Dinosaur Jr bassist and Sebadoh mastermind Lou Barlow has been treating fans to a treasure trove of free, rare and often unreleased music via his e-mail newsletter, and with his latest dispatch, he reaches back all the way back to 1983 to share a “lost” 3-song practice tape from Deep Wound, his pre-Dino Jr band with J Mascis.
The short-lived hardcore band — which featured Barlow on guitar and Mascis on drums — only released a nine-song EP and contributed a few tracks to a compilation between 1982 and 1984, when the band split and Mascis and Barlow went on to form Dinosaur Jr.
Barlow writes of the Deep Wound rehearsal tracks:
“as you may know, Deep Wound were my first band.. these songs feature the original line-up: J Mascis drums, Scott Helland bass, Jay Otto our first vocalist (who went to school with Scott and i in Westfield Massachusetts) and myself on guitar… these were recorded in J’s basement, Jay is standing in front of the boombox we recorded on (with built in stereo mics, the classic) and yelling at it… we kicked Jay out and replaced him with J’s friend Charlie Nakajima because when we (the original line-up) played our first show, an outdoor party, Jay hid behind a tree… Charlie, an Amherst High classmate of J’s, was older, extroverted and better suited to the role of a frontman it seemed… so, J then introduced Charlie, started writing all our new songs and they more or less took the band over… these three songs represent the first Westfield-centric version of the band and were written by Scott and i…”
The three tracks — “Training Ground,” “Patriots” and “You’re False” — can be streamed below. Although Barlow labels them as “lost,” they appear to be the same versions that were appended to the apparently hard-to-find 2007 CD version of the Almost Complete compilation.
You can sign up here for Barlow’s e-mail newsletter; in addition to the Deep Wound rehearsal tape, the latest installment also features free downloads of Barlow’s demo for “Your Weather,” off the 2009 Dinosaur Jr album Farm, as well as some previously unreleased solo recordings. He also reveals that both Dinosaur Jr and Sebadoh plan to record new albums in 2012.
Deep Wound ‘Lost’ 1983 Practice Tape by Slicing Up Eyeballs
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS:
- Dinosaur Jr to reissue 1st three albums in cassette box set — plus bonus Sebadoh tape
- Dinosaur Jr takes ‘Bug’ tour, Henry Rollins to West Coast for 6 shows this December
- Stream: Dinosaur Jr, ‘I’ve Been Waiting For You’ — unreleased Neil Young cover (1988)
- Dinosaur Jr to reissue ‘Dinosaur,’ ‘You’re Living All Over Me,’ ‘Bug’ on vinyl
- Dinosaur Jr reissuing 1988′s ‘Bug’ on purple cassette for upcoming full-album tour
- Stream: Hear J Mascis’ ‘Several Shades of Why’ in its entirety
