HUsker Du?

Zen Arcade
New Day Rising
Flip Your Wig

If you have a record player, these sound better on vinyl, and are cheaper, too.

They are abrasive at first if you're not used to hardcore but they grow on you nicely if you give them a chance. Some other threads that will help.

Search and Destroy: Husker Du : Classic or Dud, Search and Destroy.

Pick only one song: POO! Husker Du

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and if you are and if yr serious...ill send you some husker du...

Pete Scholtes OTM.

People started "frothing" about them around 1984 with Zen Arcade, or 83 with Metal Circus if you want to nitpick. From that time until their last album in 1987, they released so much great music:

Zen Arcade (would be untouchable if it were produced better)
New Day Rising (most fans' favorite)
Flip Your Wig (my favorite, is loaded with hits)
Candy Apple Grey (underrated, Grant Hart's songs are better than Bob's)
Warehouse (another great record)

I really prefer Bob Mould solo or with Sugar and Grant Hart solo. I have to imagine that if I had heard of them in high school in the 80s I could potentially have gotten into them (if I heard the Replacements ten years after they broke up instead of four years before would my love be the same?), but its really been a struggle to understand the appeal looking backwards. Also, their records are of such phenomenally poor sound quality that the dynamicism that people always speak of is utterly lacking from an album listening standpoint. I did like the section that Michael Azerrad devoted to the band in his book "This Band Could Be Your Life," however. Its another example of appreciation rather than respect or liking.

it is somewhat "juvenile," but how is that a problem for a rock band?

I would apply this statement to the entire Husker Du catalogue.

Matt - if you want "Sunspots" by Mould(really different from Husker stuff, but beautiful and a must have for sure.. i will send.)

emailed you...but thining now, i dont have much in a burnable format anymore. i'll have to look through.

i go in for zen arcade, but its a bit more rough than somepeople want. when i 1st bought it in highschool i was looking for new day rising or something...lord know what i thought i wanted then. but in recent years ive come to really like it.

on greg norton: what about the whole "whoever wrote it sang it" [sic] not in all the record sleeves....

sadly i wont get it...

ill listen to living end later and see

-- Pleasant Plains /// (pleasant.plain...), July 13th, 2005.

So did NPR's All Things Considered.

Grant Hart plays tomorrow, July 14, at the Turf Club in St. Paul. $3 cover.

I don't know if I'm going to buy any of his new records because I don't think I like the "Sugar meets Cher" direction he's gone toward.

not sure what exactly we all mean by "hardcore" here, but i'd say the huskers were hardcore when they started and were pretty damn close to anti-hardcore by the time they got to zen arcade. catchy verse-chorus-verse songwriting, some hippie sentiment and emotion, a bit of acoustic guitar, some piano, some psychedelic guitar jamming. it's hardcore tempered by a newfound love of mid-'60s beatles and byrds. check out: "pink turns to blue," "never talking to you again," "one step at a time," "turn on the news," "something i learned today," for starters. then see if you still think it's a hardcore album. or a pop album with low-budget hardcore production.

subsequent albums got progressively more poppy. and better produced. sometimes for the better, but sometimes not.

and, yes, do check out "makes no sense at all" from flip your wig, which was a year or so later.

but the tapes exist, somewhere.

"Sugar meets Cher": Had the pleasure of seeing Mould spin at a gay club in Minneapolis on Pride weekend two weeks ago, and it felt like a new genre. Still waiting for him to post the set list (here's an older one):
http://blowoff.us/set%206-11-05.html

http://www.thenortonsrestaurant.com/2006-03-31_Nortons_-_57.jpg

I want to eat at Greg Norton's restaurant!

Has anyone eaten at Greg Norton's restaurant?

I recommend the bass.

i think side b of flip yr wig is one of the best sides of a rekkid

I prefer the first: "Games" (my favorite HD song if I'm in the mood), "Makes No Sense at All," "Hate Paper Doll," "Little Green Eyes," the title track...

I still think that mustache is a paste-on

mustache=real
seems like a good spread

This made my day.

Anyone else think "Hare Krishna" sounds like "I want candy," the bow wow wow version?

The new Grant Hart LP has some great tunes on it once you get past how dashed-off the whole thing sounds. "Charles Hollis Jones" is insanely catchy.

Barbara is the most memorable track for me (so far)

A good new Grant Hart record? That sounds very enticing. I still love Intolerance, his debut from uh, 20 years ago.

two good grant hart records since Intolerance: Good News for Modern Man and Hot Wax.

I recommend the bass.

A+

yeah hot wax is good, "California Zephyr" is great too

the highlights of good news and intolerance, however, are far superior to the highlights of hot wax. hart's still a brilliant songwriter, tho.

i friend of mine recorded about half of hot wax and basically that project was recorded over a looooong period of time, different studios, very erratically and i think while it's good it definitely feels like a hodgepodge because it is a hodgepodge

love this logo:

https://3084615131657267755-a-1802744773732722657-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/nickdouglas/H%C3%BCsker_D%C3%BC_logo.svg.png?attachauth=ANoY7cqdrVEzMLaqxP-o1PdMVL9xjdx0LhjLQdeT3pbdOl4KFyl3yhnNOYhtuvekqg3WwmxZ40zILmSWObT6wzeNqLJTRuL0GZ3QB7z3FhOh4N9q7PwmqBauGQ0h6K2m93y9Fk9-qDdyM2pYUIe6YxOWgSngdTRO3ZOgSiNft1whJBuhjaiz7NI4sB87OYr6OkCD5jQdGR4q2Ww4T860KzPEV2gb4ccqdA%3D%3D&attredirects=0

husker du are fucking BRILLIANT why haven't they received a proper reissue campaign yet, they are still seriously underrated + undervalued, except maybe for Zen Arcade. FLIP YOUR WIG is their best imo. their records need to be remastered for cd/digital because they sound like thin garbage. on vinyl they're ROCKIN though

Oh there's many issues as to why they haven't been remastered.

You should vote in the FORGET THE ROLLING STONE CANON HERE IS ILM'S HARD STICK OF 1980'S ROCK POLL ALBUMS/TRACKS VOTING THREAD. (Voting closes September 20) (all welcome to vote inc Lurkers)

what issues? legal? the band?

pretty much

Can't say why I know just yet, but reissues are closer to happening than you think.

Yeah rumor I heard was way cool and bigger than expected

please god let this be true

At this point, "bigger than expected" = "happening at all."

numero group box set?

[just trying to start rumors of my own, i have no idea]

Who cares about that, just remember to vote in FORGET THE ROLLING STONE CANON HERE IS ILM'S HARD STICK OF 1980'S ROCK POLL ALBUMS/TRACKS VOTING THREAD. (Voting closes September 20) (all welcome to vote inc Lurkers)

i heard bob mould was helming the remastering and box set project and leaving all of grant hart's tracks off since he didn't really contribute much to the band, according to mould's autobiography

hahahahahahahahahaahaahahaha

gatefold double LP remasters 180 gram vinyl

hell yeah full catalog reissue and remaster i bet, fuck fuck fuck yeah

thx ilx

greg norton sex tpe

I did wonder if there was a likelihood after the Sugar remasters. But did think that interpersonal feeling inside the band might mean this unlikely.
Well will certainly grab a few of these if they appear.

Hopefully they'll reprint the Land Speed Record inner again. So I can look through the list of bands and think how few I've heard of.

the song titles on LSR are some of my favorites ever: "Push the Button," "Let's Go Die," "Guns at My School," "Tired of Doing Things," "You're Naive." even though i rarely put it on

all the husker du records really could use a remaster, the sound quality/production SUCKS!

Seriously, I've held off on buying the rest of the catalog for nearly 20 years now after hearing how thin Zen Arcade sounded. Will immediately drop the $$ for a full reissue campaign.

all the husker du records really could use a remaster, the sound quality/production SUCKS!

I think you guys are getting your hopes up too much. Remastering can't fix the poor recording techniques and shoddy equipment that were clearly present at the recording sessions.

Well yeah, but I've heard Zen Arcade on both vinyl and CD, the CD sounds like shit and the vinyl sounds pretty decent. So I know that the CD/digital stuff actually does have room for improvement.

i really don't think Spot's recording techniques were poor, although he was working under serious time/budget restrictions. but my Du vinyl sounds rad, and my Du CDs mostly sound awful, so there's work that can be done.

the song titles on LSR are some of my favorites ever: "Push the Button," "Let's Go Die," "Guns at My School," "Tired of Doing Things," "You're Naive." even though i rarely put it on

Yeah, this - 'Do the Bee' is another good one.

Coming this fall - Hüsker Dü poll on ILM.

I think you guys are getting your hopes up too much. Remastering can't fix the poor recording techniques and shoddy equipment that were clearly present at the recording sessions.

I hear the three of them are going back to re-record their entire catalogue with Jeff Lynne and Don Was on the boards.

^^ I'm being snarky, but I would totally listen to that version of Warehouse.

I hear the three of them are going back to re-record their entire catalogue with Jeff Lynne and Don Was on the boards.

You're kind of talking more about production than recording. Steve Albini has good recording technique, but that doesn't mean his stuff sounds like Jeff Lynne, although you could probably make Albini's raw tracks sound like Jeff Lynne through production if you wanted to, because you can make a well-recorded track sound like anything. Albini would have been a good producer and mixer for Husker Du. Spot always sounded a bit limp and thin to me... but apparently, I need to listen on vinyl?

wonder why i never heard how 'bad' the recordings were til 1998

spot gets a bad rap IMO, nothing else he ever did sounded like huskers...i think that's how the band SOUNDED. they were motorheads with horrible gear!

also i think the whole thing works for them

^otm

Mould produced the first Man-Sized Action record which is as harsh/thin as the Huskers records, maybe even more...

also the first Impaler record "If We Had Brains We'd Be Dangerous", which is real thin too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iqeqVwarGA

just saw bunch of new pressings of SST LPs at a record store last weekend, including all the Husker Du (even Land Speed and the 7"s), so curious who'd be releasing 180gm remasters

not that the SST albums couldn't use a remastering, but yeah, blaming spot for any deficiencies seems off the mark -- afaik the sst recording ethos was about documentation, treating bands as BANDS with a minimum of studio interference. so i mean, those records are kind of how husker du sounded. i think! i don't know. but i wouldn't want the du LPs to sound like sugar records or something (i've never really like the production on those, tho i haven't heard the new versions).

Yeah, seems like there were a bunch of new SST pressings unleashed into the world, picked up the Saint Vitus Thirsty and Miserable 12" over the weekend.

those records are kind of how husker du sounded. i think! i don't know.

I saw them live back then and yeah that's kinda right. Can't remember whether folks were grumbling over the sound of Husker Du vinyl back then.

afaik the sst recording ethos was about documentation, treating bands as BANDS with a minimum of studio interference.

also they literally had NO money.

haha, yes!
it was a weird time, you know? obviously part of the hardcore thing was a complete rejection of classic rock techniques (at least in the beginning). i think maybe people's frustration w/ the production might stem from the ways that husker du started moving in a somewhat more classic rock direction but spot was still recording them like they were a hardcore band? i kinda like the tension there, but would new day rising sound better if it was recorded like an allman bros. record? i don't know! maybe!

i kinda think new day rising sounds perfect anyway tbh

i suggested to joe carducci that a lot of the SST stuff could do with remastering etc when i was researching my black flag book a few years back, and he wouldn't hear any of it. he thinks they sound like they're supposed to sound (i just kind of wish they weren't so quiet on CD, and also that Land Speed Record wasn't just two tracks).

also i think the whole thing works for them

― Jandek at the Disco (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, September 5, 2012 8:57 AM (1 hour ago)

otm, it does. and most of their albums sound great cranked on vinyl. new day rising (my favorite) is the only one that i think really needs a remix/remaster, but i worry that what i like about it might be diluted in rendering it more ear-friendly. it's basically the american psychocandy.

Or REM given Iggy's in-the-red Raw Power remix.

I think what we all want is better sounding CD/digital versions. My Du vinyl sounds great and doesn't really need any fixing. but the digital versions are fucking awful. really really thin, tin can kind of sound. not good. i just would like to see a more accurate digital remaster that's closer to the power and heft of the vinyl.

What I can tell you is that for the first time ever, all three members now share legal representation, which sounds minor, but is a major factor that has impeded progress on reissues in the past. Dunno when anything might actually happen, and can't share (minimal) further details, but for the first time the ducks are lined up and the will is actually there.

Though they're not as muffled, the Warners records are, weirdly, even thinner-sounding than the Spot-produced SST stuff. I'm sure the amphetamines didn't help in the mixing process. I would totally buy reissues - love their tunes, but after awhile all that treble starts to give me a headache. I think it's a major reason why the Husker Du compilations I've put together on my own don't listen nearly as good as the track listings would suggest - 7 or 8 songs in and you already need a rest.

love their tunes, but after awhile all that treble starts to give me a headache.

this is so true for me too

Yeah for all the complaints about the SST records, Warehouse sounds TERRIBLE, just a horrible, horrible production. At least the earlier records captured something, fizzy and tinny though it was. In fact I can't think of a worse sounding major label album than Warehouse.

agree. at least with the early SST albums, you can turn them up loud enough to overcome the tinniness. there's nothing that can be done for warehouse. crying shame, cuz the songs are there.

yea warehouse sounds like bullshit, could you be the one should've been a massive song, it's not the songwriting that held them back it was the punky production. bob was really into speed right?

and imo the gated reverb on grant's drums isn't that cool

fuck im listening to flip your wig right now and i take that back completely

I like the production on every HD album except "Candy Apple Grey."

really? i like the production on the sst albums, with certain reservations, but the two WB albums are disappointing, and warehouse is way worse than candy apple.

Yeah, I'm at peace with it. I've come to appreciate the brittleness of "Warehouse."

Feelin' this remaster:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NcZ5BwQukE

New Day Rising and Warehouse are the two albums that sounded particularly bad to me - Candy Apple Grey never bothered me, even on CD (I've since bought the vinyl though and it is an improvement).

lol pp

new song unearthed!!

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/husker-du-rerelease-lost-statues-song-premiere-20130121

didn't they have a kind of one-take studio ethos. i think they also mixed pretty roughly and on-the-fly and never went back to fix it. so i don't think a remaster would do the trick, but a remixing might.

Greg Norton has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and his current band UltraBomb has started a GoFundMe campaign to help raise funds to cover his medical costs.

oof

goddammit

Noooooooo

oh crap, please be well greg

He survived at least and appears to be back playing
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4hBOxSOe1i86mKTUWQbDSs?si=4471c7c323be40c2

Apparently Bob Mould just got married.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cr8P7bLrYC2/?hl=en

(It's the next photo, not the jockey.)

Cartoon voice: “I’m seeing triple!!!!!”

It's always nice when stars get along with their stunt double.

Clearly likes people in the same mould

It's like Eddie and Valerie all over again.

THis is the 2nd interview with Greg Norton I've heard over the last couple of weeks. Not sure I'd really heard him or read him interviewed before. I'm not remembering him featuring majorly in the music rag interviews from the time, not sure how accurate a picture that is.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/6GyEhHWhbtSUhM3zVROlIQ?si=d25d23ee9e23443e

Wait, Greg has a project called UltraBomb and Bob has a project called LoudBomb?

Bob is going to play at 2 celebrations on July 28 & 29 @ City Winery NYC of the 50 anniversary of the Nuggets 65 to 68 collection with Lenny Kaye leading house band and Patti Smith, Ivan Julian, Peter Buck and more on the bill

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

10'56" (in case it doesn't embed properly)

Zen Arcade was released July 3, 1984! Happy Day After The Anniversary Zen Arcade Was Released Day!

Could imagine Metallica covering one of the faster Mould tunes, like "Indecision Time" or "Beyond the Threshold" or "The Biggest Lie."

From Numero:

NUM250: Hüsker Dü - The Miracle Year
(4xLP Boxset) 2nd Edition

We’re probably the only thing that’s worth talking about this year.”
—Bob Mould, No Place To Hide #4, Spring 1985

One of our top highlights from last year, maybe in the history of The Numero Group was being able to work on and issue Hüsker Dü’s 1985: The Miracle Year boxset. We were totally blown away by the response. The set sold out almost immediately and it feels like every record shop in the world was hitting us up trying to get copies.

A 4xLP box set isn't just something you can run down to the local pressing plant to reprint especially as we are still pretty deep in "Vinyl Boom" territory. But fear not, it's back and we just confirmed arrival at our warehouse. If you missed out last year and fought off the scalpers, act today to secure your copy of box back in print on Find Me White Vinyl, Black Vinyl and even the CD Version.
​
This set documents the transcendent Minneapolis punk trio tearing into the most incendiary year of its existence. The set includes Beau Sorenson’s restoration of an entire January 30, 1985 set captured live on stage at First Avenue in perhaps the highest fidelity recordings of the band’s lauded SST era. We've also worked with the band to select 20 additional live tracks sourced from the grueling 1985 live schedule off of recently rediscovered tapes most had thought were lost in the great Hüsker Dü Archive fire. The project is capped off by a deluxe booklet documenting and detailing twelve months of history-making from the Minneapolis trio.
​
Pre-Order: Vinyl / CD
​
On January 30, 1985, Minneapolis reached -11° at show time, marking 19 points of mercilessly dropped mercury from the day’s 8° apex. The 1500 attendees inside First Avenue, however, wouldn’t be needing so much as a T-shirt, let alone the nearest fiberfill parka: from the first blinding moments of “New Day Rising,” it was clear that Bob Mould, Grant Hart, and Greg Norton had arrived intent on setting every molecule in the room alight. Their setlist displayed a night-long cascade of fireballs chosen from Everything Falls Apart, Metal Circus, Zen Arcade, and New Day Rising, and five new songs that would reappear later on Flip Your Wig. They also made several nods to the band’s rock forbears, with a ballistic take on The Byrds’ “Eight Miles High,” a turbulent spin on The Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” featuring Soul Asylum’s Dave Pirner, a pop-punk remake of “Ticket To Ride” and closing with their signature cover of Sonny Curtis’s Mary Tyler Moore theme “Love Is All Around.”

Considering the late-January 2011 house fire that consumed a precious portion of the Hüsker Dü archive, it has to be reckoned as a kind of subordinate miracle that the 1985 First Avenue tapes survived at all. They deliver peak Dü at full gallop through already beloved material, still years shy of fully cementing their status as a blueprint for the alternative rock skyscraper to come. This box set celebrates these tapes, strikingly perhaps the highest fidelity Hüsker Dü recordings ever produced during the band’s lauded SST years. “When I think of that time,” Greg comments, “it was three guys doing what they loved, having fun, and basically showing other people that you can be true to yourself, true to your music, and not have to bow down to fashion or expectations to make something really great.”
​
Pre-Order: Vinyl / CD
​
We are expecting to start shipping vinyl in early-mid September, CDs in Mid-late September and any additional copies should start appearing at retailers in Late September.

https://numerogroup.com/products/1985-the-miracle-year?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=email&_kx=ostF6YHiRYgntxw-CX1Xo6-fIQfCClTc3DrsV7wMfqo.RHDAtP

the first set on the Miracle Year (the First Avenue homecoming gig) is quickly becoming by go-to Husker Du listen

Amazing news. I actually pre-ordered my copy at a nearby retailer and it got postponed month after month until they flat out cancelled the order right after the album shipped and no one had any in stock. Bought what was likely a return on Deep Discount out of desperation, but a lot of people weren't so lucky. I think this one was easier to re-press because the packaging was simpler and more straightforward (you can see them working with standard physical templates), unlike the Savage Young Dü box set which had at least some custom die-cut work.

the "Diane" on here is interesting, it's a little faster and Norton's chord thing on the bass is more prominent, you hear a bit of the Joy Division in it, like some of the post-punk influenced stuff on Savage Young Du

Yeah, it's really good. A lot of stuff really ups the tempo on that set. (I ended up playing mine all the way through just now.)