J. Mascis + The Fog – More Light

 

J. Mascis + The Fog – More Light

By

Jesse E. Mullen

 

 

You’ve led a successful indie/alternative band for 14 years. You’ve toured with your heroes, and inspired legions of young musicians with your guitar heroics and slacker aesthetics. And then you decide a change is needed.

So was the story of J. Mascis in 1997. His band Dinosaur Jr. had just released Hand It Over, an album which Mascis still considers to be one of his best. But problems with their label, Blanco y Negro/Sire – they were dropped – meant that the album was under promoted.

As a result, very few copies were sold, and fans seeing them on the tour – now featuring bassist Mike Johnson and drummer George Berz – were surprised to find out that a new record was even out. With Mascis being the only original member left, and an overall loss of interest in alternative rock, the writing was on the wall.

So, after a show at The Middle East in Cambridge, MA in November 1997, J. Mascis quietly put the Dinosaur Jr. name to rest. To paraphrase the track “Gettin’ Rough” from Hand It Over, the charm was gone, and it was time to move on.

Mascis coped with the change the only way he knew how – he retreated to his home studio, Bob’s Place. Named after his beloved bulldog – the same one which graced the cover of Dinosaur’s Whatever’s Cool With Me album – it was a sanctuary of musical equipment and inspiration.

Mascis built the studio in the mid-90s after, in his words, “staring out the window [of a recording studio] and realizing how much money [he] was wasting.” It was better to spend the recording budget on something to own and be able to spend as much time as the songs need.

Some of the new songs sounded like they could’ve been on late-period Dinosaur Jr. albums, while others were written on keyboards instead of the guitar – Mascis’ trademark instrument. And like those late-period Dinosaur albums, Mascis once again handled most of the instruments – Johnson and Berz only played on a few Dinosaur Jr. studio tracks.

Mascis did however receive some help along the way. Longtime engineer John Agnello was again handling the technical aspects. A talented producer in his own right, Agnello can be credited with helping Mascis and Dinosaur discover a cleaner sound during their 1990s major label period.

Engineer Andy Wilkinson was also on board the project. As engineer for shoegazing bands My Bloody Valentine and The Boo Radleys, Wilkinson built up a reputation as a mixer who could sort through layer and layer of instrumentation to see the bigger picture of what the song needed to sound best.

Speaking of My Bloody Valentine, Kevin Shields played his signature glide guitar style on three tracks. The tortured, reclusive guitarist had been through the ringer, trying – and failing – to create an album to follow up 1991 masterwork Loveless. He had only recently re-emerged as a member of Primal Scream when the Mascis project gained his involvement.

Shields also worked on Hand It Over, but his thumbprints are all over the three tracks he contributed to here. His woozy guitar tones gave the songs a distinct dreaminess, in contrast with Mascis’ warm, major key leads played at ear-splitting volume.

Guided By Voices frontman Robert Pollard was also involved, singing co-lead vocals on three songs with Mascis. Pollard’s melodic vocals worked wonders with Mascis’ playing and gave the tracks a poppier appeal.

The resulting album was billed to J. Mascis + The Fog. Titled More Light and released in October 2000, it was a long time in the works and had a lot to live up to, given the status of the players involved.

The album opens with the exuberant, optimistic “Same Day.” One of the more distinctly Dinosaur Jr. sounding tracks, It was no doubt picked to ease fans into the new style. Pollard joins in the chorus, after Mascis plays one of his most complex leads in the bridge.

The overall sound has all the marks of an Agnello production job, with big bold drums, stereo panning, and plenty of room for the guitars. In this sense the record sounds halfway between 1993’s Where You Been – the first Dinosaur album with Agnello’s involvement – and 2007’s reunion of the original trio Beyond, which featured an even more direct, in-your-face feeling.

More Light splits the difference by including mellow, graceful numbers such as “Ground Me To You,” which features Mascis on keyboards sounding his coziest. The melody rises steadily and falls throughout the verse, making the song a slightly different kind of Mascis earworm. With the gentle whirring of Shields’ tremolo guitars in the chorus, this is musical comfort food at it’s finest.

Shields also pops up on “Does The Kiss Fit.” He again uses his tremolo/glide guitar sound, but in a different style. His playing mirrors the melody line Mascis performs on a mellotron. With the magic of mixing, Shields’ guitar fades out in the bridge and is replaced by a rip-roaring Mascis solo. The track is a sonic masterpiece and one of the melodic highlights of the album – as well as Mascis’ career at large.

Not everything on the album is as focused on melody, however. The title track – and album closer – is much more like the sonic experiments found on side two of My Bloody Valentine’s eventual follow up to Loveless, 2013’s MBV.

Walls of overdriven guitars and Mascis’ distorted vocals keep the track going for an earsplitting five minutes, chugging along to a motorik drumbeat. While not typical Mascis fare – save for the volume – it is well executed, and worthwhile listening for any Dinosaur or MBV fan.

Another weird track that appears towards the end of the album is “Can’t I Take This On.” Featuring an off-kilter piano melody, funky start-stop drumming, falsetto vocals, and a guest “vocal” by Bob the bulldog (yes, really), it is likely to leave listeners scratching their heads. However, it is a fun diversion, and may also elicit a smile.

Overall, More Light is a fun departure from the usual Dinosaur Jr. fare from Mascis. What it lacks in consistency is more than made up for in sonic textures, diversity of style, and collaborative inspiration. While Mascis may have had the final say on the resulting work, the inclusion of Shields and Pollard make this more than just a Dinosaur Jr. album in disguise.

Ultimatum Music/2000