flip your wig

makes no sense at all!

games

Title track, how could it not be?! Do Hart/Mould both sing in any other songs? the 'Sunday section gave us mention' bit always gives me a kick.

I still consider "Divide and Conquer" their absolute greatest evah

Title track, how could it not be?! Do Hart/Mould both sing in any other songs?

Title track of New Day Rising?

green eyes

IMPOSSIBLE TO CHOOSE.

Okay then, Keep Hanging On.
But in 5 minutes time it could have been any one of 9 or 10 others.

"Makes No Sense" vs title track

Private Plane, and I made the choice back then.

green eyes

Divide and Conquer. Easy

"Divide & Conquer," absolutely.

aye

i think "green eyes" is one of grant's peak moments, so probably that.

This is a doozy of a record, probably the one with Grant's strongest set of songs.

I'll go with Flip Your Wig for the guitar solo and the dual vocal.

used to have the 7" of this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1sYN0PuRs4

b/w 'Love Is All Around'

yeah "love is all around" is actually in the second half of that video.

Aha!

BTW an outtake from this sorta period that is well worth finding is 'Erase Today' (was on the second Blasting Concept comp), definitely as good as most of the songs here.

"Games." The riff is one of Mould's best, and he seems to know it. The last minute or so when he's just repeating the chorus over that riff really gets me.

Went with Flexible Flyer. Those background vocals on the chorus and the all around bounce.

Neat bass line on that one too.

Games. I never liked Divide And Conquer, dunno what I'm missing. People that only vote in polls for a joke : please vote for The Baby Song.

"I never liked Divide And Conquer, dunno what I'm missing."

Then listen to the live version on the Living End, and prepare to have your face melted off.

Flexible Flyer, but it could just as easily be Makes No Sense at All or Green Eyes. What a run these guys had with Zen Arcade, New Day Rising, and Flip Your Wig. For a couple of years there Husker Du, along with a lot of other bands on SST, were the shit.

so many good songs here, although i think i'd place it last among the three canonical HD albums (and behind metal circus, too). still rules though. i'm going with "keep hanging on." weird to cite a husker vocal as reasoning, but grant's singing on this one has always struck me as some for real shit

makes no sense

i used to have a tape with "makes no sense at all" on it along with, among other things, "jane says", "i changed the locks" by lucinda williams, a song by the jean-paul sartre experience, and blues traveller!

Very close between "Flip Your Wig," "Makes No Sense at All," and "Divide and Conquer." (It'd be even more difficult if you threw in the B-side "Love Is All Around.") I think I'm in the minority in preferring Flip Your Wig to New Day Rising; I prefer it a whole lot to Zen Arcade. I went with "Makes No Sense at All"...

Live "Divide and Conquer" skips a coupla verses, tho

Games, easy. As pointed out that last min is pretty special...

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

hate paper doll 0 makes me sad

NO BABY SONG NO CRED

glad green eyes did so well!

Title track, how could it not be?! Do Hart/Mould both sing in any other songs? the 'Sunday section gave us mention' bit always gives me a kick.

"Ice Cold Ice"

When they performed the title track live often both sang the verses all the way through in close harmony and it fucking rocked.

Just remembered (I think) a couple of formative Pixies anecdotes, one where Black Francis reveals that when the band formed, he only owned five albums, and Husker Du were three of them. And the other where he said he used to listen to "Green Eyes" over and over again at night (which no doubt informed "Wave of Mutilation.")

Also recall an interview with Billy Corgan c. the time the band first broke up where he reveals how influential Husker Du's guitar sound was on the Pumpkins, specifically the way Mould used to record one track, slow it down, and then record another track on top of that, which gives it that immediately recognizable warbly out of synch feel.

It's a game... that anyone can play.

Aw Husker fucking Du!

i am listening to this for the first time in a very long time and do not believe i voted in this poll! my vote would have pushed Games over Makes No Sense!

also i love that the thread title is simply flip your wig
i love the metaphor of wig flipping in general in addition to loving this particular iteration of flip your wig

Also it is making me laugh that I have opinions about every song on this album. My runner up is either Flexible Flyer or Keep Hanging On.

divide and conquer 4

too low

the close race just proves how many amazing songs are on this album! i remember being somewhat dubious of it when i first got it because i was a Zen Arcade/Everything Falls Apart partisan but it won me over pretty quickly.

Still would've voted for "Games."

Would be a lot harder to vote for a single track now. It took me a while to appreciate just how amazing this record is, end-to-end (baby song aside lol)

i will say this album has the worst drum sound on any punk album i’ve ever heard. part of its charm

we should poll Husker Du albums for worst drum sounds

glad someone voted for "Don't Know Yet", it's a great album closer.
i love it even if it's a minor one, i love their instrumentals

honestly how great does a band need to be to have three people, two songwriters/singers, and also make compelling instrumentals?!

I think about the line “who’s going to stop that burglar from breaking in to my house if he lives that far away” a lot.

yeah the lyrics to Divide and Conquer are sizzling! even today

Can I just...?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsGw8DyWkik

It still bugs me that Mould won't release this properly, restored/remastered from the first generation video tapes. I think he complained that they were jet lagged or some shit, but it's an AMAZING show!

that pocket of the crowd going wild = it me
what a setlist

0:44 New Day Rising
2:57 It's Not Funny Anymore
4:42 Everything Falls Apart
6:55 The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill
9:55 I Apologize
13:25 If I Told You
15:17 Folklore
17:38 Terms of Psychic Warfare
19:28 Powerline
21:43 Books About UFOs
23:55 Chartered Trips
27:19 Diane
31:06 Celebrated Summer
34:45 Every Everything
36:23 Makes No Sense At All
38:46 Pink Turns to Blue
41:18 Ticket to Ride
43:29 Reoccurring Dreams
50:35 Eight Miles High
54:01 Love Is All Around

Somehow a US-compatible VHS tape of that performance made it to Rockit Records in Nashua New Hampshire in 1986 and one of my friends sprung for it. It was so inspiring for me to see up close how they made that sound.

I think the band didn’t like the performance because they’re using rented instruments - no Flying V for Bob.

Used to love "Hate Paper Doll"--0 votes.

Lol @ the intro music to that Du gig!

There was a video store in my hometown in the '80s that only rented music stuff, much/most of it not available in the US, or just straight bootlegs (I once rented a Smiths video that was a homemade compilation of UK TV appearances). Spotted this Dü tape in the store..."Makes No Sense..." on the cover, no other info. OK, I'll check this out. Holy fuck. Having only read about their live shows, this exceeded expectations to a degree I didn't think was possible.

I never got the chance to see it as a young person — I just saw it the other day for the first time! Honestly I can’t imagine the effect it would have had to see them perform (even on a shitty vhs) as a young person. I literally can’t believe Grant can sing smoothly and drum that maniacally at the same time. For that duration!!