Hüsker Dü Classic or Dud?

I'm tempted to say that Husker Du : alt.indie.rock :: Sex Pistols : punk rock - they've been swallowed up and absorbed and regurgitated to such a degree that their own impact, musically, has petered out to a big ol' pfffft of whatever, while claims can be made of other groups (hello, Buzzcocks) having a similar effect. That said, I can't think of any DIRECT antecedent that is completely beholden to the Du - there was a cool line in the Spin Alt Guide about Nirvana mixing the Husker's "Whatever" with the Replacement's "Nevermind", but, other than that, it seems that any Husker influence attributed to a rock groop is more a result of Husker Du doing a similar guitar rock thing first and folks simply accepting Husker's influence as a dogmatic given.

Like, shit, if they're these doods playing 3-to-4-chord pop songs w/ all this distortion & screaming that sound more like the Beatles or some 60s hippie shit than that girl group doowop stuff Joey Ramone jones'd, then it's GOTTA be because of Husker Du, yeah?

It's been a while since Husker Du popped my cherry - we used to be inseperable, but I don't go hang out with them much anymore. It's crass to say, but they served their purpose. Yeah, once in a while, I get nostalgic, and I throw on one of the Big Three records, but I enjoy them more if I try to hear what I heard back then (the "power", the emotion, the soft & prickly feedback) than listening to them in the now - current timeframe listening has me focusing on stupid shit like the crappy drum sounds, or the cloying lyrics, or all that other nonsense. Nowadays, I like Husker's failures (cf. _Everything Falls Apart_, "...Skin a Cat", "The Baby Song") more than their successes (cf. the "good" stuff).

Outside of the music, one of the things that I could relate about bands such as Husker Du, The Minutemen & The Replacements at the time was that they looked like people in your neighborhood. They sure as hell didn't look as silly as Motley Crue or Bon Jovi or some other popular crap when I was in high school.

And his name was Frank Beard! Oh wait a minute, what am I saying...

Although, something interesting: if any band ever equalled nostalgia without ever even having heard them before, it was definitely Husker Du. They just sound nostalgiac. How interesting that their name comes from an old (Norwegian?) boardgame that means "Do you remember?" (The Wikipedia article was a great read and talks about how they came up with the name. Also in the article, there's a cute song described by the then-to-be singer of Semisonic about his old girlfriend and the band they used to see together: "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?" That this is an homage to Hüsker Dü is confirmed by the album's liner notes, which have the words "do you remember? dü you recall?" written across them in large letters.)

Probably the first and best emo band. Wow, Sebadoh is indebted to them, I think. Just realized that. Husker Du were less whiney even when they were whining, though. They sounded pretty damn macho for non-macho psychedelic hardcore.

Amazing how I can still get such a visceral reaction by someone suggesting Husker Du aren't for the ages, even years after I listened to them regularly.

Mould was hit or miss after the Du (Workbook + Cooper Blue, yes; Black Sheets of Rain + FU:EL, no) as the lyrics got even sappier and the production more polished, but I'd take Flip Your Wig through Warehouse with me anywhere.

"for the sake of influence" makes no sense, Geir. You mean like: "Oh they weren't even trying to write good songs, they were just trying to be influential!" Or maybe you mean, "Pffft! They weren't even GOOD, they were just incredibly influential!" Duh, makes no sense. Try again.

Once the band got over the noisecore of the early releases, they unleashed a string of amazing recordings that I still enjoy to this day. The Living End might be my favorite live album and I hate live albums.

And, no, I wouldn't say I hate them. Just that, well, I find that their albums sounded more or less like bad demos, not letting the songs come through properly.

hongro rating production over songwriting shockah.

I like a kind of production that lets the songwriting come to the forefront. That is, the vocalist is the most important "instrument", and the producer's job is to get him heard properly.

My Bloody Valentine may be the worst produced band ever for that exact reason.

????

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Obviously, their SST records were recorded with a limited budget. Are the vocals mixed low on their Warner Brothers albums? (I don't remember them being so.)

Listening to "Makes No Sense at All," the vocals are clear, guitar is clear, drums are reverby but fairly clear, bass is (for the most part) MIA.

this is not a comment on the relative mertits of the song, which is great

haha i dont know if i can remember a single husker du bassline.

Any bass you hear in that song-- which I just listened to-- is BASS. And it's clear!! Very clear! I could play the fucking song easily. All that noisy treble floating atop is GUITAR!

Unless you're listening to a 96kb mp3 or something, of course.

I can't understand how anyone couldn't hear the bass unless they just don't play instruments and can't clearly differentiate the sounds they're hearing. Put it this way: Bob can't play a drone on ONE fret way high up on the neck whilest simultaneously plucking several notes on the deep end (as if a guitar goes that deep, anyway), so the rolling deep notes you hear are bass.

Why don't you transcribe the bass part toward the end of the first verse and into what I guess you could call a recurring bridge (the "I don't know why you want to tell me when I'm right and when I'm wrong" section) part for me. Every note of it.

You're right, though; it is practically mono!

Tim, you might try getting a record player that doesn't fold into a suitcase and slide under the bed with your stack of Little Golden Books. The notes are not inaudible at all. If I sat and listened, I could easily tell you: A, C#, B, etc. Husker Du would've sounded shitty with a clicky ultra-defined bass tone competing with everything else. You wouldn't know WHAT to listen to. Not right for the sound. This is why it's not a production issue.

Why don't you go ahead and do it, then? I'm particularly interested in the part I mentioned above. For starters.