Are there ANY plans to reissue Husker Du?

Thanks, Grant, for always having a kind word and a smile for teenage me whenever we bumped into each other. Also for being one of the first gay guys I ever met, which was an important role to play in the lives of Minneapolis teen punks and wavers trying to escape the suburban mindset. Thanks for playing for us (and with us). RIP; you were a lovely man.

Aw man, RIP Grant.

this is seriously making me so sad. 56?!

I'm a mess tbh

Did you ever hug him, LL? I definitely remember us discussing the idea of you hugging him at a show.

I did!! The pics are bad but I did give him an earnest hug, the most sincere kind of hug you can give a person.

what the fucking fuck

thanks for that post, suzy

xpost oh i'm glad to hear that. That feels consoling to know.

this was the first of 4 or 5 shows i saw; they did "Ticket to Ride"

http://www.thirdav.com/hd_discog/05_live_audio.html#08May1985

Good God, that setlist is incredible

No! Awful. RIP Grant.

other thread for reference, not because of your post cuz this is indeed awful and is hitting me in several different ways:

RIP Grant Hart

this is a lovely thing on numero's insta
https://instagram.com/p/BZL8M3qhwEH/

Savage Young Du really rewrites the commonly accepted narrative of Husker Du (wild speedfreak hardcore kids who gradually grew out of it and embraced melody and craftsmanship)

some the earliest stuff on this set (pre-Land Speed Record) is actually (though less sophisticated songwriting-wise) is as melodic and mid-tempo as later stuff on Candy Apple Grey or Warehouse

that makes sense, from what I remember of Mould's book and the chapter in Azerrad's book, Hart and Mould bonded over 60s pop as well as all their punk records & started playing hardcore because it was what was going on at the time.

i mean they were covering Donovan and the Byrds pretty early on

I think part of the reason that narrative developed was because the 1st single ("Statues"), which is in that earlier style, was basically out of print/unavailable until the Everything Falls Apart reissue in the 90s.

I am seriously anticipating being able to crank this stuff up in glorious non-MP3 fidelity

btw Extra Circus is now available digitally on Bandcamp, as noted on some other thread.

I can't remember if I mentioned this earlier but I'm really disappointed by the remix/remaster of "In a Free Land." Pumped the bass up and all the magic of those swirly silver stun guitars is gone. But "Everything Falls Apart" sounds better so I guess it's even. Also I got that Record Store Day reissue of "In a Free Land" and it sounds tight so w/e, psyched for the Zen Arcade box

good lord that reissue is pricy

have you been able to compare it to the Ryko EFA reissue versions?

Rhino!

that makes sense, from what I remember of Mould's book and the chapter in Azerrad's book, Hart and Mould bonded over 60s pop as well as all their punk records & started playing hardcore because it was what was going on at the time.

― flappy bird, Thursday, October 26, 2017 12:01 PM (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i mean they were covering Donovan and the Byrds pretty early on

― flappy bird, Thursday, October 26, 2017 12:01 PM (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

also, in general Minneapolis punk is fundamentally misunderstood because no one that's not from here really gets that the Suicide Commandos are the most important Minneapolis band ever and that without Chris Osgood is really the central figure to the Minneapolis punk scene, and the Commandos were def one of those bands that existed in that pre-punk nexus between emerging punk, Nuggets, the Who, power pop, DEVO, etc, and everyone in any Mpls band of note would have looked up to them. But overall, I think Minneapolis punk was much less adversarial to classic rock and "year zero" mentality than punk in other cities.

Also like I dunno, classic rock is just in the water here, and KQRS was so dominant for years

Rhino!

sorry, thanks!

KQ RULES

the Suicide Commandos rule! so glad I got turned on to that album in the 80's, I was able to find the records back in the day

iconic t-shirt

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1566/3805/products/KQRS_PlainBlack_800x.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7ZbNVb7Qh0

one of the great videos ever, directed by chuck statler from mpls who later went on to direct whip it and other devo videos

wow, never seen that, thanks so much.

Your Numero Group Order Has Been Shipped

Got mine the other week -- very nice indeed.

My CD box arrived last week too, with the 7-inch. Shame there was no download code for those tracks, though.

wow Extra Circus is really fucking good! mystery why they didn't just make Metal Circus an album really

Iirc, there were some additional teases from Numero Group about further Husker Du releases, but I haven't heard anything lately. Still crossing my fingers for further reissues.

Gotta say though, if Numero Group does go ahead with more Du reissues, I sincerely hope they make an exception to the recent "no more CDs" decision. It would really be a shame if these guys managed to never get a decent CD release of their albums.

fuckin Greg Ginn, how I hate him

evergreen post imho

dude has straight up stolen a significant chunk of US 80's punk history, god it just enrages me

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DR9pmjaX4AU2uku.jpg

If it helps, I'd try pulling in the top end and filling out the bottom more. It's pretty much a standard EQ curve for anything that sounds thin, which is how those CD's and their digital masters currently sound. I'm sure the transfer could be better, but that EQ adjustment alone on a parametric equalizer would make a big difference.

Honestly, I really can't help but wonder how much larger their rep would stand today had they gotten proper reissues out sometime between 2005 and 2015. It's not like they are forgotten and Mould has a pretty great solo career going, 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.

When I interviewed Carducci for my Flag book, he was insistant that the Huskers CDs sounded fine and didn't need remastering. Which is nonsense.

I interviewed Bob around his last solo album and asked him about further Du reissues and he said:

"I guess SST’s keeping them in print, and that was the main issue for a while. I think this Numero box set definitely cleared out the archives, in terms of unheard music. A lot of that stuff was floating around on the internet, but it had never been compiled and re-mastered and it never had as deep an accompaniment as Numero gave it, in terms of images and liner notes and all that. I think everything got exhausted, and the SST stuff, that’s sort of out of my hands – I don’t really worry about it as long as the music is available to people right now, and people are getting paid; I guess that’s all you can ask of what’s left of the music business."

Ugh, that's such a bummer. I mean, I don't blame Mould for having to just let go of what he can't control but that answer pains me.

i'm always a bit tickled when people complain about the mixing on the originals tbh. can understand wanting them on a newer format tho

I was under the impression it was Grant's death that has (so far) delayed a second box/further Numero stuff - as Bob is so tied into his touring and release schedule, there wasn't an obvious person to help them make the second one happen as easily as the first. Which is fair enough as Bob wants to focus on what he's doing now and no blame on him for that. But i'm hopeful Numero will have more stuff to come... one of them has mentioned a possible archival live release they wanted to do. That makes sense really if they can't put out any of the official SST stuff. I would totally go for a live box!

the original LPs sound just like they should and how the band want them to. i've heard the CDs are badly mastered though and the difference in 20-30 years of technology would no doubt help them.

yeah that makes absolute sense

Mould did a great interview with Sound Opinions in the '00s where he talks about this. Not sure if anyone can find it out there, but I was very green about SST at the time and I was stunned when Mould said they never received any royalties on those CD releases. He said Warner Bros. never failed to send him a check on a regular basis for the three CD's they were keeping in-print at the time, but he had yet to receive a dime from SST. For that reason alone, the band had an interest in taking back the catalog and reissuing it (and thus remastering it) elsewhere, but internal squabbles prevented that from happening. Going by what Mould and Hart later discussed, it sounded like the issue was control, and Hart felt that Mould wanted too much of it.

i'm always a bit tickled when people complain about the mixing on the originals tbh.

Yeah, I mean, the vinyl sounds great, and always has. The CDs sound pretty tinny and quiet, tho.

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.