JMascis is known chiefly for his long career – four decades – as a foundermember, guitarist and vocalist with pre-eminent psychedelic Americana punk group Dinosaur Jr… He was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, started the band in Amherst and still lives in Amherst, in a colourful, creatively decorated home that once belonged to Buddhist author and academic Robert Thurman (father of actor Uma).
Growing up in this culturally bustling New England college town surrounded by farmland, forest and hiking trails, Mascis’s initial musical nourishment was classic 60s and 70s rock. Listening to it built an appetite in him to play music. He “borrowed” his elder brother’s Aerosmith and Deep Purple records, and the first album he purchased was Layla by Derek And The Dominos.
In the mid-70s, aged 11, he played timpani in the school orchestra and took drum tuition, with the Deep Purple drummer Ian Paice being one of his many inspirations. Later, the dynamite pairing of Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson, supporting the J Geils Band, was the first live show Mascis attended, at Springfield Civic Centre in 1979.
With the arrival of the 80s, everything began to change, leaving Mascis at odds with
