Dinosaur Jr. - Where You Been

With Paul Westerberg's croon and the slacker guitar of a Neil Young, J Mascis is forever assured of critical huzzahs. "Out There" and "Not the Same" are loud, lazy rock & roll, American-style. --Jeff Bateman Amazon.com

EVERY SONG IS AWESOME......

.....and thats not just my little opinion. Its a fact! I was SO amazed when I got this recently. If youre thinking of buying this one just for the couple of well known songs here ("Out There" & "Start Choppin'")-youre in for more than u bargained for! To me, its a passionate album. I cant explain it. But how can I explain ANY Dinosaur Jr. album? In any case- I promise youll be swept away. (Yes- Im using cheesy cliches here)but if I was impressed- which I rarely am- YOU will be too! Ill always hold this one dear to me cuz it blew me away from the start and so far hasnt gotten old....and I CANT STOP PLAYING IT! ...also check out these other CDs by J. Mascis and this friggin GENIUS band. Ive always loved 'em always will....but recently I was taken back and fell in love all over again.....(yea more cliches)

* EAR BLEEDING COUNTRY: THE BEST OF DINOSAUR JR. (this one is good for starters. Gets u familiar with their work if youre not already)
* GREEN MIND (J. Mascis plays every instrument here except MURPH on drums on some of the trax).........
......Actually...just buy any random Dino. Jr. CD. You can do it with your eyes closed and youll buy something too amazing for words. YES. Theyre THAT good. (and the band members changed over the years but it doesnt matter to me really.) January 29, 2008

Where You Been - Dinosaur Junior (1993)

This is a very good album, by a very talented artist in J.Mascis. It is now 15 years old, but still stands up, particularly for those people who enjoy unbelievable guitar solos. You won't be disappointed. I brought this album purely for Track 6 (Get Me), and once you listen to it, you will see why. The manic guitar riffs throughout and to close it, it must be one of the all-time great efforts recorded. I just wish I saw him live back in the 90's. Hopefully he'll tour somewhere in Victoria again one day! January 2, 2008

My favorite Dino Jr. album

I recently got into this band and I have to say, out of all the releases, this one is my favorite. There's not a bad song on here and the album packs energy from start to finish.

If you were to get one Dino Jr. album, you can't go wrong with "Where You Been". January 27, 2007

Top five guitarist of all time!

I just got done listening to "Get Me" and was compelled to write this review. I've owned this disk for a long time, but it rarely gets a spin. I guess I've heard it so many times and there is so much good music out there to discover that I don't have the time to listen to it much. Anyway, I write this review because after listening to "Get Me" once again I am reminded of how talented a guitarist J. Mascis is. I put him up there with Jerry Garcia, Trey Anastasio, Jimmy Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughn. He's that good. Overall, this disk is not only a series of good songs, but of extraordinary guitar work. Some people may be put off by the poor vocals, but still this disk is better than 95% of the music released in the 1990s. July 4, 2004

Found, but never lost

To start off with, I must say that I am not one to blurt out grandiose declarative statements about the greatness of something. I will have to make an exception in the case of D.J.'s Where You Been. I first discovered Dinosaur Jr. back when this album first came out. I heard them on the radio and was mightily impressed. I really hadn't heard anybody quite like them before. At this time, I was very much interested in the grunge movement, particularly Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains. I also found I had a strong interest in the Pixies, and a mild interest in Sonic Youth, both of whom hailed from the same Mass. area as DJ. While I still enjoy all of these groups for myriad of reasons, the one group I never tired of was Dinosaur Jr. and in particular this album. I actually started out loving "I ain't saying", but when I bought the cd I lost interest in it. I really dug "Start Choppin'" for its simple bubbly rhythm. For me, "Get Me" is a real gem with its astounding guitar solos and mutterings of J. Most of the other tracks are very good. Easy to listen all through. The thing about DJ that I have always found comforting is that vocally it invokes a sort of "throw my hands in the air" apathy that has carried me through some pretty tough times over the years. Besides, I could actually sing along and very often it would be of a quality near par to J's(lol).
The music is enough to make even the most dedicated lyricists overlook the scratchy, oft-out of key vocals and generally incomprehensible words. I would argue that the lyrics and vocals are part and parsal to the overall DJ experience, though.

I have purchased this album twice, and am getting ready to buy another copy of it. After hearing this album, I started checking out DJ's other albums. They were hard to find where I lived at the time, but it became a bit of an obsession to find them. I think GreenMind is a very solid album, maybe even my second favorite and I very much enjoy the EP-Whatever's Cool With Me. The live version of the GreenMind classic "Thumb" is superb and well-worth the cost of the cd. I am not a huge fan of DJ's early stuff, though I own all of it and listen to it on occasion. Fossils is a fun album though.

The album following Where You Been, Without a Sound, was initially disappointing to me. I was rather possessive of "my" band and when they started to gain a little attention, I resented the "johnny come lately's" even though I suppose I was one too, as I look back. I didn't give the cd a chance, but as I have listened to it since, I have gained a healthy respect for it. Their last original cd, which I can't remember the name of is also a solid effort.

All in all, I must say that Where You Been was one of the first cd's that I could listen to not stop all the way through. I would recommend this to anyone who is nostalgic for the bygone 90's or just those interested in some obscure guitar-driven rock that is fresh and still holds up 10+ years after it was released. When you look at the poor state of rock these days, DJ really shines, especially to those of you who haven't heard much of their music. May 13, 2004

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