Are there ANY plans to reissue Husker Du?

wait - Double Nickels on the Dime, that record sounds great! (in a pretty conventional way)

wow there are six "unknown date" SST CD pressings of Zen Arcade listed on Discogs :(

SST keeps fucking all this stuff up so bad, I think I saw something on the Hoffman thread about them pressing vinyl reissues with worn-out stampers which explains some things

Ginn is such a piece of shit, sad he has control over such an important part of American rock music

and X - Los Angeles was on Slash, and sounds great but not too slick god bless Ray Manzarek #strangedaysmono

the roar of the mascis could be um, worn-out stampers

oh yeah, X's Los Angeles and Double Nickels do sound good — i mean, i wouldn't really want any of these records to sound different (maybe zen arcade is the exception? i'll check that rehearsal).

X albums got remastered in early 2000s.

Meat Puppets Up on the Sun sounds fantastic. As do Mirage and Huevos.

I always thought NoMeansNo's Wrong sounded fantastic

Pretty sure not all of Spot's records sound like the Huskers (My War, Meat Puppets).

Damaged sounds pretty fuckin good as well, y'all

(that being said, there are other engineers credited)

Spot also had to deal with getting all these fucking nutcases to record albums

Also based on the records that Mould produced in the early 80s, Man Sized Action & Impaler, he was into that harsh/thin sound. And no less of an authority than Terry Katzmann once told me that "those records sound exactly how they want them to"

We can talk about terrible cd transfers from the early 90s but those original SST LPs sound great. Weird, bracing, eccentric, sure, but still great.

yeah the Impaler record is a blast but sounds v thin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSP1s3WA2_8

I think the Minutemen were easier to record well because there was more space in their sound and arrangements rather than the sheets of metal and cardboard box drums. All the 80s Feelies albums sounded great in different ways, as did Mission Of Burma. Wipers sort of had similar issues as the Huskers.

good call on MoB, Vs. sounds incredible

Context is a factor. I remember one hot summer day moving into a house with some friends after my first year of college and the first thing we did before anything else was moved was set up the stereo with big heavy beat-up 70s-era speakers. We blasted Zen Arcade at window-shaking volume and it sounded amazing. But in the context of say, a digital playlist next to other recordings, it kind of sounds like ass.

Yeah Burma records were great, Roger Miller was a schooled musician so maybe he liked it more pro

Ex: The fact that they deliberately meant for the vocals on "Chartered Trips" to sound like Squidwad trapped in a garbage can amazes me.

It's more jarring to me as HD had a big sound that was anthemic in its own way. And the biggest selling act on SST by far (according to the Azerrad book).

Minutemen, by contrast and by design, were never going to be mistaken for an arena band.

Though Minutemen were apparently SUPER loud

Out there in the desert, I see trees on every wall
Nothing's ever solved

"Yeah Burma records were great, Roger Miller was a schooled musician so maybe he liked it more pro"

tons of boston records sound great. indie and punk and hardcore and new wave. all kinds. maybe in the back of their minds they thought they could be the cars.

i was listening to this today. sounds so cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=65&v=7iAzxE8S3XI

'Squidward trapped in a garbage can' - I will never be able to unhear that.

Norman Records are indeed selling the vinyl in the UK - £79 delivered which isn't too harsh given the shit nature of the pound vs dollar

Confession: I've never had a problem with the way my Husker Du discs sounded. I remember reading Christgau's reviews of the albums, and even he would bring up the bad production, but it's always been exactly what I wanted from the band. I even like the drum sound, which I don't think is gated reverb. It's something a lot more eccentric.

I cant imagine the albums sounding any other way. If they had been more polished I doubt we would like them as much.

totes agree with those 2 posts

MoB sounded great on Vs. in part because Rick Harte (Ace of Hearts) was Ginn's exact opposite, and the mensch of Boston label owners. Everything done right.

I've listened to the NPR streaming, and it feels like the remasters have done the standard thing—fill in the bass to make the sound fuller. (And also to bring everything up to current loudness standards, of course, which is fine.) But I'm not sure a fuller Husker Du is always a better Husker Du. You can subtly take the edge off the sound and make it a touch sluggish, too. It'll probably sound great on cheap headphones, though, which is too frequently the target of remastering nowadays.

Thing is I don't think it's lack of polish that's the problem with the production on Husker Du records. There are loads of punk/hardcore records with way cruddier lo-fi production than Husker Du/other SST records from that time that still manage to sound good. I think it's the mixing? Maybe just a bit of EQ-ing would make them better, I dunno. Obviously this is a taste thing as well, I'm used to "raw" punk production and generally dislike "slick" production on punk records.

Mind you the only Husker Du I have on vinyl is Flip Your Wig, the rest is all on CD, so it could be the bad CD transfer or whatever.

Would also say my issues with Husker Du production mostly go away if you crank it loud enough!

Pretty fair to say, I think, that Copper Blue or maybe Beaster is what HD might have sounded like with traditional "good" production, but that would not have worked well. It needs that jagged in the red feel. There's a reason they call it stun guitar.

Wait what are blue oyster cult doing in the huskers thread???

Seriously though, does anyone have a line on some decent huskers vinyl rips? In my original fandom I had them all on cassette, and those were replaced by CDs. I never heard them on vinyl... and people's description intrigues me.

I love those first two Sugar records so much

The bass on Zen Arcade / NDR sounds like it went through a Laney 'Klipp' combo with the mega-compression button pushed in. It's truly horrible. With a better bass sound the whole thing would improve no end, but I guess that was the sound they were after (or maybe they just didn't know any better).

I really don't blame spot particularly. Bob Moulds guitar sound, there is no way to better capture anything that loud and in the red. there is just no space in it at all.

Where was I just reading about the Minutemen guitar approach? That D Boon would just turn the treble all the way up on his amp, and turn the bass all the way down, then crank it?

the MP3s sound great, I just skipped around a bit last night

I also got an email confirmation

They tweeted last nite they had some overrun of the Extra Circus 7 inch...so I ordered the 3CD + 7 inch, order went through, we'll see

Where was I just reading about the Minutemen guitar approach? That D Boon would just turn the treble all the way up on his amp, and turn the bass all the way down, then crank it?

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, September 8, 2017 10:03 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

And he was using a Tele, so OUCH

"Can't See You Anymore" is the best "Yeah!!! Just gotta have sex!" so funny

I also can't believe I'm listening to this and waiting for my vinyl of Neil Young Hitchhiker to arrive

haha otm

Where was I just reading about the Minutemen guitar approach? That D Boon would just turn the treble all the way up on his amp, and turn the bass all the way down, then crank it?

― Josh in Chicago, Friday, September 8, 2017 10:03 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

They considered guitar and bass to be separate, sovereign states with no over lap so...yeah

Wish I woulda bought that Statues Record Store Day a couple years ago, those songs are great

I think all four of the tracks from that double 7" are on this new box, fwiw

oh yeah i meant i'm hearing them and they are great! wish i woulda sprung for it back then just to have the 7 inch

i had it in my hand then put it down to buy something else

it's funny how some of this stuff puts lie to the narrative that they started out as wild ass hardcore kids that couldn't play and eventually developed songwriting chop

like "Writer's Cramp" in particular is a well crafted and well played little power pop/punk number that's far from hardcore