Although always as loud as god, it was easy to convince yourself the music of Dinosaur Jr was far more passive than aggressive. This myth exploded in a hail of flaming toads in the spring of 1989, when the band’s original trio line-up burst like a ripe sac of pus. In the intervening years there have been various versions of Dinosaur Jr, several of which made use of ur-drummer, Murph; but none of them included prodigal bassist, Lou Barlow. Until now. Until Beyond.

There was a sense that some all-new form of togetherness might happen when J and Lou’s old band, Deep Wound, played a short reunion “set” at a benefit Sonic Youth headlined in Northampton, Massachusetts. For all the acrimony that was predicted to hang over the proceedings, Deep Wound’s set was pretty mellow – for a hardcore band, anyway – and, since reissues of their first three albums were in the works, the possibility of a Dino reunion was something that seemed surprisingly imaginable all of a sudden.

Every Dinosaur Jr album has its share of great songs, but there was something almost holy about that first trinity and the band that created them. It’s true this piece began by calling them passive, but most fans knew it was only their surface that was placid. At its best, the trio’s music (its guts) was like a version of the Stooges that didn’t have Iggy – just one of the Ashetons mumbling vocals while they all slugged the crap out of their instruments. Dino Jr’s sound was actually a roiling sea of emotion and rage and a sense of aggro that had been forged into a bizarre metal-punk-pop-whatsis by obsessive listening to Sabbath, the Birthday Party, The Cure, Blitz and Neil Young. Do you remember that Little Rascals film where Alfala eats a hot dog and a hamburger immediately before he gets into a boxing match? An animated hot dog and hamburger get into a boxing match in his stomach. Well, Dinosaur Jr’s influences were like that – except it was more like a Texas Cage Match where Neil and Nick yanked on each other’s hair while Nidge and Robert and Ozzy threw buckets of boiling urine into everybody’s eyes. How could any band be expected to contain such carnage without cracking?