In an age when reunion tours appear to be materialising at an alarming rate it is easy to be skeptical of the results. Too often artists who have a failing solo career look for a return to the band of their glory days for a quick 'cash in'. Whilst money has openly been cited as one of the excuses for reforming the original line up of Dinosaur Jr, it is certainly not the only reason, as there is an acknowledgement that the seminal line up was disbanded at a time when they were still making outstanding music.
Unlike many of the bands that are reforming of late, the members of Dinosaur Jr actually had some success after their original members parted company. Founding member J Mascis continued with the Dinosaur Jr moniker and produced a few highly regarded releases that saw the band find a home on a major label, before forging ahead with a credible solo career. When Lou Barlow was told his services were no longer required by Dinosaur Jr, not only did it spawn the resultant 'bad blood' that has thankfully eroded over time, it also lead to Barlow forming the highly influential Sebadoh, as well as having some mainstream success with Folk Implosion and most recently he has been gaining momentum as a solo artist with the release of his most well-received work for a long time.
With recent parenthood and the success of his latest album ensuring that Barlow is in fine form, he appears truly grateful to be given the opportunity to play with a band that he obviously still holds in such high regard even though his departure from Dinosaur Jr was on less than harmonious terms. Father Time looks to have healed those wounds, and the business of putting on a show that is respectful of the legacy of the first few Dinosaur albums is at the forefront of his mind.
The original lineup of Dinosaur Jr perform at Capitol on Sunday, March 5. Lou Barlow will then return to Perth for a solo date at the Rosemount Hotel on March 19.
By CHRIS HAVERCROFT
Hi Lou, it'll be great to have you back in Perth. It's
pleasing that you haven't been scared off by us being
reportedly being some of the worst drivers in the world.
Is that true? I wonder how you would measure up to
Massachusetts drivers - normally known as mass-holes. The
most ruthless drivers I have ever seen. I cut my teeth
driving in Massachusetts, and when I moved to California I
was way ahead of the game.
From the outside it looks like you had a pretty
exciting 2005.
It was great, yeah.
You must have been pleased with EMOH and the way that
it was received. Is that the most successful record you have
had for a while?
I don't really know. I don't know what the numbers were on
it, but it was the most successful in terms of I did it
really cheaply and I did it totally myself and I had no
managers and nothing between myself and the record company
and all that stuff, so it was all very satisfying and
direct. It wasn't overwhelmingly successful by any means. It
was the first time that more than half the reviews were
good! The critical consent appeared to be tipped towards the
positive as opposed to the negative which is not something
that I could say for the last few records that I have done.
The people that like it appear to really like the
album.
I hadn't heard much from Australia. I'm trying to get a few
solo dates at the end of the Dinosaur tour. I initially had
some trouble knowing who I should contact or how I should go
about it, but who knows. I'll try and go through the people
that are doing the Dinosaur tour to keep it simple, but
we'll see. Who knows?
Considering the positive response to EMOH, has it been
difficult to put the solo stuff to bed whilst you tour with
Dinosaur Jr?
A little bit I guess, to be honest. It was a little weird
because I was doing good you know! So after doing the States
and Europe to pretty good crowds - nothing fantastic, but
good for me, then it was like woop that's it. Time to get on
the bus, put in the earplugs and turn up the bass.
You had spoken about a bit of a lack of momentum with
Sebadoh and The Folk Implosion, and seeing as the industry
is all about momentum, are you worried about Lou Barlow
losing the momentum created by EMOH?
Dinosaur has a momentum of its own to say the least. A
momentum and an inertia as well that is equally fascinating
to me.
How did the reunion come about?
Well J still lives in the area that we grew up in. He would show up at Sebadoh shows during the '90s even though I would wonder why the hell he was there, but he would show up. So I would be 'OK, there is J, that's weird'. And then over the years we have had friends that we both work with, you know, and one in particular, a sound man / tour manager that we both work with that we are really close to. He is a really good friend to both of us. So at one time in London when he was working for J, he was like 'you have to come to this show that J is doing with The Stooges'. So I go to the show and I see J and I kind of talk to him for a little bit. For the first time where it felt like that I didn't really have an axe to grind with him or anything. I don't know why but for some reason I mellowed out about a lot of the stuff that happened. So we had an OK conversation.
Then after that, my mother who lives in Western Massachusetts, she works for this community resource group that supports families with children with autism. She and this co-worker of hers who is kind of an indie rocker had this idea to have a benefit show. My mum of course called me up and said 'Lou, you are going to come out here and you are going to play this benefit', and Kim and Thurston from Sonic Youth live out here too, so she is like 'I'm going to track them down and ask them and I'm going to ask J and we are going to have this big benefit'. And it totally came off and it worked. I came out here with Jason Lowenstein and we played as Sebadoh, and we played right before J did and J played a solo set. Unbeknownst to him, whilst he was playing, myself and the two other members of our hardcore band that we had when we were in high school, we conspired to have this reunion as J was ending his set. As J was ending his set we walked out, or someone walked out and said J go behind the drums we are going to play Video Prick - which happened to be the one song that we could probably play. So J sat behind the drum kit and we ran through one of our songs and it was kind of funny, and kind of fun. So I was like 'well that was something - now we have actually played on stage together'. Actually with The Stooges thing I did some guest vocals on some of the songs when he was playing - which was awful - but Video Prick was kind of funny.
J has this really aggressive manager who is kind of younger and he doesn't really know the extent of the bad blood that I had with the band, so this guy called me up and asked if I wanted to do this Dinosaur Jr reunion, and I was like 'what do you mean, like J will do it?' and he assured me that J would do it. So I though OK, if you can get J and Murph, then I will be there. And he totally made it happen. And once we got together it was just really easy, and the songs are just so good.
They have always been a good set of tunes.
Oh yeah! For me to go back and revisit that stuff,
especially after my solo record, I had almost come full
circle. I had finally - at least in my own mind - shed like
a lot of baggage. Being in bands is hard. Keeping things
together and balancing things in bands is difficult, and I
had finally freed myself of all band politics. I was going
to keep it simple this time, I'm not going to complicate it.
I'm just going to do my own thing and not drag anybody else
into this mess. Somehow it seemed so perfect to me that as I
had reached this period of evolution, it was kind of funny
that I would be pulled back into the very original band that
pulled me into some of it.
Has it healed some of the wounds of being kicked out
all those years ago?
Yeah. All my personal kind of issues with it had already
dissolved. I think that just the act of playing those songs
again was absolutely like a purge. It was like 'oh my god' -
just the sonic wash of those songs. For me, I am pretty
passionate about those Dinosaur records, and I was a very
passionate supporter for quite a while when I was in the
band, until right at the end which is when it got really
quite weird I guess. I believed in those songs and I
believed in J, so for me to come to that source - because
J's songwriting abilities are what empowered me to forge on
after I was kicked out of that band. Being in that band gave
me something when I went on with my music. I was that guy
from Dinosaur. It helped me out considerably, so for me it
was pretty amazing to be able to come back to those songs.
In hindsight do you think that the exit from Dinosaur
has served you well?
Absolutely! There is no other way that it could have
happened. I think that if I had stayed in the band that it
would have been detrimental to me as somebody who was
finding their own voice. It was really good for me to be
able to get out from under Dinosaur and really find my way,
and I really needed to be kicked out to make that happen.
Would you have been such a prolific writer had you
stayed in Dinosaur?
Well I would have, I might have. I was already writing
tonnes of songs when I was in the band, but they were all on
such a different scale than Dinosaur were. I was playing and
recording my songs on a ukulele at the time. I do actually
think that if I had stayed in the band... I always think of
the Ramones or something. I just think that what the Ramones
became was really something so negative. I think that people
really fantasise the Ramones and their music, and I remember
when I saw them in the early '80s I was just heartbroken. I
was like 'oh my god these people just hate each other and it
is really coming out in the music'. I just get real
sensitive to that - like great music being kind of
destroyed. I guess just the fact that they got stuck in that
sound too. It would have been sad if Dinosaur had got stuck
in something, and we would have because we wouldn't have
known how to communicate with each other to break out of it.
So it's good. It's really excellent after I left because it
did good things for J after that and he went on to do pretty
well, and I did too.
You have said previously that you didn't communicate
very well and you didn't talk to each other in Dinosaur, has
that changed this time around?
Not really, no. But there is email. That is good. Email is a
beautiful thing. J is not a real talkative person. He is
very funny, but I'm not really the one that brings it out of
him. I like the people that he hangs out with. I like the
people that are around us, and whether I am slapping J on
the back after each show is irrelevant. I think that J even
allowing me to come back and be in the band says enough
really. In his way inviting me back, even though it wasn't
exactly him - it was all very indirect, but that is the
band.
Do you think that being a parent has changed your
perspective a lot, and it could have contributed to healing
that rift between you and J?
When I had the baby we didn't have any health insurance and
I was actually facing destitution at that point when the
baby was born. The Dinosaur thing happened at the same time
and I thought if I did this tour and I did the solo tours
then we are going to be able to pull ourselves out of this.
So if I was entertaining any pride issues they were
completely erased by fatherhood and I needed to do what I
needed to do. There are all kinds of things that conspired
to bring the band together, some of which are
monetarily-inspired, and some of which are just genuinely
emotional factors - it's a mix of both.
And you play songs from just the first three albums?
We started to play The Wagon from Green Mind, which is the
first song that they released post my departure. I liked the
song so I said that I would play it. And also the more that
I play with the band the more that I realise that he has
these long time fans who are mostly focused on the Feel The
Pain era stuff because that did quite well.
Is there pressure to play Get Me?
I don't even know which one that is. There is one that has
some golf theme video - I think that is Feel The Pain. Get
Me I dunno. There is one that goes (hums Start Choppin'), I
dunno, I'm not really up on the later stuff.
Any talk of a new recording or is that stuff abhorrent
to you?
There is not only talk of it, I am going to be doing it
tomorrow. I was just listening to some demos that J made,
that I guess that I will play bass on. Before I left I sat
and tried to write some bass lines, I guess we will all get
together and see what we come up with.
Are you contributing any songs Lou?
Maybe.
When do you think that may see the light of day?
I have no idea. All the ideas are really sketchy, so I have
no idea. I haven't recorded with J in years so I have no
idea what his work ethic in the studio is like and I don't
know how quickly it will come together. It is a total
unknown, which is really cool!
We're doing it for the fans. We're doing it to keep this going. We're not thinking that we are going to set the world on fire with a new Dinosaur record. We are just doing it to keep the momentum going.