This Is All I Came To Do

A little tribute to the genius known to man as J. Mascis. I collected a bunch of quotes from interviews with J. and this picture was taken by Ben Rayner.

"I have limited interests. I really like all sorts of gear. Guitar gear. Recording gear. Stuff like that. I like music, you know."

"When I first started playing, the concept of Dinosaur was like ear-bleeding country. Playing country really loud. It just seemed like, oh yeah, nobody plays country really loud. I'm not sure why, but...I think it came out of playing drums. Guitar seemed so wimpy to me when I started playing it, I couldn't get any power out of it, so I was trying to play it so I could get some dynamics out of it. I felt I could express myself a lot better on drums - you can just pound 'em -and with the guitar, I just wanted it to feel more pounding too."

"I don't like it too much I guess, but I didn't like staying home either. I don't like anything!" (On the subject of touring)

"Music doesn't go up and down so if you just want to make money, it's going to be tough. I think you have to want to play and you will be playing no matter what happens."

"I just kind of jam around until I get something I like and then play that for a while. When I get enough parts for it, then I try to arrange it somehow so it makes sense." (On his songwriting techniques)

"It smelled bad. After they threw him out of the club, we went home, basically. I mean, within minutes he's covered with shit and blood. You know, it's one of those things that seems like a punkrock thing to do, but then when you do it, you're like, hmm, well, maybe this is not too cool." (On his short stint in G.G. Allin's band)

"I wish I couldn't play."

"People have a hard time relating to each other in a normal way. Everyone I know are all just like... freaks."

"I wanted to be able to support myself before college ended by playing music, and that happened, so I was happy about that. I didn't have to go back to the gas station." (On making a career out of playing music)