Dinosaur Jr‘s J. Mascis has announced his fifth solo album, What Do We Do Now, which will be out February 2 via Sub Pop. He played most everything on the album himself except for keyboards (Ken Mauri of B-52s live band) and pedal steel (Matthew “Doc” Dunn).
“When I’m writing for the band,” Mascis says, “I’m always trying to think of doing things Lou and Murph would fit into. For myself, I’m thinking more about what I can do with just an acoustic guitar, even for the leads. Of course, this time, I added full drums and electric leads, although the rhythm parts are still all acoustic. Usually, I try to do the solo stuff more simply so I can play it by myself, but I really wanted to add the drums. Once that started, everything else just fell into place. So it ended up sounding a lot more like a band record. I dunno why I did that exactly, but it’s just what happened.”
The first single from the album is its opening track, “Can’t Believe We’re Here,” which is warm, acoustic and melodic but does have a few signature J. Mascis solos. Listen to that below.
J. does not have any solo dates on the books yet, but Dinosaur Jr are halfway through a four-show residency in London celebrating 30 years of Where You Been? and will bring that to Brooklyn for seven nights at Music Hall of Williamsburg on December 1-3 & 5-8. They’re promising lots of guests at these Where You Been? shows and so far the two London shows have featured Blur‘s Graham Coxon, My Bloody Valentine‘s Deb Goodge, Primal Scream‘s Andrew Innes, Jim Jones, actor/filmmaker Richard Ayoade, and more.
What Do We Do Now
1. Can’t Believe We’re Here
2. What Do We Do Now
3. Right Behind You
4. You Don’t Understand Me
5. I Can’t Find You
6. Old Friends
7. It’s True
8. Set Me Down
9. Hangin Out
10. End Is Gettin Shaky
