Pitchfork: More Dinosaur Jr. Reissues Due

On display at Chicago's Field Museum, you'll find Sue, the largest Tyrannosaurus Rex ever discovered. Before Sue made her way to the Windy City, however, some paleontologists had to uncover and spruce her up a bit...kind of like the folks at Rhino Records, who recently dug up a few more old school Dinosaur Jr. albums.

On May 16, Rhino will reissue the trio's first two Sire Records albums, 1991's Green Mind and 1993's Where You Been, in remastered and expanded form. Also available on the market that day is J Mascis Live at CBGB's: The First Acoustic Show, a limited edition disc featuring an avalanche of previously unreleased material that 5000 lucky fans will have a chance to snatch up for the low, low suggested retail price of $9.99.

Both reissues are packaged with photographs and Byron Coley-penned liner notes. (Does that guy do anything other than write liner notes these days?) Green Mind holds three bonus tracks: the "Start Choppin" B-sides "Forget It" and "Turnip Farm" (which also appeared on the Reality Bites soundtrack) and a cover of the Flying Burrito Brothers' "Hot Burrito #2", which features backing vocals from-why not?--actor Matt Dillon. Guess this was around the time when he was in his Singles grunge rock phase.

Where You Been has been lengthened with the previously unreleased John Peel session version of "Hide", an alternate take of "Keeblin'", and a long live recording of "What Else Is New".

These albums follow Merge Records' 2005 reissues of Dinosaur Jr.'s first three albums, 1985's Dinosaur, 1987's You're Living All Over Me, and 1988's Bug.

Green Mind:

01 The Wagon
02 Puke + Cry
03 Blowing It
04 I Live for That Look
05 Flying Cloud
06 How'd You Pin That One on Me
07 Water
08 Muck
09 Thumb
10 Green Mind
11 Hot Burrito #2 (bonus track)
12 Turnip Farm (bonus track)
13 Forget It (bonus track)

Where You Been:

01 Out There
02 Start Choppin
03 What Else Is New
04 On the Way
05 Not the Same
06 Get Me
07 Drawerings
08 Hide
09 Goin Home
10 I Ain't Sayin
11 Hide (John Peel Session) (previously unreleased bonus track)
12 Keeblin (bonus track)
13 What Else Is New - Live (bonus track)

J Mascis Live at CBGB's: The First Acoustic Show:

01 What Else Is New (previously unreleased)
02 Thumb
03 Keeblin' (previously unreleased)
04 Not You Again (previously unreleased)
05 Flying Cloud (previously unreleased)
06 Every Mother's Son (previously unreleased)
07 Not the Same (previously unreleased)
08 Throw Down
09 Get Me (previously unreleased)
10 Quest (previously unreleased)
11 On the Run (previously unreleased)
12 Repulsion

As previously reported, the reunited Dinosaur Jr. are feeling out the idea of a new album. Last month, Pitchfork caught up with drummer Murph, who commented, "We're at J's, just kind of hanging out, getting ready, jamming around...we're keeping our summer pretty open, so we're going to try to work on [new] stuff then."

Lou Barlow posted on his website this week that "J is probably working on guitar and vocals on the 7+ songs Murph and I 'finished' in February...I didn't have much of a chance to write for the band and none of the songs I do have seem to fit...in many ways the 'vibe' of Dinosaur is exactly like it was 16 years ago...to assert myself on its dynamic seems an impossible task...I like collaborating, making mistakes, discussing the music etc. etc...the band is more about J's vision."

So there you go.

Dinosaur Jr. hit the road next week for a trip through the UK and Europe, highlighted by a day spent curating the All Tomorrow's Parties festival.

You're touring all over me:

05-17 Glasgow, Scotland - ABC
05-18 Edinburgh, Scotland - TBA
05-19 Camber Sands, England - Camber Sands Holiday Centre (All Tomorrow's Parties) *#
05-21 Manchester, England - Academy *%
05-22 Birmingham, England - Academy *%
05-23 Bristol, England - Academy *%
05-24 Utrecht, Netherlands - Tivoli $
05-25 Antwerp, Belgium - Petrol $
05-26 Bremen, Germany - Schlachthof $
05-27 Dresden, Germany - Star Club $
05-28 Vienna, Austria - Arena
05-29 Bologna, Italy - Flippaut Rock Festival
05-30 Rome, Italy - Qube
05-31 Turin, Italy - Hiroshima
06-01 Winterthur, Switzerland - Salzhaus
06-02 Barcelona, Spain - Primavera Festival

* with Dead Meadow
# with Broken Social Scene, the Brian Jonestown Massacre, Microphones/Mount Eerie, Mission of Burma, Teenage Fanclub, Bevis Frond, the Lilys, Eater, Magik Markers, Herman Dune
% with the Like
$ with the Drones

J Mascis will perform a solo set at Olympic Island off Toronto on Jun 24, alongside Broken Social Scene, Bloc Party, Feist, and Raising the Fawn. Lou Barlow will also go solo July 22 at the Benicassim Festival in Benicassim, Spain. He'll be joined by the likes of Franz Ferdinand, Morrissey, Superpitcher, Mojave 3, Rufus Wainwright, Editors, and Ms. John Soda.

Former Dinosaur Jr. bassist Mike Johnson released his solo album Gone out of Your Mind last month on Up Records. Johnson is backed on the record by the Evildoers, made up of Brett Nelson and Jim Roth (both of Built to Spill), and Jason Albertini (Duster, Helvetia).

* Pitchfork Review: Dinosaur / You're Living All Over Me / Bug
* Pitchfork Feature: Live: Dinosaur Jr.
* Pitchfork News: Dinosaur Jr.'s Murph Talks Reunion, Recording