What it means to be a fan lies somewhere in the fraught dynamic between these three men.
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All across gentrified Brooklyn rages what I like to call the Battle of the Dad Bands.
Bright Eyes over here.
Its like the male version ofAmy Poehlers character inMean Girls Im not a regular mom, she says.
(Some girls, too!)
Freakscene, directed by Masciss brother-in-law Philipp Reichenheim, is really a love story: Boy meets boy.
Boy falls in love with boy, who is too aloof to love him back.
Boys form a band.
Aloof boy dumps other boy in the cruelest, most devastating manner possible.
Boys, now middle-aged men, reunite and tour the world and make a lot of money.
Barlow was instantly smitten.
From the very beginning, he looked crazy and great, Barlow says.
His anti-everything attitude he wore it really well.
Mascis did not hold the same high opinion of his counterpart.
Old-man clothes, Barlow says of his vintage sweaters.
I always liked old-man clothes.
Barlow was in awe.
Defining Masciss sound is difficult, a stew of various influences that is much more than its individual ingredients.
Whatever it is, it is truly unique, and nothing has sounded like it before or since.
(Of course its bad.
When I was young, we wouldnt have been caught dead listening to anyone whose voice was good.
The badness was how you could tell it wasreal, that it wasnt manufactured in some studio.)
When Mascis asked Barlow if he wanted to start a band, it caught Barlow by surprise.
I thought he hated me, he says.
Murph joined, too, and they became a trio.
But he was also drawn into Masciss toxic orbit, and they all started hating each other right away.
Mascis is a bizarre figure, totally withdrawn and incapable of emoting.
The movie opens with Mascis drawling, Im bad at remembering what I felt like in the past.
I cant remember what that is.
His taciturnity is evident in his lyrics, which Im quite sure mean nothing at all.
When theres a specific need for a lyric then Ill write it.
(The guys a fucking Nazi, Murph told Azerrad.)
His guitar was so loud that his bandmates couldnt even hear themselves play.
All of this emotional dysfunction found fruitful expression in the music.
On a musical level, we always got along, says Mascis.
When we didnt talk, we got along.
The band naturally fell to pieces.
They spent their time eviscerating each other, with Mascis going after Barlow with more gusto than usual.
I kind of ripped his whole life apart, he says.
In the movie, Barlow says Mascis was right to kick him out of the band at that point.
(Murph and Mascis didnt have the guts to tell him to his face that he was gone.
Barlow found out the truth from a mutual friend and was understandably livid.)
In the film, their newfound comity is attributed to the maturity that comes with age.
Weve grown up; thats pretty much the whole explanation right there, Barlow says, laughing.
Why are men like this?
Why do they do these things to each other?
And why cant they just say what they feel?
