Favourite Hüsker Dü Album?

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).

Candy Apple Grey was the first one I heard, sometime in 1999 I think (the Warners CDs were always cheaper in HMV than the SST ones). Flip Your Wig is my favourite these days although Zen Arcade was for ages. Warehouse took me about seven/eight years to properly get into, that has to be some sort of record for me.

some of it's great but Grant's songs let the side down mostly. She Floated Away is awesome though.

Side 2 of Zen Arcade is worth voting for that album as a whole - it's the best thing ever.

But you know, Warehouse would be great too, if you cut out most of the Grant songs.

i think i read once grant had "2541" sitting in the hopper when they were doing warehouse and kept it to himself on purpose cuz he knew the band was done

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.

this

In terms of whole albums it has to be New Day Rising, but my own forever-varying edit of Warehouse has to be my most cherished collection of late-night Husker balm.

always thought the opinions on Candy Apple in the likes of the Azerrad book in the wake of FYW were a bit off, in their snappiness and 'convenience', deliberately trailing off the major stuff for the sake of the story, which was a bit weak IMO. To my mind Candy ups the Flip Your Wig ante, sands off the crappy bits like Wit and the Wisdom and Baby Song, and is more diverse than either Flip or Warehouse. Ideal intro to the band.

a couple of songs that rank with their best

I count more than on any other Husker album:

"Something I Learned Today" (agreed)
"Broken Home, Broken Heart" (beautiful the way this moves and modulates, and I could relate)
"Chartered Trips" (his masterpiece, still part of Mould's set)
"The Biggest Lie" (one of my few experiences of a song "coming out" to me years after the fact)
"What's Going On" (great because it's true, with fond live memory of the mass pogo it provoked)
"Pink Turns to Blue" (still chilling)
"Whatever" (still cathartic)

I also love the big instrumental forwards and backwards, the drilling hardcore (about feelings rather than certainties) bursting into lunatic climaxes, the groovy digressions, and the many pop near-greats, all wound together by a guitar sound like nothing else on earth. "Turn On the News" works in context as a spiritual breather. The only song I ever skipped was "Somewhere," and the backward guitars are running through my head as I type, so maybe I shouldn't have.

It's pretty close. These five from New Day Rising might be as great as any of those or greater:

"New Day Rising"
"The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill"
"Celebrated Summer"
"Terms of Psychic Warfare"
"Books About UFOs"

But then the non-classic stuff is harder to take, aside from "I Apologize," "If I Told You," and "Powerline," and while I love the sound, I've come to love it less on the lesser tracks.

Did you 'Turn on the News'?

lolz

the hardcore side of zen arcade is amazing, but if you don't like hardcore you're not gonna like it.

Candy Apple Grey was the first I heard (via Sugar), still think it's a fairly solid set of tracks that sit well together, but I think I voted for it just now because it's the best of how I expect them to sound - hadn't really gotten hardcore at that point. Everything Falls Apart is awesome, though, and the title track feels like a preview for the later albums' sound.

Clemenza thinks the hardcore part of Zen Arcade is a "waste"? He sleeps with the fishes tonight.

I hate that goddamn Barzini...Get off my case, Bill Magill!

Just having fun with the name, big man. Relax.

Just having fun too.

now that i've thought about it, i would say i pull all of these out and listen to each and every one about once a year. i always end with THE LIVING END because it's like a greatest hits fireworks display of how much i love this band. hart is a total monster and an inspiration.

anyone up for a post-huskers poll after this, mould vs hart, or all bob's solo/sugar stuff versus grant solo/nova mob?

or has this already been done? lj, you seem to be the appropriate board lawyer for this topic - what's the word?

oh man "black sheets of rain" is comically bleak -- i listened to it again this year and it almost made me laugh a little if i hadn't been so afraid that it would snap at me or write a song about what a horrible fucking person i am.

i love black sheets of rain

i loved it when i heard it in high school, but there's something about it now that i just don't connect with. not that i don't like it, it's just not speaking to me.

Black Sheets of Rain is the perfect example of a fantastic band sounding totally stiff.

Cosign there. "Let There Be Peace/Sacrifice" is a great album ender, though.

Agreed -- an awesome slog up a big hill

Still fond of Workbook, but the acoustic, introspective stuff is easier on Maimone-Fier etc.

Workbook for me is all about that one moment of anxiety in 'Wishing Well', right before the guitar solo hits. Feels like a final, frantic gasp of air just before you take the plunge into something dark and hopeless. Love that song.

has anyone posted this yet? sound's not good, but it's still pretty awesome and i esp like greg norton's john oates look.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvde18BH4rE

(the whole show is posted, that is part 7)

did they ever, like, play zen arcade live in its entirety, or thereabouts? i know they were typically playing material from the next album whenever they toured, till the last tour...

you guys ever seen this? i like this a lot...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxXeRnd36cI

wait...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxXeRnd36cI

i know a LOT of people who say chartered trips is their fave song

Kristin Hersh for one, iirc

First LP I heard (I'm sure I've related this elsewhere): Land Speed Record, anxiously awaited as I was in the 7th Street Entry on the night it was recorded. Didn't like the album, tbh.

That Indianapolis show actually seems like an off night: Why is nobody moving? But I'm ashamed to say I never noticed (or forgot) that Greg played without a pick, which is amazing.

Has grant played live since his latest solo album came out?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbKIWTdw148

Bizarre purchase from 99c store in Lakewood, CA: 3" CD single of 2541 still in massive plastic case about 2 feet long. They also had Das Damen & HR 3" CD singles but I passed on those.

please tell me he is not missing his entire upper set of teeth
he has played in chicago at least once and will again in a week or two but i'm not sure if it's with a band or not.