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Jan 12, 2024 By Mark Redfern Photography by Jeffrey Fowler

J Mascis (of Dinosaur Jr.) is releasing a new solo album, What Do We Do Now, on February 2 via Sub Pop. Now he has shared its third single, “Right Behind You,” via an animated lyric video. Watch it below.

Mascis previously shared the album’s first single, “Can’t Believe We’re Here,” via a music video that features Fred Armisen, David Cross, Eugene Mirman, Bully, IDLES, and others. “Can’t Believe We’re Here” was one of our Songs of the Week. Then he shared its second single, “Set Me Down” (also one of our Songs of the Week).

What Do We Do Now is the follow-up to 2018’s Elastic Days. Mascis recorded the album at his Bisquiteen studio in Western Massachusetts.

“When I’m writing for the band,” he said in a previous press release. “I’m always trying to think of doing things Lou and Murph would fit into. For myself, I’m thinking more about what I can do with just an acoustic guitar, even for the leads. Of course, this time, I added full drums and electric leads, although the rhythm parts are still all acoustic. Usually, I try to do the solo stuff more simply so I can play it by myself, but I really wanted to add the drums. Once that started, everything else just fell into place. So it ended up sounding a lot more like a band record. I dunno why I did that exactly, but it’s just what happened.”

The album features Ken Mauri of The B-52s on keysboards and Matthew “Doc” Dunn on steel guitar.

“Ken is great, and he plays all the keys. I tried playing some keyboards on the first Fog album, but I’m really only comfortable playing the white notes, so it’s kind of limiting,” Mascis says, laughing. “Nowadays, I could just turn the pitch on a mini Mellotron to play different sounds, but black keys just seem hard. For whatever reason, I just like banging on the white ones. Seems like it’s harder to figure out how to stretch your fingers around the other ones.”

Read our 2014 joint interview between Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis and The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus.

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