Are there ANY plans to reissue Husker Du?

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.

oh not to mention Greg / SST were also claiming all of the bands mechanical royalties for years until around the time they moved to a major and the legal people there told them how fucked up that was and they got them back

it's not just the CDs, it's every version of the albums on the internet. there are some good rehearsal tapes for Zen Arcade and NDR on youtube that I listen to more than the albums

yo hmu on ilxmail for HQ direct vinyl rips of my personal copies

this is making me curious how different it sounds -- i have only ever heard the CD versions except for NDR which i bought a vinyl copy of bc i am a nerd and it's one of my favorite rock albums ever.

the recordings could be a lot better but I kind of liked the harsh, tinny, metallic, trebly sound of Metal Circus, Zen Arcade, New Day Rising

those extremely harsh guitar sounds were incredible I thought

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.

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.

Another thing that helping the 'Mats ensure their legacy was Trouble Boys getting published.

A long time ago, I'd come home after a lonesome night, put Zen Arcade on the record player and turn it up loud enough to where I couldn't hear the phone if it rang.

These private remasters are hit and miss, but this one gets close to what it sounded like on my turntable at least.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0emHpV2k0Jg

Trouble Boys did more to ruin my ability to enjoy the Replacements than it helped because they were so insufferable. I don't think I could ever feel that negatively about Grant, Bob, and Greg because they weren't as insufferable. I'm sure they had their moments and engaged in a lot of infighting/sniping, but they didn't light cash money on fire for larfs.

Part of the problem with Warehouse is that it’s just as poorly produced as Don’t Tell A Soul (though in a far different manner), but there’s no unreleased/“better” mix of Warehouse in anyone’s archives or kitchen cabinets. It came out sounding exactly like they wanted it to sound.

Yeah, I mean, when you hit Warehouse the issue is they wanted the album to sound like that (and fwiw I think it sounds great). I came to HD after hearing Sugar, and was frustrated at first that the drums on albums like Warehouse were less about the driving, bombastic force-of-rock playing of Malcolm Travis - but as time's worn on I've appreciated how Grant was after something different, almost a melodic way of playing the drums, rather than pounding away and delivering the dynamic payoffs. The reverb on the drums is totally an era-appropriate thing, I guess, and I dig it now.

I never really had a problem with the way my Husker CDs/cassettes sounded, tbh. I do find it telling that the major label albums that the band produced themselves sound worse (or sometimes more dated) than Flip Your Wig (which the band also produced). I have a feeling if I/we got what we wanted it would be a "Raw Power" situation. That is, we'd end up with two less than satisfying outcomes, the thin/disappointing mixes we have now or a bottom-heavy distracting remix. We rarely get true remixes of this kind of thing, though. Typically it's just remastering, which can help bring volumes etc. up to modern standards (like the REM, Replacements albums), but that's imo not often as night-and-day incredible as, for example, those definitive Bowie/Costello reissues of the Ryko era.

An issue is that Everything Falls Apart and Metal Circus sound better than all the acclaimed stuff that makes up 90% of conversation on this topic.

I get that the underwater, snow-flurry blur that is New Day Rising is an interesting deliberate aesthetic choice but I’m baffled with the approach to Warehouse, if indeed that was what they were after; all that biscuit tin snare and thin sound is just jarring for what is their most conventional pop-rock album, especially with Warners money behind it.

I think there’s a case that it doesn’t really help their legacy long term that the more approachable their music became, the worse the albums sounded (or at best, levelled off without much improvement). I do think that the Warners era was a missed opportunity, even beyond what we already know about the era

Trouble Boys did more to ruin my ability to enjoy the Replacements than it helped because they were so insufferable. I don't think I could ever feel that negatively about Grant, Bob, and Greg because they weren't as insufferable. I'm sure they had their moments and engaged in a lot of infighting/sniping, but they didn't light cash money on fire for larfs.

Not until they very end, and even then it mostly happened in private, and not in person.