Sugar - Classic Or Dud

http://onlineathens.com/stories/080310/uga_689844920.shtml

Barbe to lead UGA's music business program

By Ryan Blackburn - r✧✧✧.blackb✧✧✧@onlineath✧✧✧.c✧✧

Musician David Barbe has been chosen as interim director of the Music Business Program at the University of Georgia. He will start work immediately.

Barbe will replace Bruce Burch, the program’s founding co-director who last month took his top assistant and a fundraiser to start a similar program at Kennesaw State University.

Barbe will teach the two basic courses of the certificate program, called Music Business I and II, and he will administer the program, including hiring an assistant director, UGA administrators said Monday.

The responsibility for overseeing fundraising for the program will be absorbed through the college’s existing staff.

Barbe came to Athens in 1981 to attend UGA as a journalism student and on the side joined several bands, including Mercyland and Buzz Hungry. In the early 1990s, he co-founded the band Sugar, which recorded four albums.

In 1997, he teamed up with Andy LeMaster and Andy Baker to open Chase Park Transduction and currently serves as co-owner, president and chief engineer of the full-service recording studio.

Since opening Chase Park, Barbe has worked as a producer, engineer, writer and musician on hundreds of recording projects with artists like Drive-By Truckers, The Glands, Amy Ray, k.d. lang and R.E.M.

Jointly sponsored by the Terry College of Business and the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, the program prepares students for jobs in the music business — sometimes by giving music students a background in business, and other times by providing business students some basic music knowledge.

Nearly 90 students are enrolled in the 21-credit certificate program.

Barbe came highly recommended from past UGA faculty members and alumni and already had some knowledge of the program as a guest lecturer, said business school Dean Robert T. Sumichrast.

“Pretty quickly, we were able to determine that David Barbe was the best choice because of his existing association with our program,” Sumichrast said. “He had been a guest lecturer for us in the past, so we already knew some of the reaction from the students about his teaching style, and we already knew about his connection to the Athens music scene.”

The business college will conduct a national search for a permanent director, and Barbe will be among the candidates, Sumichrast said.

“I expect we will have a search in the spring semester, and we will name someone permanent director, and I think that David is certainly a very strong candidate for that,” he said.

Leaving for Kennesaw State with Burch are Keith Perissi, program director; and Heather Malcom, a development officer at UGA.

Burch’s resignation with UGA takes effect Aug. 9, but Barbe will begin work immediately, Sumichrast said.

Who wants to enroll for a semester or two?

Good for him. As long as it keeps him from singing shit like "Company Book", it's a great hire.

this band still rules! jamming copper blue for the first time in years. epic shit.

great record. I have a signed copy, my retirement nest egg!

Copper Blue is one of my favorite albums ever.

Beaster!!!!

hey bill magill, 'company book' was a clunker but i loved 'where diamonds are halos'

Copper Blue is one of my favorite albums ever.

― NYCNative, Friday, March 4, 2011 2:39 PM (21 minutes ago) Bookmark

Seconded.

"Copper Blue" and "Beaster" remain in many ways the apotheosis of what Mould was always after, even if his Husker stuff remains my sentimental favorite. But boy did Sugar burn bright and fast. Admittedly, I haven't listened to "File Under: Easy Listening" in eons but the time I saw them touring behind that album was less than inspiring.

Last time I interviewed him he noted that not only was "FU:EL" his commercial peak, that overwhelmingly he's now known as the guy that used to be in Sugar, with the legacy of HD fading away. Tragically, AFAIC, but Mould I believe has long made peace with his past and moved on, for better or for worse.

Besides might be the "b-sides, live and outtakes" album of the 90s (at least nothing comes to mind immediately) and I'll take it over FU:EL. Also having a hard time thinking of a better band started by a guy from a great band who had already become a full-time solo artist. Certainly beats Tin Machine.

Is FU:EL really his commercial peak? I know it charted highest, but there were a TON of copies in clearance bins back in the day - I'd have to assume Copper Blue sold better on the whole.

I think FU:EL did better overseas. Like, really well.

Both albums were top ten over there, which is crazy.

also I dunno if I trust Mould's "actually people care more about the band that was my baby a lot more than the band with grant hart writing half the songs" analysis. Guessing a Husker Du reunion would pull a little more money than a Sugar one.

I would guess otherwise. Husker Du broke up a generation ago, 25 years, with only a fraction of mainstream support at the time. Unlike the Replacements, though, I've always sensed HD remains more a well kept secret sort of thing, at least in today's market.

Husker Du had more albums than Sugar, has been namechecked by more bands as an influence, has been memorialized in books and likely has so many "new" fans (since 1988) who missed them the first go-round. Sugar was pretty cool, but likely ranks on par with The Breeders. You could argue that more people know the words to "Cannonball", but it's only the Pixies that could carry out a worldwide reunion tour.

One of my best friends is very close to Mould and his partner; he says Mould's income these days derives from deejay gigs and royalties, most of which come from his post-Husker years (he managed himself very well apparently).

IIRC he pretty much set up a licensing agreement as soon as Sugar started which allowed him to (reasonably) dictate some terms when the band signed. Smart move.

He seems to live an ideal life: happily settled in a very nice apartment in San Francisco, does the deejay club circuit a few months a year, records an album when he feels like it.

Copper Blue is one of my favorite records.

The live take on "The Slim" on Besides is absolutely devastating. I've been hoping for years that footage of one of those takes will show up on youtube, to no avail thus far.

Bob Mould is also a well known furry and is active on the scene.[4]

he gets the catskins for nothing

mould used to get tons of cash for acoustic tours, get flown in, bring an acoustic on the plane, plug into the PA, play and go, no crew, etc.

he should get back into pro wrestling imo

I'm not at all saying Husker Du doesn't deserve the belated accolades, let alone cash, but there's absolutely no comparing their popularity to that of the Pixies, even at the time. Plus the Pixies broke up only ten or so years before they got back together, and it couldn't have hurt that they also broke up right when the mainstream starting adopting the stuff they pioneered. Sure, there'd be no Pixies without Husker Du, but there was no similar groundswell of enthusiasm (unless you could Sugar's brief success). Further, Pixies sales currently stand around 300,000 to 500,000 an album. What was the max HD ever sold? Do you think it's at all in line with the band's influence? Even in terms of namechecking, the number of times I see a band cite HD is close to nil, compared to Pixies or Pavement or whatever.

either way a husker du reunion will NEVER happen

I'm not so much saying Husker Du is more popular than the Pixies than saying that Sugar is to the Huskers what The Breeders are to the Pixies. I'm disagreeing with that Mould is better known for being in Sugar than in Husker Du

i think a huskers reunion would do pretty big business, like for example when i saw Mission of Burma on their reunion tour it was probably 1000 ppl, they commented from stage that there were only like 20 ppl the one time they played mpls in the old days.

also: old punkers are hella loyal.

Dunno if I'd call the Burma reunion big business. Either way, that band broke up originally well before it found out how far it could go (or not. The Huskers gave it a real shot, though. But I wouldn't imagine a HD reunion (which will never happen) would come close to, say, a Replacements reunion. Huskers have stayed relatively underground.

i think huskers would be way bigger than burma. i guess i consider 1000 ppl big business relatively, i dunno.

either way a husker du reunion will NEVER happen

― gr8080 sings the blues (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 4 March 2011 22:49 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^^^^^^^THIS, and matt otm throughout this thread.

I interviewed Bob Mould for his "Body Of Song" album and I asked him at the end of ithe chat what the prospects were of a reunion. He said that it was not likely.

First of all, he claimed that contrary to my assumptions, there are not promoters waving bags of cash at them to do so.

Even without that tempation, he said too many hurtful things have been said by the other two (or maybe just one... I didn't use it in the interview and I don't have the transcript and might not be able to dig up the audio; all I have is the story I turned in) that he deemed it an impossibility.

That said, I cannot believe that nobody with a check book at least took their temperatures. I don't believe it would have been on par with The Pixies in terms of interest but I know a lot of people who never got to see Husker Du live who would pay for the chance now.

I include myself in that, actually.

Mould is too comfortable financially and psychologically to need a HD reunion, I was told.

Husker Du live : you're not missing THAT much.

i have many, many bootlegs that argue otherwise, us steel

IIRC, Mould did an interview, I guess when his last lp came out, where he said not only wasn't there going to be an HD reunion, but also that their SST albums weren't going to be expanded/reissued/remastered because all three guys had to over see/sign off on the project. He then advised fans to hold onto their vinyl.

I've also seen interviews with Hart where he claimed Mould tried to low-ball/strong-arm all the rights away from him and Greg, pissing him off and pissing away what little good feeling came of the hell-freezes-over one-time-only demi-reunion (where, incidentally, Mould chose a Hart song and Hart chose a Mould song - perhaps not coincidentally, "Never Talking to You Again" and "Hardly Getting Over It").

yo stevie -- which husker bootlegs are the best? i don't have any!

It's a pity that the end of Husker was so unnecessarily ugly and messy...that whole thing with Mould telling Hart he'll never have more than 45% of the song on any record and then Hart inevitably firing back after the split, just shake hands and either get a reunion gig going or completely call time on it in the right way. I'm anxious to see how he will depict that last year or so in the autobiography.

It was more complicated than that, too, involving everything from AIDS scares and suicide to drugs (Mould cleaned up first and got the upper hand; Norton, as far as I can tell, has stayed out of it).

x-post Tyler, I have a great Trenton bootleg I've enjoyed. Most famous may be "Lyndale's Burning," Minneapolis '95: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0DF8LFZM

i have about 20gb of husker boots :)

well,maybe 10. on a load of data cdrs

Copper Blue singles collection in November

https://bsky.app/profile/bsglaser.bsky.social/post/3m2pgkx4ffk2f

Sort of underwhelming news— “This album that has been repeatedly issued in the past 30 years will be reissued again except in a box of 7 inch records.”

I do know I am on ILM, but truly only a completist nerd cares about such absurd gimmickry

It’s not a reissue of the album, it’s a reissue of the four singles from the album (“Changes”, “Helpless”, “A Good Idea”, and “If I Can Change Your Mind”) as a box of four 12” records, with their original b-sides. It’s still only for completist nerds, but getting those live in Chicago recordings on vinyl is a better deal than re-purchasing Copper Blue in a more cumbersome format.

https://recordstoreday.com/SpecialRelease/19343

Try Again is a fantastic Bob rarity, and I always loved their cover of Armenia. But is Besides out of print on vinyl?

Also, a shame it doesn't include the Mark Goodier version of Diamonds Are Halos from the UK If I Can't Change Your Mind single, always loved that.

Needle Hits E also killer

YES!

should've been on the album

Try Again is a fantastic Bob rarity, and I always loved their cover of Armenia. But is Besides out of print on vinyl?

― meat-based daughter-based unwellness (stevie), Thursday, October 9, 2025 2:25 PM (twenty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I think this is still available, or at least you can get new copies for a very reasonable price on Discogs. I've got a copy on order from a record dealer friend!

but getting those live in Chicago recordings

Going to be controp and say that I have been utterly underwhelmed by all the live recordings I have heard of this band. I am sure they were an absolute powerhouse in concert, but all of the live recordings I've heard have left me cold in a way the studio recordings do not.

The covers are fun. I used to own a bootleg of a very early show (pre-album release) with great covers of The Red and the Black and Turning of the Tide

Wichita Lineman m (or was that a solo show?)

this one?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Db7nrOXnk6M

I think he’s done it several times in different contexts

pure speculation on my part, but I'm not at all convinced the singles collection is the one and only thing that might be coming up

But is Besides out of print on vinyl?

Looking at Discogs, Besides has never been in print on vinyl in North America and the Creation vinyl singles obviously would have been harder to get here at the time than Ryko CD singles, so this box would have great appeal to a very niche Sugar fan. But the bigger news may be the information that restarted the thread about the possibility of the original three piece reuniting, and this could just be something coming out to help get people talking about the band again.

and if that won't change your mind then nothing will

Bob Mould has had a ton (literally) of archive releases consisting of huge CD and LP boxes, Smaller / select versions of same, and a couple of singleCD/DoubleLP "highlights" all under the collective name of "Distortion".

A lot of these were on offer at various retail outlets, massively discounted. (I got the big CD box, the "live" LP box, and a 4CD redux)

Just saying, I can't imagine what's left to do on the Sugar side. Saturation or wot?

New song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-S72djtUIFk

Um, that's pretty great. And barely over two minutes!!

New York and London live shows coming up in May.

tickets available already
https://bobmould.com/news/sugar-return-with-first-new-music-and-live-dates-in-over-three-decades/

... almost. That's where the tickets will be :-/

!!!

I've got to admit, I'm a little torn. The one time I saw Sugar they honestly weren't that great, certainly no better than Bob's current trio with Jason and Jon, who iirc toured Copper Blue a few years ago anyway.

If they play all of Beaster somewhere I better be there. Aside from that I’m having trouble getting excited.

I mean, for now it's just two shows in NYC and two shows in London, so not really a feasible option for me until they expand the tour, so I'm not going to sweat it.

Also, I get it for fans that want it on vinyl, but also not a lot to be excited about for me with the reissues - that Metro show was already a part of the Copper Blue Merge reissue.

wasn't the consensus that Sugar were never that great live

If they play all of Beaster somewhere I better be there.

This is my temptation.

wasn't the consensus that Sugar were never that great live

― disco stabbing horror (lukas), Wednesday, October 15, 2025

The trouble, as I hear it, is Mould's inability -- quite naturally! -- to duplicate the overdubbed guitar tumult of those records.

I saw them on the FU:EL tour and they absolutely ripped

I saw the show that was on the the The Joke Is Always on Us, Sometimes live bonus record and they were fucking great

Pleased to be wrong!

I thought they were meh on the FUEL tour. But honestly, as good as Bob has been for the last 10 years, it's hard to imagine a Sugar reunion being better. Which is to say, anybody that has slept on seeing the current Bob Mouod trio has been missing out.

I saw them at the 40 Watt during the FUEL tour and it fucking killed. Magnapop opened (they were delightful).

Also: the live stuff on the expanded editions are well worth checking out.

I just don’t find any of the live recordings good at all— as others have said, the sound is thin and coupled with the occasional spotty vocal moments, it’s just not worth my time.

Like LL tho, if there was some guarantee that they would play some or all of Beaster, I would be there. Tbh it’s the only record of Mould’s i can’t live without.

(well, as Sugar or solo— there are obviously some Husker Du records i can’t do without)

What about t-shirts?

Feel bad now I’ve never seen the band with Wurster

I saw Sugar live before the albums came out at Bogarts in Cincy. Pretty surprised how packed a gig it was especially I think maybe outside of "Armenia City in the Sky" every tune in the set you never had heard. It was very, very loud and pretty good. I know they played part of Beaster there as I was like when the record came out - that one really heavy tune was not there. I think it was JC Auto.

Buddy of mine saw Sugar in Amsterdam after they were getting big and said he had a ball of hash left and was flying out back to the US after the gig so he ate it and said the gig was like swimming in an ocean and he was still very high over the Atlantic going home. (Can't say anything how good they were but I remembered that and thought it was a good story nonetheless.)

Happy birthday, Bob!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OA_pPgwguR8

I came across this the other day, you might have to blow it up to read it but it's pertinent.

https://scontent-ord5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/559972515_1378454660948695_4101449700042128570_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=-JsWJ9sWbHgQ7kNvwFEz3-M&_nc_oc=AdnwMPopM7WSwNBeePrK5LqjwMFtHgv66vsl3gVTJQFWWr96RPyIroLbxUegAfhNKW4&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-ord5-1.xx&_nc_gid=5mubTUDq-mxL9qj4hlnM5g&oh=00_AfcHXuFYiEFp5ctIJ3g0yF8O8sPI1gx53Wz7glHrwxdPsA&oe=68F6B0F1

No longer expecting a Frisell cameo on the upcoming Sugar reunion tour

Not too surprising, I’ve seen Frisell many times and he’s also an incredibly nice person - his performances are completely different experiences than Mould’s, and I enjoy seeing both.

wasn't the consensus that Sugar were never that great live

i saw them live with throwing muses and it was fucking incredible

i think there are only 4.5 of them, but i like the barbe songs a lot

the Mark Goodier Session version of Diamonds Are Halos is one of my favourite Sugar songs.

proper power-pop.