HÜSKER PÖLL: Warehouse - Songs and Stories

up in the air mould, for me. 's always been.

tipsy, i think grant's 1999 disc -- good news for modern man -- is an overlooked classic (at least half of the album feels that way to me, e.g., Think It Over Now, Run Run Run to the Centre Pompidou, You Don't Have to Tell Me Now, and Little Nemo).

i like the new disc, too, but it never grabbed me the same way.

This 'tape' was tied up into my high school years quite a bit, so I pretty much know the record like the back of my hand. That being said, I pretty much always forward wound through "You're a Soldier". That song has always annoyed me. There is something repetitive about it that ear worms into my head and not in a good techno or krautrock repetitive way. I pulled an erase from history when I ripped the CD to MP3 and didn't pull that track.

Promotion of this album did lead to a great 80s talk show moment, as Husker Du played the Joan Rivers show after this record came out with a stage set similar to the album cover. The crazy thing is that Rivers actually interviewed them on the show. It is definitely up there with the Replacements playing on Saturday Night Live around the same looking like a deer in the headlights.

Grant Hart's songs on this album have kind of a groovy swinging head bobbing 60s sound.

yeah, that rivers performance and interview is on youtube. un momento.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vefkvjcjNj8

Didn't Greg actually write and sing a b-side for one of the singles?

i think everytime, off the living end posthumous live lp, was the greg song from this era

LOL at Joan Rivers' "research" apparently not extending to the name of the song she was introducing!

Back in the day, I preferred Bob's songs to Grants, probably based on the twin titans Could You Be The One? and Ice Cold Ice. Looking at the list now... hmm... maybe Grant overall.

I think I'll mebbe do two iPod playlists and report back.

Either Could you be the One or She's a Woman (And Now He Is a Man).

The last 3 songs were a great way to go.

Grant's album: Solid

Bob's album: five excellent songs, six forgettable songs.

'You Can Live at Home' is underloved I think, Husker Du playing weird funk noise.

I just heard this again and was amazed by its beautiful, weird racket.

Side 3 of Zen Arcade (which I've just played) beats side 3 of Warehouse (from memory at least). Those psychedelic swirls of backwards guitar on "Somewhere"... man.

I'd be hard pushed to choose between the side 4s though. "Turn On The News" and "Recurring Dreams" vs. "She's A Woman" and "You Can Live At Home". Listening to Warehouse4, I'd never noticed just how much "Turn It Around" captures that Sugar sound in prototype, it would totally fit on Copper Blue.

'She's a Woman' for me too. 'Warehouse' is my fave album of all time.

After a few more mins contemplation I went for that in the end.

To address some of Sean's other questions I don't think they were finding their 'pop voice' because they almost always had a mixed voice of things from the four albums I've heard from them. The presence of You can live at home guarantees that here.

Definitely true - maybe "crystallized" is a better word than "finding".

Mould all the way for me on all albums.

One of these:

These Important Years
Ice Cold Ice
Could You Be the One?
It's Not Peculiar
No Reservations
Up in the Air

Hart's 'Actual Condition' always reminded me of Showaddywaddy ,which is a terrible thing to say. Hart never had the tunes for me and his songs often merely plodded

always surprised to hear people say that (tho i know some do). i think of hart as sort of a deeply troubled, pop-songcraft genius.

Daniel, I cannot argue with you.
I'm retarded when it comes to deciphering lyrics and song structures. I go for the music.
Hart's was often too hippy for me - the long haired bare footed tit ;-)

don't get me wrong, mould's a brilliant songwriter, too. i just found his post-husker work yields diminishing returns after workbook (which was great).

Definitely prefer Bob's album to Grant's. A lot of my favourite Husker Du songs are Grant songs, but not on this album.

there are grant partisans, mould partisans, "hardcore" husker partisans, "pop" husker partisans.

one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish.

there are grant partisans, mould partisans, "hardcore" husker partisans, "pop" husker partisans.

i feel like i pinball between all four options on a regular basis when listening to them...

Definitely prefer Bob's album to Grant's. A lot of my favourite Husker Du songs are Grant songs, but not on this album.

I've always been more of a Bob fan even while appreciating a lot of Grant songs but I think I feel stronger about this on Warehouse. But something that hit me the other day while listening to "Charity, Chastity...": it's a great song that's been saddled with a really monochromatic and uninteresting guitar line. So I wonder how much of my indifference to Grant songs on this album may be because of the internal tensions on the album potentially leading to Mould being disinterested in making his bandmate's songs any more than they needed to be...?

Of course maybe it was a case of Grant not wanting Bob's guitar heroics on his tracks?

If you gave me a choice, blind, between a Bob song and a Grant song, I'd pretty much always take the Grant song. But I love my favourite Bob songs far more than my favourite Grant songs.

i love this thread and poll, btw. this album deserves more love.

i said upthread that warehouse is among the best closing albums of an act's career. it got me wondering what other discs would even be under consideration and how they stack-up against each other. i'd also say the smiths' strangeways and lewis taylor's lost album are in the conversation for best final album. there's an existing thread for this, i'm sure.

i've always thought that bob's thing is consistency, wheras grant's bag seems to be wild fluctuations in quality, studded with moments of absolute brilliance (pink turns to blue, 2541, songs about ufos).

I know what you mean ... But "Bob song" summons to me overwrought, proto-emo whininess (hey, I'm over-simplifying), and possible dirginess. "Grant song" says poppiness, which I prefer to angst. So I'll take Grant. But favourite Hüskers songs? Could You Be The One, Celebrated Summer, Makes No Sense At All.

The one album where Grant's definitely better than Bob is Candy Apple Grey.

i said upthread that warehouse is among the best closing albums of an act's career. it got me wondering what other discs would even be under consideration and how they stack-up against each other.

Would count the Pixies Trompe le Monde in this category. There's a lot of hate for that album, but I still think it's one of their strongest...and possibly my fave by them.

trompe le monde is wonderful... i've always thought it felt more like frank black's first solo album than pixies' last, though.

i'd say fugazi's 'the argument' is a pretty sublime final album, though my secret wish for them to record again prevents me from suggesting it.

fugazi never connected with me, but they were at their peak at a time i was pretty oblivious to music (rehashing my favorites from the 80s, content otherwise to listen to grunge burn itself out). i need to give fugazi another chance -- and i think i have the argument from emusic.

When I was pretty young I saw the Could You Be the One video on MTV and it sort of altered my idea of what music was. So that one.

Voted "Ice Cold Ice" just over "Friend, You've Got to Fall". Hart does not do much for me on this album. "You Can Live at Home" is cool though.

i said upthread that warehouse is among the best closing albums of an act's career. it got me wondering what other discs would even be under consideration and how they stack-up against each other.

The Go-Betweens' 16 Lovers Lane (or Oceans Apart, if you like).

yeah, in the go-betweens' case, i think you'd have to consider oceans apart the final disc.

"She Floated Away", with "You Can Live At Home" close behind. Never could tell Mould's songs apart on this one.

I'd never considered how Warehouse would look if it had been stripped down to a single, but now that I have; THIS is exactly (more or less) how it would look.

Standing In The Rain - Mould 3:41
Ice Cold Ice - Mould 4:23
Could You Be The One? - Mould 2:32
Friend, You've Got To Fall - Mould 3:20
Turn It Around - Mould 4:32

Back From Somewhere - Hart 2:16
She Floated Away - Hart 3:32
Tell You Tomorrow - Hart 2:42
She's A Woman (And Now He Is A Man) - Hart 3:19
You Can Live At Home - Hart 5:25

Assuming a 10 song album and 5 songs apiece for Grant and Bob.

Turn It Around and Tell You Tomorrow are the ones I'm least certain about including by each songwriter. The rest are non-negotiable.

My version of the album, with some reshuffling:
Standing in the Rain
Too Much Spice
Actual Condition
These Important Years
She Floated Away

Tell You Why Tomorrow
Ice Cold Ice
She's a Woman (And Now He Is a Man)
Up in the Air
You Can Live at Home

I have an unreasonable love for 'Actual Condition' which as a poster above notes doesn't really sound like Husker Du at all, but I take it as Hart's goofy stab at shambolic rockabilly, with Hart doing his best-worst Elvis impersonation. It's also the only Hart-penned track where it sounds like Mould is enjoying himself.
But going with 'Ice Cold Ice' as my favorite, which has always been the song that grabs my ear when I have the album on as background music. I'm a sucker for call and response.
I find the album a little unwieldy, but I have a hard time selecting outright duds. I would still like an album made up entirely of the songs I cut out of my above version of the album. I don't currently care for 'Bed of Nails' very much, though in the past I've found it at least interesting. Now I think it wears out its welcome somewhere around the two minute mark.

No Could You Be The One? Really? That's a surprise, I'd have had that down as dead cert for inclusion in anyone's POX.

She Floated Away and You Can Live At Home are great side-closers.

No Could You Be The One? Really? That's a surprise, I'd have had that down as dead cert for inclusion in anyone's POX.

Mould's lack of inflection in that song annoys me. I usually like the conversational cadence of Mould's singing, but the flatness of his reading in this instance hinders the song. I think one reason I like Hart's songs better on this album is that Hart really sounds like he's experimenting vocally, trying on various personas and styles to suit different songs, while Mould's vocals don't contain many surprises.

Officer Pupp single album OTM except i'd replace 'Turn It Around' with 'These Important Years'.

First and last songs are my favorite. Voted for "These Important Years" but on further listening I think I should have voted for "You Can Live At Home". It's one of the best final songs on final albums there is.

Only time I ever saw them live was this tour, when they were playing the whole thing through in order. One of the more memorable shows I've been to, more than partially because they had such musical power with so little stage charisma. I remember seeing Black Sabbath on the Dehumanizer tour at the same venue, not that long after; a polar opposite in some senses, and yet...

I'm tend to fall further into the Mould camp but "You Can Live At Home" hits with such euphoria from 2.04 onward that it's just wrong to not give it the vote.

But something that hit me the other day while listening to "Charity, Chastity...": it's a great song that's been saddled with a really monochromatic and uninteresting guitar line.

I thought the same thing when listening to "Too Much Spice".

Really heartened to see all the 'You Can Live At Home' love itt.

Did I dream a Zen Arcade poll? I can't find it anywhere.

I don't remember a Zen Arcade poll myself but that would probably be a good one too...really not sure where I'd lean on that one at all!

Very overdue, but thanks for all your replies (esp. bendy, Josh, tim). I realized in retrospect that Bob came back to this proto-shoegaze sound for Sugar (post-shoegaze?) which is kinda awkward.... yet I think the moments on the Sugar records that get psych-gaze are not sloppy enough for me to love, which is why I keep coming back to "No Reservations".

Ok hold on a second!

From a Kevin Shields interview on how he created the MBV "glide-guitar" sound:

So I'd been playing the song 'Slow', and previously I'd been using this reverse reverb which I'd read about in a Bob Mould interview

https://thequietus.com/articles/08745-kevin-shields-interview-mbv-my-bloody-valentine

lol, Josh in Chicago from 4 years ago upthread:

Apparently Mould was also doing proto MBV stuff (slowing guitars down, blending them) pretty early, which maybe in those days accounted for his stun guitar sound. I know Shields has cited a Mould interview for giving him the idea of using reverse reverb. Billy Corgan cites Mould, too.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, August 8, 2016 7:59 AM (four years ago)

I seem to remember reading in Tape Op or somewhere that it was a rackmount fx unit, Alesis Midiverb II that had a short reverse reverb setting that inspired the glide guitar sound.

Any deep Husker fans know of any earlier reverse reverb examples prior to "No Reservations"?

And what the hell is "stun guitar" anyway? The only other place I've seen it referenced is on Blue Oyster Cult album credits.

There's a guitar part during the intro to Eiffel Tower High that sounds a bit reverse reverbish

Also Don't Know Yet off Flip Your Wig has a lot of backwards guitar but whether or not that's rev reverb I don't know. They obv played the tape backwards for the cymbals though