Music: J Mascis

The Godfather of grunge is back in town to blow those January cobwebs away …

Rolling Stone magazine once ranked Joseph Donald Mascis number 86 in their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, while Spin went many times better, ranking him fifth in their 2012 list.

Not bad for this out and out grunger, who has barely risen above cult status in the US and over here in the UK. Equally surprising is that he started out as a drummer in the hardcore band Deep Wound, who also featured one Lou Barlow. Those two along with Murph formed Dinosaur Jr, whereupon Mascis took to axe-wielding duties, although he continued to drum here and there including with Boston doom metal group Upsidedown Cross.

Mascis has described their sound as ‘ear-bleeding country’, taking in elements of Black Sabbath, the Replacements and Neil Young, and cross-fertilising that with speed punk and country rock – all performed with banks of amps and at ear-splitting volume, often featuring Mascis’ distinctive nasal drawl and both melodic and coruscating guitar.

They made little impact with their debut album, but a subsequent tour with Sonic Youth and the release of You’re Living All Over Me, released on the legendary American indie label SST, propelled them into the public consciousness. And the following year they cemented their cult status with the single ‘Freak Scene’, followed by a cover of The Cure’s ‘Just Like Heaven’.

With the impetus given Nirvana’s rise to stardom, they signed to a major label and reached their commercial peak in 1993/94, with a couple of top forty hits in ‘Feel The Pain’ and ‘Start Choppin’.

Notoriously, even comically legendary for his monosyllabic drawl, Mascis has been ploughing pretty much the same furrow ever since; a high octane guitar within a generally melodic framework, although he has, perhaps befitting a man approaching 50, decided to concentrate on the acoustic guitar, as can be heard on his Tied To A Star album released earlier this year.

However, his sense of the playfully surreal is still there, as can be seen in the video for ‘Every Morning’ in which a fictional religious cult called The Space Children of The Forest mysteriously disappears. Set in 1974 it features the Shins’ James Mercer as a loyal, egg-loving devotee to Mascis, who plays, appropriately enough, a Jesus-like figure …
The Haunt, Friday 9 Jan, 7pm, £15

Follow me: @latestjeff