I interviewed Grant by email about five years ago, before The Argument came out, and it was mostly about what that entailed. He gave me some amazing answers; you can almost see the twinkle in his eye as he typed them out.
I mean, this on his negotiations with Domino: "As an artist I am constantly erecting dolmens and obelisks and hot-dog stands to ensure my immortality and thus my godliness."
― wronger than 100 geir posts (MacDara), Friday, 15 September 2017 09:12 (six years ago) link
Josh, I noticed the byline for the first time. You're responsible for the most comprehensive recent interview.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 15 September 2017 12:01 (six years ago) link
I've been wracking my brain about this but found it finally....was an amazing moment (also seemed to indicate that Greg and Grant's relationship wasn't as bad as sometimes portrayed)...but yeah Grant opened for Mike Watt and at the end, Grant got behind the drum kit in the first (at least that I'd seen) in YEARS and Greg Norton got up there on bass and they did a 15 minute version of "Little Johnny Jewel" by Television....
Setlist: Grant Hart — 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis MN, 15 May 2009
Remains To Be Seen 2541 [new song] ("I don't say sorry") Come, Come Books About UFOs It's Not Funny Any More Admiral Of The Sea Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely (w/fake "Never Talking To You Again" intro) Barbara St. James Infirmary (w/fake "Never Talking to You Again" intro) [new song] ("I knew since then") Back From Somewhere Evergreen Memorial Drive Never Talking To You Again * You're The Reflection Of The Moon On The Water
** Little Johnny Jewel
Grant solo show opening for Mike Watt. For the last song (*) of Grant's set, he was joined onstage by Watt and his band. For Watt's final encore (**), Grant returned to play drums, and Greg Norton came up to play bass. Thanks to James Lindbloom for the information and to John Mulhouse for filling in the front end of Grant's setlist (which he cautions my be slightly out of order).
― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 15 September 2017 13:30 (six years ago) link
btw this is very Grant and hilarious I think chris mentioned it upthread but if someone was being annoying and yelling for a particular song, he would start to play it, then stop and do another song to troll them, then eventually give them what they wanted (which was inevitably probably something he was gonna play all along)
Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely (w/fake "Never Talking To You Again" intro) BarbaraSt. James Infirmary (w/fake "Never Talking to You Again" intro) [new song] ("I knew since then") Back From Somewhere Evergreen Memorial Drive Never Talking To You Again
― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 15 September 2017 13:32 (six years ago) link
Was that a saxophone solo during "What's Going On?" in flappy's video?
WGO indeed!
― pplains, Friday, 15 September 2017 13:39 (six years ago) link
ok... this was posted by a friend of a friend on Facebook...he's from Serbia and said Grant played Serbia in 1994 when no Western artists would come there due to international sanctionsgiven what I heard was his fairly haphazard to say the least approach to management, booking, etc. my mind is boggling how that happened
― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 15 September 2017 14:09 (six years ago) link
I remember that Watt opening set very, didn't he call out some woman aggressively and caustically at that one or maybe that was the "Hot Wax" release show?...He could freeze out a room like no one's business.
His vers of "St James Infirmary" was so good.
― chr1sb3singer, Friday, 15 September 2017 14:15 (six years ago) link
have any of your interviews been excerpted in NYT obits before, Josh?
bad editing in said obit… "Mr Hart's contributions as drummer were not as visible as those of Mr Mould, the more obvious bandleader."
― veronica moser, Friday, 15 September 2017 14:23 (six years ago) link
― chr1sb3singer, Friday, September 15, 2017 9:15 AM (nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
haha yeah i don't know, i get the shows all mixed up but yeah when the banter turned cold it was really something
― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 15 September 2017 14:25 (six years ago) link
Amazing story, UMS! Great interview, Josh!
― Cyndi Larper (stevie), Friday, 15 September 2017 14:28 (six years ago) link
Wonderful piece, Al. And this is otm: Call “2541” the “Maybe I’m Amazed” of genteel poverty
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Friday, 15 September 2017 14:38 (six years ago) link
Would totally buy Having Fun with Grant Hart Onstage
― Master of Treacle, Friday, 15 September 2017 14:51 (six years ago) link
btw - Josh that's the best interview I've read w/Grant
― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 15 September 2017 15:16 (six years ago) link
yeah, thanks for the link
― sleeve, Friday, 15 September 2017 15:17 (six years ago) link
Thanks. For obvious reasons I wish there were a lot more of them out there.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 15 September 2017 15:20 (six years ago) link
do you have an archive transcripts?
― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 15 September 2017 15:23 (six years ago) link
I've been bitching about this forever but can we briefly discuss how fucking insane "New Day Rising" would have been if you swapped out "How to Skin a Cat" & "Whatcha Drinkin" for "2541"?
― chr1sb3singer, Friday, 15 September 2017 15:23 (six years ago) link
Was 2541 written at that point? That's nuts!
― Cyndi Larper (stevie), Friday, 15 September 2017 15:28 (six years ago) link
I like Robert Forster's version too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_uiLSk6lLE
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Friday, 15 September 2017 15:28 (six years ago) link
yeah josh that interview is great
― here's how **takes sip of duck urine** economics works (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 15 September 2017 15:29 (six years ago) link
― Cyndi Larper (stevie), Friday, 15 September 2017 15:28 (one minute ago) Permalink
It was written for the record, they practiced it, Bob didn't like it.
― chr1sb3singer, Friday, 15 September 2017 15:31 (six years ago) link
stevie, read the bit at the bottom of this page:
http://www.thirdav.com/hd_images/msp_sites/2541_house.html
― plp will eat itself (NickB), Friday, 15 September 2017 15:32 (six years ago) link
Grant always kind of down played it but I think there is a reason that it was his first solo single
― chr1sb3singer, Friday, 15 September 2017 15:34 (six years ago) link
Really gutted about this. RIP Grant
― starving street dogs of punk rock (Odysseus), Friday, 15 September 2017 15:35 (six years ago) link
I must - and the cassette, too - but tbh my editor at the time (who is now at NPR) was so cool I'm sure it was published more or less verbatim, even if I half remember a couple of other stories that may or may not have been from this interview.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 15 September 2017 15:35 (six years ago) link
About to drive from NYC to Bethesda with friends There are things it will be obligatory to play on this drive, idgaf
Also - things I didn't know about grant until yesterday:
He has a kid?Fake Name Graphics was grant?
Also - is there audio of that show w the little johnny jewel encore? Or even just the encore?
― harbinger of failure (Jon not Jon), Friday, 15 September 2017 15:43 (six years ago) link
I've read that he has two kids, both adults now I think.
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Friday, 15 September 2017 15:44 (six years ago) link
xpost OK, found the original transcript, and I was totally right, there is a big hunk where he goes off the record. Talks a bit about Bob, the immediate aftermath of the band's breakup, and, tangentially, the Replacements. Angry and interesting and maybe not totally surprising, yet ... off the record, so don't know what to do with it.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 15 September 2017 15:49 (six years ago) link
Let's all grab a beer and discuss it.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 15 September 2017 15:54 (six years ago) link
Post it on 77
― harbinger of failure (Jon not Jon), Friday, 15 September 2017 15:58 (six years ago) link
Eh forget I said that
― harbinger of failure (Jon not Jon), Friday, 15 September 2017 16:00 (six years ago) link
I've been struggling with how to write about Hart's queerness, of which I've seen little but passing mentions.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 15 September 2017 16:02 (six years ago) link
I honestly didn't even know he had kids or a family.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 15 September 2017 16:06 (six years ago) link
Alfred, this guy tried awhile ago, re Grant and Bob
http://dentalhospital.tumblr.com/post/123117605615/bob-and-grant
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Friday, 15 September 2017 16:16 (six years ago) link
― chr1sb3singer, Friday, September 15, 2017 10:23 AM (fifty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark
totally completely fucking insane!!! omg
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Friday, 15 September 2017 16:22 (six years ago) link
yeah it's kind of infuriating in retrospect, it's one thing if it were left off this perfect record but to leave it off in favor of two obvious throwaways is pretty shitty
― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 15 September 2017 16:23 (six years ago) link
Now That You Know Me, is this the only Grant solo track that was (if I'm remembering right, I think I have a copy of it somewhere) demoed or played with Husker Du?
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 15 September 2017 16:29 (six years ago) link
xpostI mean I don't know if it was those two songs specifically but if I wrote "2541" and was told it wasn't good enough and those two songs stayed...I don't know if I would have been in the band for two more yrs.
― chr1sb3singer, Friday, 15 September 2017 16:30 (six years ago) link
I read that Bob's (stated) reason was it sounded like a contemporary Dream Syndicate song? (mighta been from his book)
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Friday, 15 September 2017 16:40 (six years ago) link
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, September 15, 2017 12:06 PM (thirty-three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
wasn't this a partial catalyst in the breakup of the band? his kid was conceived around this time, right?
― flappy bird, Friday, 15 September 2017 16:42 (six years ago) link
or at least, it happened close to when they broke up
xp yes, Bob claims in his book he said to Grant "hey uhhh.... eh it kinda sounds like the Dream Syndicate single now, maybe we shouldn't." and then suggests that was "the beginning of the end." obviously take a salt shaker w that
― flappy bird, Friday, 15 September 2017 16:43 (six years ago) link
Is he thinking about "Tell Me When It's Over?" Because I hear that, if only very loosely.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 15 September 2017 16:47 (six years ago) link
well sounds like he meant it planted a seed of discontent xp
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Friday, 15 September 2017 16:48 (six years ago) link
xp I doubt it, that's from '82
― sleeve, Friday, 15 September 2017 16:48 (six years ago) link
There's a version of Now That You Know Me played here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJr6GIyUi80
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 15 September 2017 16:49 (six years ago) link
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Friday, September 15, 2017 11:40 AM (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
yeah i love this reason of Bob's, don't want to sound like this iconic song no one can seem to remember the name of by global mega stars Dream Syndicate that dominated the airwaves and MTV in the fall of 84!!
― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 15 September 2017 16:53 (six years ago) link
well, he wasn't a soothsayer :)
― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Friday, 15 September 2017 16:55 (six years ago) link
at some point yesterday after the fog of sadness lifted, I though 'Grant has a wife?!".
― campreverb, Friday, 15 September 2017 17:20 (six years ago) link
great jon wurster appreciation: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/drummer-jon-wurster-on-grant-hart-the-center-of-a-hurricane-w503420
― tylerw, Friday, 15 September 2017 18:03 (six years ago) link