Dinosaur Jr. were largely responsible for returning lead guitar to indie rock and, along with their peers the Pixies, they injected late-'80s alternative rock with monumental levels of pure guitar noise. As the group's career progressed, they broke into three distinctive acts: the indie years of the original trio; the '90s spent on major labels where the band was mostly a solo vehicle for J Mascis' songwriting and guita wizardry; and the surprisingly strong reunion of the original lineup beginning in 2006. Each phase produced distinctively monumental work, from the noisy squall of 1987's SST-released You're Living All Over Me to the insular slacker rock of 1991's Green Mind, the distortion-drenched pop of 2009's Farm, and the seasoned fuzz of 2021's Sweep It Into Space.