HÜSKER PÖLL: Warehouse - Songs and Stories

I like the new titles...

e.g. Ice Cold Ice Mould

there's a lot of great songs here (i'm one of those who thinks that the band found it's fractured-pop genius with this disc, and that it's one of the great final-discs of an act's career).

still, i'll stick with what i already said on the other husker thread: she floated away.

I went with that too, mainly (and possibly unfairly) because of how completely overwhelming it was when I saw them play it live.

'friend you've got to fall'? 'no reservations'? 'you can live at home'? tough question...

have we ever polled zen arcade?

no reservations

i associate alot of these grant hart ones with the solo acoustic versions he's done in his live sets for years, so they sound weird to me when i hear the actual album

this is like the only husker du album i'd care to listen to these days tho it's not the best, i guess i'm burned out on the sst stuff
too much spice is the worst, not sure which is the best, need to relisten

I love the way that 'Bed Of Nails' kicks off side 3, and I love the contrasting guitar sounds on that song too.

It's Not Peculiar was always my favorite Mould, and Charity Chastity was my favorite Hart one. Gotta relisten.

i think it's a really good album, good way for them to go out. favorite mould song here is "these important years," but since i'm a hart partisan i'm voting for "she's a woman."

"Ice Cold Ice."

since i'm a hart partisan i'm voting for "she's a woman."

hart partisans unite!

'You Can Live at Home' is underloved I think, Husker Du playing weird funk noise.

My snap judgement is 'You Can Live At Home' but I'm listening to the album now for better perspective.

I don't think there's a band I want to see get back together more than these guys.

Could You Be The One will always be my favourite.

xpost I can't lie, that would be incredible, would fly in an aeroplane to see.

She Floated Away

'Friend, You've Got To Fall', 'Back From Somewhere' and 'Ice Cold Ice' are formidable, but it's still 'You Can Live At Home' for me. The song feels like an angry requiem for the band itself, beyond songcraft and totally from the gut.

A lot of my issues with this album come from Bob. He has a bunch of great songs on the front half, but starting with 'It's Not Peculiar' his stuff goes all limp and dispirited. From there on, every Bob song on the record sucks. How many damn times on this album does he use that same stepwise vocal melody on three pitches (see chorus of Up In The Air for example)?

But that would imply that "Turn it Around" sucked, which I would wholeheartedly disagree with...still one of my fave Bob songs of all time.

"These Important Years" has meant a lot to this cheeseball over the years. #2 would be "She's a Woman".

#1 is "You Can Live At Home", a rare instance of a band's final song being my favorite one by them...#2 is "It's Not Peculiar", my Bob song...

"Ice Cold Ice Mould"

lol

"Sweet Leaf Mould"

"You're a Soldier" from memory, even though I suspect the lyrics may be smug--I can't remember specific lines, so hopefully I'm wrong.

Ice Cold Ice, just a whisker ahead of She Floated Away

"He has a bunch of great songs on the front half, but starting with 'It's Not Peculiar' his stuff goes all limp and dispirited. From there on, every Bob song on the record sucks."

Have you ever even heard No Reservations Mould? Goddamn, thats an awesome song.

I'll go with "Visionary Mould"

It's gotta be Charity Chastity. That is one of the most killer riffs ever.

"Standing in the Rain" by a Googol light years and shit the fuck up, idiots.

"She Floated Away" is fucking silly, btw

14 It's Not Peculiar Mould 4:06

^ Favorite Dü song of all.

starting with 'It's Not Peculiar' his stuff goes all limp and dispirited

I'm glad there is so much Hüsker Dü material, and that it's as varied as it is, because there's room for everyone to love something someone else hates and vice versa.

I'm glad Bob wrote half the songs on Warehouse cos Grant's are mostly shite

Exception being "You Can Live at Home", obv

This was my first Husker Du album, and I have a lot of affection for it. It doesn't deserve the kicking it gets, and I can't see that there are a massive amount of clunkers in there. I'd seriously rep for She's A Woman (And Now He Is A Man), You Can Live At Home, Standing In The Rain, Back From Somewhere, Ice Cold Ice, Could You Be The One?, She Floated Away, as well as several others.

Seriously difficult to pick just one... maybe She's A Woman.

Thread summary:

The Husker Du songs I like are good, and the Husker Du songs you like are not.

Bob's album :

These Important Years Mould 3:49
Standing in the Rain Mould 3:41
Ice Cold Ice Mould 4:23
Could You Be the One? Mould 2:32
Friend, You've Got to Fall Mould 3:20
Visionary Mould 2:30
Bed of Nails Mould 4:44
It's Not Peculiar Mould 4:06
No Reservations Mould 3:40
Turn It Around Mould 4:32
Up in the Air Mould 3:03

Grant's album :

Charity, Chastity, Prudence, and Hope Hart 3:11
Back From Somewhere Hart 2:16
You're a Soldier Hart 3:03
Too Much Spice Hart 2:57
She Floated Away Hart 3:32
Tell You Tomorrow Hart 2:42
Actual Condition Hart 1:50
She's a Woman (And Now He Is a Man) Hart 3:19
You Can Live at Home Hart 5:25

Um, Greg's album :

lol, voted for "Um, Greg's album."

I think I prefer Bob's, less filler than Grant's songs although he was starting to get a bit too overwrought by this point. Didn't Greg actually write and sing a b-side for one of the singles?

overall, i'd say mould's disc is better than hart's disc, but (a) the peaks of hart's disc are higher than the peaks of mould's disc and (b) as set forth above, i am a grant partisan.

speaking of grant, i do not have either of his last two solo albums (the '09 one or the '99 one). i see they're both on emusic. i should get, y/n?

xp
That's interesting, Daniel! I actually briefly considered asking if the Bob and Grant songs were separated which album you'd prefer, but figured it would be pretty pointless because I figured Grant partisans would automatically say grant and vice versa!

up in the air mould, for me. 's always been.

tipsy, i think grant's 1999 disc -- good news for modern man -- is an overlooked classic (at least half of the album feels that way to me, e.g., Think It Over Now, Run Run Run to the Centre Pompidou, You Don't Have to Tell Me Now, and Little Nemo).

i like the new disc, too, but it never grabbed me the same way.

This 'tape' was tied up into my high school years quite a bit, so I pretty much know the record like the back of my hand. That being said, I pretty much always forward wound through "You're a Soldier". That song has always annoyed me. There is something repetitive about it that ear worms into my head and not in a good techno or krautrock repetitive way. I pulled an erase from history when I ripped the CD to MP3 and didn't pull that track.

Promotion of this album did lead to a great 80s talk show moment, as Husker Du played the Joan Rivers show after this record came out with a stage set similar to the album cover. The crazy thing is that Rivers actually interviewed them on the show. It is definitely up there with the Replacements playing on Saturday Night Live around the same looking like a deer in the headlights.

Grant Hart's songs on this album have kind of a groovy swinging head bobbing 60s sound.

yeah, that rivers performance and interview is on youtube. un momento.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vefkvjcjNj8

Didn't Greg actually write and sing a b-side for one of the singles?

i think everytime, off the living end posthumous live lp, was the greg song from this era

LOL at Joan Rivers' "research" apparently not extending to the name of the song she was introducing!

Back in the day, I preferred Bob's songs to Grants, probably based on the twin titans Could You Be The One? and Ice Cold Ice. Looking at the list now... hmm... maybe Grant overall.

I think I'll mebbe do two iPod playlists and report back.

Either Could you be the One or She's a Woman (And Now He Is a Man).

The last 3 songs were a great way to go.

Grant's album: Solid

Bob's album: five excellent songs, six forgettable songs.

'You Can Live at Home' is underloved I think, Husker Du playing weird funk noise.

I just heard this again and was amazed by its beautiful, weird racket.

Side 3 of Zen Arcade (which I've just played) beats side 3 of Warehouse (from memory at least). Those psychedelic swirls of backwards guitar on "Somewhere"... man.

I'd be hard pushed to choose between the side 4s though. "Turn On The News" and "Recurring Dreams" vs. "She's A Woman" and "You Can Live At Home". Listening to Warehouse4, I'd never noticed just how much "Turn It Around" captures that Sugar sound in prototype, it would totally fit on Copper Blue.

'She's a Woman' for me too. 'Warehouse' is my fave album of all time.

After a few more mins contemplation I went for that in the end.

To address some of Sean's other questions I don't think they were finding their 'pop voice' because they almost always had a mixed voice of things from the four albums I've heard from them. The presence of You can live at home guarantees that here.

Definitely true - maybe "crystallized" is a better word than "finding".

Mould all the way for me on all albums.

One of these:

These Important Years
Ice Cold Ice
Could You Be the One?
It's Not Peculiar
No Reservations
Up in the Air

Hart's 'Actual Condition' always reminded me of Showaddywaddy ,which is a terrible thing to say. Hart never had the tunes for me and his songs often merely plodded

always surprised to hear people say that (tho i know some do). i think of hart as sort of a deeply troubled, pop-songcraft genius.

Daniel, I cannot argue with you.
I'm retarded when it comes to deciphering lyrics and song structures. I go for the music.
Hart's was often too hippy for me - the long haired bare footed tit ;-)

don't get me wrong, mould's a brilliant songwriter, too. i just found his post-husker work yields diminishing returns after workbook (which was great).

Definitely prefer Bob's album to Grant's. A lot of my favourite Husker Du songs are Grant songs, but not on this album.

there are grant partisans, mould partisans, "hardcore" husker partisans, "pop" husker partisans.

one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish.

there are grant partisans, mould partisans, "hardcore" husker partisans, "pop" husker partisans.

i feel like i pinball between all four options on a regular basis when listening to them...

Definitely prefer Bob's album to Grant's. A lot of my favourite Husker Du songs are Grant songs, but not on this album.

I've always been more of a Bob fan even while appreciating a lot of Grant songs but I think I feel stronger about this on Warehouse. But something that hit me the other day while listening to "Charity, Chastity...": it's a great song that's been saddled with a really monochromatic and uninteresting guitar line. So I wonder how much of my indifference to Grant songs on this album may be because of the internal tensions on the album potentially leading to Mould being disinterested in making his bandmate's songs any more than they needed to be...?

Of course maybe it was a case of Grant not wanting Bob's guitar heroics on his tracks?

If you gave me a choice, blind, between a Bob song and a Grant song, I'd pretty much always take the Grant song. But I love my favourite Bob songs far more than my favourite Grant songs.

i love this thread and poll, btw. this album deserves more love.

i said upthread that warehouse is among the best closing albums of an act's career. it got me wondering what other discs would even be under consideration and how they stack-up against each other. i'd also say the smiths' strangeways and lewis taylor's lost album are in the conversation for best final album. there's an existing thread for this, i'm sure.

i've always thought that bob's thing is consistency, wheras grant's bag seems to be wild fluctuations in quality, studded with moments of absolute brilliance (pink turns to blue, 2541, songs about ufos).

I know what you mean ... But "Bob song" summons to me overwrought, proto-emo whininess (hey, I'm over-simplifying), and possible dirginess. "Grant song" says poppiness, which I prefer to angst. So I'll take Grant. But favourite Hüskers songs? Could You Be The One, Celebrated Summer, Makes No Sense At All.

The one album where Grant's definitely better than Bob is Candy Apple Grey.

i said upthread that warehouse is among the best closing albums of an act's career. it got me wondering what other discs would even be under consideration and how they stack-up against each other.

Would count the Pixies Trompe le Monde in this category. There's a lot of hate for that album, but I still think it's one of their strongest...and possibly my fave by them.

trompe le monde is wonderful... i've always thought it felt more like frank black's first solo album than pixies' last, though.

i'd say fugazi's 'the argument' is a pretty sublime final album, though my secret wish for them to record again prevents me from suggesting it.

fugazi never connected with me, but they were at their peak at a time i was pretty oblivious to music (rehashing my favorites from the 80s, content otherwise to listen to grunge burn itself out). i need to give fugazi another chance -- and i think i have the argument from emusic.

When I was pretty young I saw the Could You Be the One video on MTV and it sort of altered my idea of what music was. So that one.

Voted "Ice Cold Ice" just over "Friend, You've Got to Fall". Hart does not do much for me on this album. "You Can Live at Home" is cool though.

i said upthread that warehouse is among the best closing albums of an act's career. it got me wondering what other discs would even be under consideration and how they stack-up against each other.

The Go-Betweens' 16 Lovers Lane (or Oceans Apart, if you like).

yeah, in the go-betweens' case, i think you'd have to consider oceans apart the final disc.

"She Floated Away", with "You Can Live At Home" close behind. Never could tell Mould's songs apart on this one.

I'd never considered how Warehouse would look if it had been stripped down to a single, but now that I have; THIS is exactly (more or less) how it would look.

Standing In The Rain - Mould 3:41
Ice Cold Ice - Mould 4:23
Could You Be The One? - Mould 2:32
Friend, You've Got To Fall - Mould 3:20
Turn It Around - Mould 4:32

Back From Somewhere - Hart 2:16
She Floated Away - Hart 3:32
Tell You Tomorrow - Hart 2:42
She's A Woman (And Now He Is A Man) - Hart 3:19
You Can Live At Home - Hart 5:25

Assuming a 10 song album and 5 songs apiece for Grant and Bob.

Turn It Around and Tell You Tomorrow are the ones I'm least certain about including by each songwriter. The rest are non-negotiable.

My version of the album, with some reshuffling:
Standing in the Rain
Too Much Spice
Actual Condition
These Important Years
She Floated Away

Tell You Why Tomorrow
Ice Cold Ice
She's a Woman (And Now He Is a Man)
Up in the Air
You Can Live at Home

I have an unreasonable love for 'Actual Condition' which as a poster above notes doesn't really sound like Husker Du at all, but I take it as Hart's goofy stab at shambolic rockabilly, with Hart doing his best-worst Elvis impersonation. It's also the only Hart-penned track where it sounds like Mould is enjoying himself.
But going with 'Ice Cold Ice' as my favorite, which has always been the song that grabs my ear when I have the album on as background music. I'm a sucker for call and response.
I find the album a little unwieldy, but I have a hard time selecting outright duds. I would still like an album made up entirely of the songs I cut out of my above version of the album. I don't currently care for 'Bed of Nails' very much, though in the past I've found it at least interesting. Now I think it wears out its welcome somewhere around the two minute mark.

No Could You Be The One? Really? That's a surprise, I'd have had that down as dead cert for inclusion in anyone's POX.

She Floated Away and You Can Live At Home are great side-closers.

No Could You Be The One? Really? That's a surprise, I'd have had that down as dead cert for inclusion in anyone's POX.

Mould's lack of inflection in that song annoys me. I usually like the conversational cadence of Mould's singing, but the flatness of his reading in this instance hinders the song. I think one reason I like Hart's songs better on this album is that Hart really sounds like he's experimenting vocally, trying on various personas and styles to suit different songs, while Mould's vocals don't contain many surprises.

Officer Pupp single album OTM except i'd replace 'Turn It Around' with 'These Important Years'.

First and last songs are my favorite. Voted for "These Important Years" but on further listening I think I should have voted for "You Can Live At Home". It's one of the best final songs on final albums there is.

Only time I ever saw them live was this tour, when they were playing the whole thing through in order. One of the more memorable shows I've been to, more than partially because they had such musical power with so little stage charisma. I remember seeing Black Sabbath on the Dehumanizer tour at the same venue, not that long after; a polar opposite in some senses, and yet...

I'm tend to fall further into the Mould camp but "You Can Live At Home" hits with such euphoria from 2.04 onward that it's just wrong to not give it the vote.

But something that hit me the other day while listening to "Charity, Chastity...": it's a great song that's been saddled with a really monochromatic and uninteresting guitar line.

I thought the same thing when listening to "Too Much Spice".

Really heartened to see all the 'You Can Live At Home' love itt.

Did I dream a Zen Arcade poll? I can't find it anywhere.

I don't remember a Zen Arcade poll myself but that would probably be a good one too...really not sure where I'd lean on that one at all!

there should be a poll for individual tracks, and also for sides of vinyl

"Greg's album" would be "Everytime" (B-side of "Could You Be the One")

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgh8j8-EUEo

How many uncollected Hüsker Dü b-sides (or compilation appearances) were there? There's Everything Falls Apart And More for the early stuff, but would there be enough to actually warrant another compilation?

judging by all the bootlegs, yes.

i'm going with the opening track here for the high school nostalgia.

I always loved Could You Be the One

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Mould: 40 total votes.

Hart: 27.

wow, i was the only vote for No Reservations? Maybe I just don't ~get~ Husker Du...

As much as I'm a Bob stan, seriously o_O about "Too Much Spice" and "Tell You Tomorrow" getting goose eggs here...but then hey, I'm the only one to vote for "Turn It Around" too, so.

THE RIGHT SONG WON!!!

i prefer the hart songs in hindsight but "too much spice" is by far the worst. "tell you why tomorrow" is great tho and deserved some votes.

So the official reduced 10-track ILM Warehouse would resemble:

Side 1
These Important Years
Could You Be The One?
Friend, You've Got To Fall
It's Not Peculiar
She Floated Away

Side 2
She's A Woman (And Now He Is A Man)
Standing In The Rain
Up In The Air
Ice Cold Ice
You Can Live At Home

While there's some quibble-room here and there, ILM pretty much OTM.

Let's do a Zen Arcade poll! (If i knew how to set one up, I would, but I don't... so...)

Click on the link at the top of the page that says New Poll! And away you go.

The answer is Chartered Trips

An answer to an as-yet-unasked question is about as Zen as it gets!

wow, i was the only vote for No Reservations?

I would have voted for it, if it didn't have the lyric, "Sit by a lake and cry"

man, the beginning of ice cold ice is so "classic rock" and perfect
wish they had stuck it out for at least one more record

hart over mould here by a whisker imo

So the official reduced 10-track ILM Warehouse would resemble:

Side 1
These Important Years
Could You Be The One?
Friend, You've Got To Fall
It's Not Peculiar
She Floated Away

Side 2
She's A Woman (And Now He Is A Man)
Standing In The Rain
Up In The Air
Ice Cold Ice
You Can Live At Home

Just listened to the songs in listed order. I bet the album would certainly be considered differently had it come out like that. And this year the 25th anniversary reissue would have come out with the remaining ten bonus unreleased tracks, and critics would rave about how fucking genius songs like "Turn It Around" and "Charity, Chastity..." are and what a damn shame they weren't included on the original.

Went back to this record for the first time in some time. What a brilliant band and album. I keep replaying It's Not Peculiar.

I'm not someone who will be completely put off by the production that has been discussed ad nauseam, but it is a frustrating factor that will not go away, especially when dealing with an act who put out so many albums in a short space of time, with 2 double albums in 3 years. I've been dealing with Husker Du for nearly 20 years and it's STILL frustrating to hear a band like that on record.

Azerrad wrote in his book that "Husker Du never let anyone catch their breath". Why is this a good thing? Why would this matter to anyone over 20?

Bc it means they made lots of records?

I love the specificity of the Belvedere in "She's a Woman." It suits the meter of the line perfectly, which is maybe how it ended up there -- Grant thinking, I need an old car with three syllables -- but it is also so evocative of time/place/situation.

Azerrad wrote in his book that "Husker Du never let anyone catch their breath". Why is this a good thing? Why would this matter to anyone over 20?

Honestly, it should make them sad. The story with HD is that with each tour, at least until Warehouse, they were already playing plenty of stuff from their next album. What band does that anymore? Everyone's so cautious. A band constantly unveiling new stuff, especially a band of HD's caliber, would be super cool, and such an alternative to the bunch of stuff from the new album plus the best of the old albums model that most acts of all sizes embrace.

I've gotten so used to HD's "bad" production that I just consider it a facet of their identity at this point, like, I dunno, the first two Suede albums. I'm not even sure what a well produced HD album would sound like, or whether I'd want that, though "Flip Your Wig" sounds pretty great, and "Copper Blue" kind of gives us an idea. But again, it's the old Jimmy Page production/engineering/mixing adage at work: you can either have the guitars loud, or the drums loud, but you really can't have them both loud. Unless you want a full-on aaarrrgh! in the red sound, like HD.

I'd really like to see contemporaneous reviews complaining about their production. I was listening to them (on vinyl) in the US 80s/90s and it's not something that ever occurred to me, or that I recall reading much about. I'm not saying it didn't happen, but could we get some reviews from the time the records were released bitching about the production (and keeping in mind that indie production generally sucked at the time). My pet theory is that complaints about production parallel people listening at low volumes on earphones years after the fact, vs. loud volumes on speakers. Anyway, would have voted for You Can Live At Home, I think.

People who don't like the production on Hüsker Dü records should listen to some Replacements records.

Nice Strong Arm was a band from the time done in by bad production on their records. Husker Du, not so much.

Didn't Billy Zoom hate the production on X's records?

Spin review at the time references cleaner production. We've been over this a lot, but this "bad production Husker Du" crap needs to die for once and for all. https://books.google.com/books?id=dNSW1RIkidsC&pg=PA36&lpg=PA36&dq=husker+du+warehouse+spin&source=bl&ots=0sPg_Tnvro&sig=r8uvIoagAzmbLqYl3UFUYc7fq8g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiSs6eWurDOAhUIDxoKHZPKDcQQ6AEIQDAG#v=onepage&q=husker%20du%20warehouse%20spin&f=false

warehouse sounds better on vinyl imo

with plush production husker du might sound like sugar but i think they sound better as husker du, much as I loved sugar. maybe they're not supposed to have beefy drums or non-tinny guitars? maybe that was their actual aesthetic and if you don't like it you don't like husker du? maybe there are other bands out there and you don't have to continue to second guess a band who split up almost thirty years ago?

Who are you talking to? Because I've never heard anyone seriously complain about Husker Du production in the last 30 years.

But if someone wants a contemporaneous account, Christgau (no bigger booster) mentions it a lot in his reviews: http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=husker+du

But though I hate to sound priggish, I do think it could have used a producer. I mean, it was certainly groovy (not to mention manly) to record first takes and then mix down for forty hours straight, but sometimes the imperfections this economical method so proudly incorporates could actually be improved upon. It wouldn't be too much of a compromise to make sure everyone sings into the mike, for instance, and it's downright depressing to hear Bob Mould's axe gather dust on its way from vinyl to speakers. Who knows, put them in the studio with some hands-off technician--Richard Gottehrer, Tony Bongiovi, like that--and side two might even qualify as cathartic music rather than cathartic noise.

They've never sounded so good. Spot's gone, as are most of the cobwebs that obscured their clamor, so without kow-towing to Michael Wagener we really get to hear Bob Mould's guitar.

Etc. I think he's right and wrong for the reason you ('you') mention: that Husker Du sounds like Husker Du, and what might be technical imperfections don't hurt and even enhance this band's power. Especially on the SST albums. The WB albums, eh, I don't think they're badly produced, but I do think they made some bad decisions. Could have been a lot worse, given the times.

Who are you talking to? Because I've never heard anyone seriously complain about Husker Du production in the last 30 years.

I'm not someone who will be completely put off by the production that has been discussed ad nauseam, but it is a frustrating factor that will not go away, especially when dealing with an act who put out so many albums in a short space of time, with 2 double albums in 3 years. I've been dealing with Husker Du for nearly 20 years and it's STILL frustrating to hear a band like that on record.

^^^^ in this very thread revive. And have been hearing people complain about HD production anecdotally for years and years!

I don't really mind the sound of Bob's guitar w/HD at all tbh, though I came to them after hearing Copper Blue so definitely sound 'tinny' by comparison to his Sugar-era (which, iirc, was influenced by MBV's multi-guitar layerings to some degree; certainly, friends who saw them on those first UK shows talked in terms of MBV's disorientatingly loud live show). When I first heard 'em, I had troubles with Grant's drums, which sounded indefensibly wimpy to my teenaged grunge-damaged ears, but I've long since come to appreciate their non-meathead elegance (one early editor of mine defended the HD sound versus Sugar saying Sugar sounded positively pub-rock by comparison; I don't agree, but I see her point).

HD don't really sound like a 'rock' band, certainly post-New Day Rising, in that their din and velocity are stripped of machismo in their needling high-end sound, and in what Ken Stringfellow described in the song Grant Hart as 'paper drums'; wasn't there a Simon Reynolds review circa Warehouse about this very non-rock quality being what he loved about their blissful anti-machismo sound?

[my first HD purchase, post-Copper Blue rapture, was Land Speed Record; jesus christ that was a nasty shock, which I've since grown to love]

I just meant I've never heard a significant number of complains about HD production, not like there was with, say, Raw Power or And Justice For All, or certain other famously botched jobs. I think some folks are maybe put off by the super raw sound of Mould's MXR+ distortion pedal, or, yeah, missing the mic when they're screaming full-tilt. Not that it matters. I think the drums sound great until the WB albums. The tinny reverb on Candy Apple Grey is weird, as are the thin drum sounds on Warehouse, but I'm so used to both as part of the band's sound that I don't care. They're distinctive.

Apparently Mould was also doing proto MBV stuff (slowing guitars down, blending them) pretty early, which maybe in those days accounted for his stun guitar sound. I know Shields has cited a Mould interview for giving him the idea of using reverse reverb. Billy Corgan cites Mould, too.

They're distinctive.

That's exactly it, I totally agree. And I think the complaints I've heard derive from a grunge-era frustration that, hey, if only HD had polished up those distinctive sounds they might have crossed over like Nirvana did (after all, Krist said at the time that Nevermind was nothing new and that Husker Du had coined that sound before them).

Candy Apple Gray is such a weird album. The songs I love on it are the ones that sound nothing like HD, the ballads, while the songs that sound like HD - Lonely aside - leave me really cold.

Also, they did have a live major label album and it doesn't really sound especially better or worse than the studio stuff. They sounded like they sounded, they were meant to be played loud on speakers, and their sound doesn't work well in some contexts (low volume, etc.).

The Foo Fighters have made a career out of ripping off this album

Actually, the drum sound on the live album is fucking horrible - they went way too far in the opposite direction of the studio albums and wound up with this super-processed Big 80s Snare.

more like the dü biters amirite xp

My stab at blasphemy: https://open.spotify.com/user/pplains/playlist/00GOCXGtRmP3FdwLSuKEwO

Nicely done - didn't really miss a thing, and much better momentum. For some reason, made the sound seem less muddy to me.

Need to listen to that

I think the power in the tunes leads people to perhaps think they would perhaps be better served with a huge drum sound, but I just don't think that was Husker Du's thing. Especially on Warehouse maybe more specifically on Grant's tunes you hear the 60s rock in their sound.

In time and the wake of Nevermind, you see that having the big drum sound and harder crunchy guitars hit commercial paydirt - but rolling back to 1986 - I don't think that was not where Husker Du were at. They seem to me to be heading the opposite direction to the raw roar of the SST albums on the two Warner's records more from that's where they wanted their songs to go.

Look at where Hart and Mould went after Husker Du went kaput, they both went even cleaner and less distorted on their next projects (Workbook & Intolerence) - more about the song and not the roar. Mould then went for atmosphere on Black Sheets of Rain THEN re-aligned his next band to the current alt-rock sound with Sugar, which had caught up with what Husker Du's songs had been doing with big budget production.

I think the whole Husker Du's records sound bad would go away if someone would remaster the digital versions of the tunes from the original master tapes and given the current legal situation with the band, another decade might pass until that occurs. Husker Du is definitely one band where going and finding the original LPs is worth doing.

Yeah I think they sound great, someone brought up MBV upthread and I put them almost as proto shoegaze, that thin sheet metal thing, plus I mean it's probably how they wanted it to sound, it's not like Spot didn't do more naturalistic recordings or more conventionally heavy rock sounds with other bands

Last winter I did a bit of messing around with a rip of Big Black's "Songs about Fxxxing" basically leveling up the volume so some tunes would ride in a comp and sound better on a CDR driving. I didn't do that much in Goldwave but run them through a basic compressor at 3:1 and then maximize the volume at 90% after the compression. Basically I turned up the volume on file, but it wasn't totally smashed like some modern CDs and it was kind of striking at the same volume on the stereo how much more you could hear. There was more bass and presence in the drums. I was going to go back and do the same with Zen Arcade but just never got around to doing it, but the experiment with the Big Black tracks did illustrate the difference that could be done with such remastering - especially if done in a real studio with real hardware.

Some modern bands would crap their pants having to go into an 8-16 track studio and trying to knock out a double album recorded and mixed in like 3-5 days like the Huskers and Minutemen did. That was like shooting Apocalypse Now over a weekend.

Let's just say Land Speed Record has a few different meanings.

This album is good, you guys are fucking nuts

Paging ILX user Tuomas... Paging ILX user Tuomas... Please help...

20 biisiä raakana eteen. Kitaravalli käy päälle, syleilee. Maukasta! Valli on paksu ja valehtelematon, kuin työmaalle viikonlopuksi käyntiin unohtunut sirkkeli.

20 tracks in front of green. Guitar Valli is on, embracing. Tasty! Valli is a thick mat and lie, like a forgotten site for the weekend off circular saw.

Last time I tried listening to Warehouse, it was a few years back, on vinyl, and there's something about that record that just gets boring for me. Song for song, the material is stronger than Candy Apple Grey, but they settle into a set of textures and tempos that gives everything a sameness. Pplains adding "Everytime", which is both more bubblegum and more hardcore-ish really helps, as does his sequencing. I know why Huskers used "These Important Years" to start the record - it's jaunty but still has a tense solos, but it sets up the pacing problems. Opening with "Floated Away" sets up a different story - let's start far out, then get smaller. Like The Who Sell Out .

Warehouse would be a lot better if they had more jolting arrangements side by side, like "Never Talking to You" next to "Chartered Trips" or "Powerline" next to "Books about UFOs". Really, it's a problem I have with everything after New Day Rising . It's not the production per se, it's that they settled into a generic Husker Du arranging style. Probably because they ceased to enjoy working out arrangemnts together, and became supporting musicians for each others songwriting efforts.

Well said.

I like the erratic sequencing of Warehouse. Candy Apple is possibly the only HD I don't really like a lot, though I do love the Grant songs.

CAG and FYW are my favorite Husker albums.

You're half right.

sides 3 & 4: mostly terrific
sides 1 & 2: mostly boring

Sides 1-4 all awesome

CAG and FYW are my favorite Husker albums.

Same here! I'd probably rank this one third - it's great but there are definitely a few songs I could lose - I've got to admit I've no idea why You Can Live at Home is so well-liked. That bassline is so clunky! Also I just think the vocal fade-out of Up in the Air would be a perfect album/career closer.

Teasing: https://twitter.com/numerogroup/status/777259538776854528

If it's what I heard a few years ago it's a full scale remasters/reissues of the catalog plus all sorts of extras

Remasters you say???

If these albums are actually remastered--as in, you can play them without getting a headache--I will write Numero a blank check

Wow numero group???

This is exciting

I just realized the idea of huskers demos would be really enticing to me. I hope there's demos in the extras.

the idea of non-spot (and non-warners-80s-glossy) huskers albums is both thrilling and terrifying to me.

Extras/demos are very appealing but spending $$$ on music I already know by heart, less so.

Interesting. The post mentions "seven years in the making." The first I'd heard of anything re: Numero and Husker Du was back in 2012, I'd say, but when I asked Mould for confirmation then the best he would give was that all three members of HD were for the first time sharing the same legal representation. Which is not nothing. Why now and not then, though, I dunno.

Wait, is this ... this: New Double CD of previously unreleased Husker Du pre-Landspeed/Everything Falls Apart demos coming out!

It could be! So hard to say. Also, my comment upthread about remasters... That was the plan at some point I think, keep in mind grant hart is involved in all these decisions so things can be.... fluid I would imagine

I always heard Mould was the sticking point, that for the longest time he wanted control of the masters in exchange for his Ok.

yeah that could be, they both seemed to shit on greg a couple years ago in the press, too so who know if that was part of it

I'd always heard that the masters were shitty and that remastering them wouldn't make the sound any better. I think that was Mould's take over the years.

But after hearing the cleanup on the Beatles' Live At the Hollywood Bowl, it seems that technology is going to allow some true turd polishing.

Also:

https://twitter.com/numerogroup/status/778368625849864192

Jeepers. Too bad they waited until no one pays for music anymore.

feel like the target market for that husker set is literally the only people who pay for music anymore

was gonna say

why are we assuming it's a box set?

I actually hope it isn't

Numero has teased demos and New Day Rising so far; I can't imagine they'll release them separately.

it's just that I can probably only afford the paid-download option (bc I can chip away at it album by album), and if it's a box I won't be able to afford that either

My disposable income is 20 dollars a month at most rn

the great thing about numero is it will be in print for some time--i save up for their pricier box sets myself and then splurge

Gonna start a "never remaster HD" campaign

Bleh I'm seeing that numero doesn't even have a pay to download option by itself. You have to buy the physical (presumably LP only?) to be able to download.

yeah good point i think they just did that

not from Numero, but missed this when it was announced (Walker Art Center is putting out the record):

Join us in the gallery as Yousif Del Valle performs the complete drum track from the newly released, limited-edition LP Land Speed Record. A set by his thrash metal band Hate Beast follows.

The limited-edition, clear vinyl LP contains a rendition of Hüsker Dü’s original drum track played by Del Valle and recorded live at 7th St Entry on April 14, 2016. Published by the Walker, the album serves as the catalogue for Larson’s exhibition and includes liner note essays by Walker exhibition curator Siri Engberg, Walker artistic director Fionn Meade, independent curator Dieter Roelstraete, and Rev. Russell Rathbun, founding preacher at St. Paul’s House of Mercy. A separate, deluxe edition of the LP additionally features a color photograph, signed and numbered by Larson, of the salvaged objects from the home of Hüsker Dü drummer Grant Hart, which are the subject of his film on view in the Walker galleries.

Available in the Walker Shop, this 2016 LP release coincides with the 35th anniversary of Hüsker Dü’s Land Speed Record and Del Valle’s in-gallery performance. Album $19.81 ($17.83 Walker members); deluxe edition $500 ($450).

I give ranking this album a go.

Can we talk about the bridge in "No Reservations" (from 1:35 - 2:47):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyOnt77oSOg

I think I'm picking up 4 guitar tracks:
1) there's the up-stroke beeping pulse
2) then there's 2 (reversed?) kinda "glide-guitar" (to borrow a name for a technique that would show up a year or two later on MBV's Isn't Anything).
3) once Bob's vox come in there's this strong, deep drone descending from C#m-B-A-E pedaling over the chiming open b-e strings.

It's one of the more psychedelic & noisy moments on the record and I'm trying to draw parallels to earlier predecessors like the 2nd half of Wire's "The 15th" but "No Reservations" is far more blurry & hazy. What other art-rock has a similar feel or plays in a similar space?

I missed this one but I probably would have picked "Ice Cold Ice" even though the live version on The Living End is better than the version on the album.

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

XP - Perhaps the (unjustly) forgotten about live record from Rain Parade, Beyond The Sunset, may have similar things going on?

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

What an album. Bed of Nails is the only dud. Bob should've let Grant have another one in its place.

This album weirdly presages not just (aspects of) shoe gaze, but also the all-treble sound of a lot of '90s Brit rock.

That section *does* sound a lot like parts of Isn't Anything. I listened to Warehouse a lot right when it came out and very little since. Spot's production never bothered me, but these interesting bits wash out on the late records. I only tenuously heard a HU-MBV connection by the time the time MBV came on my radar a year after HD was kaput. If Isn't Anything pulls a lot from Husker Du sonics, it also lets go of traditional Beatles/Buzzcocks song conventions, which Mould and Hart kept emphasizing more and more. Like, "Feed Me with Your Kiss" is easy to imagine as a late Du track, with the storm of fuzz and drawled vocals, but what sets it free is the conceptual bit with the incrementing count of blam-blam-blams. "From the Gut" Huskers might have done something like that, but not the final stage of the band.

I always thought this captured something of shoe gaze:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzzP29fw930

fwiw "Psychocandy" came out two months later.

What other art-rock has a similar feel or plays in a similar space?

Maybe some of the songs with layered guitar segments on third and fourth Camper Van Beethoven albums?

(The self-titled one and Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart)

Very overdue, but thanks for all your replies (esp. bendy, Josh, tim). I realized in retrospect that Bob came back to this proto-shoegaze sound for Sugar (post-shoegaze?) which is kinda awkward.... yet I think the moments on the Sugar records that get psych-gaze are not sloppy enough for me to love, which is why I keep coming back to "No Reservations".

Ok hold on a second!

From a Kevin Shields interview on how he created the MBV "glide-guitar" sound:

So I'd been playing the song 'Slow', and previously I'd been using this reverse reverb which I'd read about in a Bob Mould interview

https://thequietus.com/articles/08745-kevin-shields-interview-mbv-my-bloody-valentine

lol, Josh in Chicago from 4 years ago upthread:

Apparently Mould was also doing proto MBV stuff (slowing guitars down, blending them) pretty early, which maybe in those days accounted for his stun guitar sound. I know Shields has cited a Mould interview for giving him the idea of using reverse reverb. Billy Corgan cites Mould, too.

― Josh in Chicago, Monday, August 8, 2016 7:59 AM (four years ago)

I seem to remember reading in Tape Op or somewhere that it was a rackmount fx unit, Alesis Midiverb II that had a short reverse reverb setting that inspired the glide guitar sound.

Any deep Husker fans know of any earlier reverse reverb examples prior to "No Reservations"?

And what the hell is "stun guitar" anyway? The only other place I've seen it referenced is on Blue Oyster Cult album credits.

There's a guitar part during the intro to Eiffel Tower High that sounds a bit reverse reverbish

Also Don't Know Yet off Flip Your Wig has a lot of backwards guitar but whether or not that's rev reverb I don't know. They obv played the tape backwards for the cymbals though