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Rip It Up, Issue 165, 1 April 1991, Page 6

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70s dino-rock images condensed into a spasm of hardcore brevity. A Massachusetts band called Deep Wound turns into Dinosaur and then adds ‘lnr’. Their music is an instantaneous wig out in every blinding flash of a song. Perhaps that’s why my interview with them is so short.

Drummer Murph picks up the phone in a New York hotel room. He'll start the interview; | can talk to bandleader J. Mascis after that. Little more than fen minutes later and the tape records an operator’s voice on the line — “I have long distance holding”. The Dinosaur duo are on a real tight schedule — “Uh, okay, thanks for falking to me.” ' According to Murph, they're sitting watching TV in a New York hotel room rather than at home with their moms in Massachusetts to “do a bunch of press with Australia and New Zealand". They’re also in town to plug a “claymation” video on TV for their first single off new album Green Mind. You may have seen The Wagon' on RWP, but then no one was supposed fo watch that show, were they? The Wagon' is about J. crashing his wagon, supposedly. The WEA 7° off Green Mindis even backed with a cover of David Bowie's ‘Quick Sand’ — the song playing on J's Walkman at the moment of impact!

On its original release, on the German Glitterhouse label, ‘The Wagon' was the product of an expanded Dinosaur Jnr. line-up; Green Mind is almost solely the work of J. For a while last year, another drumkit was set up alongside Murph's for Jay Speigel, and Don Fleming put his Marshall stack up beside J 5. Speigel and Fleming arrived from BA.LL, artcore stars of the Shimmy Disc stable, but didn't stay long. “ especially enjoyed playing with two drummers, and I'd like to do that again,” says Murph, “But it didn’t work out because the other two had pretty different ideas for the band.” Earlier last year, Dinosaur Jnr. played in Auckland with Donna Biddle of the Screaming Trees filling in on bass. Original member Lou Barlow left, dumpedvery unceremoniously as the culmination of band personality politics, just before that tour. (Lou has since put out some excellent weird shit on the Homestead label — imported by

Flying In — under the Sebadoh moniker). Right now, J. and Murph are looking to find a new bass player fo tour with. “We will start touring the world again once we get a bassist,” says Murph, “We had this guy Dan Conner for seven shows we did in LA with Jane’s Addiction. That was fun, in a lot bigger venue than we had played before.” All the line-up hassles have made for a pretty stop-start Dinosaur Jnr. existence over the past year. Prior to the recording of Green Mind, - Murph thought the group had disbanded, and so when J. Mascis went into the studio to start Green Mind his drummer wasn't ready. “Yeah, J. drummed most of that album because | didn't have fime to get the songs down. He started out as a drummer anyway, and tells me what to drum all the fime. | don't mind; its a kind of collaboration and | understand where he's coming from anyway.” J. and Murph have developed a reputation as keen skiers, but hadn't heard about South Island powder . .. “What is this? Skiing in New Zealand? (turns fo speak to J. in the room behind him) There's good

skiing in New Zealand! Well then, we're gonna four in your winter and check this out. This northern winter has been really light; no good skiing.” 14 A

One band scheduled to tour here before winter was Sonic Youth. An offer o tour with Neil Young meant we got fo miss out on the kool things in action.

“Yeah, J. and | have both seen them. J. caught a couple of shows, and the show | saw was pretty good. I think it's still really strange, odd that they got to do it. The audience were mostly there for Neil Young and they didn’t seem to understand Sonic

Youth at all.” What rock dinosaur would Dinosaur Jnr. like to tag along with, given an opportunity like that.

~ “We would've loved that tour,” says Murph, “Cool and fun, yeah.” ~ “I'have long distance holding.”

PAUL MACKESSAR