by SHANE SINNOTT

A special place will always be held in my heart for J. Mascis, who spent much of the ’80s and early ’90s engaged in a longing whine as the frontman of Dinosaur Jr.—one of the gold standards of the era, who could be counted on regularly to produce a droning wail well suited to a young person’s disposition. Since Dinosaur Jr.’s break-up in 1997 (which became a hiatus when they reunited in 2005), Mascis has surfaced in bands here and there—most noticeably, to those looking for the old sound, with his (more or less) solo project J. Mascis and the Fog, which had a famous collaboration with My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields, made apparent on Fog album’s title track (bit.ly/cZbgJ9). All of which is a long way of me getting to the fact that Mr. Mascis is in a new band again, called Sweet Apple, whose debut album, Love & Desperation, comes out in April. You can download a track from it at bit.ly/9rS5gd.

If you were hoping for the older Dinosaur Jr./Fog sound, it doesn’t look like it’s happening. Based on this track, it sounds like some straightforward hard alternative rock, which goes to show that absolutely nothing will ever turn out like you want it to. Sigh.

During any given week, there are usually enough remixes and mash-ups and online-only stuff that it’s hard for anything to distinguish itself. But when I noticed the Bassnectar remix of the Pixies’ “Where Is My Mind,” checking it out was a no-brainer. This song is on a lot of people’s Top 5 Pixies songs, and certainly mine. So off I go to bit.ly/9ca4Ne, to get the MP3. And… it’s really bad. I don’t understand why people make remixes like this—the best parts are the ones from the original song, and the remix adds nothing other than trying to dance-ify it, “alternative night”-style, complete with the slow, clockwise turn of the tone control to build up the chorus. To be honest, I don’t get the point of remixes in general. Can someone please tell me?