Hüsker Dü Classic or Dud?

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.

the meat puppets first EP is so insane. like, they have no concept of how to vocalize/sing at ALL. which is awesome. it sounds like a no wave record. i think some ILXors have said as much before.

it's too bad Husker Du never sounded like a no wave band!

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It's not even so much that it should have been louder. It's just a crappy tone that does not cut through and YOU CANNOT HEAR A LOT OF THE NOTES.

If Husker Du had a fatter deep end, I just don't think it would sound like Husker Du. It would sound thick and chunky.

Bob mostly concentrates on the higher strings and lets the bass fill out the bottom end. He does use barre chords, but the deepness of those chords is totally overpowered by the "bass frequencies" :-)

For a good example of just how LOUD the bass is compared to the guitar, listen to "I Don't Wanna Know If You are Lonely". The guitar is really, really buried behind an ultra loud bass, but it sounds cool. Husker is one of those bands where the bass is so present sometimes you think it's the guitar.

Makes no difference at all
Yeah, it makes no sense at all
Makes no difference at all
I don't know why you want to tell me
When I'm right and when I'm wrong
It's the same thing in your mind
Etc.

And yes, it goes to E minor at the beginning of the "I don't know why you want to tell me" line, and he plays an E on the downbeat, but what is the sequence of notes that follow?

No, he doesn't. It's a lot of chordal playing (open chords a lot, actually, if I'm not mistaken).