The guitarist Kurt Cobain always wanted to join Nirvana: “We were much bigger than them”
They were such a robust force that you can easily forget that Nirvana were just three young guys.
The depth of their sound seemed to be an army unto itself, and much of that was to do with the myriad influences that the band were throwing into the mix. Dave Grohl was bashing out disco beats, Kurt Cobain was snarling in a slacker rock spirit one minute, and honouring the tight, traditional songwriting spirit of The Beatles the next.
This odd make-up made them a force, but it also made them a difficult puzzle to piece together in the early days. The band knew that something was slightly missing, so they sought help from a greatly admired friend and found themselves rather flippantly rejected.
Dinosaur Jr frontman and guitarist J Mascis is one of the most influential figures in rock music. But could he have been even more of a seminal figure when it comes to the MTV masses of the age?
He’s a true alternative pioneer, alongside bandmates Lou Barlow and Murph, he crafted a noisy, effects-laden style that had a significant hand in doing away with the jangly, 1960s-inspired indie that ruled the roost in the mid-late 1980s. Fusing introspective lyrics with thunderous dynamics crowned with Mascis’ searing guitar work, the band rose from the underground with their second album, 1987’s You’re Living All Over Me, and breathed new life into the scene.
It’s reflective of the importance of Mascis and his group’s efforts that the likes of Billy Corgan, Graham Coxon, Ride, Swervedriver, My Bloody Valentine, Blink-182, Arab Strap and Kurt Vile have all cited them as an influence. This range of acolytes also goes a fair way in presenting their significance to their own generation of musicians and future ones. In short, Dinosaur Jr’s work is timeless, and it’s a credit to them that they’re still going strong today.
While claiming the aforementioned set of artists as disciples is a feat in itself, another musician adored Mascis and his efforts so much that he twice asked him to join his band. This particular artist is also the most prominent musician Dinosaur Jr can claim as a fan. It was none other than the late Nirvana frontman and guitar hero, Kurt Cobain.
The story was told in the 2021 documentary, Freakscene: The Story Of Dinosaur Jr. Directed by Philipp Reichenheim, the German filmmaker who just so happens to be Mascis’ brother-in-law, the movie features exclusive interviews with a host of Dinosaur Jr’s contemporaries, such as Sonic Youth, Hüsker Dü, Pixies and My Bloody Valentine.
At one point in Freakscene, Sonic Youth frontman and guitarist Thurston Moore recalls a conversation between Cobain and Mascis. At the time, Mascis was hunting for a new bass player after the acrimonious 1989 departure of Lou Barlow. “Bleach wasn’t out yet,” says Moore, “It was just the single [‘Love Buzz’]. And I remember Kurt saying [to Mascis]: ‘Why don’t you join us?'”
“I didn’t think much about it,” Mascis maintains. “I think we were much bigger than them at the time, so…” Meanwhile, Sonic Youth bassist and vocalist Kim Gordon adds: “It made me realise maybe how much they’d influenced Nirvana too. Dinosaur had this other dissonant quality that I think Kurt really liked.”
This was not the first time Mascis had discussed Cobain’s efforts to join forces. Speaking to Spin in 2012, he revealed that he was first asked to play guitar and then drums on another occasion. He said: “I think [Kurt] was sick of the guy Jason [Everman] who was in the band at the time, and thought I should play guitar. I didn’t think much about it. Later, there was also talk of playing drums on a single [1990’s ‘Sliver’] they were doing, but it ended up being [Mudhoney drummer] Dan Peters.”
None of this came to fruition, and it’s the perfect indication of Mascis’ laidback character that in the years that have followed, he’s barely even entertained a ‘what if’. He was simply in his own lane, and at the time, Nirvana were stuck on a B-road. It was the oddest no-brainer in history for the Dinosaur star.
