watch J Mascis shred and talk guitar in new 'Ernie Ball: String Theory' episode

Last month, we saw a clip of a Butch Walker episode of Ernie Ball‘s The Pursuit of Tone video series, and today comes a new video in the guitar-string company’s String Theory web series. This one’s got Dinosaur Jr frontman/guitar hero J Mascis talking about how he first gravitated towards guitar playing, and how it’s his main form of musical expression today.

“Guitar playing to me is, like, my main musical expression these days. Playing leads especially, I really can convey what I’m feeling in that moment. Singing, a lot of times, I don’t improvise. I’ll just sing the same thing and play the same chords. But solos are always different. They’re always me expressing myself at that moment, which is my favorite part of playing,” J says in his usual deadpan.

He also mentions why he started using Ernie Ball strings: “I remember seeing Ernie Ball strings in the store as a kid. The graphics and the way they wrote all the letters and stuff, it appealed to my more psychedelic side. And they just looked like strings for making rock music.” The video also has several clips of J soloing, which is reason enough to watch. It premieres above.

Dinosaur Jr are on tour now, and they have two BrooklynVegan-presented NYC shows coming up on November 30 and December 1 at Irving Plaza. You can still get tickets to Nov 30 and Dec 1.

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Dinosaur Jr — 2016/2017 Tour Dates
Nov 03 Live Music Hall w/ Wild Style Lion Koln, Germany
Nov 04 Rolling Stone Weekender Hölstein, Germany
Nov 05 KB w/ Wild Style Lion Malmö, Sweden
Nov 06 Vulkan w/ Wild Style Lion Oslo, Norway
Nov 08 Debaser Medis w/ Wild Style Lion Stockholm, Sweden
Nov 09 Amager Bio w/ Wild Style Lion Copenhagen South, Denmark
Nov 10 Voxhall w/ Wild Style Lion Aarhus, Denmark
Nov 11 Astra w/ Wild Style Lion Berlin, Germany
Nov 12 Le Guess Who? Utrecht, Netherlands
Nov 14 Motion w/ Wild Style Lion Bristol, United Kingdom
Nov 15 Vicar Street w/ The Creators and Wild Style Lion Dublin, Ireland
Nov 17 O2 ABC w/ Wild Style Lion Glasgow, United Kingdom
Nov 18 Forum w/ Black Mountain and Wild Style Lion London, United Kingdom
Nov 19 Albert Hall w/ Wild Style Lion Manchester, United Kingdom
Nov 25 The House of Blues Boston, MA
Nov 26 Union Transfer Philadelphia, PA
Nov 30 Irving Plaza New York, NY
Dec 01 Irving Plaza New York, NY
Dec 10 MASS MoCA – Hunter Theater w/ Luluc North Adams, MA
Jan 12 The Metro The Rocks, Australia
Jan 13 The Triffid Newstead, Australia
Jan 14 Miami Tavern Miami, Australia
Jan 15 The Northern Byron Bay Nsw, Australia
Jan 18 The Capitol Perth, Australia
Jan 19 The Gov Adelaide, Australia
Jan 20 The Croxton Thornbury, Australia
Jan 21 The Croxton Thornbury, Australia
Jan 23 The Studio Auckland, New Zealand
Jan 26 Club Quattro Nagoya Nagoya Shi, Japan
Jan 27 EX Theater Roppongi Tokyo, Japan
Jan 30 Club Quattro Osaka Shi, Japan