Dinosaur Jr. - Where You Been poll

I haven't heard this for a few years, looking forward to it

start choppin or GTFO

I strayed away from this record for close to 30 years and recently came back to "Out There" and it is new ground for J, a slow-burn torch minor key blues to a passing parent, which most of us can probably relate to at this point. Really one of his best.

"Gimme Shelter" with fuzz/distortion, the melody always seems committed to the IV but then there's this surprising modulation from Bb to Ab which throws all the promised resolution from the suspended chords out the window.

It's the last one I actually bought as a yoof and I underrated it for years. But the above tracklist is good in my memory apart from "Drawerings" and even that is not actively atrocious. It's somehow a more emotive record than I gave it credit for at the time. (Steve Shasta OTM.) Pretty sure the likes of "Out There" and "Not the Same" have made me misty-eyed in the past decade.

Such a brilliant album

It’s gotta be “Start Chopping”

And of course I love this record, which was my first Dinosaur Jr experience. I was a teenager and played the tape relentlessly.

my first and only dinosaur jr. experience aside from seeing them at a couple of atps. don't really know what their uk media presence was like prior to this, YLAOM might have been before I started really listening to alt/indie but start choppin' is the first time I can recall that I heard them on the radio. loved this record but never really went back and investigated more.

First three tracks all great, 'what else is new' doesn't start too auspiciously but I love the strings & kettle drums outro. and the kettle drums again in 'not the same'. the second half blurs together a bit - are 'get me' and 'drawerings' actually the same song? - but 'hide' is maybe the only dud.

start choppin is an epic that stands up to anything on classic rock radio. impossible not to have a stupid grin when listening to that one.

gonna revisit the rest for due diligence, but yeah, pretty sure i know what i'm voting for.

I'm remembering how out of favor DJ was when this came out. My friend, a huge fan, bought this one and then gave it to me because he thought it was terrible.

Yeah, hard to vote for anything but "Start Choppin" here, even as underrated as the whole album is.

I'm remembering how out of favor DJ was when this came out. My friend, a huge fan, bought this one and then gave it to me because he thought it was terrible.

― Beyond Goo and Evol (President Keyes), Thursday, November 2, 2023 8:57 AM (two hours ago)

You're welcome.

It's a shame your friend came home with another album accidentally inserted into the Where You Been sleeve.

It's not terribly hard to imagine how established fans might have felt they were getting something here that they weren't used to getting, surely? I distinctly remember hearing "Get Me" and then "Start Choppin'" as previews and it totally being a "UH-OH" kind of experience for juvenile me. The Green Mind had filed off some of the rough edges, but it still wasn't anywhere near as sparkly and, er, jaunty (lol) as a lot of this record!

Oh, it’s understandable. It’s a different thing and undoubtedly not a top tier Dino Jr record. That said, it has some really high points and I think it’s very far from being a “terrible” record.

Totally. I like it considerably more as time as goes by. It probably helps that that olde teenage thing where records get bonus points for being intolerable to parents is well in my past now. (My father did actually once comment, delightfully, that Bug was unlistenable!)

ok, i listened. this album seems like kind of a dry run for the post-reunion albums - more languid, more directly influenced by classic rock, and more nakedly emotional than the classic lou barlow-era albums. j's guitar playing is brilliant, but he hadn't figured out how to make these longer-form songs work yet. i think he finally did on beyond and farm.

anyway, the choice is still "start choppin," but if i could pick something else, it'd be "get me."

those first 40 or seconds of "Out There" are some of snarliest NY/Crazy Horse guitar parts Mascis put down.

Prior to this record (concurrent with Green Mind?), J was tasked with providing soundtrack for Allison Anders' "Gas Food Lodging". Most of the instrumental tracks used for the film ended up being demos/alt versions of Green Mind/Where You Been tracks, some more obvious than others. I haven't heard the soundtrack in 25-30 years but I'm positive there's the skeleton of "Out There" somewhere in there if you dig around.

One of SlackerVK's first uploads apropos of topic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAiLpyih4X8

OMG! Gas Food Lodging made for my very first trip to a hip indie cinema as a kid. Mascis involvement was definitely a factor. I keep meaning to revisit it.

Start Chopping's guitar solo, absolute bliss

All the songs that are over five minutes are the best ones on this album.

i am not a guitar nerd so idk correct term for this but i like that bright, ringing tone of the intro guitars, it’s v pretty

I'm remembering how out of favor DJ was when this came out. My friend, a huge fan, bought this one and then gave it to me because he thought it was terrible.

That's weird, because I remember Start Choppin being in the top ten of the WFNX (main Boston alt-rock station back then) charts for weeks, and eventually topping it. They also played Out There and Goin Home a lot.

The DJ chapter in the Azerrad book was the most startling section to me, mainly because I read all the J Mascis profiles in the rock magazines at the time when WYB came out, and the image I had of Mascis from them was some sort of shy man-child who slept with stuffed animals and nursed hopeless crushes on pen pals. A long way from the arrogant dick of the Azerrad book, though I guess distance between shy man-child and an arrogant dick probably shorter than I thought.

Voted Start Choppin of course duh.

I dunno if you were a fan of the first three albums, Green Mind was pretty disappointing and WYB was like why am I still listening to these guys instead of Pavement?

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I like the major label albums 😒

Xpost

This album was probably my introduction to them, the next year they blew out my ears while seeing them live in Santa Monica.

Okay I've never listened to dinosaur jr. before (I know I know) but good Lord this first track is so good! Start Choppin, first listen no way near touches the Out There (except for having the better guitar solo, except for the second half). Those high pitched "goodbye"'s.... maybe there's an appeal for some people? but it just reminds me of the worst parts of pavement. Nice bridge/final chorus + two guitar solos?!?!, but I hope the rest of the album is more Out There than Start Choppin

30 seconds in; What Else Is New > Choppin Up already. Why'd Choppin become the big hit? (genuine question)

Getting closer to "Not the Same"

That's what I went with. A direction of the band I wished they'd explored more. "Out There" a close #2.

The "Start Choppin'" guitar solo is undeniable, but the rest of the song sounds like generic 90s alt-rock with Mascis singing. "Get Me" would be a legit great cover for the New Pornographers.

I could probably rock start choppin if it wasn't for that horrible (sorry) chorus, love the guitar that comes in from the 2nd verse. I just gave it another go and that "goodbyeeeeeee" with snare roll really didn't age well.

WBF otm, the guitar solo is absolutely everything, love it's movements, how it opens up in the 2nd half

The way these tracks move, maaaaaaan, can't drop your focus for a second, there's always something new happening

Finally voted for "Out There" as "Start Choppin" doesn't need any help. "Get Me" was close too but couldn't pull the truck.

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start choppin or gtfo

VINDICATION

i aint tellin you good
…
BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

SKRONK SKRONK ETC

VG OTM x2