{"id":866033,"date":"2026-09-30T16:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T16:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/866033\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T16:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T16:04:11","slug":"dinosaur-jrs-j-mascis-reveals-why-he-turned-down-nirvana-i-had-just-graduated-to-being-able-to-stay-in-motels-and-not-on-floors-but-they-were-still-in-the-floor-phase-im","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/866033\/","title":{"rendered":"Dinosaur Jr\u2019s J Mascis reveals why he turned down Nirvana: \u201cI had just graduated to being able to stay in motels and not on floors, but they were still in the floor phase. I\u2019m not going back to the floors\u201d:"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every band eventually reunites these days. But few reformations have been as unlikely, nor as successful as Dinosaur Jr\u2019s. The indie rockers, who very much played John The Baptist to Nirvana<\/a>\u2019s messiah, didn\u2019t much like each other during their initial burst of late ’80s\/ early ’90s success, but since reconvening in the mid ’00s have released six very good, well-received albums. <\/p>\n

Now. in an extensive Pitchfork<\/a> interview, the trio have told their whole story. Back in the day, much of the tension in the band was due its imbalance. Guitarist J Mascis wrote all the drum<\/a> and guitar<\/a> parts, and had firm ideas about how the bass<\/a> should sound.<\/p>\n

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Mascis was originally a hotshot drummer but switched to guitar and became equally accomplished on his new instrument. \u201cPeople will be like, \u2018How did you learn guitar so fast?\u2019\u201d Mascis explains. \u201cI was only writing what I could play at the time. I couldn\u2019t do bar chords, so I had to just move my fingers around until something would sound good. And then I could play faster than I knew what to do with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Latest Videos FromMusicRadar<\/p>\n

It was Mascis who convinced bassist Lou Barlow to play the instrument high up on the neck so it followed the guitar\u2019s lead. \u201cThe way I play bass to J\u2019s guitar was something that J masterminded, and I completely believed in it,\u201d Barlow says. \u201cI\u2019ve never had musical differences with J. The quality was super high, and the personal parts mattered less to me than that quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dinosaur Jr – Freak Scene – YouTube
\n\"Dinosaur<\/p>\n

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The trio released three critically acclaimed albums and a genuine indie rock anthem in Freak Scene, before Barlow left in 1989. Around this time Kurt Cobain asked Mascis to join Nirvana, who at this stage were still signed to the cult indie label Sub Pop. He turned him down: \u201cI had just graduated to being able to stay in motels and not on floors, but they were still in the floor phase. I\u2019m not going back to the floors.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Mascis kept a version of the band going until 1997. But when the original trio reconvened a decade later, miraculously it seemed to work and they decided to keep going. Older and wiser, they seem to be able to tolerate each other these days. \u201cIt\u2019s annoying, because you\u2019re saddled with these guys – God dammit, what the fuck? But it sounds better, so what are you going to do?\u201d says Mascis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came up together, learned how to play together, have a certain sound that is interesting. When we play now, kids are into it, because they haven\u2019t heard anything like this. And maybe they don\u2019t know why.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want all the hottest music and gear news, reviews, deals, features and more, direct to your inbox? Sign up here. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every band eventually reunites these days. But few reformations have been as unlikely, nor as successful as Dinosaur…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":866034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":["post-866033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=866033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/866034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=866033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=866033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=866033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}