HUSKER DU V. Replacements

I like an Irish drinking song as much as anyone else, but

Always member seeing that described in Melody Maker as a heavy metal sea shanty.

don't think it's really arguable that Husker Du are more monochromatic/limited in scope than the 'Mats. kinda amazed they won this poll - I never want to listen to either much these days, but the 'Mats stuff is at least fun. So much of Husker Du's output is horribly thin-sounding and terribly produced, I find it actively painful to listen to that high-end hissing wall of guitars sometimes.

^^^ this. 'Mats>>>Huskers for me, both live and recorded, but HD live was an undeniable maelstrom, like sticking your head in a jet engine (with pop hooks buried beneath the roar.)

If you've never seen this, complete show '85.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnJfONKJZV8&feature=related

"I can't find anything appealing about Huskers" = "other people are only pretending to like Huskers"

It's the old Schoenberg challops all over again

I get the whole thin-sounding production argument against the Hüskers. (I kinda dislike Warehouse more for its production than the Spot records, to be honest.)

That said, there's still some gutsy songs in there. the cuts on Metal Circus, bass-heavy Zen Arcade shit like "Something I Learned Today" or "Standing by the Sea". Yeah, it gets tinny. If you want muddy though, go listen to Tim. (Another great record with bad production.)

Replacements are more organic maybe, to a point, but that doesn't mean they're better.

don't think it's really arguable that Husker Du are more monochromatic/limited in scope than the 'Mats.

Totally agree. You hear one Husker Du song, you've kind of heard them all. I just took the liberty to listening to 5 of the above listed songs in succession, and they all mine pretty much the exact same territory with the one pitiful exception of "The Baby Song." Jesus, how did Bob Mould let that get on an album?

The production may not always have been great, but to say the Du were "Bland, boring, and repetitive" is just nonsense. As for variety, I would argue that Husker Du had two great song writers who both mined different seams and came up with wildly different sets of songs.

Are you tone deaf? You could also say (I wouldn't) that songs like "Lay It Down Clown" and "Little Mascara" pretty much come from the exact same grain.

This is a tough one, but I gotta say Husker Du based on little more than personal preference.

But then, I'll admit- all of their records have terrible production and uneven song quality. The Replacements sound much better as a band and have a considerably higher percentage of good songs to bad ones. Westerberg's voice is untouchable, and their hooks were gigantic.

It took me years to get into Husker Du, and I frequently avowed that they sucked. But then, once, as I sat in the parking lot of my shitty job, blasting music from my shitty car stereo, frustrated to no end by the shitty circumstances of my life, "Pride" by Husker Du came on, and everything suddenly clicked all at once.

In spite of their uneven qualities, Husker Du channels rage, angst and frustration unlike any band from that time. Their music is truly desperate, and I connected with it during those times more than I ever have with the Replacements, songwriting be damned.

Ghosttaster OTM. I had more or less the same experience - love the Mats albums and later came to Husker via solo Bob and Sugar, but only selected songs as none of their albums satisfy me entirely.

I think making Warehouse into a double was a big mistake - the band may well have fallen apart anyway but I don't see how this would have helped them

What those albums could have sounded like with a Gil Norton, Vig or Wallace at the helm.....as opposed to Spot (he worked for the Minutemen - he did not for the Huskers)

Thing is Huskers were much more of a sonically powerful band that its a bigger disappointment that their albums sound like shit - I can only imagine how New Day Rising or Flip Your Wig would have sounded had they come out in 1992 or whatever.

Totally agree. You hear one Husker Du song, you've kind of heard them all. I just took the liberty to listening to 5 of the above listed songs in succession, and they all mine pretty much the exact same territory with the one pitiful exception of "The Baby Song." Jesus, how did Bob Mould let that get on an album?

Basically the Baby Song = Hart/Mould war over songwriting quotas = end of band

I knew it was the Baby Song that did it

I would have been torn in 1984, and it's still not an easy call. TBH, I'm inclined to go with The Replacements, despite my strong inclination to disagree with polio just on principle. The 'Mats are easier on the ear, funnier and more self-effacing, able to get across emotion without bombast, more varied in tone and texture, and more closely connected to the 70s rock I love best (Stones, Big Star, Kiss).

That's not to take anything away from Husker Du. Thin sound or no, I love Zen Arcade and New Day Rising, at least like everything they did. The only reservation I have about Husker Du is a product of their unswerving dedication to "intensity", whether emotional or sonic. These things go hand in hand in their music, the squalls of screaming mid-high fuzz and the earnestly wounded emo wailing, you shouldn't see me crying ice cold ice. Suspect that they're Mould's legacy much more than Hart's, as Hart wrote most of the goofy and generous Husker Du songs I love best: the folk, country and rawk stuff like "Books About UFOs", "Turn On the News" and "She Floated Away".

More than any 80s band I can think of, Husker Du need and deserve a careful remastering and reissue campaign.

re: Ice cold ice stuff - Near the end of the band and definitely on the solo records, the parenthetical statements Mould makes gets on my nerves.

And just a reminder that the Hüsker Dü poll is coming soon, sometime in 2013 or 2014.

If the Man Sized Action record Mould produced during those yrs is any indication, Spot probably made those Husker records sound less thin or at least exactly how they wanted them to sound.

Huskers for me always.

Husker Du is in dire need of a nice catalogue reissue campaign and quality remastering job. I think it would serve their legacy immensely.

i completely agree, but bob and grant apparently can't get it together enough to get the tapes back

Bob Mould's book kind of makes him sound like a jerk

him being Bob Mould himself

Guitarists with high-end hearing loss and personal issues with the bass player always mix poorly. ALWAYS.

The original vote (50-39) is almost a perfect approximation of where they stand for me--in 1985, also today. Husker Du is one of my three or four favourite bands ever, but the right song will make me intensely nostalgic for the Replacements.

I note that "Hot Tub Time Machine" uses a Replacements song on the soundtrack, but nothing by Husker Du. Husker Du wins.

Husker Du are a great band, but the Mats destroy them. It's just not a contest.

otoh, it's just a contest

Husker Don't.

I don't know if you can just remaster Huskers. I was just listening to Candy Apple Grey on Spotify and - wow. They might need to be remixed. There is almost no bass.

Mould was a really good songwriter. "Eiffel Tower High" on that album is really put together well - great chord progression, harmonies through much of the song. Unique stuff, and very good.

"Hardly Getting Over It"!

I note that Husker Du are very arguably an influence on Fucked Up, who put out one of the best albums of 2011, and that The Replacements really impressed Winona Ryder.

more than arguably, i'd say

Since the Replacements never influenced any awesome 2010ees P4K approved musics like Fucked Up and since turning on chicks like Winona Ryder is totally against the rock'n'rollist constitution, I guess we have to give this round to Hart & Mould.

Mould also has Sugar in his favor.

arguably

Sugar is not a plus.

i want to say that the replacement had a bigger and more direct influence on american pop than husker du. a lot of people took their basic sound and sensibility and ran with it, from approximate contemporaries like soul asylum and the goo goo dolls to later descendants like the hold steady and all american rejects. then again, i suppose husker du and mould had a huge influence on emo and hardcore, so it's hard to say.

replacements

Sugar is most definitely a plus! Very little solo Westerberg is worth the time of day. Someome suggest a best-of his solo stuff and I'll give it a spin, though.

There actually is one:

http://www.amazon.com/Besterberg-Best-Paul-Westerberg/dp/B0007Z9RAM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1334804761&sr=8-3

The one song I know I love is "Lookin' Out Forever." I don't remember much else.

Husker Du had a pretty huge and last impact on midwestern underground rock.

lastING even

Oh I guess I should have read your whole post, contederizer.

"Makes No Sense at All" is a mind=blowing record. To go from punk rock to bubblegum is one thing, but to get there from HARDCORE is another!

Not to mention that it's just done so artfully.

you mean the song or flip you wig in general?

No, that song in particular.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j13khaeFUcA

westerberg's shtick has aged sorta badly for me although there are some great tunes

feel like mould is partly responsible for emo. his songs don't move me as much as they did (i was much more into his husker stuff back in the day), but hart's best stuff sounds better as time goes on.

hart's best stuff sounds better as time goes on

otm, though i love a lot of mould's stuff too

i suppose husker du and mould had a huge influence on emo and hardcore

also a massive influence on nirvana's nevermind; i remember krist saying around the time of release that their blend of melody and noise wasn't anything revolutionary, that husker du did it before.

i love both bands. they're both very, very different from each other, despite being nominally from the same genre and geographically the same area. husker du are intense, but the mats are maudlin. different flavours for different moods.