Reviews of Dinosaur Jr.’s Green Mind don’t always focus on what a shift it was for the band. For the first time, it was J. Mascis’ unadulterated vision, updated to fit perfectly with the alternative scene that was strengthening in the early nineties. However, nothing about it presaged the success of Nirvana’s Nevermind, bringing sludge rock to the mainstream. It was at once denser than anything the band had done, but also more pastoral. On the lead single, “The Wagon,” The meandering guitar lines on the verses hint at straying through open fields on some rural route somewhere. It was no doubt this turn that helped Mascis get the role of soundtracking and appearing in 1992’s coming of age drama Gas Food Lodging.
“The Wagon” was my favorite video as a teenager. I had a copy of the video taped from MTV’s 120 Minutes on a beat-up VHS tape that my sister deliberately recorded over. I loved the claymation, the affection for aliens and the mother and baby being united by the cow and the ape’s heroism. The mother alien’s eye stalks sagging at the thought of losing her progeny, then doing a happy loop at his return, made it for me.
Dinosaur Jr. - The Wagon (YouTube)
