Are there ANY plans to reissue Husker Du?

It might be my imagination but 8 Miles High sounds a little weaker on cd, but the Warners albums sound the same on cd.

Spot must have gotten a new reverb or something around 1985, as their is a ton on New Day Rising, 3-Way Tie for Last and the last Black Flag albums, where most of the records he did with those bands are pretty dry up until that time.

I suppose we should be happy these bands even got to record some music. Look at how many of the late 70s bands never even got to make an album.

god i have every actual-real HD vinyl release!! i am so lame

Part of the "Y" in DIY includes being a shitty producer. You want Alan Parsons, you buy Alan Parsons.

gor gor OTM here, at least judging from the vinyl albums that are the only way i've ever heard the huskers. all you peeps who want them remixed or remastered are absolutely insane. that raw tinny guitar blur and those buried vocals, esp. on zen arcade and new day rising, are part of what makes them so great. those are two absolutely perfect records. it's when they started trying to clean up the sound that they lost their way.

REMIX/REMASTER ALL OF THEM PLEASE!

All you zealots can hold on to your old copies...Grant Hart is a great drummer, and the drums on all their RECORDS sounds like TOTAL SHIT.

:x

I couldn't agree more - but it's not cleaner I'd like, it's more powerful. Grant fuckin' slams that kit, and you can just tell that Bob's amp had a jet engine's worth of sound coming out of it, but the end result can sound way too thin and (dare I say?) wimpy, undercutting the force of the songs. And HD were NOT wimpy.

DIY is/was vunderbar. However, the concept that it means you have to have shitty recordings is retardo. Lots and lots of people made fantastic recordings with crappy equipment and little technical expertise. Even "bad" sound can be the coolest thing ever, when used in a way that benefits the material (I sure ain't defending the sound of the Warners stuff, which blows, although in a different way - too overproduced & anti-rock, particularly those poor drums, which were criminally shortchanged on nearly every recording they ever made).

Shitty sound works wonderfully for a lot of bands and a lot of styles of songwriting. Husker Du wasn't one of them. It doesn't ruin the albums - they're still in my list of absolute favorites, and I think they hold up regardless of any sonic flaws - but I inevitably wonder how freaking awesome they would sound with just a little more oomph, ie more accurate representations of what the band actually sounded like. Of course, given the nature of things at the time, it's wonderful they were able to record at all. I'll take bad sounding HD albums over no HD albums any day.

I think it's comparable to the Raw Power situation - that album was godlike before the remix/remaster, but it's even better now, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't wish HD would get similar treatment. It isn't going to happen, but whatever.

but the tinny trebly nature of the guitars and drums mean they sound pretty shitty at normal listening volumes or through headphones

I don't like that remix at all. They would have been better off just remastering from the original mix tapes.

The SST stuff is great in the fact that they made do with what they had. If you compare their production to Bad Brains, Minor Threat or other bands of that time, it is about on par. People just didn't have a Protools rig setting on a laptop in every other musicians house in 1983.

While SST business practices are questionable after the fact, if they didn't put out those records most of those bands might not even be known today. By comparison, look at how many of the records put out on Homestead or Restless are completely obscure today, as those labels couldn't keep things in print or could not get them distributed nearly as well.

Agree with gor, fact check, etc. about the production and (vinyl at least) mastering of New Day Rising and Zen Arcade. The records sounds GREAT exactly as they were 1st released, and, more to the point, they sound the way they were meant to sound. Yes, that sound is thin, harsh, and somewhat jarring. It undercuts both the pop and the punk, and, in NDR's case, makes for some fairly difficult listening, at least at first. But again, that's what these records ARE. And bbb OTM. The sound expands and deepens at maximum volume. It's not like the muscle you're looking for doesn't exist, just that it's kinda buried. Which makes this a very different situation than the Bowie version of Raw Power (which was NOT improved by Iggy's remix, but I guess that's a different thread). Being a fan of the live act and wishing they'd made different records is fine, but what's done is done.

That said, careful, respectful remastering can be a good thing, and if Bob and Grant really wanted to do it, I'd be curious to hear a remix.

Why does one have to blot out the other? Why can't we have the, like, mono/stereo/bonus cuts/deluxe action-pack a la Village Green Preservation Society on these suckers? That way you can listen to how shitty they sounded in 1984, and how shitty they'd sound with remixing/remastering! A great band, isn't it, that can break through sounding so very shitty and still strike awe into our hearts 25 years later.

I mean, fuck, Blind Lemon Jefferson's records sound better than Hüsker Dü's.

Way late to this thread, but just had a couple Du tracks pop up on shuffle. The tinny sound is what has really kept me from falling head over heels for this band. When I hear a random song pop up unexpectedly, I'm able to really extract from it how great they are, but listening to an entire album just wears me down.

Anyone who thinks the Husker Du CDs sound fine has obviously never heard the vinyl versions. Take Zen Arcade, for instance. Once "Something I Learned Today" hits the needle, the drums pop and crack, then Greg's bass is heavy yet trebly, and when Bob's guitars kick in, you can hear sheets of metallic guitar that just plain disappear on CD.

Yes, the HD albums all had a tinny sound to begin with. Bob said years ago that they wanted the trebly sound because "when you're a kid, you turn the bass all the way down and turn the treble up." He is so right, that's what I always did spinning records on my mom's hi-fi. But believe me folks, the CDs are not an accurate representation of what these records sound like. There are vinyl MP3 and FLAC rips floating around the internets that sound sooo much better than the SST and Warner Bros. CDs. The bootleg CD version of Land Speed Record is a must, even if just for properly breaking it up into 17 tracks (how lazy can you get Ginn, just putting two tracks on the CD, for side one and side two?).

I recently downloaded via eMusic the Rhino reissues of Candy Apple Grey and Warehouse. Not sure if they are true remasters, but they do sound marginally better than the original CDs. Warehouse, in particular, is an album that sounds 100x better on vinyl; there's lots of things going on sonically that just aren't captured on the CD.

Anyway, Bob and Grant's ongoing feud with SST over back royalties is what is holding up any remix/remaster/reissue campaign for this essential catalog. They aren't going to agree to any new releases until they get the back pay they feel is owed them, and we know SST couldn't pay that even if they wanted to.

I never thought much about the Husker's production back at the time, so it can't have been that bad. To be fair, I was always blasting it on a cheap stereo. I was playing (loud) mp3s made from CD in the car yesterday, and again didn't really think much about the sound. It certainly wasn't "great" but wasn't the first thing I thought about. Drums do sound like cardboard boxes...

Am about to do a side-by-side comparison of the New Day Rising needle drop from pbthall's site with a CD rip...

Ok, unless the pbthall rip is a fake (it's from his site) the two versions are laughably similar. I'm sure a remaster would help, but at least in this case I can't see any great reason to fret about only having the CD.

Bob and Grant's ongoing feud with SST over back royalties is what is holding up any remix/remaster/reissue campaign for this essential catalog. They aren't going to agree to any new releases until they get the back pay they feel is owed them, and we know SST couldn't pay that even if they wanted to.
i don't know anything about contracts or back royalties etc., but if the Huskers haven't been compensated by SST properly, isn't there some sort of legal way for them to just get the rights to their recordings back? i mean, if they put out reissues on some other label, does that mean that SST would still get a cut?

I've been waiting on remasters before checking out HD. It seems to happen a lot to me where I'll buy a group's albums and then within a year they get reissued.

yeah i kinda have held off on getting some of their stuff too, because i figure a comprehensive reish program is around the corner. I guess not?

well you think they would reissue sooner rather than later if they're going to do it at all, what with the impending "DEATH OF THE CD" and all - x-post.

People have been talking about reissues for 15 years

Yeah, I'm still waiting for more Springsteen albums to get reissued. It's really taking a long time, though.

bob and grant need to sort out their beefs with each other before they can sort out the legal beefs re: the HD catalogue, so...

How much money do they think SST owes them? it's not like those albums were blockbuster sellers

it's probably more like no one *knows* how much money they're owed. i think sst was notoriously bad at bookkeeping ...

Besides, for every cent the the Husker's get, a little kitten goes hungry!

the black flag cds also sound terrible compared to vinyl imo

guys this is never going to happen

:'(

bob and grant need to sort out their beefs with each other before they can sort out the legal beefs

There was a recent interview with Grant where he said him and Bob don't hate each other any more but he layed into Greg instead.

OK, now that my turntable is back up and running, another reason to go out and buy vintage VINYL!

Does vinyl really help sound quality with respect to hardcore acts like Husker Du?

lol at turning on Greg!

"his food sucks!"

Grant answered a load of fan questions recently on his myspace and remasters didn't sound like they'd be a priority for him from his general tone re: husker

weird because i saw grant open for mike watt in the fall and greg came out and joined both grant, mike w., and mike's band for a big all star jam on "little johnny jewel"....

a couple of friends have been to greg's restaurant and apparently he's an amazing chef

is it greg ginn grant has beef with, rather than greg norton?

LOL @ that confusion.

No it was Greg Norton, not Ginn.

http://www.blurt-online.com/features/view/520

:3(

Haha that interview is hilarious. He's always come off as such a douche.

It was Greg Ginn when I interviewed Grant back in '03 before booking him at the dive bar I was deputy soundguy. He went on about Ginn for a while.

yeah i only ever bought Warehouse on CD and that was to replace my vinyl so i probably never noticed

I always feel with SST that the vibe was like George Bailey in It's A Wonderful Life when there's a run on the old building and loan, with Ginn being like, "I don't have your money, Bob, it's in the Minutemen's next album, and the Meat Puppets' next album, and Sonic Youth's next album," like they were paying it forward to the next SST band and would see it again when they got their budget for their next album. But that's a harder pill to swallow when the money is being sunk into albums by Gone and Greg Ginn solo joints and Tom Troccoli's Dog.

thats exactly what it was like. Huskers and Minutemen both had long delay problems getting their respective doubles out in 84 - and despite warning SST it would be big, they only printed up maybe 5000 copies of Zen Arcade, which sold out almost right away and led to months (3-6 i think!) where they were touring the album (which had amazing reviews) and nobody could buy it. Black Flag release FOUR albums that year. no wonder Bob doesnt want to delve into the legal shit on this.

oh not to mention Greg / SST were also claiming all of the bands mechanical royalties for years until around the time they moved to a major and the legal people there told them how fucked up that was and they got them back

it's not just the CDs, it's every version of the albums on the internet. there are some good rehearsal tapes for Zen Arcade and NDR on youtube that I listen to more than the albums

yo hmu on ilxmail for HQ direct vinyl rips of my personal copies

this is making me curious how different it sounds -- i have only ever heard the CD versions except for NDR which i bought a vinyl copy of bc i am a nerd and it's one of my favorite rock albums ever.

the recordings could be a lot better but I kind of liked the harsh, tinny, metallic, trebly sound of Metal Circus, Zen Arcade, New Day Rising

those extremely harsh guitar sounds were incredible I thought

thats exactly what it was like. Huskers and Minutemen both had long delay problems getting their respective doubles out in 84 - and despite warning SST it would be big, they only printed up maybe 5000 copies of Zen Arcade, which sold out almost right away and led to months (3-6 i think!) where they were touring the album (which had amazing reviews) and nobody could buy it.

but I feel like the "discovered" live album, Dead Man's Pop and steady reissues helped the 'Mats to no end in terms of cache with younger listeners that might not have been around and it kills me to see Husker Du not getting the same thing.

Another thing that helping the 'Mats ensure their legacy was Trouble Boys getting published.

A long time ago, I'd come home after a lonesome night, put Zen Arcade on the record player and turn it up loud enough to where I couldn't hear the phone if it rang.

These private remasters are hit and miss, but this one gets close to what it sounded like on my turntable at least.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0emHpV2k0Jg

Trouble Boys did more to ruin my ability to enjoy the Replacements than it helped because they were so insufferable. I don't think I could ever feel that negatively about Grant, Bob, and Greg because they weren't as insufferable. I'm sure they had their moments and engaged in a lot of infighting/sniping, but they didn't light cash money on fire for larfs.

Part of the problem with Warehouse is that it’s just as poorly produced as Don’t Tell A Soul (though in a far different manner), but there’s no unreleased/“better” mix of Warehouse in anyone’s archives or kitchen cabinets. It came out sounding exactly like they wanted it to sound.

Yeah, I mean, when you hit Warehouse the issue is they wanted the album to sound like that (and fwiw I think it sounds great). I came to HD after hearing Sugar, and was frustrated at first that the drums on albums like Warehouse were less about the driving, bombastic force-of-rock playing of Malcolm Travis - but as time's worn on I've appreciated how Grant was after something different, almost a melodic way of playing the drums, rather than pounding away and delivering the dynamic payoffs. The reverb on the drums is totally an era-appropriate thing, I guess, and I dig it now.

I never really had a problem with the way my Husker CDs/cassettes sounded, tbh. I do find it telling that the major label albums that the band produced themselves sound worse (or sometimes more dated) than Flip Your Wig (which the band also produced). I have a feeling if I/we got what we wanted it would be a "Raw Power" situation. That is, we'd end up with two less than satisfying outcomes, the thin/disappointing mixes we have now or a bottom-heavy distracting remix. We rarely get true remixes of this kind of thing, though. Typically it's just remastering, which can help bring volumes etc. up to modern standards (like the REM, Replacements albums), but that's imo not often as night-and-day incredible as, for example, those definitive Bowie/Costello reissues of the Ryko era.

An issue is that Everything Falls Apart and Metal Circus sound better than all the acclaimed stuff that makes up 90% of conversation on this topic.

I get that the underwater, snow-flurry blur that is New Day Rising is an interesting deliberate aesthetic choice but I’m baffled with the approach to Warehouse, if indeed that was what they were after; all that biscuit tin snare and thin sound is just jarring for what is their most conventional pop-rock album, especially with Warners money behind it.

I think there’s a case that it doesn’t really help their legacy long term that the more approachable their music became, the worse the albums sounded (or at best, levelled off without much improvement). I do think that the Warners era was a missed opportunity, even beyond what we already know about the era

Trouble Boys did more to ruin my ability to enjoy the Replacements than it helped because they were so insufferable. I don't think I could ever feel that negatively about Grant, Bob, and Greg because they weren't as insufferable. I'm sure they had their moments and engaged in a lot of infighting/sniping, but they didn't light cash money on fire for larfs.

Not until they very end, and even then it mostly happened in private, and not in person.