I know we did one of these years and years ago, but after a few people mentioned them in this thread, I thought I’d start one for the new generation of Doper.
Husker Du is, without a doubt, my all-time favorite band. They pretty much got me through my teen years in the '80s with my sanity intact. Back then, for me, they were part of a holy trinity that included The Replacements and R.E.M. (and maybe Robyn Hitchcock for a quadruple slam). For some weird reason, I never got to see them live, though I did see Sugar and Bob Mould multiple times.
My favorite album vacillates between Zen Arcade and New Day Rising, though, after many years had passed, I began to appreciate Warehouse: Songs And Stories, which I’d initially written off as inferior. But IMO they never made a bad album - even Land Speed Record works when you’re in the mood - and though Bob’s post-Husker career has been spotty at best (I might finally get off the bus after The District Line, though I did see him on the tour for it, and he was great, playing with a full band; only 2 songs from the album, and plenty of Husker surprises [“New Day Rising” and “Divide And Conquer” being particularly welcome], even if it was a bit Copper Blue-heavy [not really a complaint]), and Grant’s has been damn-near non-existent. But for a stretch there, they were the best band in the world. Anybody got some love? Stories? Anyone see them live?
I met Bob a couple times, and he was a million times nicer than you’d think from his persona/songs/stage presence.
No love for the Huskers? Come on! If this was a thread for some irrelevant old dinosaurs like Pink Floyd or Rush, this thread would be 2 pages long already! I grow sad at the state of things.
It’s funny - I was doing a show with a friend at a college radio station when Copper Blue came out, and at the end of the year all the DJs compiled lists of the best albums of the year. The winners were Slanted & Enchanted (highly overrated, but not bad) and Arrested Development’s debut. I remember arguing with some of them that the AD album wouldn’t hold up in3 years’ time, but they’d still be listening to Copper Blue. I’m very rarely prescient, but I called that one.
Warehouse was the first “alternative” album {actually a cassette} that I ever bought: I don’t even know why I picked it up, but it blew my mind: where had this kind of music been all my life, and why was I not informed earlier?
I’m a mild fan ( preferred the Replacements as far as Minnesota bands went ), particularly of your two favorite albums.
But really, now. They broke up over twenty years ago. It’s a bit of the pot calling the kettle black to refer to other bands as irrelevant old dinosaurs :p.
For the record MHO on dinosaur bands of varying age, taking into account the total body of work for each band, Pink Floyd>Husker Du>Rush. And I’m not a PF worshipper.
Husker Du is on my list of bands that by all accounts I should like but for some reason just don’t. Many of my favorite bands list the Du as a major influence, so I picked up Zen Arcade and New Day Rising, and… well… nothing. I liked Something I Learned Today, but it didn’t blow my socks off. Nothing else really clicked for me. I dunno, it just didn’t resonate with me the same way that, say, Minor Threat did.
I feel the pain of everyone who likes Dinosaur bands…okay, that was bad.
Seriously, there are just as many people emulating Floyd and Rush as Husker these days.
I could never get into the Du. Though I like their emulators and Sugar, I never found an album that I could listen to by them. Though I only tried once or twice.
But Sugar albums just show that Mould had more talent in his pinky than most grunge artists, its contemporaties, did in their whole body, because Sugar obviously featured throw off, easily written stuff that still sounded better than its punk-influenced coevals, although that was partially due to its brighter production. (For instance, my least favorite Sugar album is Beaster due to the grungier production.)
I am a big Bob Mould fan, but I will admit that Husker Du is not my favorite of his work. I like individual songs here and there (“Turn On the News” is a definite highlight), but overall it’s not my favorite to listen to. The production values don’t help this for me, either.
I think Sugar was excellent, even/especially the more-or-less-ignored EP Beaster, and like pretty much all of the solo work I’ve heard. Yes, even his electronica efforts, like on Body of Song, though it helps that I like a lot of electronica. District Line shows he’s still got the chops.
His work with Blowoff isn’t as good, but there are some very strong pieces on it, especially “Here and Now.”
Agree about the production. If ever there was a band screaming (literally) for the re-master treatment, it was Husker Du. I’m waiting for Rhino to get on it (or for Bob and Grant to put their differences aside and re-master it themselves).
Agree on Sugar, too - I think what separated them from the “grunge”/“alternative” stuff from the early '90s was that Bob Mould wrote actual pop songs, catchy and hooky, even if they were buried under layers of distortion (even more true of the Husker Du material). To me, he and Grant Hart were the Lennon/McCartney of the '80s (with Paul Westerberg being Jagger/Richards, I guess).
I like a few songs on Bob’s District Line and didn’t mind the Blowoff disc, but too much of it seems like filler to me (one song reminded me of something Avril Lavigne might have done).
HoboStew, I enjoyed Minor Threat, but they seemed way too one-note for me. Husker Du did basically the same thing on their first two releases, but then moved beyond mere hardcore and their music opened up to new horizons. But after having tons of friends yell “What is this shit?” after putting Husker Du on mix tapes over the years, I understand they don’t do it for everybody (or even most people).
I love Husker Du more than most bands. New Day Rising is my favorite, but Flip your Wig is a close second.
The thing about the band that really clicks for me is that Mould and Hart were writing pop songs that were as good or better than their early America Underground contemporaries, while still managing to be heavier, fuzzier, and ballsier than their non-pop hardcore contemporaries. Many Husker Du songs could be R.E.M. songs from the same era, just with the fuzz cranked up to 11 and the drums kicking a hole in your head.
Well to be fair, MT only had 1 album. I would say Fugazi was them moving beyond mere hardcore and opening up to new horizons. How would you rate Husker Du vs Fugazi (whom I also love dearly)?
I like Fugazi a lot more than Minor Threat, but I don’t know if you can really compare Fugazi to Husker Du. Both bands definitely had a lot of art behind them, but it seems to me Fugazi played more “rock” while HD played more “pop” (to use both terms loosely). Though Fugazi’s drummer did play with Bob Mould on tour, so they obviously appreciated each other.
That was one reason I really got into “Warehouse”: it sounded like a “proper” album, with actual studio production and everything. I love Zen Arcade and Candy Apple Grey, but if I’d come to them cold I wouldn’t have rated them worth a listen. Some fans tend to discount “Warehouse” as their major label sell-out, but there are just so many great little pop songs on it.
Never really got into Bob Mould’s solo stuff: “Black Sheets Of Rain” is too fucking miserable. I picked up on him and then lost him again with Sugar: “Copper Blue” is such a great little album, but “Beaster” was just covering old ground, and I don’t even remember FUEL.
Yeah, and Bob and Grant produced Warehouse themselves (then again, they produced Candy Apple Grey themselves, too, although I don’t think the sound is that bad on that one). A lot of fans don’t like the sound on Warehouse, but I love that you can hear so much of the overtones and weird little sound effects so clearly.
I don’t think even hardcore Bob fans like Black Sheets much. But I enjoy Beaster, and thought FU:EL even more poppy than Copper Blue.
Maybe I should have started a Sugar appreciation thread!
I can’t say that I am a huge fan, because I have only heard New Day Rising and Zen Arcade. I have loved the hell out of Zen Arcade though, at one point listening to it every time I got into my car for over a month. I think Zen Arcade is pretty damn close to a perfect album in terms of song composition and flow.
I got into them (I am a little young to have appreciated them back in the day) because I was looking to hear more stuff from the 80s indy movement, so in my head Husker Du, The Replacements, Mission of Burma, the Minutemen, Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth all occupy more or less the same spot. Of those bands, Husker Du and Mission of Burma are bands that took me a while to warm up to but I now love them both, Dinosaur Jr. and The Replacements I loved instantly but don’t listen to either often anymore (though I still love them, I just loved them too much for a while) and The Minutemen and Sonic Youth I just don’t get though I have tried oh so hard.
Since we are talking about MT and Fugazi too, because I found out about Fugazi and Minor Threat at a toally different (and earlier) point in my life they don’t share that slot. Fugazi is in the slot with Perl Jam et all, and Minor Threat with bands like The Circle Jerks, Black Flag and the Dead Kennedy’s. Intelectually I am aware of the real connections between all these bands, but emotionally they are totally seperate.
I saw Bob Mould a couple of years ago playing old Husker Du, Sugar, and Bob Mould songs with a new band, which included Brendan Canty (fugazi) on drums. Best show I’ve seen in the past, I dunno, decade? He seemed really happy to be playing, but hasn’t done much lately, besides being a techno DJ.
*New Day Rising *is undoubtedly my favorite album by the Huskers. I only got to see them once (1986, Iowa City, Iowa) but I think my ears are still ringing from that night.
This thread messes with my head - I’m a big Hüsker Dü fan, Zen Arcade being among my Top 5 Albums That Kept Being Listened To After Five Years. But the name/words “Husker Du” means “Do You Remember” in Norwegian. So, whenever I read it after a line-break, my brain momentarily switches over to Norwegian-mode.
