When the original trio lineup of
Dinosaur Jr. imploded in 1989, guitarist/vocalist
J Mascis barely broke his stride when it came to continuing the progress the groundbreaking alt-rock group had been making up until that point. Instead of taking some time to regroup,
Mascis carried on immediately with the
Dinosaur Jr. name, quickly delivering the first of what would be four full-length albums for a newly inked major-label deal with
Sire Records.
Mascis would remain at the creative center for these albums, sometimes playing all of the instruments himself, and developing a style even more unique and internal than the already unconventional blend of cloudy emotional themes and noisy guitar hooks the band had presented throughout their earliest days.
Puke + Cry: The Sire Years, 1990-1997 collects pretty much every track
Mascis and company recorded during this phase of
Dinosaur Jr., including four studio albums and over two dozen B-sides, alternate versions, and other non-album tracks from the same time period. The difference between the murky punk aggression of 1988's
Bug and the more textural production and restrained songwriting of 1991's
Green Mind (the first album the band released in their new form and with their new label) was remarkable, and
Mascis continued upping production values and experimenting with layers for the rest of
Dinosaur Jr.'s time with
Sire.
Puke + Cry highlights these experiments by bracketing together the hazy, introspective songwriting of
Green Mind, the sometimes-tortured
Neil Young-informed melancholy of 1993's
Where You Been, the accidental pop and understated country touches of 1994's
Without a Sound, and the expanded instrumentation of 1997's
Hand It Over, the last
Dinosaur Jr. record before a hiatus that ended when the original members reunited and got back into the studio ten years later. In addition to the albums proper, highlights among the many, many bonus tracks on
Puke + Cry include studio tracks from the 1991
Green Mind companion EP
Whatever's Cool with Me (among them an essential-if-croaky cover of
Bowie's "Quicksand" and the fizzy melodic mess of "Not You Again"), a curious
Del the Funky Homosapien collaboration on
Where You Been-era bonus track "Missing Link," an inhuman cover of
the Germs' "What We Do Is Secret" with special guest
Mike Watt, and several instrumental versions of songs from
Without a Sound that emphasize just how many guitars were utilized in the recording process. While the
Dinosaur Jr. material released in the '90s on
Sire wasn't quite a
J Mascis solo project, it's different from the streamlined force and group chemistry apparent in everything made by the original lineup. Diving into
Puke + Cry offers a focused look at what made the
Sire years a special chapter in the band's history, with a different mode of expression but just as much to offer as what came before and after. ~ Fred Thomas
