J Mascis on his “favourite band” when forming Dinosaur Jr
Dinosaur Jr, frontman J Mascis, is one of the most distinctive and essential figures in alternative rock. A wizard of the guitar, his effect-laden, wah-heavy shredding proved monumental for the genre, with a host of its successive heavyweights, such as Nirvana, Swervedriver and My Bloody Valentine, all citing him as a hero.
Fusing a love of hardcore bands such as Minor Threat and Black Flag with what you might call a psychedelic rock proclivity, Mascis and the group packaged their often punishing sonics with a heady edge. Whether through his melodic playing style, use of effects, or the fact that he made the guitar solo cool again by exerting real panache, the band straddled the line between eras for Generation X, linking their past with their present. For this reason, they quickly became favourites of modern rock.
As Mascis’ work with Dinosaur Jr has taken many twists and turns, it makes sense that he has noted an array of musicians as inspirations. Whether this be cult English punks Eater, who recently supported the band on their British run, or The Stooges, Buzzcocks or even Black Sabbath, Mascis has always listened to a lot of music, and when the trio were in their formative period, some of it inspired their artistic direction.
However, when forming the alternative rock band in 1984, under their original name of Dinosaur, there was one act that J Mascis cared about more than any other. This was the group that introduced Nick Cave to the world, frenetic Australian post-punks, The Birthday Party.
When speaking to The Guardian in 2021 to list his “teenage obsessions”, Mascis outlined how much he loved The Birthday Party and labelled them his “favourite band” at the time. He said: “I was 16 or 17 and starting college. Hardcore seemed like it was over and I was looking for the next thing to listen to. I landed at the Birthday Party. Very noisy. I discovered them the way I discovered everything then, probably through the record store or reading about them in a fanzine. I liked The Bad Seed EP the most, with Mick Harvey playing drums. My room mate in college hated it ’cos I would play ‘Deep in the Woods’ and he’d be like ”The knife feels like knife …’ What the fuck does that mean?'”
He continued: “There was someone [Nick Cave] screaming in your face. It seemed very antisocial. He thought they were horrible. I’m bummed that I never got to see them, but I saw the first Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds tour and they played ‘Mutiny in Heaven’, which is as close as I got apart from VHS tapes. When I started Dinosaur, the Birthday Party were my favourite band, but what came out of us didn’t sound anything like them. I’ve met Nick and the first few times I was pretty freaked out. Now it’s not so bad”.
This is not the only time J Mascis has shared his love for The Birthday Party. When listing the ten albums that changed his life for Music Radar in 2023, he picked the Australian band’s final full-length recording, 1982’s Junkyard, as part of the collection. It was put to the Dinosaur Jr leader that this record was the album that started the transition out of hardcore, saying it’s over, but that “I wanna still like music”.
He replied: “And that seemed to be where it went, where people who liked hardcore went when looking for something else. The Birthday Party stepped in to fill that void”.
Listen to The Birthday Party’s Junkyard below.
