By Samantha Nwaoshai

Nowadays “indie” is the new “alternative,” alternative is basically mainstream, and rock is a few insanely catchy hooks short of pop (c’mon, rock on TRL? Oxymoron or a frightening truth?). Doesn’t it all just make you long for the simpler days where rock was rock, alternative basically meant everything that wasn’t exactly rock and indie remained underground, not slightly uprooted? Then you want Dinosaur Jr.’s Green Mind to help put you back into sanity. Green Mind may as well haven been J. Mascis’ solo album (bassist Lou Barlow was gone and Murph only plays on three tracks). You cannot deny its greatness.

Green Mind, like other Dinosaur Jr. albums, has its own distinctive pattern when it comes to track organization. This pattern can best be described by a quote from the movie High Fidelity, “You gotta kick off with a killer [track], to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but you don’t wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off a notch.” This is exactly how any Dinosaur Jr. album works, but particularly true of Green Mind. The killer track is “The Wagon,” “Puke + Cry” takes it up a notch and “Blowing It” is like oasis in the desert.

You cannot talk about Green Mind without a discussion on “The Wagon.” It would be like talking about hard liquor without mentioning vodka: it simply can’t be done. It’s intense lyrically and sonically, but not so intense that it alienates the listener. It’s the intensity that sucks you into the song’s visceral grip in the first place. How can one not pay attention when Mascis’ vocals basically drag the lyrics: “There’s a way I feel right now / Wish you’d help me / don’t know how / We’re all nuts so who helps who / Some help when no one’s got a clue,” especially on the refrain “Baby, why don’t we?” This is all said over steady drumming and guitar riffs that punctuate almost every line.

Almost all of the tracks on Green Mind are great (with the exception of “Flying Clouds”) and required listening for the indie set. If one calls oneself an indie-geek/freak/whatever, and does not even mention Dinosaur Jr. or Green Mind, then that person should lose all indie cred and make the humiliating journey from “Coolville” to the land where all of the wannabes frolic in their delusion and pretend they are cool.