J Mascis announces new album ‘What Do We Do Now’
The singer and songwriter behind Dinosaur Jr, J Mascis, has announced his fifth solo studio album, What Do We Do Now. The new record will arrive via Sub Pop Records on February 2nd, 2024.
Mascis recorded the exciting new material at his studio, Bisquiteen, in Western Massachusetts. Notably, the LP marks his first solo album to feature full drum and electric leads alongside a familiar acoustic rhythm.
“When I’m writing for the band, I’m always trying to think of doing things Lou and Murph would fit into,” Mascis said in a new press statement, referring to Dinosaur Jr. “For myself, I’m thinking more about what I can do with just an acoustic guitar, even for the leads. Of course, this time, I added full drums and electric leads, although the rhythm parts are still all acoustic.”
He continued: “Usually, I try to do the solo stuff more simply so I can play it by myself, but I really wanted to add the drums. Once that started, everything else just fell into place. So it ended up sounding a lot more like a band record. I dunno why I did that exactly, but it’s just what happened.”
While recording What Do We Do Now, Masics was joined by several guest musicians, including Western Mass local Ken Mauri of The B-52s on keys and Matthew ‘Doc’ Dunn, who helms the steel guitar parts.
“Ken is great, and he plays all the keys,” Mascis said of Mauri. “I tried playing some keyboards on the first Fog album, but I’m really only comfortable playing the white notes, so it’s kind of limiting.
“Nowadays, I could just turn the pitch on a mini Mellotron to play different sounds, but black keys just seem hard. For whatever reason, I just like banging on the white ones. Seems like it’s harder to figure out how to stretch your fingers around the other ones.”
To celebrate the announcement, Mascis has treated fans to the album’s lead single, ‘Can’t Believe We’re Here’. The new track comes complete with a music video featuring some of Mascis’ nearest and dearest in clips as they go about their quotidian lives.
Meanwhile, at their show in London on November 13th, Dinosaur Jr welcomed actor and super fan Richard Ayaode to the stage to perform ‘The Lung’.
Listen to ‘Can’t Believe We’re Here’ below.
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