Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis is a man of few words, especially when you catch him moments before soundcheck. However, prepare to catch an earful Friday when the reunited trio hits Emo’s outside with Awesome Color and Grand Champeen.
Off the Record: It seems like a lot of the great indie bands from the Eighties are either reuniting or reissuing old material. What do you attribute that resurgence to?
J Mascis: There’s a lot of bad music these days. Maybe we just sound better in comparison. It had been so long that even I had forgotten how great Mission of Burma was live. Seeing them was kind of inspiring for us.
OTR: What feels different this time around?
JM: I guess I like playing live more now. I used to think more of it as a pain. I don’t really know.
OTR: What were the initial practice sessions like for the reunion tour?
JM: They were pretty good. It was kind of strange. It sounded kind of the same immediately. It didn’t take long to get back together.
OTR: At what point on the tour did you know you were going to write an album?
JM: Maybe after about a year or so we realized that we wanted to keep going and to play more shows.
OTR: How was that session different that those of the past?
JM: We recorded it at my house. It was much more relaxed because we didn’t have the pressure of paying for a studio. We recorded everything ourselves so it sounded pretty bad at first. It took us a while to figure out how to capture the sounds right.
OTR: What about the pressure of living up to Dinosaur Jr.’s legacy?
JM: We didn’t really think about that. We were just trying move forward. Whether people were going to like it or hate it didn’t really matter to me.
OTR: Dinosaur Jr. has been added to Explosions in the Sky’s All Tomorrow Parties event. What experiences have you had with that band?
JM: None that I know of.
OTR: Do you remember your first gig ever in Austin?
JM: Ever? I don’t think so. I remember when the Big Boys came through our town and seeing Austin on MTV’s Cutting Edge.
OTR: You recently played some Guitar Hero with David Cross. What was that like?
JM: It was pretty funny. He was actually a lot better than I was. I’m not a very good a video games.
OTR: David Cross was more of a Guitar Hero than you?
JM: Something like that.
This article appears in November 30 • 2007.