice from Michelle, the arrogance of Michelle’s record salesmen was legendary back then. The super cool Wolfgang Brosch also sat behind the counter in the shop. He was always quite friendly. But still an aura shone around him that suggested, at least to me: “Don’t talk to me!”
When I enter the store that afternoon, there is music playing that I immediately identify as Dinosaur Jr., even though I don’t know the songs. It’s the new album WHERE YOU BEEN, which I’m buying immediately. As of now and forever, it is my favorite album by the band. Preferring this album is probably a minor opinion. The specialists would recommend one of the two SST albums BUG (with the sucker-slacker hit “Freak Scene”) or YOU’RE LIVING ALL OVER ME. And the super-professionals recommend the self-titled debut from 1985.
But my Dinosaur Jr. album is WHERE YOU BEEN. The release falls in the year Tocotronic was founded and the music exactly reflects my attitude to life at the time: calm, but with a slight melancholy. A little damaged, isolated and still very loud 1997 Finally I have the opportunity to see Dinosaur Jr. live again. They’re playing in the market hall again.
Behind J Mascis are three huge Marshall towers. But unlike metal bands, who use dummies for visual reasons, here all the amplifiers are actually in operation. Countless effect devices are placed in front of his feet. I put myself forward. I notice how brutally loud the guitar is. Some people in the audience don’t like it that much. One person complains via heckling between two songs. You wouldn’t understand the singing. In a calm tone, J Mascis explains that it just has to be that way for him. If he wanted to hear more of the singing, he would have to move further back. His words combine clear logic and artistic freedom.
2000
We play with Tocotronic in New York at the small club Voxhall. Uwe Viehmann from “Spex” is also on site. And he’s friends with J Mascis. Since it’s Dirk’s birthday, he has hatched an ingenious plan. J should unexpectedly enter the stage to accompany the appropriate song and play a solo. What better gift could there be, Arne and I also think?
During the sound check, Dirk is a little surprised about the additional amplifier that is standing around on stage. Since Dirk has little interest in technology, Arne and I can appease him with flimsy reasons. J actually comes on stage during the concert during exactly the right song. However, the special amplifier doesn’t work and Dirk is just a little surprised about the long-haired guy with the guitar, without identifying him as J Mascis. I think it’s a good thing that this legendary Mascis agrees to do a surprise appearance for a band that is probably completely unknown to him. He is exactly the opposite of a person who pushes himself into the foreground.
2023
We played at the Rolling Stone Beach Festival on the Baltic Sea. Directly after us on the same stage: Dinosaur Jr. They enter the stage shortly after 11 p.m. They have been playing with the original line-up again since 2005. It strikes me what an extraordinary bass player Lou Barlow is. He still plays just as wildly as he did in the market hall in 1988. His playing is very chord-driven. He is a four-string guitarist. I am impressed.
J Mascis has three Marshall towers behind him again. When he turns on one of his many distortions, his guitar is twice as loud as the rest of the band. I find it cool, artificial and really wonderful. A listener next to me complains. “That sounds bad!” I reply to him: “That’s great!” He angrily shouts at me: “You idiot, you have no idea!” Well, yes. I look at my watch. Our nightliner will leave for Vienna in five minutes. Dinosaur Jr. play “Out There,” my favorite song. When it’s over I stumble out into the night and happily run to the bus.
This column first appeared in Musikexpress issue 2/2024.