Bob Mould: Classic or Dud?

Gonna see him and band tonight do Sugar's Copper Blue and the new "Silver Age"

http://m.stereogum.com/pl/1142922/watch-bob-mould-kick-ass-on-letterman/video/

This is better than the album by a country mile, mind you.

I interviewed him last week, and I asked him if he was worried that playing "Copper Blue," his most popular album, would overshadow the new album, and he immediately answers "not after you hear us play the new stuff."

i haven't listened much to either of his bands but a friend recorded & mixed this, so i'm gonna check it out

aw bob was so good and cuet on letterman

i read his autobio in one sitting last night and it made me like him a lot less. comes off as a totally humorless, bland, self-serious and helplessly self-obsessed big baby. there's something really plain about his songwriting and lyrics, even in husker, that just doesn't do it for me. even tho i love husker. and some of his solo stuff. and some sugar songs. but i never really get super into them...there's something so plain about his songs, i can't quite pin it down

Something about BM even daring to try and write an autobiography, to get it out there, seems so strange to me. At least before his twilight years.

For years you couldn't even get a photo of him on his albums. Maybe the suspicions I had of him were best kept wrapped up in that Back Sheets of Rain/Beaster-type tortured persona. But he's happier now, so whatevr.

Saturday night at the 930 Club in W. DC saw he and his band (Superchunk's drummer) do Sugar's Copper Blue and the new "Silver Age" plus Husker Du cuts "Celebrated Summer", "I Apologize," and "Makes No sense at all." At times the vocals were too muffled. Maybe he likes it that way--with the treble up and the guitar buzzing very loudly. Not much variety, just cathartic, adrenalin releasing speedy tunes.

i thought the mix was a little off! i was way up stage left in front of the FOH board - though honestly from that vantage pt pretty much anything i've seen at 930 sounds trebly as hell

really liked how the copper blue stuff came off live - very powerful slowed-down arrangement of "the slim" for example. haven't spent a ton of time with silver age but i like it a lot so far

"The Slim" did sound great. He sped up "Fortune Teller" though. I did not head over to Black Cat for Mission of Burma afterwards though. That was probably noisy and great too

Was looking at some set lists last night. Mould has been varying the Husker Du songs he's been doing on the tour

Part of the Williamsburg bill:

Copper Blue plus
The Descent
Round the City Square
Hardly Getting Over It
Could You Be The One
I Apologize
Chartered Trips
Keep Believing
--
Something I Learned Today (feat. Craig Finn)
In A Free Land
--
Makes No Sense At All

Haven't heard this yet, but I'm on the list to get ahold of it from my local library. I just noticed a couple of things:

Song title "The Descent"
Silver Age = Silverage?

Nods to former SST label-mates The Descendents? You tell me.

just saw him on the letterman show and it was super weird

Why so (Don't have access to the video of it right now)?

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2014/03/06/photos-bob-mould-plays-workbook-at-the-930-club/

Mould wrapped up the night with favorites like "Helpless," "Hoover Dam," and "Descending," and ended with a new one, "From the War," from his forthcoming record, Beauty & Ruin, out in June. He said with a chuckle, "The new record feels like the culmination of a lot of things over the past couple of years. Who I am, what I feel, what I want...without being a dick." It may have taken 25 years, but Mould seems to be at peace

i guess i was a little surprised because he was playing "see a little light" and i thought wow, weird but pleasant (possibly pandering) song choice. but then letterman was like bob mould ladies and gentleman, 25th anniversary workbook and i saw bob make this little 2-5 hand gesture and i could totally see the dork portrayed in his autobio, which i have been reading in bits to drag it out. i didn't realize it had been that long and he was clearly excited about it.

i guess it was like a little window into this person whose music i have been listening to for most of my life. it was just an unusual experience for me personally, i guess. there was nothing weird about the performance itself except that i thought the band lacked the proper enthusiasm.

also disc 2 makes it seem like CD is the way to go here -- the workbook songs are from a show at the metro in chicago in '89, so it's the album lineup, i'm assuming, with anton fier?! can anyone confirm that? i'm sure it's still a pretty great show if it's not the album lineup but i was just wondering.

i really feel gross at the idea of buying a reissued cd of a cd i bought the first time and still have

sometimes i wonder, what's trenton like as a place?

if i had to guess, kinda bleak and grim but there's a lovely way the sun comes through the kitchen window at a certain time of day

i really feel gross at the idea of buying a reissued cd of a cd i bought the first time and still have

― we slowly invented brains (La Lechera), Friday, 7 March 2014 15:49

Very conflicted about this, live tracks notwithstanding.

Yeah, I've tried to skip buying reissues of stuff I have just to get a live gig which I listen to a couple of times and file away.

i read his autobio recently and it was a great combo of terribly written and ceaselessly un-selfaware

He tries really hard to make himself not seem like a dick, but not 100% successfully. It's entertaining.

I saw Bob play the Entry Sunday night, lots of Husker tunes, it was brilliant

Star Trib piece with set list

Yeah, I saw him last summer and the old Husker songs with Jon Wurster on drums were unrelenting.

in a free land!

Wow, that song would have been great to hear. Heard him do some old Husker songs with Wurster but not that one

Might as well leave this here...

http://thequietus.com/articles/16153-husker-du-zen-arcade-review

Sunday night he did something from every Huskers record ("Real World"! first time 30 yrs!) except Land Speed Record...not that stopped me from screaming out "Data Control".

And w/r/t Zen Arcade...when he launched in "Something I Learned Today" 15 yr old me and 38 yr old me were equally happy.

New album, "Patch The Sky" out today. I loved "Silver Age" from a wow-I-thought-he-had-lost-it perspective and then "Beauty and Ruin" is just a total stunner. It takes a few spins to absorb the sounds and get into the lyrics but sonically this sounds a part of the previous two.

I listened to it once, and while a few cuts immediately seemed memorable, others sounded like formulaic Mould. I feel like he can write some songs in this style in his sleep.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/27/arts/music/bob-moulds-advice-keep-it-simple-and-avoid-streaming-music-services.html

Mr. Mould credits a 2011 tribute show to his past work led by Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters with refocusing his songwriting after a period of experimenting with electronica and with D.J.-ing. (He also released a memoir that year.) “In a funny way, it gave me the O.K. to sort of steal from myself a little bit and not feel that need to reinvent again or to go down a different path for the sake of going down it,” he said. “Everything led back to the core guitar-bass-drums, simpler pop songs, more direct.”

"Fugue State" has hung in there on my students' college station Megaseg after three years, and every time it plays I admire its verse-chorus-verse. None of his new albums are essential, but it's good to check on an old friend and know he's doing fine.

New album did indeed sound a little generic Mould. Not bad at all, just more of the same.

Of course it's on the nose, but these are not times of nuance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD7TxGTPsV4

I'm happy to listen to an angry, familiar voice. First time he's released rock albums in back-to-back years since Sugar!

It's sharper -- melodically, structurally -- than any of DBT's protest songs in the last four years.

That's fair.

I've gotten to where I don't bother, maybe as much as I should, to check out political rock songs--which, in my listening usually come down to and from being pissed off by the news---if occasionally they get hassled by the cops, it's no more than that (could be coz they're white etc). The previous Truckers album was so tedious (incl. obvious, to anyone else who halfway keeps up w the news) that I haven't gotten to their latest, even though it's all on bandcamp, generously enough. I will, though. And prob this Bob.

The sentiment's fine, but it's a good example of why I don't care at all for the hardcore side of Zen Arcade or for anything from that first whatever-it-was of Husker Du's. "Real World" and "Divide and Conquer" and "Newest Industry" are just as spilling-over with outrage, but they're all songs first. I don't hear much of a song here.

Yeah, that's what tends to happen when the outrage (etc.) takes over. Southern Rock Opera had the music, plus the relief and release of hearing my white Southern near-neighbors/contemporaries delivering it rat on time, in the early heydays of our homeboy George W. Had the added creative spark sardonic humor too, which they seem to have lost along the way, or tend to neglect. But they've continued to make good albums from time to time, ditto Mould, so I'll check in at some point.

*fellow* white Southerners, Ah meant to say.

BOB MOULD ANNOUNCES DISTORTION ANTHOLOGY BOXSET
24CD DISTORTION: 1989-2019 & 8LP DISTORTION: 1989-1995 BOXES RELEASED OCT 2nd 2020 ON DEMON MUSIC GROUP
WATCH A LIVE VERSION OF “COULD YOU BE THE ONE?” AT THE 9:30 CLUB IN OCT 2005

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b41w5nKFxE

THREE FURTHER VINYL BOXES TO ARRIVE IN 2021

WATCH DISTORTION BOX SET TRAILER

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

On October 2nd, 2020, Demon Music Group will release Distortion: 1989-2019, a chronicle of the solo career of Bob Mould and his band Sugar. This massive anthology compiles for the first time the entirety of Mould’s recorded work from 1989 onwards: 18 studio albums, plus four live albums and two albums of rarities and collaborations. Assembled with Bob Mould’s full involvement and featuring new sleeve notes from legendary UK music critic Keith Cameron plus exclusive new artwork, this is the definitive portrayal of an American rock icon.

“It’s called Distortion because it describes the music and it fits the world we live in,” says Mould himself. “In this new age, everybody shares their life in real time. But I’m not done yet. If I didn't have a constantly active career, this anthology might feel like the proverbial dirt landing on top of my coffin — though somehow I seem to be able to crawl my way out of the dirt every time!”

Today’s news comes accompanied by audio and video of Mould performing ‘Could You Be the One?’ – a latter Hüsker Dü classic, drawn from the trio’s 1987 swansong Warehouse: Songs and Stories – at Washington D.C.‘s 9:30 Club in October 2005, in the process bringing it back to dynamic, electric life. It features on the CD anthology’s Distortion Plus: 1989-2019 rarities and collaborations discs alongside other highlights from the show.

Speaking of the show, Mould offers: “For years, I didn’t play Hüsker Dü material with my subsequent touring bands.” He continues: “This was the first time my longtime friend and colleague Jason Narducy (bass) played in my touring band. Rich Morel (keys) was my work partner for 11 years in BLOWOFF, and the 9:30 Club was home for our monthly dance party. Brendan Canty (drums) nudged me out of my self-imposed ‘rock retirement’ after the 1998 Last Dog and Pony Show tour (which is also chronicled in the box set). Brendan's company Trixie Productions filmed and edited the show.”

As Mould’s musical trajectory enters its fifth decade, now is the perfect moment to reflect on the journey so far. Distortion’s 24-CD box set edition features 295 tracks, mastered by Jeff Lipton and Maria Rice at Peerless Mastering in Boston, and includes every solo album from 1989’s Workbook to 2019’s Sunshine Rock, the entire Sugar catalogue, Mould’s long out-of-print electronica projects LoudBomb and Blowoff, and four live albums spanning the period 1989-2008. Also included is Distortion Plus: 1989-2019, a new and exclusive collection of rarities and collaborations, featuring such highlights as ‘Dear Rosemary’, Mould’s 2011 collaboration with Foo Fighters, his fabled Golden Palominos contribution ‘Dying From The Inside Out’, plus a previously unreleased demo version of ‘Dog On Fire’, his theme tune for Comedy Central’s The Daily Show.

Beautiful new artwork has been created by illustrator Simon Marchner, while the 72-page booklet features sleeve notes by Cameron, new interviews with Bob, a foreword by writer and actor Fred Armisen, testimonials by Richard Thompson, Shirley Manson and Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino, plus lyrics and unseen memorabilia. A 1,000-limited edition includes an exclusive print hand-signed by Bob himself.

http://recordstoreday.com/Photo/418463920142

Also released on October 2nd is the first in a series of four vinyl box sets spanning the same 30-year period. Distortion: 1989-1995 contains eight-LPs, beginning with Workbook through to the final Sugar studio album File Under: Easy Listening, plus Besides, Sugar’s compilation of B-sides and non-album tracks and Distortion Plus: 1989-1995 a new and exclusive collection of rarities and collaborations. Each album is mastered by Jeff Lipton and Maria Rice and features new Simon Marchner artwork; the 28-page companion booklet features new sleeve notes plus lyrics and memorabilia, while a 750-limited edition includes a 12”x12” screen print of the new Copper Blue artwork, hand-signed by Marchner and Mould.

http://recordstoreday.com/Photo/418463920179

The 24CD Distortion: 1989-2019 and 8LP Distortion: 1989-1995 boxsets are released Oct 2nd, 2020, via Demon Music Group. Keep your eyes peeled for three further vinyl boxsets in 2021.

testimonials by Richard Thompson

Nice touch, knowing how deeply Mould is hit by Thompson's work.

That seems like a lot of Bob Mould solo!

24 CDs of Bob Mould soloing.

Wow, that is an absurdly thorough box set that I have somehow heard most of. I'm due for some re-listening, but right now my instincts tell me

Modulate > Life & Times > Workbook > Last Dog & Pony Show > s/t > Beauty & Ruin > Black Sheets of Rain > Body of Song > Sunshine Rock > District Line > Silver Age > Patch the Sky

I'm unlikely to buy this box, but I will say that this coming out reminded me that his self titled album exists. For whatever reason, it's not on Apple Music so I'm going to blame that. I bought that CD when it was released in 96 or so and loved it, but my life was at peak chaos that year and I completely forgot that it existed; even a few years back when I went and rediscovered the whole stretch from District Line through Silver Age, I forgot to listen to it, since it wasn't in my library (mp3s were all on another hard drive; I'd sold the CD years and years ago). I went back and gave that a listen and fuck me if I don't think it's his greatest album. For those interested it got a standalone vinyl reissue in the EU earlier this year apparently.

and district line -> patch the sky or sunshine rock or whatever it is, that's a pretty amazing run of albums, even though they're a bit samey sounding.