Gotta Lotta POLLING To Do - ILM Artist Poll #29 - Your HÜSKER DÜ Nominations Thread

Even the song titles have the same boring rhythm

All This I've Done for YOU
No Promise Have I Made

Also Dead Set on Destruction is good. Grant's singing sounds energetic.

oops that you was not supposed to be caps

ha

"Candy Apple Grey" is my least favorite Husker's album.

It has a handful of great songs on it, but the rest is just color by numbers, it seems. It's when Bob started singing every song exactly the same way or something and Grant kept singing more melodically. The Grant songs are way better than the Bob songs on that album, to me at least.

I was enamored of pretty much everything Husker Du did at the time, so I liked Candy Apple Grey a lot. I don't really want to listen to it to check, but thinking about the two ballads, my guess is they wouldn't hold up at all. I did vote for "Dead Set on Destruction," which I gave a quick listen to and it still sounded great.

Kind of agree about "Candy apple grey". It was my first Husker Du album and liked it enough until I dug deeper and got more albums. But some of it is weak - "I don't know for sure" is such an obvious rewrite of "Makes no sense at all". There's good on there, but better elsewhere. I think there's 3 songs on my ballot from it, but I've not edited it down from 30 to 20 songs yet.

I still have a soft spot for Candy Apple Grey, but no, I can't defend it either.

Along the lines of every song title is somewhat the same, seems like 8/10 songs start with the same drum roll.

And I do like Eiffel Tower High. went. into. the movies. SHE'S BEEN THERE EVER SINCE. BOX OF JUNIOR MINTS.

BTW Hardly Getting Over It reminds me of Speed of Sound but I can't really say why aside from the similar parts at the end.

I wrote a song with lots of words
but I don't know for sure
It could be good and it could be bad
but I don't know for sure
It could be something blablablablabla
Something something
So What
I DON'T KNOOOOOOW

i'm paraphrasing obvs but this album has some all time lazy songwriting from Bob
Grant's songs, however are great!!

Sorry Somehow is SO GOOD.

I always thought "Could You Be the One" was the rewrite of "Makes No Sense", but now you got me thinking.

they're all the same!

XP - "Eiffel tower high" has made me want to find a box of Junior Mints since 1990, and I finally found one this year in a speciality sweet shop in Cardiff.

any old gas station in the USA has junior mints
just don't leave them in a hot place or you will get the monomint

Love Candy Apple Grey, and for a while it was my favorite record of theirs. I still like the mopey Bob songs, and at the time I took them as a sign of growth/expansion (ditto the organ on "Sorry Somehow"). The only dud on it (relatively speaking) for me is "I Don't Know For Sure," which sounds like a half-assed "Makes No Sense At All." But "Dead Set" is all time.

"Sorry Somehow" features maybe the most empathetic Grant vox other than on "Green Eyes." Or maybe "Flexible Flyer." Though of course shred-vox on "Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill" >>>>>>>>.

xp - Yeah, I can see that. I guess you're seeing the high points and I'm still annoyed that I had to ffw my tape. My edit of Candy Apple Grey would be an EP with 6 songs on it. It's 2012, maybe that's how it should be.

I like Grant's vocals throughout this album, honestly.

Here's another question: what's the general opinion on "Green Eyes"? I used to be so embarrassed to like this song because it's so earnest and cheesy, but oh did I like it.

I can't think of any Grant vocal that I even mildly dislike, now that I think about it. Bob, on the other hand, became progressively less interesting to me as a vocalist when he became less screamy. I'm not saying he shoulda been all-screamy, but the earnestness of his non-screamy voice is about 90% of why I could never get into any of his post-HD stuff.

And "Green Eyes" rules.

"Green Eyes" is beautiful. Another Pixies story is that Black Francis apparently used to start the day listening to "Green Eyes" over and over again. Certainly you can hear it echoed in "Wave of Mutilation."

BTW, in the off chance anyone out there has not heard Grant's solo debut, it is nigh-perfect.

yknow what else? i'm gonna go out on a limb and say that grant sings great songs about girls

girl who lives on heaven hill
pink turns to blue
she floated away
books about UFOs
diane (omg do i have a weird story about this one)

and so on!

"She's a Woman and Now He is a Man"!

yeah i mean lots of em! those were the ones i thought of before i got tired of typing!

This is fun harvesting votes for this poll. I've been listening and re-listening to a whole bunch of stuff, and the best part is that I get to do it again next week with the rollout.

Finally put my ballot in. It wasn't easy. Had to keep saying to myself, "Okay, so you really would prefer to never hear this one again compared to the one in front of it?"

Can someone change my mind about Candy Apple Grey being mostly weak?

Ha, the first three songs I was going to cite as evidence of its greatness are the three you mentioned anyway... I love it, it's not quite my favourite but it was the first of their albums I heard and I fell in love with it immediately. I like all three of the mopey ballads, 'I Don't Know For Sure' sounds nicely pissed off and has some cool chord changes, 'All This I've Done for You' is a great anthemic closer ('Dead Set on Destruction' would have been too)... There's nothing on it I dislike really.

At some basic level I pretty much rejected Candy Apple Grey and I still don't quite know why. I'm sure the jump to Warners played a part. But I remember listening to it and wanting it to be good. All the songs mentioned had been in my head since hearing them live the previous year, and some are among their best--"Don't Want to Know" has got to be. But even now the production kept it low on my ballot, if it stayed on.

Bob, on the other hand, became progressively less interesting to me as a vocalist when he became less screamy.

Yeah, he was just doing something very amazing and very jazz as a punk singer that he kind of returned to here and there as a pop singer, but not as much. You hear it in his solo live acoustic performances a lot, abstracting things out in a soulful way.

Breakdown of my ballot, by album. (Anything not listed is a zero, obv.)

Metal Circus: 2
Zen Arcade: 2
New Day Rising: 5
Flip Your Wig: 4
Candy Apple Grey: 2
Warehouse: 4

Doesn't exactly reflect my order of album preference -- Zen Arcade is underrepresented because to me it's so much more an album than a set of tunes, and Warehouse is overrepresented for the inverse reason I guess. But it's hard to argue that New Day/Wig isn't their absolute peak.

Oh, and the reason that doesn't add up is there was one single-only vote.

Doesn't exactly reflect my order of album preference

Same with me except with New Day Rising.

Weird how that works. The same goes for another SST band: Meat Puppets II has the better songs, but Up On the Sun is the better album.

Yeah, he was just doing something very amazing and very jazz as a punk singer

That's a good way of putting it. The problems I have with later Mould mirror those I have with post-Fables Stipe: enunciation doesn't suit their voices well, and what used to be intriguingly mysterious became earnest and hectoring.

At some basic level I pretty much rejected Candy Apple Grey and I still don't quite know why. I'm sure the jump to Warners played a part.

I remember very clearly when CAG came out. There was a record store ad on the back of a local music paper listing new releases, and I thought, "Weird, someone screwed up and put a Warners logo on the new Husker Du record. Or they did that as a joke." Even though the Replacements were on Sire, the idea of HD on Warners was just nuts.

Hey guys you should listen to Land Speed Record it is rad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jWmX5wRea4&feature=related

Ironically, the live clip played was never recorded as Husker Du. It's from Grant's first album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss_D5gwChxg&feature=related

I love all these interviews, because these guys are such total grouches.

Not sure I've ever seen this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFyy3XB_3Y4

This is really great. Bob Mould playing Husker Du songs with No Age, from an All Tomorrow's Parties show. It's all over youtube, with varying sound quality. This is the best one, In A Free Land.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQAHENwBh08

I'm relistening to this bootleg comp I downloaded from somewhere (it may have been from ILM) that's got these early songs on it like "Drug Party" - Grant singing "Let's bring some sluts over!" It's either in the vein of Black Flag's sardonic numbers or the precursor to "Diane", but phew.

Also "Writer's Cramp" is awesome.

This is really great. Bob Mould playing Husker Du songs with No Age

When I saw Grant 10-11 years ago, he did the whole show solo except at the end, where he had recruited the local punk band that opened the show to get up for a few songs. I think it was "Diane" and one other one. The whole show was great, but hearing him with a band doing Huskers stuff was awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f6YWkcdaNE

Land Speed Record: 0
In a Free Land: 1
Everything Falls Apart: 1
Metal Circus: 1
Eight Miles High: 1
Zen Arcade: 7
New Day Rising: 5
Flip Your Wig: 2
Candy Apple Grey: 1
Warehouse: 1

Pretty much what I'd expect, though I do love "Data Control."

Land Speed Record: 0
Everything Falls Apart: 1
Metal Circus: 2
Zen Arcade: 2
New Day Rising: 4
Flip Your Wig: 4
Candy Apple Grey: 1
Warehouse: 3
7"/12": 3 (two b-sides)

Land Speed Record: 0
Everything Falls Apart: 0
Metal Circus: 1
Zen Arcade: 3
New Day Rising: 6
Flip Your Wig: 4
Candy Apple Grey: 3
Warehouse: 1
The Living End: 1
7": 1

Seeing a lot of bell curves here.

I hope someone else voted for From the Gut.

Land Speed Record: 0
Everything Falls Apart: 1
Metal Circus: 1
Zen Arcade: 3
New Day Rising: 5
Flip Your Wig: 3
Candy Apple Grey: 3
Warehouse: 2
7": 2

surprises for me-
1. no desire to vote for anything off Flip Your Wig.
2. "Sorry Somehow". After years of humming the chorus in my head, but not playing the record, it suddenly sounds a lot like a Reigning Sound blue eyed soul joint to me now. Never ever thought of the Du as earthy like that.

I like them more as players than as songwriters at this point, which may be why my interest takes a nosedive after New Day Rising. There's a bootleg of Zen Arcade raw mixes, without the vocals, and hearing that a few years ago pushed ZA back past NDR as my favorite. Everything Falls Apart remains really underrated. Pop tracks I was sure I'd vote for, like "I Apologize" and "Makes No Sense" seem pretty thin to me now, indie rock templates that were improved upon by their followers. The restrictions of hardcore, especially the span when they both loved and hated the restrictions, brought out the best in their chemistry.

So I've got a ballot of 20 specifically unranked songs. (in other words, it's not a mistake.)

Should I assign each song 22 points, what the No. 10 spot receives? If you add up all the possible points and divide by 20, you get 22.6.

(Or should I throw this ballot right BACK IN THEIR FACE.)

I'd e-mail the person back, ask for their however-many least favourite from the list, and deduct a point from each.

Or if that feels like work, do the same, but pick your own least favourite...