Guitarist J Mascis, bassist Lou Barlow, and drummer Murph are the band's founding and current members ; Mascis has been the group's sole continuous member.

Mascis ' college friend Gerard Cosloy introduced him to bands like Dream Syndicate, which Mascis in turn showed to Barlow.

Mascis wrote a number of songs by himself and showed them to Barlow, to whom he offered the bassist position.

While Barlow had played guitar in Deep Wound, he accepted as he was impressed by the material Mascis was creating.

A few days later Mascis called Barlow and Murph to form a new band without telling Nakajima ; " I was kind of too wimpy to kick him out, exactly ," Mascis later admitted, and explained, " Communicating with people has been a constant problem in the band.

" The trio named themselves Dinosaur, and Mascis and Barlow took over lead vocal duties.

Some of the singing was done by Mascis in his trademark nasal drawl, often compared with Neil Young, but the majority of the lead vocals were by Lou Barlow.

Despite the album's success, tension between Mascis and Barlow began interfering with the band's productivity, and in 1989, after touring in support of Bug, Barlow was kicked out of the band.

The beginnings of a Mascis / Barlow détente started in the mid -' 90s when Mascis began showing up at Sebadoh shows.

In 2002, the two shared the stage for two shows in London, with Barlow singing I Wanna Be Your Dog along with Mascis, Ron Asheton, Scott Asheton and Mike Watt, who had been performing Stooges songs as " Asheton, Asheton, Mascis and Watt ".

Later that year, he and Barlow shared the stage at benefit show for autism at Smith College organized by Barlow's mother in Northampton, Massachusetts, and played together as Deep Wound after Mascis and Sebadoh had completed their respective sets.

Following the reissues in 2005, Mascis, Barlow and Murph finally reunited to play on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on April 15, 2005, and in June that year, they kicked off a tour of Europe.

While both Barlow and leader J Mascis wrote songs, Mascis ' material dominated the group's output because Barlow was intimidated by the guitarist's songwriting efforts.

Deep Wound disbanded in 1984 with J Mascis and Lou Barlow going on to form Dinosaur Jr. Barlow later left Dinosaur Jr. and formed Sebadoh, Sentridoh, and Folk Implosion.

Cosloy had dropped out of the University of Massachusetts Amherst to focus on running his independent record label, Homestead Records, and promised Mascis that if he were to make a record Homestead would release it.

During the recording process, tension emerged between Mascis and Murph because Mascis had very specific ideas for the drum parts.

Mascis ( who had started out as a drummer ) recorded many of the drum parts by himself, layering the various instrumental parts through overdubbing.

While Mascis ' guitar, voice and songwriting ensured that the album had its share of the band's old sound, it was much quieter and more layered, with more use of keyboards and acoustic guitar, and with a noticeable lack of the power-trio roar that the original lineup had been known for.

Although the band already had a singer, Mascis convinced them to replace him with Charlie, and Deep Wound's line-up was complete.

Mascis had worked with Watt several times before-most notably producing the final fIREHOSE album Mr. Machinery Operator ( 1993 ), on which he also contributed some guitar and vocal parts, and contributing guitar and drum performances to several songs on Watt's first solo album Ball-Hog or Tugboat ?.

In 2005, Mascis put his Fog project on hold in order to tend to other business, mainly the reformation of the original Dinosaur Jr. lineup, to coincide with the re-release on the Merge label of the first three Dinosaur Jr. albums that had previously been on Homestead and SST.

The tour was a short one by Watt standards ( not even two months ) because Watt had another commitment impending-playing as a member of J Mascis and the Fog on the former Dinosaur Jr frontman's first solo tour.

The group's first tour ( dubbed the " Time To Cat And Not Mouse " tour, since Watt had just finished touring, or " sidemousing " as he calls it, as a member of J Mascis and the Fog ) in the fall of 2001 was originally scheduled to start on September 11, 2001 ; Watt was in the process of leaving his apartment to pick up Trebotic and Watson when one of his friends called him and told him to turn on the news ; the night's opening date in San Francisco was postponed until the end of the tour, and Watt would perform each night's show on the tour wearing dark sunglasses in memory of the victims of the 9 / 11 attacks.

Shields has produced and played on Dinosaur Jr's Hand It Over ( along with Bilinda Butcher contributing vocals ) and on J Mascis and the Fog's More Light.

Slade let Farrar play on the same 1961 Gibson Les Paul SG Junior that J. Mascis originally played on Bug.

In April 2004, Sonic Youth played a show at John Green Hall on the Smith College campus in Northampton MA with J Mascis and Sebadoh as the opening acts and the anticipation was that the two would reunite for a few Dinosaur Jr. songs.

In December 2009, Mascis played a few shows in England with The Fog, using the Spence / Schools lineup.

In addition, Mascis was also a fan of many punk and hardcore bands such as The Birthday Party, and has frequently noted Nick Cave as an influence.

Billed as Asheton, Asheton, Mascis and Watt, the band performed sporadically before catching Pop's attention in 2003.

" Mascis enlisted vocalist Charlie Nakajima, also formerly of Deep Wound, and drummer Emmett Patrick Murphy, otherwise known as Murph, to complete the band.

" Gerard Cosloy was excited by the completed album, but was devastated when Mascis told him the band was going to release it on SST Records.

" After the album's completion Mascis moved to New York, leaving the rest of the band feeling alienated.

" The Freed Pig ", the opening track on 1991's Sebadoh III, documents Barlow's frustration with Mascis and his poor treatment within the band.

The single featured a short lived lineup including Don Fleming and Jay Spiegel from the band Gumball, in addition to Mascis and Murph.

The new record was virtually a J. Mascis solo album, with Murph playing drums on only a few songs, as well as minimal contributions from Fleming and Spiegel, who were out of the band by the time the album was released.

Murph left the band after touring for Where You Been, leaving Mascis as the sole remaining original member.

The band included Mike Watt of the Minutemen, J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr., Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, and Mark Arm of Mudhoney.

During their first European tour, J Mascis + The Fog participated in a John Peel session for BBC Radio 1, during which the band recorded a medley consisting of Teenage Fanclub's " Everything Flows ", Pavement's " Range Life ", and The Ruts ' " In a Rut ".

At some of the tour dates, the band were frequently joined onstage by former Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton, during which time Mascis and The Fog would play several Stooges classics.

In the early 1980s, J Mascis and Deep Wound vocalist Charlie Nakajima lived in Amherst, MA, and attended the same high school.

J Mascis can often be seen sporting a ' Deep Wound ' sweater ( knitted by his mother ) in Dinosaur Jr. photographs.