5. Dinosaur Jr.Where You Been
A record that I played over and over again. So much of it is down to J Mascis’ vocals. I like the fact that he sounds like he’s on the verge of tears all the time. Or is, in fact, crying a little bit already while he’s singing. Which is great. So much melody and it’s almost disguised. When you go and see them live, certainly back then, it really was just this wall of sound. But somewhere in there, if you dig deep, you can pick out these real, amazing pop melodies. He’s an amazing songwriter. I’ve seen them live as a band but I also saw him play an acoustic gig in London, just him and a guitar, and I was a bit tipsy when I arrived. And all these people were sitting on the floor! I was outraged. I was going around going: "Get up! Show some respect! This is the man! What are you doing?" I also met him once when we played a festival together somewhere in Europe – I can’t remember where. But, believe it or not, we shared a dressing room with them and as soon as I saw him I had to go over and say hello and I think I went a bit overboard with all the gushiness. He was lovely but he looked a little bit scared.
