J Mascis and Snail Mail Name 10 Albums That Made Them Great Guitarists

Consequence’s Guitar Week turns it up to 11 with a duo Crate Digging featuring Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis and Snail Mail’s Lindsey Jordan. Check out all of their picks below, and be sure to check out our list of the 100 Best Guitarists of All Time. Then, keep checking back throughout the week for more lists, artist-driven content, games, and more.

Every guitarist needs to start somewhere, right? Even those who go on to shape genres with their signature tones, gripping solos, or inventive playing once picked up a six-string for the very first time. But what led those celebrated players to find interest in the instrument in the first place? What bands and albums kept them going long enough to build up their calluses and memorize their scales? We asked those exact questions to a bonafide guitar icon and a super-star of the modern movement: Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis and Snail Mail’s Lindsey Jordan.

Get Dinosaur Jr. and Snail Mail Tickets Here

Giving fans a peek into their early days, the two future tourmates each share five albums that influenced their guitar playing, highlighting acts like Wipers, Nick Drake, The Stooges, Elliot Smith, and more. “I focused on when I was starting, from before I played guitar to when I started playing guitar,” says Mascis of his selection. “They were all forming my guitar style.”

Whether it’s the noise-prone freakouts of a band like The Birthday Party or the open D bliss of someone like Grouper, each of these albums made a lasting impression on either Mascis or Jordan. And now, they just might make a lasting impression on you!

Check out all of their picks below. Dinosaur Jr. and Snail Mail are hitting the road together for a co-headlining tour this summer, and you can pick up tickets here.

Wipers — Over the Edge

J Mascis: The record I was most into when I was learning how to play guitar was Wipers’ Over the Edge. That’s what I was trying to rip off to create my guitar style, one of the things.

It’s the first Wipers record I heard, and I listened to it a lot. I was trying to copy it to try to form my guitar style. I pretty much formed Dinosaur and started guitar at the same time. I had just switched from drums, and then we had just kicked out our singer. So, I had to sing half the songs. We decided not to get a singer. I wrote all the songs, but then I had Lou sing half of ’em because I was new to singing too at the time.

Stream Over the Edge on Apple Music or Amazon Music| Buy on Vinyl/CD

Nick Drake — Pink Moon

Lindsey Jordan: This was pretty much my introduction to open tunings. I didn’t realize that’s what was going on until I tried to emulate it, which is cool. Being able to look up the tabs, that’s pretty much how I learned about open D, which is pretty much how I got started [with the] Snail Mail stuff.

I’d been playing guitar, been a music fan, been writing songs-ish, but not really as my main thing. I was just trying to get good at the guitar. And then, honestly, learning open D was the first time in a really long time that I felt like I had no idea what was going on — in a really cool way. And that just started spawning songs out of nowhere. I was just all of a sudden really excited to try to make my own stuff. That definitely started with Pink Moon. I feel there’s like a resonance over the whole record, and that spoke to me. That’s pretty much the reason I started wanting to make anything at all.

Even rhythmically, I feel like there’s a lot of stuff that I just don’t have anything to compare it to. Going back and listening to Pink Moon — and I’ve been spinning that record to death since I was like 15 — I am like, “Oh wow, I didn’t even realize how badly I like ripped off parts of this.” It inspired me so much that I don’t even remember: melody, guitar playing, patterns of strumming, resonant open D over an entire record.

Mascis: So, did it make you wanna buy a VW? I was really bummed when that became a VW ad, and suddenly everyone knows Nick Drake ’cause of this commercial.

Jordan: [Laughs] Totally. I feel like I maybe saw you since this happened, but I had this guitar on the last tour that I was on that we found on Facebook Marketplace that is literally a Volkswagen guitar. I have that… but I’ve never wanted a Volkswagen to drive.

Mascis: How about a double neck guitar? I always thought open tuning would be cool if you had a double neck so you could solo in regular tuning, but then play the chords in open tuning

Jordan: For sure. That’s like a huge problem with all the songs that we’re working on now. I’m realizing that I put them all in weird tunings and then played all of the leads and all the guitar stuff in standard, and I have no idea what’s gonna happen. So, maybe it’s time to bring the double necks out.

Mascis: You don’t see many six-strings on both double necks. I know Gibson made an SG  that was two six-strings, and I don’t know why there aren’t more of those.

Stream Pink Moon on Apple Music or Amazon Music| Buy on Vinyl/CD