Dinosaur Jr.
Where You Been (1993)

review by: Stephan Finch
Date: 10/1/00

Surpise: This really isn't exactly a full-on review of Dinosaur Jr.'s 1993 album, Where You Been? It's really just about one song on the album. It's track 2. I can't say anything intelligent about what the rest of the tracks sound like. I've skimmed the first few seconds of most of the album, and from what I can tell, they're heavy-grunge. But don't take my word for it, because the only song I've listened to is track 2.

And god damn, track 2 rocks! It's basically a big, loud, noisy guitar song with a good, mid-tempo, slapping-my-knee beat. Dinosaur Jr.'s guitarist-singer-songwriter-producer, J Mascis ain't no Brian Wilson, but he can squeak out a good note now and again. I don't know what he's singing about, but there's this nice little high note at the end of every verse and it's... uh... moving in a football-fan-gone-misty kinda way. Oh! One more thing: unreal fucking guitar solo. The only thing I can compare it to is that towering solo from My Sharona by The Knack. (Remember that one?! Oh, mama!) It starts out very noisy, with lots of dissonant sounds, like somebody threw Neil Young down the stairs with his guitar still strapped on. It's almost painful. Then, all of a sudden it kicks into this really neat, melodic, sweet-but-nonetheless-wupass section, a la early Billy Corrigan when he and Smashing Pumpkins weren't so stuck on themselves.

Dude, it rocks.

Anyway, the point is that if you can pick this one up used, as I recently did at secondspin.com, it's worth the $7 or $8 just for this one song. And the nice thing is that if you ever do get curious about the rest of what's on here, you might find more there waiting for you. If or when that day comes, I hope you'll ammend this review and tell me what I'm missing.

Oh, one more thing. I've just consulted with the case the CD came in, and the song I'm writing about is apparently called Start Choppin'. Shit, that's the perfect name. Anyway, enjoy it.