Dinosaur Jr.'s You're Living All Over Me

Book excerpt: 1985. Dinosaur, still without the Jr. Not hardcore anymore, but not yet anything else either. First live shows: fearsomely loud. First record, a fearsome mess: a raw miscellany thrown together from small-town ennui, the apathy of the middle classes, and all the things teenage boys are obsessed with. 1987. Dinosaur Jr. A new record, You're Living All Over Me, the result of a move into a college dorm, encounters with Sonic Youth in the big city, and a hell of a lot of practice. Searing guitar riffs smash into mountainous solos; gnarly pedal effects light up twisted song structures; tight punk drumfills wade through distorted bass sludge. Contradictions are everywhere, but with opposite poles forced together, a fixating spark is created - one that, pre-Nirvana, ignites the idea of how the alternative might also become the mainstream. All things, as this book explores through interviews and comment from the band and its friends, that make up the unique - and uniquely odd - story of a record that cares so little it cares a lot.