After the band’s third album “Bug,” tension reached critical mass and Mascis and drummer Murph kicked bassist Lou Barlow out of the band by telling him they were going to break up. Mascis and Murph continued on though, putting out the band’s major-label debut “Green Mind,” which nudged Dinosaur from a popular, college-radio favorite closer to mainstream success just as Nirvana ushered in the grunge era. Barlow, who went on to his own success with his band Sebadoh, was furious and made no secret of it over the years. Murph eventually left the band in 1993 at the height of its success after the Lollapalooza tour. He had griped for years that Mascis was so controlling that he would write the drum parts and force Murph to play them exactly his way.
But Mascis, Murph and Barlow appeared to mellow with age and a chance meeting onstage to jam with the original Stooges dissolved the barriers.
This week Murph flew in from Amherst, Mass., (where Mascis also lives) to Southern California, where Barlow lives, to get in a little extra rehearsal with Barlow before their show at Detroit Bar on Saturday.
“Lou and I are getting together first just like the old days to solidify the bass and drums,” Murph said. “And just like the old days, J will come in and be the sprinkler, the glaze on top. It’s pretty much the same. Nothing’s changed except the bad stuff, like the tension, the attitude. We dropped the attitude, but the good stuff, the foundation we’ve kept.”
