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

I owe all of you fist bump, because I hadn't listened to "Beaster" in ages and somehow forgot about this absolute banger that no mere youtube rip can do justice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gApndS7YOIg

When that synth horn line blares and that bass kicks in = heaven

Seconding praise for Copper Blue, Beaster and Workbook. I can understand people feeling burned out on his later solo stuff - the thing about Bob is he sounds a lot like Bob, his voice always sounds like Bob, his guitar tones always sound like Bob, and I can understand the feeling that maybe you've had enough records and songs that sound like Bob. I will say, though, his 2020 primal scream Blue Hearts is a phenomenal record, his forthcoming one is really great too. And I swear by the tuneful bleakness of "Hubcap", his self-titled post-Sugar solo album from 1995, which is a rewardingly bruised breakup album.

I love this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BF3-xFBNjI

Yup, absolutely killer song, the lugubriousness of it is exquisite.

Singing from the same ditch where he wrote Too Far Down.

Really love this one off The Last Dog & Pony Show, too. A few good tunes on that - Moving Trucks, Who Was Around, Classifieds. Another breakup album. Basically, sad Bob = great Bob.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw3e12vb4Ds

He writes breakup songs that hit like daggers in the back. But this one, which is focused on the loss of a lover rather than the ire that betrayal inspires, is one of my absolute favourites of his.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlYm2mA4NW0

Y'all are trying to make me go back and listen to those immediately post-Sugar solo albums, but I won't be tricked. Stand your ground!!!

Hahaha

I stand by my initial post in this thread:

In praise of..._Beaster_ by Sugar

(Even if lukas said in response that I would never understand in full, not being from Minnesota.)

Y'all are trying to make me go back and listen to those immediately post-Sugar solo albums, but I won't be tricked. Stand your ground!!!

you SHALL be Bobrolled!

JC Auto is where it's at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9VL-9Sg1fw

AH KNOW
AH KNOW

I remember a piece in the UK press at the time, a glowing review or feature, that wrote of JC Auto "as the song grinds on I'm not sure why anyone would listen to this for pleasure". And it wasn't a criticism, just a comment on the scouring, cathartic experience of that record which, tbh, is exactly what I dig about it.

Yet still catchy as hell!

AH KNOW
AH KNOW

good god i need to be in a car listening to JC Auto so fucking loud right now, might even go for a drive

JC Auto is the track I played when this thread popped up

One of the things I love about Bob's run since "Silver Age" is he's writing songs that I connect with as someone older, that lyrically it's not just about the usual subjects but addresses getting older, losing people and the struggle to find meaning in life. Looking forward to the new one and will see him live for the first time in yonks.

Thanks all, also glad i could kickstart another conversation. His stuff post-Husker has always been a big blind spot for me so this is really great :-)

So much good stuff ahead for you!!

Guitar solo on Wishing Well still makes my hair stand on end. And you know it's coming and yet every single time -and all these years later- it knocks the wind right out of me

I use to bawl like a child to "Brasilia Crossed with Trenton."

same tbh

Fun fact that I am almost ashamed to admit: I'm not sure I've (whispers) ever heard "Workbook." (Runs out of the room, slamming the door behind me, crying and cackling at the same time.)

Going to be digging some of his solo work as a result of this discussion.

The “little clue to something” is in the very next line: “Parts of it seem over now, you expect a real solution”.

Take the first letter of each word and you get:
P O I S O N Y E A R S.

The “little clue” is thus a link back to Bob’s prior song “Poison Years”.

I like "A Good Idea" far better than "Debaser". Unlike the latter, the lyric actually matches the menace of the music.

"Hoover Dam" is also great, weirdly uplifting ("I'll see you later later!").

The only problem with Copper Blue is that I always feel worn out by the end of it, and not in a cathartic way. Something about the mastering is relentless even on the prettier songs.

I also love "Where Diamonds Are Halos" but I wish Mould sang it, since Barbe really can't sing. Some of my favorite Mould guitar is on the live version.

Listening now. I guess I have heard bits of "Workbook" before, that's for sure. I maintain that Maimone and Fier are a terrible fit, but the cello is dope and smartly deployed.

The keyboard solo in "Hoover Dam'is my favorite Mould moment.

CHALLOPZ: "Gift" off FUEL is better than anything off Copper Blue and Beaster.

Brasilia Crossed with Trenton is really astonishing.

I am so excited right now, just downloaded a shitload of this music.

“Whichever Way The Wind Blows” is one of my fave cathartic blowout solo BM moments - a clear precursor to “Judas Cradle” and the like

FUEL is decent but my least favorite Sugar, but I caught the FUEL tour and they absolutely ripped.

the (sugar) besides comp initially came with a bonus disc called 'The Joke is Always on Us, Sometimes' that is a FUEL-era show at first avenue in mpls; i assume it is still available on certain reissues. worth checking out because it fucking rules

ooh I've been meaning to start a solo Mould poll forever. my faves are Modulate and Life & Times, probably because they're the gayest (or have found me at my gayest, whatever), then Last Dog & Pony Show and Workbook.

can't go wrong with any Sugar, there's not much and it all rules. FUEL the best imo, a perfect album, "Gift" praise otm.

I think I was at that show that was included in the Besides bonus disc

Funny, when I saw them here on the FUEL tour I left pretty disappointed. Maybe it was the venue.

fwiw i think barbe's contributions ('company book' and especially 'frustration') stand up pretty well!

The keyboard solo in "Hoover Dam'is my favorite Mould moment.

Was my first favourite song off Copper Blue, as it reminded me of my pre-teen obsession with Genesis. Now my choice would have to be The Act We Act, all those infinite melodies and counter-melodies piled on top of each other like cogs in a magnificent metallised clockwork.

I also love "Where Diamonds Are Halos" but I wish Mould sang it, since Barbe really can't sing. Some of my favorite Mould guitar is on the live version.

LOVELOVELOVE the Mark Goodier session version that was on the b-side to the If I Can't Change Your Mind single, iirc (maybe only in the UK). Barbe's voice is stronger there than on the live LP, and I love the riff. I also really like his Frustration - and Company Book, off FUEL, might be my least favourite song of Barbe's in Sugar, but it's still fairly strong.

I have a signed copy of Copper Blue, my pension plan!

Was my first favourite song off Copper Blue, as it reminded me of my pre-teen obsession with Genesis. Now my choice would have to be The Act We Act, all those infinite melodies and counter-melodies piled on top of each other like cogs in a magnificent metallised clockwork.

same

'Black Sheets...' getting short thrift here, I know it's a little overlong but it has wonderful tunes like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z07ds8xglk

I think Workbook is my favorite so far— seems like one incredible song after another to me.

"Compositions for the Young and Old"!

Out of Your Life always struck me as hilariously on the nose — if you want me out of your life, all you gotta do is tell me!

Sinners and their Repeatances is the one that got to me

I think Workbook is my favorite so far— seems like one incredible song after another to me.

nice