Dinosaur Jr. Teams Up With Kurt Vile on New Album

Veteran indie rockers Dinosaur Jr. return with Sweep It Into Space, their first new collection of music since 2016’s Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not. The album comes out April 23 on Jagjaguwar, and a new single, “I Ran Away,” is out now. 

The band cut the record, originally slated to come out last year, at Amherst’s Biquiteen. The recording sessions began in the late autumn of 2019, following a West Coast/Southeast tour. The only extra musician who appears is Kurt Vile, who co-produced the album and played the lead 12-string on “I Ran Away.” 

After recording with Vile got disrupted,  J Mascis still managed to finish the song. 

 “[I] ended up just mimicking a few things he’d done,” says Mascis in a press release. “I was listening to a lot of  Thin Lizzy, so I was trying to get some of that dueling twin lead sound. But the recording session was pretty well finished by the time things really hit the fan. When the lockdown happened in March, that meant I was on my own. But it was cool.”

Like any Dinosaur Jr. album, Sweep It Into Space was a group effort. Singer-bassist Lou Barlow writes and sings two of the album’s dozen tunes, and Murph’s “pure-Flinstonian” drumming drives the record.

“Lou’s songs here are as elegant as always,” reads a press release about the album. “J’s tracks flow and flower in the different directions he often follows. Some are guitar howlers, with a string sound midway between Hendrix and Asheton. Some are power ballads, and there are anomalies, like ‘Take It Back,’ which starts with a blue-beat rhythm putting one in mind of Keith Richards’ Jamaican explorations (at least for a little bit).”

Dinosaur Jr. Tour Dates
Tue. July 27 – Fri. July 30 – Big Indian, NY @ Camp Fuzz
Tue. Sept. 7 – Montreal, QC @ Corona Theatre
Thu. Sept. 9 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall
Fri. Sept. 10 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Venue TBA
Sat. Sept. 11 – Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre
Mon. Sept. 13 – Madison, WI @ Majestic Theatre
Tue. Sept. 14 – Minneapolis, MN @ First Avenue
Thu. Sept. 16 – St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
Mon. Sept. 20 – Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room
Tue. Sept. 21 – Kansas City, MO @ Truman
Thu. Sept. 23 – Austin, TX @ Moody Theater @ ACL Live
Fri. Sept. 24 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall
Sat. Sept. 25 – Dallas, TX @ Canton Hall
Mon. Sept. 27 – Birmingham, AL @ Saturn
Tue. Sept. 28 – Bloomington, IN @ The Bluebird
Thu. Sept. 30 – Columbus, OH @ Athenaeum Theatre
Fri. Oct. 1 – Cleveland, OH @ Agora
Sat. Oct. 2 – Ithaca, NY @ State Theatre
Fri. Nov. 12 – Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl
Sat. Nov. 13 – Atlanta, GA @ Masquerade
Mon. Nov. 15 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle
Tue. Nov. 16 – Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club
Thu. Nov. 18 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
Fri. Nov. 19 – New Haven, CT @ College Street Music Hall
Sat. Nov. 20 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
Fri. Nov. 26 – Northampton, MA @ Academy of Music
Sat. Nov. 27 – Boston, MA @ House Of Blues
Thu. Feb. 3 – Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy’s and Harriets
Fri. Feb. 4 – Las Vegas, NV @ Brooklyn Bowl
Sat. Feb. 5 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Depot
Mon. Feb. 7 – Spokane, WA @ Knitting Factory Music Hall
Tue. Feb. 8 – Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom
Thu. Feb. 10 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox at Market
Fri. Feb. 11 – Portland, OR @ Venue TBA
Sat. Feb. 12 – Portland, OR @ Venue TBA
Tue. Feb. 15 – Sacramento, CA @ Ace of Spades
Wed. Feb. 16 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
Thu. Feb. 17 – San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
Sat. Feb. 19 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda
Sun. Feb. 20 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Fonda
Tue. Feb. 22 – San Diego, CA @ Observatory North Park
Wed. Feb. 23 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom
Fri. Feb. 25 – Albuquerque, NM @ El Rey Theatre
Sat. Feb. 26 – Denver, CO @ Ogden Theatre