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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mojave 3 – Excuses For Travellers

 

Mojave 3 – Excuses For Travellers

By

Jesse E. Mullen

Editor’s Note: I’ve previously covered Mojave 3 on my blog, but Excuses For Travellers is simply too good not to review

You’ve formed an excellent band from the ashes of another great band. You’ve successfully made two albums exploring the sounds of slowcore, alt. country, and evoking the vastness of the Mojave desert. What do you do next? Make another excellent album.

So was the story of Mojave 3 in the spring of 2000. The Reading quintet had released two albums of dreamy slowcore, 1995’s Ask Me Tomorrow and 1998’s Out of Tune. They took the glacial soundscapes of Slowdive and distilled them into even more minimalist music.

When the band went to record their third album in 1999, there were no major shifts in the lineup or style of music. What had changed however, was the almost memoir-like quality of Neil Halstead’s songs.

When Excuses For Travellers was released in May of 2000, it must have felt like a statement of purpose for the group. Opener “In Love With A View” recounts the beginning of a romance amidst a winter storm. The song gradually builds over the course of six minutes until Simon Rowe lets loose a blistering guitar solo.

Halstead’s harmonies with Rachel Goswell were always a major hallmark of the band’s sound, and they are omnipresent here. But where they make the biggest impact is on “My Life In Art.” A glorious seven-minute epic with glacial, 12/8 drumming by Ian McCutcheon, lesser groups would flounder attempting to sustain interest of fans.

But like Red House Painters before them, Mojave 3 are more than up to the task. Halstead spins a Dylanesque tale about human existence, from the trials of a homeless man to an author struggling to write a book. Halstead takes the lead vocal until the second verse, where Goswell joins him in harmony.

When the two mesh, it is a match made in heaven. If Halstead himself should ever write a book, he’d be well advised to title it My Life In Art. And I would be remiss not to mention the sonic qualities which producer Mark Van Hoen bring to the table.

His dry drum production mixed with the reverb on the vocals, guitars, vibraphones, and trumpets gives the album a sound rarely heard outside of the work of The American Analog Set. Speaking of production touches, one of the most (subtly) sonically dolled-up tracks is Goswell’s “Bringin’ Me Home.”

The lyrics tell a tale of a relationship gone sour, and Goswell finds refuge in the seaside of Devon. Although it seems to be a deeply personal song, she allowed for production “bells and whistles” such as vibraphone, xylophone, and bullet-mic’d backing vocals which made her sound like she was underwater. 

The overall effect is a sonically adventurous track which recalls what Broadcast were doing at the time. And as Goswell’s only lead vocal on the album, it is a welcome change of pace. But there was also another pleasant surprise on the album.

“Trying To Reach You” had been played live by Mojave 3 since April of 1996. Yet they had apparently never recorded a satisfactory version in the studio. That is, until Excuses For Travellers.

Previously, the acoustic-based arrangement had been a live favorite with fans. But here, the song is fully fleshed out with banjos, pedal steel, Goswell’s harmonies, and McCutcheon’s brushstroke drums. In this arrangement, the song gains new life, making the four-year wait well worth it.

Speaking of new arrangements, the American release of Excuses For Travellers substitutes the acoustic fingerpicked version of “Prayer For The Paranoid” for an electric, full-band version. While this alternate arrangement lacks the intimacy of the acoustic one, it more than makes up for it in majesty.

The vocal harmonies of Goswell and Halstead when they sing “These days are cold/And I'm missing you” add a poignance and emotional weight that was missing on the previous take. McCutcheon is again an MVP, with steady powerful drumming in waltz time.

The pedal steel is also a welcome addition to the track. It has a similar effect to what it does on Mazzy Star’s “Fade Into You.” It broadens the arrangement and helps to bring back some of the sadness that was lost by electrifying the track. 

While Mojave 3 are well-loved amongst those who know them, they don’t have the critical attention of their contemporaries. Still, their first three albums are as close to perfection as can be found in all of slowcore. And Excuses For Travellers is quite possibly the best of the bunch.

4AD/2000