Band of Horses and Dinosaur Jr.

Overview

There might be no other band that was able to channel the generational anxiety in those early millennial years and turn it into such powerful and inclusive art quite like Band of Horses. Band of Horses fashioned gorgeously ragged epics, Ben Bridwell’s high-flying vocals and eccentric enunciation floating like a specter that felt like a prelude to a dream. Full of profundity, truth, and sometimes just homespun advice on how to live, Band of Horses songs have become anthems and touchstones for fans — meditations on change, longing, and what a person will do to make things right. And what you do when you can’t.

The band’s debut Everything All the Time (2006) introduced their sweeping, emotionally resonant sound, and the albums that followed have cemented their place in the indie rock canon. They’ve released six studio albums, including Infinite Arms (2010), which earned a Grammy nomination. Most recently, the critically acclaimed Things Are Great (2022) finds the band recapturing the raw emotion and unpolished punk-rock spirit of its earlier days.

Dinosaur Jr. were largely responsible for returning lead guitar to indie rock and, along with their peers , they injected late-’80s alternative rock with monumental levels of pure guitar noise. As the group’s career progressed, they broke into three distinctive acts: the indie years of the original trio; the ’90s spent on major labels where the band was mostly a solo vehicle for ‘ songwriting and guitar wizardry; and the surprisingly strong reunion of the original lineup beginning in 2006. Each phase produced distinctively monumental work, from the noisy squall of 1987’s You’re Living All Over Me to the insular slacker rock of 1991’s Green Mind, the distortion-drenched pop of 2009’s Farm, and the seasoned fuzz of 2021’s Sweep It Into Space.

In 1987, Dinosaur Jr. released You’re Living All Over Me, which became an underground sensation. Early in 1988 they released the seminal single “Freak Scene,” a song that captured the feeling and tone of the emerging American post-punk underground. “Freak Scene” became a college radio hit, and it led the way for their acclaimed 1988 album, Bug.

Instead of capitalizing on the commercial breakthrough of alternative rock, Dinosaur released an EP, Whatever’s Cool with Me, in early 1992 and disappeared to record their next album. Released early in 1993, Where You Been benefited greatly from the commercial breakthrough of alternative rock, and many of the articles surrounding the album’s release hailed as an alternative godfather. It became the first Dinosaur album to chart, peaking at number 50, and it generated the modern rock hit “Start Choppin.” That summer, the group played on the third Lollapalooza tour.