Here's Five: Dinosaur Jr
Underground rock godfathers Dinosaur Jr are winging their way to Auckland later his month for one show at The Studio, which will see the legendary trio supported by Wellington act Hex - as announced just this morning. In anticipation of what is set to be an awe-inspiring show, Hex members Kiki and Liz shared five of their favourite Dino Jr songs from years past and wrote about how they've helped shape their own musical psyche...
1. 'Little Fury Things' from You’re Living All Over Me (1987)
My nana was an avid op-shopper and coached me through my first op-shop purchase when I was four of a small toy rabbit with a bonnet stitched on its head. The next year was 1987 which was substantial in that I started school and Dinosaur Jr. released You’re Living All Over Me. This song opens the album with wah neon sliming all over the show before screaming vocals scratch themselves over top. What is it? Who is it? Where is it? Like a monument for troubled kids and misfits everywhere, left behind and out of the loop. The rest resonates with a mix of confusion, anger and resignation that are the timeless and beautiful emotional ingredients of anyone who doesn’t fit in. This song is a love letter to all the kids born into an era of meaninglessness and neoliberalism and a future filled with low paid jobs and zoloft aka me. - Kiki
2. 'Thumb' from Green Mind (1991)
This song just dies me dead every time I hear it. Like that whistley flutey melody line that slightly preempts the crash and the snare that snaps in and then just misses a hit every so often on the chorus. Like how the entire last third of the song is a massive guitar solo. This song is drunk swimming in phosphorescence. It is watching water bead off an oven tray through tears. It is lying down in the dark next to a row of celery plants. It is taking acid and getting lost in the town belt and emerging at the south coast in the morning or waking up inside a giant hydrangea bush. It’s being pretty good not doing that fine. It’s throwing away all your teenage artefacts that have been stored at your parents house for a decade because you realise that you are everything you have ever been, right now. - Kiki
3. 'Feel The Pain' from Without a Sound (1994)
In 1994 when this album was released, me and my bandmates used to go into the local music shop, “Misty's” to see the new cassette releases after school on Tuesdays when my Dad would take us to town. I loved Nirvana and Sonic Youth and we'd seen Dinosaur Jr on the 1991: The Year Punk Broke video tape we'd gone thirds in. When we bought cassettes, we would dub off two copies and photocopy the covers so we all had one. I clearly remember playing it when I got home and looking around my room at my home made band posters, weird collections and zines knowing that I was part of something bigger than high school and that I was one of the blessed and the cursed. - Liz
4. 'Take A Run At The Sun' from Hand It Over (1997)
Sometimes when you're surrounded by friends, fun, love and good times you can't stop thinking about the tears welling up in the clouds. When I first heard this song it seemed so cheerful and light to me. Now when I listen to it, all I hear is the underlying sadness that you try to cover up with the light. Sometimes you forget it for a minute and you feel the sunshine on your skin and the lump in your throat disappears. - Liz
5. 'See You' from Farm (2009)
See You starts with such a beautiful riff which is the careful and caring bedrock to this song. When the guitar solo comes wailing in ten seconds later it rides dramatically over this solid anchor before retreating into the vocals. And this contrast is every long-term grownup relationship where you take turns rescuing each other from the abyss. A decade in and you somehow landed in a house in the suburbs with kids and a small dog, and it is like you are just waking up to the person next to you and learning really how strong and loving and brilliant and wise they are. And then they’re pulling you through another rough patch and next it’ll be your turn. If I was Dinosaur Jr I would have written this song for GG and I would play it to her and say thank you for marrying me. The ending is so perfect too, totally triumphant. A set of vows. A promise to stick together. - Kiki
Hex will be supporting Dinosaur Jr on Monday 23rd January at The Studio in Auckland, head over here for more information and to buy tickets.
facebook.com/witchesofthehex
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