Favourite Hüsker Dü Album?

zen arcade narrowly over new day rising for me. former is psychedelic pop dressed up in a hardcore haze, sort of. latter is metal dressed up in a psychedelic pop haze, sort of. i love them both to death. heard zen arcade first and immediately fell in love.

yeah it's a tossup pretty much

i guess for me new day rising has:

the ultimate husker blast of hugeness (title track)

the ultimate sorta wistful punk husker proto-indie rock tune (celebrated summer)

the ultimate grant sunny 60s pop song (books about ufos)

New Day Rising.

I assume you guys who voted for Warehouse are actually voting for your personal playlist where you've deleted the shitty half of the album.

First I heard was "Gilligan's Island" from Land Speed Record, which a friend had put on a punk compilation which blew my mind. Metal Circus and Zen Arcade soon afterward.

zen arcade - even the hippy freakout song rocks.

first heard: land speed record, when i was 17, expecting to hear more stuff like sugar, who were rocking my world. blew my mind, though i hated it the first couple of spins. warehouse was next, and was more my speed. then zen arcade, which i thoroughly loved - bridging that gap between melodic, pop-orientated song-writing and full-on buzzsaw thrash, without compromising either one iota.

warehouse has a couple of clunkers but i still wouldn't junk them. mostly, its incandescent.

the ultimate sorta wistful punk husker proto-indie rock tune (celebrated summer)

that's one of the tipping points against new day rising for me.

I love the SST records, hate the Warners ones.

really? man celebrated summer was like the first husker song i ever heard when i was little and it seemed so epic and sad to me ;_;

(btw everything falls apart is probably gonna be the most underrated one here, that's a dope collection of tunes)

especially the cd version with the great singles like In A Free Land.

ah! i'm a sucka so i only know the CD version...actually losing "in a free land" would knock it down a peg for me...that's top 5 huskers songs for me

in a free land rules...

don't really like the production of the rest of the record though, lacks the fullpelt chaos of land speed record for their hardcore era. title track's a charm though.

(xp) "celebrated summer" always seemed so labored and fussed over to me, like they were trying to write one for the ages, or for the radio, or something. what i love about zen arcade and most of new day rising is how free spirited and loose and off-the-cuff it sounds. also, "celebrated summer" strikes me as one of the least-catchy major songs in their oeuvre.

Flip Your Wig, with New Day Rising a close second. Always thought Zen Arcade was overrated: a couple of songs that rank with their best ("Something I Learned Today" and "Newest Industry"), a few good ones, some waste (pretty much all of the hardcore side), and one famous song ("Turn on the News") the appeal of which I just don't get.

In A Free Land has always been my fave song jointly with Diane.

xp

Bob maybe wrote more better songs but Grants best is the equal of Bobs for sure.
xp

Turn On The News is one of my faves! I love it.

it took me just 10 seconds to find Best Hüsker Dü Album (POLL Ends 4th May)

but yeah what ilx needs is more polls it's already run

mind you, i have a LOT of HD faves, they're in my top 5 fave bands of all time. Hence my shitloads of bootlegs collection (the advantage of knowing real hardcore husker du fans)

well LJ i couldnt find it, but thanks for finding it for me!

great first response to that one imo

and since it was 3 years ago, what is your problem?

Warehouse for me as well. "It's Not Peculiar" may be my favorite HD song of all.

― Johnny Fever, Thursday, April 26, 2007 7:45 PM (2 years ago)

At least I am consistent.

my problem is with the words I know I ran this poll before but for some reason It's been deleted at some point so here it is again

specifically but for some reason It's been deleted at some point

spoken with such flip certainty

anyway keep on keepin' on folks, i won't bother ye no longer

well i couldnt find it and you're full of shit for saying it took you 10 seconds to find it.

do you want to know my deadly secrets?

ok, I copied

Land Speed Record (1982)
Everything Falls Apart (1982)
Metal Circus (1983)
Zen Arcade (1984)
New Day Rising (1985)
Flip Your Wig (1985)

and then pasted it into 'search posts'. was on the first page of results

great to see lj move into his "i only post on threads to shit on them" phase

and that was after how many pages of searches for Hüsker Dü (only 1 and it didnt even show up in that) and Husker Du you went through?

Jeez, it's like Mould vs Hart in here.

so i think its pretty fair to think its not there anymore and has been deleted.

New Day Rising

it was the very first thing i searched for but w/e

having heard most of these so much, metal circus is the only one i really enjoy nowadays. "Green Eyes" is ~such~ a killer ditty though

http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/5728/garfielddu.gif

Been meaning to check them out for a long time. I was kind of waiting for these albums to be remastered (read somewhere, probably here, that the sound quality on the CD is shit), but I guess that ain't happening, so...

I cant see them being remastered ever tbh

I'd assume if bob mould could get the rights to then he would have by now.

There's such a glorious din-and-drone on Metal Circus/New Day Rising/Flip Your Wig as is, don't worry about such stuff. Go get them now.

I bet if they did get a remastering job then most people would just complain that they preferred the DIY charm of the originals

I must admit, I cant imagine them sounding any differently. I think they're perfect as they are, but I'd be curious to how they would sound.

(herman i have it on i'd say pretty good authority that the problem with the husker reissues - which have been on the table at various points - is not a rights issue. it would be possible to do them, however that would involve the three members of husker du to be on the same page and willing to work with each other)

also what killed this:

New Double CD of previously unreleased Husker Du pre-Landspeed/Everything Falls Apart demos coming out!

I still prefer Copper Blue to most of Husker's catalogue though.

― The Magnificent Colin Firth (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, March 17, 2010 5:55 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

Yeah, I'm not holding my breath on the reissues. Will pick up 'Zen Arcade' (seems to be the popular choice around here) and check them out this weekend.

New Day Rising was always my fave of the full lengths but I've been listening a lot to Flip Your Wig over the past few years. It's a very underrated album.

New Day Rising, though I'm pretty fond of lots of Warehouse. The CD doesn't sound as bad as people say (compared to vinyl).

Yeah I know, I like scott and generally have no problem at all with his posts - for some reason that comment really rubbed me the wrong way though. Again, apologies all around.

warehouse, since it doesn't feature the obnoxious trebly distortion of their previous efforts

lol

I've written a lot about Husker Du over the years--interviewed Mould and Hart in '86--so let me join in. I used to get my back up when Chuck would dimiss Candy Apple Grey and Warehouse, but sure, they're not nearly as good as Metal Circus, New Day Rising, or Flip Your Wig. (I'll leave Zen Arcade out of it, where I'm missing whatever everyone else hears.) I haven't listened to either in quite a while; I'm guessing Warehouse is the better of the two, and that Candy Apple Grey has dated the least well. I still think they're both fine records. They're just song records--I doubt they're going to affect anyone like Metal Circus affected me, but there's a bunch of good songs on Warehouse, and a few on Candy Apple Grey. If you're a band and the worst record you ever do is Candy Apple Grey, I'd say that's pretty impressive. (Ignoring that first one...)

Hart's snare always sounded awful on record. There was a muddiness to it on the earlier stuff but it at least sounds like a snare. It sounds godawful on Flip Your Wig, hardly there at all.

"great job grandstanding about utterly innocuous and generally friendly poster scott seward"

i'm not any of those things! i'm evil!!! grrrrrrrr!!! i eat warehouse fans for breakfast!

naw its good. I prefer it to warehouse. In the UK, CAG was seen as the last of their great albums. The US seems to prefer Warehouse.

― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, April 13, 2010 8:47 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
I dont know why anyone would prefer warehouse

― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, April 13, 2010 10:40 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

You seem to be answering your own question here Herm. Something about Warehouse must appeal to God-fearin, gun-totin, junk food eatin, fatass yanks, while CAG appeals to people who merely fear visits to the dentist and like warm beer.

ugh beer

I'm a sap, but "These Important Years" always gets me

great live version, also...god bob's clothes in this clip....we should do a "Worst Dressed SST Band" poll..that would be some heavy competition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IPJLiIZMVc

"ugh beer"

wow, really? sometimes i wish i felt this way, because i have a seriously unhealthy love for it.

"....we should do a "Worst Dressed SST Band" poll..that would be some heavy competition."

This would be the hardest poll ever.

I drink Kerr's share of the beer, it all evens out in the end.

beer owns

Huskers were a sartorial trainwreck it's true... but then you had Ginn in his sweatpants flailing around next to rollins naked but for his sweat-soaked swim trunks...

Warehouse is a better single LP than CAG, once you pare off the gristle. As a double Warehouse is a debacle.

Bob Mould now = smokin' hot.

As a double Warehouse is a debacle.

ludicrous hyperbole

I dont know why anyone would prefer warehouse

it's less hard-edged, and more melodic than their other discs. i love husker du, and warehouse got my vote.

"Debacle"? Yeah--hyperbole. I remember it as being about 80% good, solid songcraft.

With the occasional vintage high point--e.g., "You're a Soldier."

Okay okay please take 'debacle' to mean 'they really really should've edited this fucker down to a long single LP'.

I mean there are some UNBEARABLE duds on that record where it feels like Bob-by-numbers and Grantbot.

We need a Warehouse poll.

We tried it once but she floated away

but she floated away

would be my vote!

Mine too. Ice Cold Ice in 2nd place.

We need a Warehouse poll.

At the risk of irritating everyone:
HÜSKER PÖLL: Warehouse - Songs and Stories

Me, I eventually came to respect CAG (if not love it) but never, ever could get into "Warehouse". Seriously couldn't tell the Mould songs apart, seemed like each one had the same arpeggiated non-riff.

It wasnt the best album to go out with

Hated the title, too

haha I'm beginning to think you hate Warehouse

I count Metal Circus as the first review of mine ever published--soon after it came out, in a University of Toronto paper called The Varsity. (A friend of mine ran a review of Damaged in his campus paper a year or so earlier, but it was so badly mangled--the friendship remains intact--that one's in purgatory.) I gushed--boy, did I gush. In my defense, it was a record worth gushing over.