album #23

you're living all over me (dinosaur jr.)

This record, from 1987, sounds like the early wave of that '90s grunge, alt-rock, lo-fi sound… It's interesting, the more I try to learn about music, the different eras that the celebrated bands cluster around. 1979 continually stands out as a classic year- the birthyear of post-punk and new wave- and the various inspired, strange, creative music that centered around those trends, in the early '80s. And then in the late '80s and gearing up into the '90s there's Guided by Voices, Pavement, Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, the Pixies, culminating in the mainstream breakthrough led by Nirvana. This album hints and reminds me of those other artists. The hard, washy, melodic haze of the guitars, the cadence of the vocals- half sung, have conversational, in certain rhythms rather Malkmusesque (though to be fair, they got here first).

This is not my favorite stuff, but it grew on me, and it's genuinely good, if not my favorite. Lots of really good tracks- "In a Jar" might be my favorite (a real Pavement sound to this one, a lovely low rhythm in the vocals), my other favorite "The Lung" (really nice melody in the vocals, high and clear, matched well with the guitar), "Show Me The Way" (sounds like Pavement, and a hint of Nirvana/Foo Fighters), "Sludgefeast" (one of the most metal numbers, sounds like it could play in a gym in 2002, even down to the touch of whininess in the vocals- though it gets the benefit of the doubt for belonging to this album), and "Little Fury Things" (a nice, low melodic sound, though I think I've maybe heard it too many times- it's starting to wear off.)

Altogether, pretty good stuff. And also I'd love to learn more about how those two signature music trends lead from one to the other- the late '80s alt rock, is that a reaction to radio rock or a reaction to new wave? Was it about fusing punk and other grittier rock and roll with a more melodic sound? Do they owe anything at all to Joy Division and the other really dark bands of the early '80s, or is it all a coincidence? One of my favorite stories in american art is tracing how Johns/Rauschenberg makes the bridge between the Abstract Expressionists and Pop Art, playfully teasing the machismo of the former, in manners which ushered in the clean quaintness of the latter. I'd love to learn if such a causal link exists in the main music trends I'm exploring.