MY LIFE IN MUSIC
J Mascis
The Dinosaur Jr mainman shares his formative freakouts: “Nick Cave was my fashion icon in college”
THE ROLLING STONES
Exile On Main St
ROLLING STONES RECORDS, 1972
Iremember my mom giving me money to go grocery shopping and I stopped at the record store first and bought Exile… –took that off the top and then spent the rest of the money on food. And, yeah, I still listen to it. I like that it’s kinda murky-sounding, there’s something magical about it. I didn’t really know anything about [the legend of its making] as akid. It was just the record itself, the sound. They seemed to be taking off, from surviving the ’60s and then suddenly jumping into something that I really liked. Their guitar-playing inspired me, Mick Taylor and Keith Richards together.
THE STOOGES
The Stooges ELEKTRA, 1969
When Iwas maybe 11 or 12 I got the Rolling Stone Record Guide, and Iwould try to collect all the albums that had five stars. I definitely discovered alot of stuff through that, like The Velvet Underground. I don’t know if The Stooges got five stars, but somehow I got onto their first album. Something about it really spoke to me, especially the guitar sound. That inspired me, as adirection, to try to emulate it. I played with Ron Asheton alot, and it was cool to learn how to play The Stooges’ songs the right way. I see people play ’em the wrong way and it just doesn’t sound right. There’s alot of subtlety that people bulldoze over, usually.