Long time no see, everyone! Finally back with another 6-pack of songs. I had originally planned to skip my monthly pack release solely for the month of May, but then June came and went seemingly in a flash. I recently found myself with significantly less free time than I would like, so I haven’t had as much time to chart. And boy was this whole pack tough to chart!

Dinosaur Jr. was my favorite band throughout most of my high school years. It was the first band I “discovered” myself instead of through my older brother. I have Rock Band 2 to thank for exposing me to them, but their album You’re Living All Over Me really cemented them as some of the best musicians for me. There aren’t any songs from that album in this release, but with these tracks, there will now be at least 1 song available from every single Dinosaur Jr. LP except their 2016 album Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not (maybe in the future!). It’s truly an honor to put out this substantial release. Hopefully it’ll help create more Dinosaur Jr. fans. 

---

Forget the Swan

The sole track from the pack sung primarily by bassist Lou Barlow. This is pretty common for Dinosaur Jr albums; Lou will get a couple songs of his own while the majority are sung by guitarist J Mascis. Apparently as of this first album, Lou was intended to be the lead singer, but J ended up stepping into the role as time went on. I’ve also read that J did a lot of the drumming on this album instead of longtime Dinosaur Jr. drummer Murph. Don’t know who did this track though. Anyway please enjoy the fact that this album was supposed to be self-titled but they had to change the band name for legal reasons.

Freak Scene

Likely their most famous song that didn’t have a fully charted custom (a guitar-only version was coincidentally released around the time I’d hoped to get this pack out. Shout out pauldiscc). Honestly it’s a darn good song but definitely not my favorite from the pack, or even the album it originates from. Bug was the equally-acclaimed follow-up to the wonderful You’re Living All Over Me. It’s also what made J fire Lou from the band. Luckily they were able to make up and reunite much later down the line because the trio of J, Lou, and Murph is Dinosaur Jr firing on all cylinders.

Start Choppin

Another popular song of theirs that actually received moderate radio success. In fact, this album, Where You Been, is their most commercially successful one. Overall it doesn’t compare with their earlier stuff (I swear I’m not trying to be pretentious), but it does have a few legitimately great songs. It’s also the last album to feature Murph before the remainder of the original trio finally split completely. I had a hard time deciding between this song and album opener “Out There”, but ultimately decided on this one for whatever reason.

I’m Insane

The song you’re least likely to have heard of from the pack. From the album Hand It Over, the last one before Dinosaur Jr. went on a decade-long hiatus. Surprisingly, it received an official music video and also appeared on the band’s best-of album Ear-Bleeding Country. It’s also the only song with a chartable keys part — the main riff is played by a trumpet. Seriously one of the more fun songs to play overall, so I recommend it even if you’re not familiar with the song.

Pieces

Like with Built to Spill, there came a time when this band who I had discovered very late into their lifespan released new music after I became a fan. This was the lead single from their 2009 album Farm. My brother got me this on vinyl for Christmas that year, which started my vinyl collection (again, not trying to be pretentious). I had this song on repeat a lot back in the day; the guitar solo is one of my favorites.

Watch the Corners

Was really excited when this album was announced. Both of their albums post-hiatus had been amazing. They released the music video for this song, and it had Tim Heidecker in it. I was a huge fan of Tim and Eric back in the day, so to see him in a Dinosaur Jr. video was like worlds colliding. Really just cemented my love for the band knowing people I admired also enjoyed them. But yeah yet another killer guitar solo to close out the song, and a killer track to close out the 6-pack!

---

Of course any Dinosaur Jr. fan knows that there are 3 officially released Dinosaur Jr. songs by Harmonix themselves: “Feel the Pain” on Rock Band 2’s disc as well as “The Wagon” and “Pick Me Up” which were released as singles for DLC. I’ve previously released “Little Fury Things” as well. It’s available in the database, though by now I’m sure it’s a little outdated. Nolan charted “I Don’t Wanna Go There” from Farm, and MrPrezident charted “Garden” from their most recent album Sweep It into Space. Be sure to check those out as well!

And that’ll do it for now! I really wish I could promise another 6-pack soon, but I’ve actually got another project in the works. It’ll be a collaborative effort, so I don’t know when we’ll be able to put it out. Also my free time is still limited so everything is kind of up in the air right now. Collab project was somewhat left in stasis while I finished up this pack. Hopefully the collaborative element will spark a fire in me and we can get it out to you guys fairly soon. So yeah I guess see you next time!

~Kamotch