Dinosaur Jr.'s You're Living All Over Me

Description

1985. Dinosaur, still without the Jr. Not hardcore anymore, but not yet anything else either. First live shows: fearsomely loud. First record, a fearsome mess: a raw miscellany thrown together from small-town ennui, the apathy of the middle classes, and all the things teenage boys are obsessed with. 1987. Dinosaur Jr. A new record, You're Living All Over Me, the result of a move into a college dorm, encounters with Sonic Youth in the big city, and a hell of a lot of practice. Searing guitar riffs smash into mountainous solos; gnarly pedal effects light up twisted song structures; tight punk drumfills wade through distorted bass sludge. Contradictions are everywhere, but with opposite poles forced together, a fixating spark is created - one that, pre-Nirvana, ignites the idea of how the alternative might also become the mainstream. All things, as this book explores through interviews and comment from the band and its friends, that make up the unique - and uniquely odd - story of a record that cares so little it cares a lot.

Nick Attfield is Lecturer in Music at the University of Birmingham, UK

... [this book] offers a fascinating glimpse into the dysfunctional world of Dinosaur Jr. where nobody talks to anyone else, resentment grows to alarming proportions and some avowedly non-post-punk/hardcore guitar solos and 'couldn't give a toss' vocals are draped all over what can best be described as under-produced sludge-metal and which, despite sounding like a dogs dinner of lunatic ideas, still succeeds in being a genuinely tremendous album. Definitely one to add to the essential 33 1/3 publications to date. * Total Music * Bug may have had the hit, and Where You Been may have sold more copies, but 1987's You're Living All Over Me is the album where Dinosaur became Dinosaur Jr ... Nick Attfield uses the album as an entry point into Dinosaur Jr.'s biography, tracing their suburban punk origins through their bitter demise with writing that's akin to a J Mascis solo: bold, inventive, and with all sorts of tangents and asides thrown in. -- Stephen M. Deusner * Pitchfork *