Pitchfork

Verily, Surefire Records is doing the work of the Indie Rock Gods. The Brattleboro, Vermont distributor is set to spend 2003 flooding the world with recordings of the seminal J Mascis/Lou Barlow incarnation of Dinosaur Jr., and their related and prior projects. You see, way back in 1981, before they became Dinosaur Jr. (or even just Dinosaur), Messrs. Mascis and Barlow formed Deep Wound, a hardcore quartet based out of Westfield, MA. While Deep Wound's four-year output was miniscule (one seven-inch, an EP released in 1983 on Radiobeat Records, and a handful of singles), the music provides a sonogram of the musicians who would go on to release such indie rock yardsticks as You're Living All Over Me and Bug. The as-yet-untitled Deep Wound collection will contain tracks from an out-of-print German bootleg, along with the entirety of the seven-inch, and a handful of previously unreleased live tracks. That said, even if they had been available before, would you have known? Exactly. In the interest of speculation, we here at the 'Fork have done a little research and are willing to offer up some tracks that comprised both the band's EP and the seven-inch bootleg release:

Radiobeat EP:
01 I Saw It
02 Sisters
03 In My Room
04 Don't Need
05 Lou's Anxiety Song
06 Video Prick
07 Sick of Fun
08 Deep Wound
09 Dead Babies

American Style Bootleg:
01 Pressures
02 Training Ground
03 Deep Wound
04 You're False
05 Your Head Is in Your Crotch
06 Dear Sister
07 Patriots
08 Never Let You In
09 Adults
10 Don't Need
11 Video Prick

Even more thrilling is the fact that Surefire needs your help compiling the Deep Wound liner notes! If anyone has visual documentation of Deep Wound doing their thing-- photos, handbills, DNA test printouts-- please contact the distributor through their website. No, seriously, contact them. Quit being so selfish and learn to share, goddammit!

As for the much-easier-to-document Dinosaur Jr., Surefire is planning to release that band's 1985 debut Dinosaur, 1987's You're Living All Over Me, (#40 in Pitchfork's recent Top 100 of the 1980s, by the way), 1988's Bug, and 1991's singles-roundup Fossils. All re-releases will contain yet-to-be-determined bonus tracks. While no release dates have been announced, it's likely that the releases will be spread out over the course of summer 2003, so as not to ignite too much frenzy among the masses and Michael Azerrad. The only question that remains is why? Well, let's turn the mic over to Surefire distribution head Dave Sweetapple to answer that one: "I want to spread some new interest for the grandfathers of this scene among the indie kids who might not know who they were." Poor Mascis: 38 and already a grandpa. Who knew those loins would be so fertile?

.: Deep Wound (fan site): http://homepages.nyu.edu/~cch223...