Hüsker Dü Classic or Dud?

Warehouse is rather overrated. I'd personally start with the live album the Living End. The early stuff is performed with more structure and the Warehouse era stuff has a bit more grit. Chase your favorite melodies off that to their studio albums. I personally go for Zen Arcade sonically (add psychedelic to "non-macho hardcore"). But New Day Rising and Candy Apple Grey also have a lot of strong songs. A lot of people swear by Flip Your Wig but I've always felt there's a lot of filler on that. But, The Living End is what I probably play the most.

brad- i think you're a newcomer so I'll tell you that we have done this (and a sugar and a bob mould thread). go to search, look it up and revive it if you like.

Ok, maybe not! Also, the thought of Bob Mould and Grant Hart being lovers makes me queasy.

Bob Mould = yum, Grant Hart = YUCK, Bob Mould + Grant Hart = SUPERYUCK.

Haha there's a joke here waiting to be made.

Don't confuse the term Colege Rock in the 80's with today's version. That was before the catch word "alternative" came up.

Search: "Whatever" -- after that, flip a coin and see how I feel.

Hate's such a strong word. A good song here or there, but def. over-rated.

You idiots wouldn't good music if it bit you in the arse. They are overall THE major influence for the music you listen to today. Get Metal Circus, New Day Rising, and Zen Arcade. BTW they are behind REM for top college albums in the 80's

This is supposed to be convincing? They're just "behind REM?" Bwahahahahahahahahaha!

Uh, what?

Haha, they had a gay singer too!

but do i like their music?

not really.
m.

Not private enough, haha!

I'm just mentioning that they're gay, Brad, not saying anything homophobic. I'm gay myself, actually. Just having a bit of fun.

btw, Henry Rollins isn't really gay, but he should be.

Other threads of note for your to Dü:
Husker Du : Classic or Dud, Search and Destroy.
Husker Du Dreams
POO! Husker Du
Bob Mould: Classic or Dud?
reoccurring dreams vs dreams reoccurring vs no dream reoccurring

To paraphrase Run-DMC, "not gay as in bad but gay as in good!"

Good thing I didn't bring up the "Two Fat Fags and a Guy with a Moustache" parody.

I swear I'm not homophobic, I just like to laugh a lot (preferably out loud).

Funny thing was, the guy with the moustache was the gayest looking one!

Ain't that the truth! Wonder what happened to that guy, anyway.

This is just thinking out loud, but isn't just about every band overrated?

their singles were pretty great, search: "makes no sense at all", "eight miles high", "could you be the one?"...

"no reservations" is the only song i like off of Warehouse.

No, some are severely under-rated. Like Antman.

Grown men to tears.

you know what, i'd probably like a few more if i gave it another shot, it's been a long time.

anyone interesting in attempting actual interesting and/or useful content in re: HD = main i-word on pixies = main i-word on nirvana?

or is it just "sounds quite like" as per usual?

I quite like to. maybe tomorrow (this is a good direction for this thread to go to otherwise you might as well delete it).

I'd rather make stupid comments about their moustaches and sexuality.

[/jockist]

I think the Huskers/Pixies comp. comes from the story (perhaps myth) that Kim Deal responded to Charles Michael Kitteredge Thompson IV's want ad looking for musicians wanting to sound like "Husker Du crossed with Peter, Paul and Mary" more than anything else.

http://i.imgur.com/xUbslS7.jpg

done

spent the afternoon on a kick & i think grant hart might be my favorite rock songwriter of the era (defined as broadly as you like)

really hope they never get back together. but they better fucking get on with remastering the catalogue.

bob on that idea:

I haven’t given it that much thought. If it’s going to happen someday, I’m sure it would be a perfect storm, where everything just lines up all at once. But yeah I don’t push it, I don’t think about it. As I said before, I’m pretty busy these days, and keeping track of everything is a challenge.

so if god magically farts them out, then maybe.

I think SST must've had a hard-on for James because he used to be in Blue Cheer, but a lot of the stuff he produced sounds off.

I learn something new every day. I had no idea Ralph Burns Kellogg and Ethan James were the same dude.

woah, me neither!

the living end is a killer live album. i put it next to television "live at the old waldorf"

http://blog.thecurrent.org/2017/07/grant-hart-joined-by-greg-norton-dave-pirner-lori-barbero-at-emotional-hook-and-ladder-show/

jesus, grant looks rough

oh and i came in here with the intention of just posting CLASSIC without seeing why this was bumped but they need to remaster/reissue their records because HD is so under appreciated and under the radar in a way that seems insane to me, more kids that would love them are missing out

earlier today someone called a little drywall mistake a "husker du" and i said "oh...is that where that comes from?" and she said no, it wasn't

Wonder what the status on that Numero set is. Or whatever that was.

thanks for the bump i'm listening to Flip Your Wig now

Numero was previewing Everything Fall Apart remaster on Spotify.

i hope I'm not reading anything between the lines of that concert post.

Not super helpful wrt dates but looks like they might be getting a proper overview.

http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2017/06/12/husker-du-box-set-numero-group/

I've heard so many mixed things. If Mould said Zen Arcade is off the table, and SST (as always) is part of the problem, then it's likely we're not seeing remasters of (many of) the albums. But I've also seen/read stories of Mould trying the muscle out the other guys, in which case we'd likely see ... nothing. But I've also seen/read accounts of HD sharing legal representation/signing contracts, so ... don't know what the holdup is. All those teased pictures imply live stuff, which would be awesome but not as awesome as remasters. Or maybe expanded remasters of stuff it can wrest from SST? Who knows. Don't see why they are all being so cagey is anything firm is afoot.

Any heavily teased massive project that does not involve some or all of the key albums would be a huge disappointment.

I can only guess that's partly accounting for the secrecy and delay, as they try to negotiate their way around whatever stumbling blocks still exist. But it seems unlikely to pay off, given it's not happened any time in the past 30 years anyway.

How did the Meat puppets get their material away from SST and how does that differ from the HD situation. Cos the Rykodisc cds were like 20 years ago. Not sure what the situation with their back catalogue is now though.
But then again there was less infighting i guess.

from what I know they worked with the same lawyers the puppets and dino Jr did but the contact was worse in some way

the set as I understand is remastered Everything Falls Apart, remastered Land Speed Record, the other set from the show LSR was recorded from, some odds n sods and outtakes, also I believe a PRE Landspeed live show where I guess they had material before they became a hardcore band that is more melodic and slower. apparently

I love Husker Du as much as Dylan or the Beatles or anybody. But in a weird way, this reminds me of when I worked in a record store in the mid-'80s--an overpriced upstairs adjunct to the main store downstairs, carrying '50s and '60 imports--and people kept asking about Dave Clark Five albums, then in legal limbo. It was amazing how much interest there was in them at that particular moment (maybe they'd been used in a film or a commercial?), and no one could buy anything except horrible re-recorded budget versions. I kept thinking that the Dave Clark Five and whoever owned the rights to their stuff should act quickly while people still cared, because in another 10 years no one will.

Think maybe it was Dave himself who was responsible for that

He screwed up releases of Ready Steady Go for a while, inserting DC5 performances where they shouldn't have been. & not issuing things that should have been.

there was something mentioned on Greg's fb page the other day but greg himself pretty much said hes not involved in it

I remember for years the Galaxie 500 albums were unavailable, and I'd also heard it was due to problems with Rough Trade. Then I interviewed Dean Wareham once, maybe c. "Penthouse," and asked him about it, and he was all, no, we have the rights, just haven't gotten around to them yet. At least the Huskers albums have never been out of print.

Dino, Meat Puppets, Sonic Youth all managed to get their records from SST, right? I assume Soundgarden, too?

re: DC5, yes, Dave Clark himself controlled their recordings. Whenever a reissue offer came his way, he asked for ridiculous money. Over time, as everything fell out of print, oldies stations stopped playing them -- no way to upgrade their old 45s or carts from those 45s -- and by the '90s they were forgotten. Clark was reduced to agreeing to release a substandard best-of CD on Hollywood Records...which I think is now out of print.

The PBS doc on him is unintentionally hilarious, and somehow omits the fact that he didn't even play on their best/biggest hits (Bobby Graham did).

Yeah Harold Bronson (cofounder of Rhino) had a great/telling story about this re DC5 a few years back

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harold-bronson/the-dave-clark-five-dave-_b_5091519.html

Problem is none of them get along and Bob has all the power because he still has a successful solo career and can basically pick up the phone and given day and get 20 grand to do a show.

I'm sure Ginn has a price but I'd guess that money would have to come from Bob and he doesn't need this to happen

Wow at that Huffpo article.

Because of Disney’s unfulfilled enticements — among them, getting the group’s songs into Disney movies and installing a DC5-themed cafe in the United Kingdom Pavilion at Disney World’s Epcot, Dave told me — he was able to extricate himself from the deal with five years left in the contract.

Grim thought but given the animus between Bob and Grant, do you think Bob is running out the clock waiting for Grant to kick the bucket or is that too dark even for HD

http://blog.thecurrent.org/2017/07/grant-hart-joined-by-greg-norton-dave-pirner-lori-barbero-at-emotional-hook-and-ladder-show/

― purrington, Sunday, July 2, 2017 10:47 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i hope I'm not reading anything between the lines of that concert post.

― pplains, Monday, July 3, 2017 12:23 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

:-(

Yeah I've been thinking about that a lot today

I don't really care--the time-honored confusion over caring vs. taking-an-interest--but I'd be happy if this gave them a sentimental push into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They became eligible in 2006; no idea if they've ever been close, but I'm sure they're part of most voters' lives at this point.

how many of the bands written about in Azerrad's book are in the Hall of Fame?

I don't think any of them. The first poll I ever posted on here (with a rather baffling title) was basically that question:

The Bert Blyleven Poll

I realize now I was secretly endorsing Husker Du: their name is Dutch, just like Bert Blyleven. I would still think Sonic Youth the most likely first.

Sonic Youth for sure. Fugazi, too. Black Flag probably. I mean, this will take decades, they're still getting around to Cheap Trick, Yes, and the Moody fucking Blues. but then Nirvana & Green Day (rightfully so) get inducted in their first year of eligibility. But if Pearl Jam goes in, if the Foo Fighters go in before the 80s bands...

I'd hope none of them go in, they're all too good for it!

not Dutch, Swedish? xxp

it's Danish

I've actually had a copy of the Husker Du memory game since I was kid!

Always thought the name (Norwegian) was some reference to Scandi/Viking colonies in Minnesota. Never heard about the board game

Nah, it's from a Danish board game they used to sell in the US. There was also a Norwegian TV show with that name, which probably confuses things. It's the same in both languages, although neither language uses the umlauts, as far as I can tell.

re RRHoF: fortunately, Cleveland will be under water first

Re: their name and its meaning, mpls's trip shakespeare had a song on their 1990 album across the universe whose chorus was
Lonely when I hear the band
That used to play when we were looking for music
Lonely when I hear the band
Do you remember? Do you recall?
Remember when you held my hand
You used to say
'I love them so much'
Lonely when I hear the band
Do you remember. Do you recall.

And I always figured that was partly an elegy for huskers.
(Can't remember the damn song title rn)

hilarious ed sullivan-esque introduction to this absolutely brutal 1981 show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvMMn8gj0kQ