Dinosaur Jr is one of those classic Indie rock bands from the Q101 “New Rock Alternative” days that never got any airplay. Not quite grunge and not quite polished. Unlike Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, they appear to still be alive and touring. People who were in high school when Where You Been came out have a rather maniacal devotion to the band. I was working for a living by 93 so whatever got played on Q101 was as far into the Indie rock scene as I had time to get.
Youtube Sucks!
Once you get old you have to get up early in the morning to use the bathroom. Just a fact of life. Usually I check email. A friend from the foreign country of Oregon had sent an email. He was actually still up when I replied. We exchanged a few links to music we liked while chatting about other things. Thank God I sent him the official link to the official video for Sometime Around Midnight by The Airborne Toxic Event.
I sent him a few other links for Bond tracks I like, but I sent the Youtube links instead of the official stuff from their site. My God the quality sucked!!! Are you Youtube scammers pirating your stuff with air mikes? I bought the actual CDs and MP3 files. In headphones while you are coding, they are an amazing group with very few words to distract one from power coding.
Yeah, we talk about music on here a bit. Especially true since Greg is a retired U2 pilot who actually plays. It’s our blog, if you didn’t like it you wouldn’t still be reading and buying our books. Here’s an official Bond track.
80s Forced Grunge to be Popular in the 90s
We had way too much of this
Over produced ozone eliminating hair spray corporate pleasing songs. Don’t get me wrong, I love Phil Collins and Steve Winwood, but this is the period where nearly every track they released solo became a beer commercial. This is the time where lousy bands with a really cool or bizarre video idea would get signed because MTV actually played music videos. You are all probably too young to remember that. Seems like a nano-second of history.
Sadly AC/DC wasn’t getting any airplay and the music buying audience was screaming for something with a beat. That’s kinda how Nirvana made it when so many others didn’t. They were at least loud. Thankfully The Smashing Pumpkins also got some airplay, at least in Chicago, and showed us there was hope for Indie rock.
Dinosaur Jr
This is a band that really embodies what Indie rock is, especially since they never really made it. Let’s be honest, most Indie rock bands sucked. They were high school bands that never got any better. Then there were gems like Dinosaur Jr which could do a few things great and only sucked at one or two obvious things. In the case of Dinosaur Jr, it was/is the vocals.
If you clicked the original link you will see the 30th anniversary edition has been released on vinyl for the trust fund baby audiophiles. You do need a fairly descent sound system to make out the lyrics, but the riffs are great!
This band didn’t fall into the trap of “every song will just be this.” Too many bands of this era had someone who wasn’t bad on guitar but everything else sucked so every song became a massive guitar solo. It wasn’t just guitars. Some had a singer that could growl so every song had to have a growl. Even bands that made it fell into this trap. When Van Halen was getting airplay initially every song of theirs on the radio had a scream in it. Michael Jackson had that high pitched “Hi Hi” or “Hey Hey” or however one types it.
It’s almost like Dinosaur Jr knew they didn’t have vocals because they are really muted in this official video.
The Name Changes
What is interesting is how the name changes for Indie rock. It was “garage bands” then “local acts” (or vice versa). For a while it was “regional bands.” It didn’t become “Indie Rock” until record labels wanted something new to market. A band I love, which has only one living member now, came and went before the 80s really happened and well before Indie rock became a thing.
They embodied what we now call Indie rock though. Couldn’t really play. Couldn’t really sing. Damn those bastards could write though!
Summary
Yeah, Dinosaur Jr fans, I feel your pain.
Guess you should have learned that Indie rock is bigger in the Midwest than the left coast.
Here’s another one the left coast never heard of.
May he rest in peace.
