Husker Du : Classic or Dud, Search and Destroy.

weird questions: how seriously am I supposed to take the views expressed in "Real World" & who is the imagined interlocutor ("You wanna change the world by breaking rules and laws")?

I don't really know anything about the Huskers or their politics, but the song's speaker seems to toe the line between common-sense/can't-we-all-get-along thinking & a sort of reactionary conservatism ("I'm afraid of things like that & I lock my doors at night" obviously; but sometimes I even hear the line "I don't rape, & I don't pillage!" in a whiny besieged MRA tone)

so, my question is: do you think the band were satirizing contemporary American attitudes (yuppies! NIMBY!! broken windows policing!!!) or offering a genuine critique of a violent, destructive element within their own scene?

the second one, I think they meant it

(I don't have any support for this, maybe there's an old interview somewhere)

it seems very very Bob

who's the strawman?

everyone. pretty standard mould misanthropy. "everything falls apart" is a better song with the same message, "everything is so fucked up i guess it's natural that way / i guess we like it that way"

also WHEN ARE THEIR ALBUMS GETTING REMASTERED. EVERYTHING BUT THE VINYL SOUNDS LIKE SHIT! huskers and prince. what the fuck is up

seriously, I clicked on this revive for the tiniest glimmer of hope on the reissue horizon

At the time, Real World seemed very obviously directed at the circle-A types who'd get in sidewalk fights with "Nazi" frat boys, and eat out of the Au Bon Pain dumpster, and get very smug about it. Felt like a very sincere pleading for coming down to earth a little. Now it seems more an end run on nihilism- too fatigued to even believe in nothing. But maybe that's cause Mould's persona is much more fixed.

xpost I clicked on it fearing one of them had died (the feeling I get lately anytime I see an unexpected bump of a thread for anyone I like who's over 50) (lol sure symptom I am having a midlife crisis)

i clicked on it wondering what anyone could have to say about HD right now
also because i think Grant Hart is coming back around in a month or so and i'm looking forward to seeing him again even though last time i saw him he was in a crummy mood

He needs hugs iirc

he doesnt look so good these days. is he on the spike again?

Geez I sure hope not.

so, my question is: do you think the band were satirizing contemporary American attitudes (yuppies! NIMBY!! broken windows policing!!!) or offering a genuine critique of a violent, destructive element within their own scene?

Pretty sure the second one. That jumped out at me right away, and I mentioned it when I reviewed the record for my university paper in 1983. I think Minor Threat's "Salad Days" is after something (somewhat) similar.

don't know the Minor Threat; going to fix that now

thanks for the thoughtful replies, everybody!

Recently discovered that the way one feels about Zen Arcade might be directly proportional to how loud one listens to it

and if you listen to it on vinyl. night and day

Yes! Absolutely. I hated listening to Flip Your Wig for years because I only had it on CD and it just sounded so tinny and hissy and unpleasant. Now I think it's my favorite.

New official merch site (just t-shirts, but rumors of live recordings on the horizon):
http://officialhuskerdumerchandise.bigcartel.com/

Supposedly, all 3 Dus now have the same legal representation, which I guess represents some kind of hurdle-clearing thaw, ice cold ice etc.

They've had the same legal rep for so long, several years, that I wouldn't be surprised if they no longer did. Regardless, this is the first movement on the Huskers front in eons.

Man, those shirt prices not very punk rock. :(

gosh, i had two of those shirts when i was a teen, severe flashback time

Is this the first actual 'thing' since the Rhino Everything Falls Apart/Living End release?

i doubt this means a reunion is imminent

legal rep: you could make some $$
band: whatever

XP Was Living End before that?

Is this the first actual 'thing' since the Rhino Everything Falls Apart/Living End release?

― Master of Treacle, Wednesday, October 14, 2015 4:39 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The Numero Group "Amusement" single, the "Live Featuring JC" ep thing that Reflex put out in 2006...

If there ends up being more that t-shirts or posters I will be surprised, I mean maybe, but I wouldn't get my hopes up

Sheesh, can't these guys buy back their masters already? All I want is a catalogue that doesn't sound like dogshit.

what you mean like completely re-recorded

I hope those shirts can make me look as happy as their model

It did take me a while to acclimate to the production on the SST albums-they sound like they were recorded in a cardboard box on a skid row

I think those SST albums sound fine, on vinyl. the CDs need a remaster though.

Man, if Hüsker Dü albums sounded any other way than how they actually sound, I don't know if it would feel right going into my ears. I'm so used to the poor production that anything rounder or fuller re: guitars and drums would feel "off."

yeah i feel like it's kinda part of the husker du deal! but they do sound better on vinyl, i agree, so a remastered CD would be welcome. but i wouldn't expect the remastering to like completely change the sound.

CD/Blu-Ray reissues with 5.1 surround mixes by Steven Wilson or nothing.

I think those records sound great, bizarre and weird and blown-out and full throttle. No remaster!

someday i will relisten to the LPs to find out what you fetishists consider to be bad production

i feel like the early-mid 80s was a weird time to be an underground rock/guitar band -- like obviously you didn't want to sound like def leppard, you wanted to be the opposite of that. and spot's production delivers in that regard.

Yeah, ZA and NDR sound great. FYW started that weird almost-hair-metal-reverb thing, but it and CAG have aged well (far better than Workbook, I'd argue). Warehouse doesn't sound great, but that's more dü to the band's muted instrumental approach.

xp

I think those records sound great, bizarre and weird and blown-out and full throttle. No remaster!

― chr1sb3singer, Thursday, October 15, 2015 7:50 AM

OTM

anyone who thinks those (vinyl) records had bad sound needs to get a vinyl copy of Zen Arcade and put "Standing By The Sea" on a good stereo at high volume

the CD's are garbage, like every single CD SST has ever released. goes w/o saying.

Morbs also OTM

What about the CDs is garbage? They always sounded fine to me (ditto Double Nickels).

And the only HD vinyl I heard was NDR, and it was irritatingly off-center and super pitch-warbly.

No highs, no lows, engineered by the guys at Bose.

I think it's funny when people talk about how Spot "ruined" these records: these bands had kind of crummy gear, had to work in maybe not the greatest studios, under tight time constraints (85 hours to record & mix "Zen Arcade"! That doesn't exactly afford you a lot of time to dial in tones), no money, the Huskers probably recording in the middle of a tour, everyone had problems with themselves and with each other...we should be hailing Spot for saving these records!

Plus, if you listened to some the records Mould produced for other bands around this time (first Man-Sized Action record for inst) I think he really liked that thin, harsh, trebely sound.

yeah, carducci (i think) referred to it as an almost field recording aesthetic/approach. just get it on tape.

Pretty sure the band owns its masters! It's just hard to get everyone to agree at once, like, who will mix/master? I know Mould years ago tried to buy Hart's rights off of him, to no avail. So it's probably just the usual passive aggressive stuff holding things up. "Well, if I can't have it, you can't have it!"

Anyway, this is what Mould told me a few years ago:

BM: I know the three members are under one legal umbrella. But I haven’t seen any definitive movement. I’ve seen baby steps. I hope something happens. It’s good that the three of us are on the same page, as far as one voice representing the band.

Do you have a vision as to what those reissues might be like?

BM: There’s a lot of early stuff that hasn’t been heard. There are not that many b-sides; SST burned through most of those at the time. There’s various live recordings. I mean, there’s “stuff,” but mostly the early years, the unheard stuff. That would be the best place to start. I listened to some stuff years ago, when archivists were sending me stuff and people were starting to get ideas and compile things. I haven’t really been keeping up on it. I know what exhibit A looks like, and when I say that I mean the list of titles of songs. I know what’s there.

yeah the problem with that theory is spot recorded What Makes a Man Start Fires and it doesn't sound like those Du records

When your albums bear statements like "recorded and mixed in 48 hours" or whatever, I'm not sure what we should ever expect. I mean, Candy Apple and Warehouse sound like they do on purpose, and short an Iggy's "Raw Power" or "And Justice for Jason," dunno how much better they'll get.

The punk rock reissue world is a maddening nightmare. DIY no contract band of brothers agreements are the road to hell 30 years later. Numero is way better than most at navigating this field, but things can get ugly when you aren't friends any more, there is no ongoing project but the reissue, and you have to get a formal agreement for what was and what will be moving forward.

http://www.startribune.com/now-open-for-business-husker-du-s-first-official-website/332151562/

Per Norton, the three long-feuding band members finally came together and agreed to recruit Dennis Pelowski, Minneapolis-based manager of the Meat Puppets, to “help us figure out how to get a foothold back in the business.” Pelowski and the Puppets already have experience dealing with SST Records, the label run by Black Flag guitarist and one of punk’s most maligned businessmen Greg Ginn, which issued five of Hüsker Dü’s earliest albums.

Among the new developments so far, the band sorted out licensing issues with SST, which helped lead to the 1984 classic “Pink Turns to Blue” being featured in a recent episode of the AMC TV series “Halt and Catch Fire.”

Am I the only one who would like to hear remastered versions of the Warners albums? All that stuff about gear and studio and time constraints is out the window for Warehouse, which is a great album that sounds at best okay.