RIP Grant Hart

By this logic, the best bands should theoretically come from the Arctic Circle. Jewel to thread

Terrible weather is def a factor, I will say an important and I think underrated reason is MSP had (and has) for whatever reason, the infrastructure, meaning clubs, bars, colleges, instrument stores, record stores, PA rental places, American Legion/Knights of Columbus halls, etc and that a density of those places as well, not just one or two.

Even in 1990 or 91 when I was getting involved there were...5 great record stores (Let It Be, Northern Lights, Roadrunner, Garage D'or, Oarfolk) in addition to "bigger" places like Cheapo, Electric Fetus, etc, etc.

And, hugely important: Every single Tuesday night was "New Band Night" at the Entry for...twenty yrs? All you had to do get a gig was call and maybe send in a demo, maybe not even that, I can't remember if my band sent our tape. So not just a place to play like a real gig but you met other bands and other people. I've been friends with people whose bands played the same night as us in 1995 ever since.

yeah there's always been at least one venue in town where you feel like literally any kind of crazy show could happen, the First Ave/Entry and now the Turf Club now are very corporate but there was the heyday of Big V's Saloon, then the Hexagon, now it feels like the Eagles Club is that place

we always seem to pull one dive that now one cares about just ahead of waves of gentrification

And, hugely important: Every single Tuesday night was "New Band Night" at the Entry for...twenty yrs? All you had to do get a gig was call and maybe send in a demo, maybe not even that, I can't remember if my band sent our tape. So not just a place to play like a real gig but you met other bands and other people. I've been friends with people whose bands played the same night as us in 1995 ever since.

― chr1sb3singer, Wednesday, September 20, 2017 10:20 AM (eleven seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah this was huge, sort of a bummer how much First Ave has abandoned local music

infrastructure otm
akron in the 70s produced some good shit
akron in the 90s produced ...? there were some kids in bands but 1) they were all boys and 2) the venues they played were mysterious and consequently out of reach for the teenaged outsider without a personal escort (cool friend/relative) to provide an introduction. there were record store chains and the mall. that's about it.

i guess akron in the 90s did produce that guy who replaced rob halford but cover bands were about the only bands i remember seeing on marquees, and i was looking. nothing compared to what i've heard about the twin cities.

cleveland and even shithole dayton was more happening
it's cold and weather is shitty in all of these places

Twin/Tone was here, Am Rep, Rykodisc, there was a huge distribution center here for every kind of record label from Warners & Columbia all the way down the line.

A huge theater, arts, and comedy scene here as well, especially in the 80s, all of which I think is important.

OK, I'm going to stop I'm starting to sound like one of those "Minnesota is great" ding-dongs

beats Ohio
i wanted to run away to the Twin Cities in high school

i knew it would be better, and turns out i was right!

whoa I never knew Rykodisc was from MP/SP

xxp
ha, I was hugely obsessed with Ohio bands in the 90s, so it cuts both ways.

I don't think they started here but they were based here for ahwile...there is a reason Sugar was on the label.

Ryko had a huge warehouse here, like half of the music scene worked there at some point

some extra stories that didn't make the main city pages story, including the one i related here

http://www.citypages.com/music/lighting-m-80s-with-big-black-feeding-camembert-to-cats-friends-share-favorite-grant-hart-stories/445908383

thanks for the link to the article UMS. those first two paragraphs are crushing :(

i bought that yanomamos record that grant drummed on when it came out, it was ...not really what i was expecting

JJJ& cbesinger quoted in the second piece as well

Second piece just as good as the first. The Atmosphere and Albini stories especially are just fucking delightful. But now I'm crying again

(might have something to do with you can live at home now having come up on my headphones)

oh and jesus christ the off the cuff village green parody! <3 grant <3

re prince / huskers - i like to imagine someone commissioning an ep with grant singing 'the cross' on one side and prince doing 'you can live at home now' on the other. if there's a heaven above...

A huge theater, arts, and comedy scene here as well, especially in the 80s, all of which I think is important.

See also: MST3K.

re prince / huskers - i like to imagine someone commissioning an ep with grant singing 'the cross' on one side and prince doing 'you can live at home now' on the other. if there's a heaven above...

― plp will eat itself (NickB), Wednesday, September 20, 2017 12:16 PM (thirty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh my god

yclahn final section definitely has a bassline prince might like (and which doesn't really have any kindred in huskers discography?)

Can anyone comment on the remastered version of Intolerance (the one with Sic Semper Tyrannus on the cover)? Is it preferable to the SST?

It sounds good, though the only other vers I heard of "Intolerance" was my old cassette copy so not sure if that's exactly audio apples to apples as it were.

The remix/remaster of "Last Days of Pompeii" is crucial

ahem...

If I were a rock and roll timelord, I'd go back to the 80s and create a Night Ranger/Husker Du split 7" with Night Ranger doing "Don't Want to Know if Your Lonely" and Husker Du doing "Don't Tell Me You Love Me" in their respected styles.

― earlnash, Friday, May 24, 2013 10:30 PM (four years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I hadn't shed any actual tears about this whole thing, until I read the City Pages article on the train to work his morning and totally welled up. Kudos to all involved in putting it together, I'll be saving it in my Minneapolis rock memorabilia box.

Greg Dulli played "Keep Hanging On" at First Ave last night. It was beautiful.

btw I think this detail from the City Pages article isn't getting enough attention, very exciting

After this news, Hart continued moving forward in the face of finality. He and his former bandmates finally agreed on a deal with the Chicago reissue label Numero Group to release Savage Young Dü, a box set of material from Hüsker Dü’s pre-SST days. And Hart continued recording music. He, Mansfield, and Piotrowski completed the first Yanomamos album since that boom box recording back in 1989, and he’d been working with Wisti on Pop Manifestos, a concept album based on Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber. (In accordance with Hart’s wishes, both projects will be released posthumously.)

xpost The thing that always kept Grant Hart and Bob Mould united in my mind was the amount of space and detail they could summon with just an electric guitar at solo shows. Dulli captured that.

did he play it solo or did the band play too?

Solo, before the band came back out for the encore. Har Mar Superstar (who opened) sang some harmonies.

1) Schoolbuses Are For Children is so great
2) The opening part sounds very similar to the opening notes of "I Can't Make You Love Me" and as it turns out, the emotional effect is totally transferable
3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmRyeEgO59M

also love that pic

i wanna be in a grant hart tribute band so bad

That song also reminds me of some Bowie song I can't quite place. xxp

His late singing really reminds me of Bowie a lot. Something about the inflection and the way he drew out words.

I was just thinking that while listening to the argument last week! There really is a tincture of Bowie in his voice there!

^^ Same. Even had to remind myself that it was released three years before Black Star.

So good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCBd7e0wCBQ

^And just to make it personal, this is about as good as anything Sugar ever did.

I loved that Nova Mob album at the time. Dug it out a few weeks ago and it stands up.

^And just to make it personal, this is about as good as anything Sugar ever did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cejMKLwT-Y

Full setlist:

Never Talking to You Again (Hüsker Dü song)
Flip Your Wig (Hüsker Dü song)
I Apologize (Hüsker Dü song)
A Good Idea (Sugar song)
Changes (Sugar song)
The Descent
I Don't Know You Anymore
Hold On
If I Can't Change Your Mind (Sugar song)
Hoover Dam (Sugar song)
Hey Mr. Grey
Love Is All Around (Sonny Curtis cover)
Makes No Sense at All (Hüsker Dü song)

(This was an outdoor gig a couple days ago in San Francisco)

grant did old empire quite frequently in his solo sets, also last days of pompeii & admiral of the sea

Wow, that's a lot more older songs than he usually plays. and I don't remember him playing "Flip Your Wig" recently.

oh man "Never Talking to You Again," I don't know how to take that

That's a cool version of it.

I was wondering the same thing though. When they picked songs of each other for Karl Mueller's benefit, that's the one Bob went for then as well.

It's like

"Hey, Bob. Just wondering. What would be your favorite Grant –"
"NEVER TALKING TO YOU AGAIN."

And didn't Grant choose an all too apropos Bob song that night? Hardly Getting Over It?