Husker Du : Classic or Dud, Search and Destroy.

Man, if Hüsker Dü albums sounded any other way than how they actually sound, I don't know if it would feel right going into my ears. I'm so used to the poor production that anything rounder or fuller re: guitars and drums would feel "off."

yeah i feel like it's kinda part of the husker du deal! but they do sound better on vinyl, i agree, so a remastered CD would be welcome. but i wouldn't expect the remastering to like completely change the sound.

CD/Blu-Ray reissues with 5.1 surround mixes by Steven Wilson or nothing.

I think those records sound great, bizarre and weird and blown-out and full throttle. No remaster!

someday i will relisten to the LPs to find out what you fetishists consider to be bad production

i feel like the early-mid 80s was a weird time to be an underground rock/guitar band -- like obviously you didn't want to sound like def leppard, you wanted to be the opposite of that. and spot's production delivers in that regard.

Yeah, ZA and NDR sound great. FYW started that weird almost-hair-metal-reverb thing, but it and CAG have aged well (far better than Workbook, I'd argue). Warehouse doesn't sound great, but that's more dü to the band's muted instrumental approach.

xp

I think those records sound great, bizarre and weird and blown-out and full throttle. No remaster!

― chr1sb3singer, Thursday, October 15, 2015 7:50 AM

OTM

anyone who thinks those (vinyl) records had bad sound needs to get a vinyl copy of Zen Arcade and put "Standing By The Sea" on a good stereo at high volume

the CD's are garbage, like every single CD SST has ever released. goes w/o saying.

Morbs also OTM

What about the CDs is garbage? They always sounded fine to me (ditto Double Nickels).

And the only HD vinyl I heard was NDR, and it was irritatingly off-center and super pitch-warbly.

No highs, no lows, engineered by the guys at Bose.

I think it's funny when people talk about how Spot "ruined" these records: these bands had kind of crummy gear, had to work in maybe not the greatest studios, under tight time constraints (85 hours to record & mix "Zen Arcade"! That doesn't exactly afford you a lot of time to dial in tones), no money, the Huskers probably recording in the middle of a tour, everyone had problems with themselves and with each other...we should be hailing Spot for saving these records!

Plus, if you listened to some the records Mould produced for other bands around this time (first Man-Sized Action record for inst) I think he really liked that thin, harsh, trebely sound.

yeah, carducci (i think) referred to it as an almost field recording aesthetic/approach. just get it on tape.

Pretty sure the band owns its masters! It's just hard to get everyone to agree at once, like, who will mix/master? I know Mould years ago tried to buy Hart's rights off of him, to no avail. So it's probably just the usual passive aggressive stuff holding things up. "Well, if I can't have it, you can't have it!"

Anyway, this is what Mould told me a few years ago:

BM: I know the three members are under one legal umbrella. But I haven’t seen any definitive movement. I’ve seen baby steps. I hope something happens. It’s good that the three of us are on the same page, as far as one voice representing the band.

Do you have a vision as to what those reissues might be like?

BM: There’s a lot of early stuff that hasn’t been heard. There are not that many b-sides; SST burned through most of those at the time. There’s various live recordings. I mean, there’s “stuff,” but mostly the early years, the unheard stuff. That would be the best place to start. I listened to some stuff years ago, when archivists were sending me stuff and people were starting to get ideas and compile things. I haven’t really been keeping up on it. I know what exhibit A looks like, and when I say that I mean the list of titles of songs. I know what’s there.

yeah the problem with that theory is spot recorded What Makes a Man Start Fires and it doesn't sound like those Du records

When your albums bear statements like "recorded and mixed in 48 hours" or whatever, I'm not sure what we should ever expect. I mean, Candy Apple and Warehouse sound like they do on purpose, and short an Iggy's "Raw Power" or "And Justice for Jason," dunno how much better they'll get.

The punk rock reissue world is a maddening nightmare. DIY no contract band of brothers agreements are the road to hell 30 years later. Numero is way better than most at navigating this field, but things can get ugly when you aren't friends any more, there is no ongoing project but the reissue, and you have to get a formal agreement for what was and what will be moving forward.

http://www.startribune.com/now-open-for-business-husker-du-s-first-official-website/332151562/

Per Norton, the three long-feuding band members finally came together and agreed to recruit Dennis Pelowski, Minneapolis-based manager of the Meat Puppets, to “help us figure out how to get a foothold back in the business.” Pelowski and the Puppets already have experience dealing with SST Records, the label run by Black Flag guitarist and one of punk’s most maligned businessmen Greg Ginn, which issued five of Hüsker Dü’s earliest albums.

Among the new developments so far, the band sorted out licensing issues with SST, which helped lead to the 1984 classic “Pink Turns to Blue” being featured in a recent episode of the AMC TV series “Halt and Catch Fire.”

Am I the only one who would like to hear remastered versions of the Warners albums? All that stuff about gear and studio and time constraints is out the window for Warehouse, which is a great album that sounds at best okay.

Weighing it up re constraints, time, budget, the Warners CDs are maybe the biggest let down - also huge entry point for younger "just missed them first time round" fans. Would be a shame not to see them sorted

I never hear this remastering talk on the Minutemen threads.

^^

A good example of successful SST remasters with improved sound are the Meat Puppets reissues from 2011. It can be done!

I might buy a shirt, as a sort of vote saying, "reunite and we will buy even more sh*t and give you piles of money." I'm okay with that. It goes without saying they did not make much money when they were together.

To be fair, The Minutemen were easier to record. There was no crazy psychedelic guitar distortion and feedback that can be difficult to balance properly with the drums, bass and voice. A cleaner sound with more space, yeah, they sound great!

Didn't Ethan James record Double Nickel;s and a few others?

Ethan James did Double Nickels
Spot did The Punch line and What makes a man, probably a few others

The difference between how Huskers records sound & Minutemen records do just goes to show that Huskers made those records to sound the way that they do.

Awesome.

Also seems like no one in HD cared how the drums sounded

Plus, if you listened to some the records Mould produced for other bands around this time (first Man-Sized Action record for inst) I think he really liked that thin, harsh, trebely sound.

Made To Be Broken, exhibit b

Five Story Garage by Man Sized Action is classic

I'm in the minority but I think the Huskers records are awesome because of how they sound, I feel like they wouldn't have that special quality with more conventional "good" production

I love the weird sheet metal buzz sound

"Five Story Garage by Man Sized Action is classic"

Cuz Paulson and Katzmann did it (I think, I don't have it in front of me), Mould did "Claustrophobia", which lives up to title production-wise

i'm listening to Zen Arcade on my ipod now through 35 dollar porta pros and in complete honesty it sounds totally exciting and alive to me. Granted you HAVE TO turn the gain up or it sounds shitty

also just FYI:

I WILL
NEVER
FORGET
U

new day rising is a little shitty sounding though. But I'd rather hear its soundworld than warehouse's

if there's one thing i learned from browsing audio weirdo forums its turn teh fuckin gain up before you decide whether a recording is shitty

But I'd rather hear its soundworld than warehouse's

This. Hart's snare on Warehouse sounds like digital wax paper.

Warehouse still makes me mad after all these years on so many levels!

>:[

best 'last song on last album by band who can't stand each other anymore' ever, though

yeah I don't think Warehouse can be fixed even with a remix/remaster, the problems are in the way it was recorded

i'm a sap so i'm a sucker for "these important years" ;_;

"It's a double album that's two records too long"

serious q: do you think these guys could actually work up the appropriate head of steam to play husker du songs again?

best 'last song on last album by band who can't stand each other anymore' ever, though

Yeah, for all of Mould's "You'll never have as many songs on an album as me!" Hart had the last best word.

serious q: do you think these guys could actually work up the appropriate head of steam to play husker du songs again?

Yes, if they rehearse for several hours a day, six days a week, for the next year. Otherwise, no way.

I remember liking Warehouse in high school. It was the first thing I heard by them, though. And I never really became a fan - I started going backwards immediately and didn't like Candy Apple Grey very much and hated Flip Your Wig, so I pretty much stopped there. Heard one or two songs from Zen Arcade and New Day Rising eventually, but by then was firmly un-sold. The Mould-related thing I come closest to really loving is Black Sheets of Rain.

Sugar, dude.

serious q: do you think these guys could actually work up the appropriate head of steam to play husker du songs again?

― tylerw, Thursday, 15 October 2015 19:42 (5 minutes ago) Permalink

I saw Mould do an (almost) all Huskers set in the Entry (!) last yr with Narducy and Wurster it was awesome. Norton still plays around town, Hart plays, but not drums. So I guess

a: maybe?

yeah i guess it's mainly hart that i was wondering about... i mean, what he was playing is pretty involved (and i'd imagine physically demanding). not playing all that much drums over the years, i feel like it'd be a challenge to get back to it.

His voice still sounds great, I saw him play drums with Watt (and Norton) a few yrs ago and I was the first I had seen Grant play drums maybe ever (I think he played drums in a later Nova Mob line-up) and it was fine, but it was like cluster-fuck jam on "Little Johnny Jewel"

ha that sounds good -- i really don't know, maybe he could pull it off!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jezlvf483Tw

Mould and Hart on duelling guitars, Dave Grohl on drums