Dinosaur Jr. - Bug (reissue)

This is the best thing I've bought in a while. I might have to redo the photographs, because they're all a bit wonky, but I've been busy these last few days so bear with me.

Dinosaur Jr.'s Bug, originally released in 1988, was the band's last album with their original line-up, i.e. with Lou Barlow, until last year's Beyond. This year, all three of Dinosaur Jr.'s early albums (Dinosaur, You're Living All Over Me and Bug) have been reissued on J. Mascis's own label, Baked Goods.

Road Records have them in blue, red and green marbled vinyl respectively; according to Baked Goods' distro, Surefire Distribution, there are four colours altogether; 2,000 copies in total of Bug, 500 on black and 1,500 on coloured.

A quick question on coloured vinyl: the first time it's played, does anybody know if it usually sounds a bit off? I had this first with Hot Water Music's A Flight and a Crash, where the guitar sounded completely dead on the first listen (and the rest of the instruments - bass, drums - sounded fine). This is on the marbled records in particular - I'm theorizing it's something left behind by the printing process, although I don't notice anything collected up by the stylus. Affecting the higher frequencies perhaps?

Also, that's by way of saying don't throw out your record the first time you get coloured vinyl. Not that I did anything like that: but I was quite alarmed, to hear my favourite album of all time sound nothing like it should, the first time; and when 'Freak Scene' on this album lost all depth to its guitar solo, well, that was pretty worrying even if I thought I knew was happening...

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As you can see, the marbling on each side is different - the more impressive burst on the second side gives an extra fillup to that side of the album. In addition, it's quite transparent (this is actually a slight problem as you can see the track grooves from both sides) so when you put it down on the turntable platter it looks extra cool - a little bit like this:

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Dinosaur Jr. - Bug

Side A:

1. Freak Scene

2. No Bones

3. They Always Come

4. Yeah We Know

5. Let It Ride

Side B:

6. Pond Song

7. Budge

8. The Post

9. Don't

10. Keep the Glove

http://www.emusic.com/album/Dinosaur-Jr-Bug-MP3-Download/11028720.html (includes the bonus track 'Keep the Glove'

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More on Bug…

As much as I really like this album, I haven’t gotten madly into much else by Dinosaur Jr. You’re Living All Over Me is too disjointed, too patchy, too much just like noise. That’s not to say that it hasn’t got some really good songs, but it doesn’t hang together in any way like this album does.

I could say Bug is like a time warp back from the Dinosaur Jr. of today: Bug is Beyond of 1988. Of course, it isn’t: Beyond is of course Bug, reborn in 2007. But whichever way you look at it, they are two records that speak to each other in their simplicity and sheer, epic tunefulness across the decades.

’Freak Scene’ is maybe all you need to hear from this record. It expresses so well everything that is good about the Dinosaur Jr. sound, about the paradoxical bombast and tenderness of J. Mascis’s guitar, about the feel-good rhythm of all their songs. As much as I am tempted to keep playing that track over and over again, I won’t. Because ‘Freak Scene’ is just a gateway into the album, an introductory hit wonder.

Noel Murray has an interesting bit in this week's Popless about Dinosaur Jr. Apparently, he had a rejected book idea for a 33 1/3 edition on You're Living All Over Me. Sentiments above notwithstanding, I know I'd buy it.

"When I was a freshman in college, right after Bug came out, I figured Dinosaur Jr. might be one of those bands like The Velvet Underground or Big Star, that never sell many records but become hugely influential. I was half-right on both counts ...

My hope is that the reunion of Mascis and Barlow has helped bring Dinosaur Jr. back into the awareness of young alt-rock fans. Then maybe someone will take an interest in my book proposal."

'Kracked' from Living All Over Me is the track he chooses. If you want to hear more songs from that era, check out the Nov. 1988 Peel Session, which is a nice little snippet of that album.

I've also uploaded a rip of the 'Back To Your Heart' 7" I posted already. A lot of people say the albums I post bring them back to their college days, which makes me feel pretty young, but Beyond at least was part of my college days last year:

Dinosaur Jr. - 'Back To Your Heart'