When Dinosaur’s first record was released in 1985, it didn’t make much of a stir. This is understandable, and not because the album is a bit of a sprawling mess, because it’s a pretty great sprawling mess. It’s simply that much of the point of punk had been to "cut out the guitar solos," to quote the Minutemen. Punk rock was in a strange morphing phase in the mid '80s, and, with the exception of Meat Puppets and Otto’s Chemical Lounge, few folks had thought to graft the laconic and woozy sounds of mid '70s rock with the frenetic energy of hardcore (guitarist/ singer J. Mascis had played drums amazingly well in the band Deep Wound). When the label released the album’s best song, the frazzled and distorted "Repulsion," as a single, they started to get college radio play. The band’s far more cohesive followup, '87’s phenomenal You’re Living All Over Me, would prove to be a major blueprint for alt-rock and grunge. Don’t overlook this debut; the slacker-y, adolescent ode "Severed Lips" might be J.’s finest slow jam ever, and when you hear Lou Barlow sing lead on "Forget the Swan," you’ll really wish the two had gotten along better and collaborated more. --Mike McGonigal
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