Dinosaur reissues
Dinosaur Jr.
Green Mind/Where You Been
(Reprise/Rhino)
Aiding in Merge’s reissuance of the early, SST Dinosaur albums, Rhino finishes the job.
Lou Barlow’s ouster following previous album Bug and the emergence of frontman J Mascis as slacker indie über dude is really the story behind Green Mind and Where You Been, although the music is a close second. By Green Mind, originally released in 1991, the template had been set: vaguely, post-Hüsker jams meet just-outta-bed vocals and fuzzed out guitar licks. Virtually nothing else changed, save the seriousness in tone and intent. Masterful single “The Wagon” was conceived and recorded as a single before the project was in its infancy; the only difference between Where You Been and Green Mind is the former’s best songs are stacked at the beginning while on the latter you have to wait a track for “Blowing It.” (History tells us the importance of Dino J was keeping wanky solos in alt rock, something neither album can fully exploit.) Green Mind features three bonus tracks including a distorted slant on The Flying Burrito Brothers’ “Hot Burrito #2,” while the three bonus Where You Been-ders include “Keeblin,” which was the title of a decade-old Australian EP.
Where You Been: 7
— Steve Forstneger
