Still roaming the Earth, as heavy as ever

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Fr­om lef­t, Din­osaur Jr.’ s Lou Ba­rlow, J. Mas­cis and Mu­rph.

Not all dinosaurs are extinct.

Dinosaur Jr., the ragged indie-rock heroes who fizzled into the murk in the late 1990s, have arisen from the depths of an acrimonious breakup and emerged with not one, but two albums that equal their influential output in the 1980s. The reunion puts an exclamation point on a career everyone thought was dead for good after one of the most famous splits in music, when guitarist-vocalist J. Mascis sacked bassist-vocalist Lou Barlow in 1989 by telling him the band was done, only to reform it with a new bassist, sign a major-label deal and hit the road for a tour soon after.

Older, wiser, and with the past put firmly behind them, the original group -- including drummer Emmet (Murph) Murphy -- hooked up again in 2004 following a benefit for the local autism support group in Northampton, Mass., organized by Barlow's mother. The Barlow matriarch booked Mascis and Barlow's post-Dinosaur Jr. band Sebadoh on the same bill, which led to the two former bandmates joining together to perform a song by their pre-Dinosaur Jr. group, Deep Wound, setting the stage for the reunion.

During the initial reunion run, Mascis re-released the first three Dinosaur Jr. albums -- Dinosaur, Bug and You're Living All Over Me -- and the trio concentrated on the early 1985-98 material before deciding what to do next: continue running through the old stuff like the Pixies (who only have released the why'd-they-even-bother Bam Thwok since their reunion) or continue as a real band by recording a new album.

They went the latter route and the result was Beyond, an album drenched in fuzz, reverb and guitar heroics that sounded like the natural successor to You're Living All Over Me. Their latest, Farm, shows that Beyond was no fluke.

"When we did the reunion it was the reissue thing and that wore itself out. Then it was, 'I guess we should make a new record,' then that wore itself out and we made a new record, and then when that wears itself out we'll see what happens," says Murph, as he is known, over the phone from Houston, Texas.

The band has tour dates into the new year, so they will continue at least that long. Winnipeggers will get the chance to see them for the second time since their reformation when they play the Pyramid Cabaret Tuesday with the Pink Mountaintops (tickets are $30 at Ticketmaster).

Anyone who witnessed their Garrick Centre show in 2007 knows they're as loud as ever -- earplugs are highly recommended by Murph, who blames Mascis for the volume.

"It was J., when he switched from drums to guitar," the drummer says. "With drums you can feel them; you can lay into them. He found guitar was wimpy and the only way to feel it was to crank it up. He just wanted to be a drummer playing guitar and I still think he's probably a better drummer than a guitar player."

That's a debatable point, as Mascis is considered a guitar god in some circles, but the frontman did play drums in Deep Wound -- and currently mans the kit for his stoner-rock side project, Witch -- before moving to guitar upon the formation of Dinosaur in Amherst, Mass., in 1984 (the Jr. was added after another band laid claim to the name).

Dinosaur Jr.'s first three releases are considered seminal indie-rock albums and helped set the stage for grunge and the alt-rock scene of the 1990s.

Murph hung around with Mascis until finishing a Lollapalooza tour in 1993, then hooked up with Evan Dando and drummed for the Lemonheads until 2000. He played around New York for a couple of years, then moved to Maine and dropped out of the scene completely.

After a year-and-a-half of inactivity, he got the urge to drum again and starting sitting in on blues and rock jams at a local biker bar.

"I was playing four or five hours a day and really getting into it, and about six months later I got the call to do the reunion," he says. "It was funny how fate comes in there. That was the perfect time to get the call; I was on top of my game."

rob.williams@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 12, 2009 F11