Bob Mould: Classic or Dud?

After Sugar, I just can't get with what Bob has been doing. It started going wrong with that record where he did all of the instruments and the little I have heard after that one wasn't my thing.

Husker Du, parts of his first two solo records and Sugar are great.

It would be nice if Bob Mound could get over it and come to terms with Grant Hart. Even 15 years down the line, it seems like there is some really bad blood between them. Mould seems to want to write Grant Hart out of the history of the band or something. What a grudge or power trip. Mind you this is all based on reading bunches of interviews with both of them. Considering how Sugar ended up, a pattern seems somewhat evident.

Sugar was really good and much more intense live. It was a pretty brave move on Mould's part to tour a few times with that band before they had a record out. I saw them a couple of times, once at Bogarts in Cinci before anything had come out and once later on in Chicago. They were a blinding wall of sound live.

Never saw Husker Du. They were my favorite band when I was 17-18 years old and broke up my senior year in high school. A friend of mine used to have a tape of Husker Du playing on the Joan Rivers show, they did two songs and the set that looked like the cover of Warehouse: Songs and Stories. Joan also had them over briefly to be interviewed. My friend's Mom taped over it a couple of years later...what a loss. (This is the kind of thing that would be great on some deluxe Husker Du reissue, but Bob and Grant haven't been able to work things out to make something like this happen.)

Sorty...sorry.

It would be nice if Bob and Grant buried the hatchet, it would be great to hear the older albums remastered, particularly as they have never really been done justice on CD. But that seems unlikely, even as recently as Modulate the Grant-bashing persists (I thought the line "Some deadbeat Dad who lives at home" in The Receipt was particularly hurtful, Grant also claims that Bob cryptically reveals Grant's address in the lyrics to that song.)

I only saw Sugar once, in 1994 shortly after FU:EL came out - it was one of the biggest disapointments of my life. You just couldn't hear the guitar or vocals at ALL. Several audience members were trying to alert the band to this fact but to no avail.

Perhaps because Sugar were my favourite band when I was fifteen I still feel a very powerful emotional connection with Bob's songs, particularly those on Copper Blue and Warehouse. But I also believe he does the vulnerable lyrics/loud guitars thing better than anybody else. To this day, I tend to put a Bob record on to listen to loud, through headphones, late at night when I'm drunk!

All time favourites would be Zen Arcade, New Day Rising, Warehouse:Songs and Stories, Beaster.

Weaker moments: Candy Apple Grey (in term's of Bob's songs), Modulate.

Pretty much everything else, classic!

Haven't heard Sugar. Bought 'Modulate' the other day. It's okay, not outstanding, but something I'll listen to again, even though he sounds disturbingly like Dave Grohl, which a friend pointed out to me. Haven't heard anything else of his solo stuff, but apparently it's better. So, I'll have to get it.

Can I just say though, Grant Hart's 'Intolerence' is definitely worth getting.

Husker Du - Classic

Bob Mould solo - Dud

Sugar - Classic

-- alex in nyc (vassife...), July 4th, 2001.

Looking back, that seems a bit harsh. While I still prefer Husker Du and Sugar, there have been moments in Bob's solo work that have been quite good.

Sasha otm re: Intolerance - we need a Grant Hart thread..

don't blame bob for that; he came first. although i always thought grohl was a bit closer to grant hart.

love love love husker du, although they started sliping on the last couple albums. i find sugar a tad bit less interesting than, say, jimmy eat world. not a huge waste of talent, just the usual steady decline.

He just seems so unimaginative, so lacking in spark. Sure, he had a good guitar sound. That doesn't give him license to make bog-standard indie fuzz songs for 20 years.

Sugar: Q. good.

Solo: Hard work.

Mould solo: meh. Some of the Richard Thompson-esque tunes on Workbook like "Brasilia Crossed With Trenton" are top-notch.

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Museum/7147/bobby.html

(via Bob's blog)

No mention of the last album? My take:

http://www.citypages.com/databank/26/1295/article13721.asp

Mould is performing for free in Minneapolis June 22, at the Bryant-Lake Bowl, and is on the Henry Rollins show this Friday...

I came upon Husker Du pretty late, but for a band that was so universally praised from so many different corners, I wasn't all that impressed. I recently stumbled upon a blog maintained by Ben Weasel (of Screeching Weasel fame) and a post where he talks about breaking out the old Husker Du canon and being mostly unimpressed compared to how amazing it sounded back in the day. I'll submit him as my expert witness.

I hear theres a regularly thrown party in the DC area, specifically catered to over 30's gay men that he DJs at (shirtless) and I think this is very good.

the first six friends on his myspace page all look very Bob-like, its eerie... i'm a huge fan, and interviewed him a couple of years ago, and he was much fun. i listen to his solo stuff and sugar so rarely nowadays, and mostly if i'm feeling especially blue, and i'm not as convinced that he was a better songwriter than grant as i was when i was younger (not that it matters), but i always enjoy it.

if i were to listen to 'can't fight it' right now, i would be a mess.

the bobby hill=bob mould page is very funny.

hahahahaha:

"I have noted down the people who are saying they like it and will be paying less attention to their opinions in future: sorry and all, you're lovely people but it's that mediocre."

Quite possibly my favorite Bob.

His "Blowoff" dj setlists look pretty predictable to me

Bob's got another rock cd coming out with Brendan Canty on drums, on the Anti label in February

http://www.spinner.com/2007/12/04/bob-mould-returns-with-district-line-exclusive-mp3/

Anti has been capturing a lot of veterans on their second wind. That'd be cool if it happened again.

Yes it would. I didn't like Mould's electronic stuff, but the last rock album he did had at least one great song (New No. 1), so I'm hopeful.

New one hailed as a "return to form"

which form?

rooock n' roll!

Saw DISTRICT LINE in HMV and felt sorry -but also proud- for it,
Had a place of its own on the 'new release' shelf. Despite it being late in the day it was clear to me that the staff had either been restacking to keep it neat after the rush, or no fker had bought it. I feared the latter and purchased to make a dent.

It's not bad. But not great, although I sense a grower.

Please kids - listen to 'Who Needs dreams' and enjoy . Had it on a loop. Grandad.

I cannot stop listening to "Believe What You're Saying"

http://modulate.blogspot.com/2008/09/press-release-from-little-brown.html

BOB MOULD TO PUBLISH AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Michael Pietsch, Publisher of Little, Brown and Company, announced this week that Bob Mould will be writing his autobiography in collaboration with Michael Azerrad, author of the bestselling Our Band Could Be Your Life and Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana.

The memoir will, for the first time ever, delve deeply into Mould's life as a musician and his experiences with Hüsker Dü, as a solo artist, and in his most commercially viable and successful work as leader of the 90s indie rock kingpins Sugar. He will also tell the story of his other lives, including his internal struggle with his sexuality, the coming-out process, and his subsequent embrace of, and service to, the LGBT community; his work as a creative consultant / director in the world of pro wrestling; his work as a record producer, including seminal projects by Soul Asylum and Magnapop; and his foray into electronic / dance music, including the popular BLOWOFF club events held nationwide.

Bob Mould said, "For many years, people have asked if and when I would write my autobiography. I have always looked forward to this point in time, where I could tell my stories, to answer the many questions about the music and the lifestyle, and how they inform the creative process. I have not been alone on this ride: friends and foes, mentors and associates, peers, lovers, all traveling by my side. The ride so far has been incredible, and I hope to do my memory right in documenting the journey."

It is expected to be published in autumn 2010.

I've ordered this already!

Autumn 2010? FFS

30th anniversary world tour with original members, all reading excepts to promote Bob's book- in between the hits. Surely?

Do you think Grant will get a chapter?

I hope they all write a fucking book, even if Greg's is a list of recipes

Excerpts.

Sorry journoes/English teachers etc

the ticket was $10 <3

I’m certain Sugar toured for Copper Blue, yes, and before the release too.

I saw that FU:EL tour, too, and it was a bust, imo. The recordings of earlier Sugar tours sound great.

Also saw that tour and the mix was so loud, all the dynamics were lost. I mean, it was fun to bear the brunt of such a guitar assault but it wasn't satisfying as far as "music" is concerned.

I brought Bob into a commissioned round-up of 2006 dance-related releases, thought there was more but this is it:

Blowoff (Husker Du/Sugar frontman Bob Mould, times DJ Richard Morel), on their amorously armored, self-titled debut, brought shadows into stripe the strobe light. Blowoff summons Bob as Leatherman, dancing like Peter Boyle in Young Frankenstein surely would have, if only he'd reached the beach.

this is unrelated to live shows but i do have a question --

can anyone explain what is the musical reason that every time I hear "JC Auto" there is a specific point where it sort of morphs into "Poison Years" (mostly the chorus, from BSOR) every time i hear it? Both songs reference Jesus H Christ but aside from that i can't quite figure it out!

for ease of comparison
JC Auto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JacQxqqtbrQ

Poison Years
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc-fROR3NN0

sorry it's Workbook not Black Sheets of Rain

I’m certain Sugar toured for Copper Blue, yes, and before the release too.

Yup. I saw (part of) the first Chicago appearance of Sugar, which predated the release of Copper Blue by two months. I mainly went to see openers Scrawl, who played a brilliant set (I was lucky enough to see them again almost exactly a year later, opening for PJ Harvey). But I was also excited to hear Mould’s new band. Three songs in, the realization that Grant Hart was the heart and soul of Hüsker Dü was painfully evident. Sugar wasn’t bad; they were just…there. Standing still. They did not threaten to take off, blow up, or collapse. I was so underwhelmed by the first few songs that I left. Come to find out later they played the Who’s “Armenia City In The Sky” for an encore. Serves me right, I guess.

Anyone pony up for that humongous CD box set Edsel put out of everything "Bob" yet?

xpost

Yeah that was my experience of Sugar too, a more competent ploddy version of HD without any frisson or danger. They played London before Copper Blue came out, supported by Milk and Swallow which I'm sure was a little joke on the part of the promoter, and whelming it was not.

A friend and bandmate of worked sound at some pretty high-end venues in the 90s, and said that Sugar was the absolute loudest act he ever supported. Like, louder than Metallica Slipknot, Gwar; indeed louder than any metal act then in existence.

Personally I have no idea why a song like "If I Can't Change Your Mind" or "See a Little Light" or "Important Years" needs to be the loudest sound in the universe. But evidently it is part of the Mould shtick. Always has been.

can anyone explain what is the musical reason that every time I hear “JC Auto” there is a specific point where it sort of morphs into “Poison Years” (mostly the chorus, from BSOR) every time i hear it? Both songs reference Jesus H Christ but aside from that i can’t quite figure it out!

I don’t have an answer for this, but it does remind me that the start of “Deep Karma Canyon” on the s/t solo album nicks the verse riff from Saccharine Trust’s “A Human Certainty” so he’s probably not beyond recycling musical motifs here and there.

and said that Sugar was the absolute loudest act he ever supported.

I remember reading a Musician magazine rundown of Mould’s amp rig around that time, and it said that his stage volume — just his guitar, without bass or drums — was 128dB.

For comparison, the first Guinness record holder for Loudest Pop Group was the Who at 120dB.

I love Copper Blue more than any HD album. So there's that.

"Copper Blue" still sounds impeccable. Produced with Lou Giordano, who I believe was HD's longtime sound guy.

Oh, and MBV at its loudest usually hovers around 120dB, and has reportedly reached close to 130 at its absolute noise zenith, so it seems unlikely Mould comes close to that. Mould is loud, but it's not disorientingly loud like MBV (and a few others, like Mogwai, High on Fire, etc.)

this is from the FU:EL tour and sounds pretty good to me

(it was also the bonus disc on certain pressings of the 'besides' comp)

(actually saturday)

Bob Mould got married today. 💕 Congrats Bob and Don. pic.twitter.com/3x8fH1qepR

— Roni (@roni1133) May 7, 2023

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fvk2_QNX0AALK1l?format=jpg&name=large

You will lose your mind
When Bob Moulds are two of a kind