Joseph Donald Mascis Jr. (/ˈmæskɪs/; born December 10, 1965) is an American musician, best known as the singer, guitarist and main songwriter for the alternative rock band Dinosaur Jr. He has also released several albums as a solo artist and played drums and guitar on other projects. His most recent solo album, Tied to a Star, was released in August 2014. He was ranked number 86 in a Rolling Stone list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists", and number 5 in a similar list for Spin magazine in 2012.\n', '

Mascis was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, the son of a dentist and grew up in the same area together with his sister Patty and an older brother. His family name is Italian, from the province of Foggia, in the region of Apulia in the south of Italy. His mother, Theresa (an avid golfer), died in 1985 while his father, Joseph Sr., died in 1993.\n', '

Mascis became a music and drumming fan at the age of 9. He joined the jazz ensemble in school as a drummer, because there was not one of rock or punk. At 17, Mascis joined the short-lived hardcore group Deep Wound with Lou Barlow, Scott Helland, and Charlie Nakajima in the early 1980s. He went on to found Dinosaur Jr. with bassist Barlow and drummer Emmett Jefferson "Patrick" Murphy (aka "Murph") in 1984, switching to guitar in the process, and they achieved national success. His vocals have been described as "Neil Young-like" and his guitar riffs as "monolithic". Mascis dismissed Barlow from Dinosaur Jr. in 1989 and over the next eight years recorded several more Dinosaur Jr. albums, as well as the 1996 acoustic solo album Martin + Me. In 1989 Kurt Cobain suggested that Mascis join Nirvana.\n', '

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