Dinosaur Jr. are back. Today, they’ve announced their first album in five years, There Near, arriving August 28 via Jagjaguwar. Leading the Sweep It Into Space follow-up is the new single ‘Several Got Away’, which comes paired with a Guy-directed music video. Check it out and find the album cover and tracklist below.
“I wanted to do something a little tongue-in-cheek with a kind of ‘backyard movie’ feel that could fit in nicely with the existing canon of Dinosaur Jr. music videos,” Guy said in a press release. “The first bit of inspiration came from a great Henry Darger painting of kids being terrorised by two giant floating hands of fire. Then I got thinking about the rapture and it came together from there. The guys were really game for it all and I was honoured that they let me chase them around a big field with my camera like a psycho. We were on a tight schedule with the turnaround so I had to learn a lot of VFX stuff over the course of weekend, but I like the way the effects all turned out.”
There Near was made in short bursts over the course of a year at Amherst’s Bisquiteen Studio. It was mostly recorded by the band’s core trio of Murph, Lou Barlow, and J Mascis, with some piano and organ work by Ken Mauri.
Throughout the record, Mascis can be heard playing through a recently acquired 70’s Mesa Boogie MK 1 amp. “I bought the same amp that Chris Dixon had when we made our first album,” he explained. “Chris recorded us at his house with his amp. It has a real interesting sound I haven’t gotten for a while. And it’s something I was trying to get back to on this album. The Stones started using Mesa Boogies in the ’70s after they heard Santana playing through them. Then The Clash copied The Stones, etc. As the years went on into the MK 2 and so on, the Boogie got more metal sounding. But the MK 1 has a souped-up Fender sound. You always hear how Rick Rubin always makes bands he’s producing sit down and listen to their first album and say let’s get back to that sound. So I just gave myself his advice.”
Commenting on his lyrical approach, Mascis added: “I’m not always sure what a song is ‘about’ when I’m writing it. I guess the meaning will present itself at some point. I’ll use whatever words work. And a lot of it will be influenced by whatever esoteric mumbo jumbo I’m reading at the time. I try not to think too hard about any of it. I think it’s a drag that Spotify shows all the lyrics to a song. What’s the fun of that?”
There Near Cover Artwork:
There Near Tracklist:
1. Several Got Away
2. No Friends
3. Everything At Once
4. Take Me With You
5. Blowin’ Up
6. Gone Off
7. Clam Along
8. Walk Me Back
9. Read the Room
10. Put It Down
11. No One’s Ready
