Heavy Blanket

In 2012 J Mascis, guitarist for Dinosaur Jr., either formed Heavy Blanket as an entirely new venture or resurrected a teenage band whose convoluted misfortunes kept its debut album from being recorded until a full quarter-century after the songs were first written. Their official account states that in 1984, at age nineteen and tiring of hardcore punk while Deep Wound dissolved, Mascis recruited two Amherst high-school friends—drummer Pete Cougar and bassist Jonny Pancake—both habitual cannabis users who had been expelled after employing a tuba as a smoking device. Influenced by Jimi Hendrix, Blue Cheer, and obscure psychedelic acts, the three musicians called themselves Heavy Blanket and prepared to document six lengthy, guitar-centric compositions. Those plans collapsed when Pancake suffered a severe head injury swimming in an abandoned quarry; he withdrew from music and convalesced in his grandmother’s basement. The setback placed Heavy Blanket on indefinite hold, and after Cougar was imprisoned for repeatedly passing counterfeit bills at a convenience store, Mascis abandoned the project. On vacation in 2011 Mascis learned that Pancake, now fully recovered yet convinced his accident had been engineered by the future members of Pearl Jam, was working at a ski resort. Together they located Cougar living in an Ohio halfway house following his release from prison; Cougar still possessed a cassette of an early Heavy Blanket rehearsal. The three men therefore reconvened to cut the album they had intended to make in 1984. Several writers questioned the story’s authenticity, noting both its improbability and the lack of any released photographs, while also observing that the bass and drum performances closely resembled Mascis’ own occasional rhythm-section work on Dinosaur Jr. recordings as well as his drumming with Sweet Apple, Witch, and Upsidedown Cross.