This Dinosaur Jr timeline article rules!  It is a must read!  Did you know that J Mascis turned down being the drummer for Nirvana?  Yeah, that article is filled with tidbits of Dinosaur Jr nerd facts like that.  Go read it!

Today is Happy Dinosaur Jr Day! I’m on about my 6th listen to Farm and I think it’s excellent. An amazing album that’s more consistent than Beyond, their longest album to date, no songs to skip and chalk full of Dinosaur Jr awesomeness. It gets both thumbs up and I can’t wait to digest it more and more and get a real review up here sometime.

Words cannot describe my excitement that the preorder of Farm showed up 4 days before release date. Every other preorder I have done has resulted in pain and frustration. I should know better with Dinosaur Jr though. FARM IS HERE! I am currently on my first listen with the biggest, goofiest grin on my face ever.

Rating: The Thermals became one of my all time favorites after Fuckin A came out.  Two albums later they are even higher on my list and have yet to disappoint.   Each album has a different feel and there seems to be less punk in their rock with each album, but they are all awesome.  The new one “Now We Can See” is easily their poppiest and cleanest to date.  I was skeptical at first, but hearing it live and listening to the record over and over has sold me on it.  I’m not going to give this album a perfect rating.  I don’t think any of their albums have been a perfect 10, here’s my minor complaints about this one:* The album doesn’t start as strong as all other Thermals albums.  ‘When I Died’ seems like they forcefully toned it down.  Still a great song, but it’s lacking that Thermals album opener overdrive.  * The high pitched parts of “We Were Sick” are a little tough on the ears sometimes.  I’m all for Kathy helping on the vocals, but parts of that song don’t work so well.  Luckily the “We were high, we were alive, we were sick” makes up for it.  *  The order of the songs could be better.  “At The Bottom Of The Sea” could be a great ender.  Not sure, but listening to the record sounds better sometimes starting at side 2 which starts with “When We Were Alive”.  That being said don’t think for a second I don’t love this album.  There are some epic Thermals songs on here.  “I Let It Go”, “Now We Can See”, “At The Bottom Of The Sea”, “When We Were Alive”, “I Called Out Your Name”, “When I Was Afraid”, and “You Dissolve” are all amazing to me.  I think their song writing and structuring has improved on this album and Hutch seems to deliver the lyrics as good as ever.  I give this album an ‘A-‘.  Kudos Thermals, your one of my favorites.

The greatest band in the world update their website with an mp3 from the forthcoming album Farm.  I only listened once because I’m weird like that.  Basically I don’t really want to hear the new songs until I hear them in the context of the new album.  Is that nerdy or what?  That being said the new song sounds excellent.  Sure it’s kinda mellow, but so are songs like Thumb and Get Me that are some of Dinosaur Jr’s finest.

The Mighty LZA and I have been married 11 years now.  What better way to celebrate our anniversary then to go out for dinner in Denver then go see the Thermals?  Seriously, the Thermals!  One of our favorite bands and one of the funnest bands to see live.  I accidently called Kathy ‘Karen’ and felt like a total idiot.  Luckily she’s super nice and didn’t beat me up.  There’s a great story behind this photo, but I can’t tell it yet.Chad and Chris’s art school buddies Earl and Kit were there.  Kit got kicked out for smoking at the start of the Thermals set.  Ha ha don’t you know smoking sucks!  Luckily he pulled off being a roadie for the middle band and got back in.Greg Harbour’s twin was there.  I’m talking Greg from a few years ago before he started dieing his hair.You don’t see shades on the back of a head in hipster bingo.The first band was Point Juncture, WA.  They were pretty good.  A bit too mellow at times for me, but the rockin’ stuff was really good.  The next band was Shaky Hands.  They were from Portland too.  They were boring and unoriginal.The Thermals finally played to a very enthusiastic crowd.  People were going nuts and everyone was smiling and having a blast.  It was seriously some of the most hyped on a band I’ve seen a crowd in a long time.  The setlist was a mixture of new and old, heavy on the new.  I wanted to hear the new stuff so this was perfect.They opened with ‘Returning To The Fold’ then went into ‘I Let It Go’.  After that I’m not so sure, but here’s a list of what I think I remember which is NOT in order.Returning To The FoldI Let It GoIt’s TriviaNo Culture IconsA Passing Feeling Back To GreyHow We KnowSappy (Nirvana cover)Here’s Your FuturePillar Of SaltTest PatternSt Rosa & The SwallowsWe Were SickNow We Can SeeI Called Out Your NameWhen I Was AfraidHow We FadeYou Dissolve Encore was:I Hold The SoundEverything Thermals I might be missing one or two or messed it up.  Either way that’s close enough.  All of the new stuff sounded super good.  The crowd completely freaked out to Here’s Your Future.   The ground up front at the Marquis shakes when people get jumping and at times it felt like I was on a trampoline.  Awesome.  I completely loved every song, but my stand out favorites were “How We Fade”, “When I Was Afraid”, “I Called Out Your Name”, “Test Pattern” (never heard it played before), “St Rosa & The Swallows”, “Here’s Your Future”, “Pillar of Salt” (yes pretty much the whole set) and of course “Sappy” was an awesome surprise.  I think they played “I Let It Go” too early in the set because it’s probably my favorite song on the new album and the sound wasn’t dialed in yet.  Oh well though, excellent excellent show.  I like that they don’t have the extra guitarist anymore and I think Hutch gave his best delivery I’ve seen.  Kathy was on point once again driving the bass the way she does.  They are so fun live!  Everything Thermals!

Aaron Betcher’s band O’er The Ramparts played the first Null premiere back in July of 2004.  Man that seems like forever ago.  Anyways, he’s in another band called Magic Mice and Brian, Jason and I went to check out a show of theirs in Boulder.Should have known Rick would be there, but I didn’t expect those shoes!  The first band was a couple ladies singing with a glass of wine and an acoustic guitar.  It wasn’t bad, not my cup of tea though.  Brian was the only one texting more than me.  Magic Mice came on shortly and played a pretty rockin’ set.  Brian told me the Westword mentioned Dinosaur Jr as one of their influences or something.  That can never be a bad thing and there was definitely some sick guitar solos and distortion.  For the most part though they reminded me of good garage rock and I really enjoyed it.  Check out their myspace page HERE.An old man laughing at at old man!  Ha.  The guy in the background was having a ball and dancing it up.  You can’t really see from the photo, but he was getting jiggy.  Rick approved.  The best part was when he stood next to a pregnant lady and stuck out his belly.  Golden material there.If I ever get serious about concert reviews maybe I’ll actually start getting within 20 feet of the band when taking photos.Up next was a horrible band named Ego Vs Id.  Some Boulder band I guess.  How embarrasing.  They could play their instruments well enough, but it was cocky jam lets get chicks crap.  We left.

I got a text from my friend Ethan in the afternoon saying his band was playing that evening in Denver.  I ran it by Liz and she was in and our babysitter was down to watch the kids so all of a sudden Liz and I were gonna be going out.  Whew.  We told our babysitter to come a bit early so we could hit up Wax Trax records on the way, but then it turned out there was a surprise gathering for Jam’s birthday at Wahoos.  Jam’s been bugging me about a Null Thermal for quite some time now so I figured since it’s his birthday and all maybe I should finally hook it up.  Jam was hyped.  Until .... he opened the mother of all presents.  A brand new super tech jacket.I got one uppedOh look, it’s even got a hidden full face hood thingJason, the victor.The TF was rolling deep.  Brian looking serious.Neil lost the elbow game and had to lie down.After dinner Jason, Kathy, Fuzz, Leslie, Liz and I went to Moes Original to see Ethan’s band Gangcharger play.  When we arrived Lions The Brave was already playing.  We have seen them before and both Fuzz and I love them.  It’s instrumental rock that builds up and destroys on each song.  Go see them, they are excellent.  Fuzz and I both bought EPs and all. Check out their myspace HERE.  It’s got all kinds of youtube clips and whatnot.This was our first time to Moes.  It’s also a BBQ joint and the smell of the food is absolutely amazing. In fact it smelled so good that we all ended up getting food and enjoying every bit of it.  Nothing like good BBQ with a cold beer.  Gangcharger came on next and blasted their sonic boom.  Tons of LOUD distortion, fuzz, noise and guitars.  In other words I love it.  I was surprised at how well the songs were structured and the distortion was always perfect.  Anyone can blare distortion, but it takes talent and patience to make the perfect sound.  Gangcharger’s got it.  Check out their myspace page HERE.  Thanks for the cd Ethan!Last up was Sonnenblume.  I’ve never heard of them, but clearly they are veterans to this music thing considering how well they could play their instruments.  Both the guitarist and drummer would kill their instruments on every song.  I mean, KILL them.  Especially the drummer.  I’m surprised he didn’t destroy his drumset.  The music was good.  Fuzz loved it.  I thought the singers voice was a little to pretty for my tastes.  They are a good band for sure though.  Denver is coming up!  Check out their myspace here.

Click the image or here to read the full article and watch a clip on the making of the new Dinosaur Jr video.  Murph looks like he’s gonna fall off his bike!  J looks good cruising though.  Should be a funny video.

All kinds of crazy deals going on.  I’m hoping to get the Sonic Youth/Jay Reatard split 7″