Peel Sessions II - Dinosaur Jr., Timber

I

Some of you will have already heard this, since I mixed up the two Peel sessions I was planning on posting. Anyway, Leatherface is back in its rightful place and for those of you who weren't able to take advantage of that happy accident, here's Dinosaur Jr. in a proper post...

I never really knew this band until I heard their latest single, 'Crumble', on heavy rotation on my local radio. Soon I went out and bought the album, Beyond, and boy, is it good. So good that it's still on heavy rotation on my stereo; so good that the first 3 seconds of 'Almost Ready' contains the sum of all human emotion ever expressed through the electric guitar. Yes, it's that good.

These recordings are about two decades previous, but despite differing production values and a somewhat rawer sound, they're recognisably by the same band. In any case, J. Mascis's voice is pretty distinctive; it's charm for me now rivals that of the almighty Stubbs of Leatherface. Dinosaur Jr. straddle the sounds of punk and grunge, hence their anaemic categorization as 'alternative rock': someone commented on my Husker Du post that they were the band "Nirvana stole from"; perhaps, but Dinosaur Jr. did the same and with more authentic flair. Dinosaur Jr. embody the anarchy and the emotion of that notorious strand of post-punk, emo; they are subversive of grunge in their tender gruffness, and defiantly SST-style hardcore in their gritty sonic assault.

These four songs, again like the Leatherface session, are split over two studio albums. A pretty good snapshot of the band in earlier days, and one which more than reflects their current sound:

Dinosaur Jr. - 11/88

II

Now, I'm no John Peel, but this nice guy from the States did e-mail me his band's demo tape. Already in Mediafire format, nonetheless - cassette tapes are so old-fashioned. He also sent to me a while ago, and for that I apologise.

Timber are a three-piece from Gaithersburg, MD, with a wide range of influences (Neu!, Drive Like Jehu, Wire, Brian Eno, amongst others), a good hardcore sound and the possibility of a 7" due out in the spring. Check out their demo here or stream their songs on this site. Enjoy!