Photo: Brantley Gutierrez

Dinosaur Jr.

If there was a book on slacker-rock (and there isn’t because, duh, slackers don’t read), Dinosaur Jr. would have written it. Well, maybe not, because if there was a book, it would probably be written by some hippie documentarian who never understood that flannel shirts aren’t for wearing and guitars are supposed to hurt at least as much as love does. All this is to say that before there was Nirvana, and before there were the Pixies, there was the Dino, and the fact that the proto-grunge power trio are back together, touring, and recording new original music might be the best evidence yet that our collective nostalgia is hovering right around the turn of the ’90s.

The band was famously disfunctional, so Dinosaur Jr. is running on something a little more urgent than nostalgia these days, but whatever got them back out of the basement sure seems to be working. The only fault that anyone’s been able to find in this year’s release Farm is that some European copies are 3dB too loud.

Volume shouldn’t be an issue at Nothern Lights (1208 Route 146, Clifton Park) where Dinosaur Jr. and bassist Lou Barlow’s side project the Missingmen play on Sunday (Oct. 4) at 7 PM. Tickets are $20. Call 371-0012 for more info.

Poet of the Ordinary

Self-trained and internationally-acclaimed photographer Keith Carter has shown his enigmatic work in more than solo 100 exhibitions in 13 countries. His photographs have earned places in renowned permanent collections, from the George Eastman House to the Art Insitute of Chicago, and his 10th monograph, A Certain Alchemy, was published last fall.

The Los Angeles Times described Carter as “a transcendent realist” and “a poet of the ordinary.” The latter accolade doubles as the title of the most recent exhibition of his work, now on view at the College of Saint Rose’s Esther Massry Gallery.

The exhibition presents 78 of Carter’s toned, silver gelatin photographs, spanning 25 years of a career spent exploring the magic, mythos, mystery and memories of the ordinary with haunting perception. Pictured is Giant (1997).

Poet of the Ordinary is open at the Esther Massry Gallery (Massry Center for the Arts, College of Saint Rose, 1002 Madison Ave, Albany) through Jan. 17. There’s a gallery reception tomorrow (Friday, Oct. 2) from 5 PM to 7 PM, followed by an artist lecture in the Saint Joseph Auditorium (985 Madison Ave., Albany) at 7 PM. For more info call 485-3902.