RIP Grant Hart

Holy shit, I just googled to see if the band ever covered the Who, and maybe they did, but I came across this, which is just so unlikely and maybe fake that I believe it's real:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvnEcz6PJKQ

Thanks, and I remember when I first saw Sugar I thought that Bob needed Grant's drumming far more than he probably ever realized.

xxp

yeah that Palmer cover is real and has popped up in all sorts of places (Ned's a fan).

I must admit to being none the wiser about the pronunciation. Not that it really matters. Heh. I've had an off/on relationship with the band, and totally understand the issues folk have with the production, which seems maddeningly muddy and flat, albeit absolutely part of the aesthetic. Hart always seemed too old to me - one of those characters who seemed borrowed from death. 57 is no age. RIP.

Ha, speaking of Husker Du and the Who and Sugar...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m7rw6ow-YI

(I was at this show, mainly to see openers Scrawl, but I left four songs into Sugar's set because I was so disappointed. Needless to say, I should've stayed.)

I seem to recall one reason Sugar dissolved (hah) is because Malcolm Travis, the drummer, had panic attacks trying to live up to Mould's perfectionist standards or something. It can't be a coincidence that Mould first went with session guy Anton Fier then the metronomic approach of Travis (which I actually like).

And xpost yeah, I want to say early Sugar also covered Iggy's "Dum Dum Boys" a bunch.

I thought Travis a fine drummer for Sugar.

I remember when I first saw Sugar I thought that Bob needed Grant's drumming far more than he probably ever realized.
otm!!

"fine" is fine but it's gonna sound weak compared to grant's playing
tarfumes so otm about his style too

I remember when I first saw Sugar I thought that Bob needed Grant's drumming far more than he probably ever realized.
otm!!

"fine" is fine but it's gonna sound weak compared to grant's playing
tarfumes so otm about his style too

weak is the wrong word -- just less interesting, less full of heart.

I never thought of that moon-grant comparison... that's really fruitful!

Needs to be said how much the drummer in MBV owed to grant (and Keith)

Colm would happily agree.

We watched Every Everything last night. Easily one of the best rock docs I've ever seen, but more importantly, just a good character study. Having him be the sole focus of the story, clips aside, and having it be all his words, no narrators, no comments from peers or anyone else, means that while plenty is left unsaid that could be, at the same time he gives a real sense, throughout, of telling things as they are -- and his elaborate similes and points of comparison and, simply, his vocabulary, his sense of words and their use -- makes it clear as to why that was the best approach. He doesn't spare himself at all but you never get a sense that he knows exactly where he stands and why in terms of ethics either, whether he measures himself internally or considers how the outside world would. It's hard to say it caught him at the 'right' time, I suspect -- a couple of years later, maybe in the first blush of the active Numero planning, would have produced something a little different I'm sure, and given that per reports he reconciled with his son as well as finding love, that could have changed the documentary in the end a bit. But there is no such thing as a right time, and having the story framed by his description of his old house before the fire, and what was lost as a result, was a lovely and sad choice -- and in light of jjjusten's stories about how Hart was as a customer and friend, his wide ranging intelligence and interests, and also the realization about his beloved guitar, the deeper waters were more clearly sensed.

Muddled a phrase earlier -- I said 'never get a sense' but that should be 'always get a sense'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeqyCwAeT3I

So yeah, I will take the Keith Moon comparison as well, some super busy playing but with incredible groove and feel.

Mould first went with session guy Anton Fier

there's this hilarious moment in one of the outtakes in the Replacements documentary where Kot and DeRo talk about how much more influential Husker Du was.
clearly takes the interviewer by surprise.

All I remember about Anton Fier is that he said playing with the Feelies made his hands bleed
What is he up to these days? Is he really thought of as a session guy?

In the 90s sometime I bought Intolerance for like $5, ie. at the time very much "let's get rid of it" money, and to this day it's a special record to me. Maybe not an all time great or whatever, but soulful and beautiful, and p much every song on it (maybe not Reprise, lol) means a lot to me. One of those understated albums that it's easy to connect to personally. RIP and love, Grant.

Is he really thought of as a session guy?

Although
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/3283-dreamspeedblind-light-1992-1994/

Anton Fier, one of the more underrated drummers of the New York jazz/rock scene, has had a remarkable career. He was the drummer for The Feelies, The Lounge Lizards, and Pere Ubu, as well as a session musician for everyone from Jeff Buckley to Yoko Ono.

He's been a drummer for hire since the Feelies. Lotsa work with Bill Laswell.

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/anton-fier-mn0000493946

Bill Dudswell

Books About UFOs, Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill, Pink Turns to Blue, She Floated Away: the man could write a manic pixie dreamgirl song.

^otm

Bill Dudswell

He just has the opposite of a Midas touch for me, that guy

The duo record Laswell made with Milford Graves is one of the more frustrating listens in recent memory. Milford sounds wonderful -- it's impossible for him not to -- but Laswell just lets his effects pedals digitally vomit all over everything. Hopefully someday it'll be reissued with Laswell's parts removed.

I went to look something up in the poll, noticed that pplains' great images (Photobucket) were all gone, and found a link at the bottom: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wegaognxlubkifj/AACJr2MaNAVS9N6XbrSO5Oyua?dl=0.

I just revived the/a Laswell thread.

Books About UFOs, Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill, Pink Turns to Blue, She Floated Away: the man could write a manic pixie dreamgirl song.

― Mungolian Jerryset (bendy), Saturday, September 16, 2017 1:53 PM (five hours ago) Bookmark

i've mentioned before how great his songs about girls are but i object to this characterization!

Pink Turns to Blue being about somebody ODing on heroin kinda takes me outta that manic pixie dream girl space

Oh that gal with the whimsical dying on the floor

living on Heaven Hill isn't very dreamy either

Was gonna say

Even the other two don't really fit this imo:

The Manic Pixie Dream Girl exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures.

Neither song is about the guy in any real way. I don't think the male speaker even enters the story in "She Floated Away". And a girl who is obsessed with studying astronomy does not seem like a carefree girlish archetype.

Neither song is about the guy in any real way.
exactly -- he wrote songs about women-people as if they were real people worthy of songs, not love objects
i responded to this as a young person and it continues to be something i like about grant hart songs to this day

And a girl who is obsessed with studying astronomy does not seem like a carefree girlish archetype.

But but but...Zooey Deschanel would have played her in the movie!

I bought the 2541 CD single in one of those long boxes which I'd never actually seen before although I've been told we did have them in the UK maybe? anyway I got it from the 99c store in Lakewood, CA about 12 years ago, along with a Volcano Suns CD.

I don't really have a point here I suppose.

They also had the Outrageous Cherry s/t album and something by You Am I.

I guess my point is 99c stores 12-14 years ago were a great place to buy surplus stock from SST.

Man, listening to "Flexible Flyer" is a real punch in the gut.

"Flexible Flyer" is my favorite Grant song. They really hit a rich vein on Flip Your Wig. I wish they gave that one to Warners, things could've gone so much better.

I wish Hart and Mould had swapped verses more often like they did on Flip Your Wig (the song).

Man, listening to "Flexible Flyer" is a real punch in the gut
it hurts! hurts so much! (sorry)

it is a very poignant song

"You Can Live at Home" is a total jam. Should be noted Grant had the last song on the last Hüsker Dü album.

Does anyone know whether "Green Eyes" was about his cat? I saw something about it earlier this week but hadn't heard that before. I sing it to my cat all the time.

I came here to post this. This is "Flexible Flyer" from their last show, but it cuts out. The last recorded song of their last show.

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

Was struck, noodling around on guitar the other day, how Bob Mould songs are more than often built around aggro power chords, but Hart gravitates toward big, simple, open folk chords. Really highlights the difference between them as writers.

not to split hairs but they both wrote like that, that's a big part of the HD sound. Mould rarely leaves the first position. Off the top of my head, all these songs are based on open chords: Makes No Sense At All, Private Plane, I Apologize, Celebrated Summer, Something I Learned Today, Chartered Trips, Could You Be the One, In a Free Land, Hardly Getting Over It, Divide and Conquer...

This is one death that has hit me hard, said some stuff about it on FB and i wont bore anyone by repeating it here but Grant wrote most of my fave HD songs and this band means so much to me, even though I wasnt even aware of them in my lifetime. Ive been a huge fan for 25 years now and Grants death has been a terrible shock.