I’ve always just said Hüsker as in cornhusker and Dü as in doo, but those…dot…things throw me off. I feel like I’m wrong. Am I?
I don’t know either, but I pronounce it Hoosker Doo.
Well, I could try to tell you how it’s really pronounced and turn this into the most nitpicky linguistic thread ever, but “Husker Doo” probably is as close as you’re likely to get if you’re a native English speaker. And it’s close enough. So I’d say you’re doing all right.
Still, I suspect that someone will be around with the really nitpicky way to say in about, oh… 10… 9… 8…
Actually, I think I hit submit a bit too quickly here. I guess I should add that while I don’t know how the heck the band came up with the name, it looks like a bit of a joke. The name is a Scandinavian phrase that means “Do you remember?”, but it’s supposed to be written “Husker du” - without the umlauts. The usage of German style umlauts in improper places seems to be some kind of running joke with heavy metal bands and suchlike. The pronunciation of “Husker du” without umlauts is even closer, in fact really close, to “Husker Doo”.
According to Wikipedia, the band was playing the Talking Heads’ “Psycho Killer” at a rehearsal. Unable to remember the French portion of the song, they began shouting any foreign language terms that came to mind. Husker Du is the name of an old memory board game.
Every time I’ve heard Bob Mould talk about his old band, it’s “Hoosker Doo.”
Well, they started here in the Twin Cities, and everybody here says Hoosker Doo, so I suppose that is how the band pronounces it…
Heck. :dubious: Well, I’ll go into nitpicky Scandinavian pronounciation mode anyway. I think Norwegians would prefer “Husker Doo”, while the Danes, indeed, would probably go for “Hoosker Doo”. And the board game in question is Danish. So I’ll correct myself - I guess it’s “Hoosker Doo”.
On “Names For Bands” from his spoken word album No More Cocoons, Jello Biafra pronounces it as Hoosker Doo. And if it’s coming from Biafra, it gotta be trü
I remember the TV commercials. They pronounced it Hoosker Doo.
Pronounce “Husker Du” with a Scottish accent and you will come close to the literal.