#181

Would be a very good album thread @JohnM

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#182

“There was a time, there was a place, there was a reason” Husker Du eh, they could write some absolute masterclass songs, this little rock n’ roller I just love.

With a slightly more radio friendly vocal and a minor tightening of the snare drum the world could have been theirs. Small differences, seems so simple looking back. I wouldn’t change one single thing about them though.

My only real regret with Husker Du is not seeing Grant Hart solo live, especially towards the end. The Argument is as close to Husker Du any of the solo or Sugar, etc projects get. This stripped down album is as open as you may hear an artist, and he truly radiates, it destroys me, but it’s so bare and beautiful.

#183

What a ballad this is:

A nice tribute:

“I can’t cry, I can’t apply a word to sum it up
Under stress I can’t repress the moment it erupts
Hear the sound of paper drums and shredded paper voice
Got to turn up ‘Keep Hanging On’ as if I had a choice”

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#184

So much this.

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#185

Agree, they put their art at the fore. They could have been shiny happy people, but they weren’t - and this reality in them is one of the things that elevates them.

#186

:musical_note:Pom-pom-pidou :musical_note:

Love those backing vocals so much

#187

I’m sure my copy of Good News For Modern Man doesn’t look anything like that! Going to have to dig it out tomorrow

#188

Yeah, the original cover was blue with orange lettering. The one on YouTube is the cover from the remaster he released in 2014.

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#189

Whatever’s a fucking monster

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#190

the entire album took 85 hours to record and produce and cost $3,200.

Fuuuck. Must have read this in TBCBYL, but that’s amazing.

#191

It is. I’m making little secret of the fact I very slightly prefer the Grant Hart side of Husker Du. It is when they (Mould, Hart) cross swords that real sparks fly. I love the way Mould almost sings in tongues and the way Hart can both sync with him, support him, challenge him, and push things up another notch. they made noise so melodic, it’s hidden to an extent but it’s always there and quite unique.

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#192

I’ve never been that good at telling their voices/songs apart, but I seem to fall 50/50 whenever I check.

is Mould and is just fucking fantastic (especially ESPECIALLY the way it just absolutely bundles into the verse after the first bridge), and tbh I thought it was a Hart one.

Is it that Grant’s (did I call him Doug upthread? FFS) songwriting is a bit more character/story-led, while Bob’s is more internalised?

Fuck, I don’t even know. Always thought Celebrated Summer was Grant as well, but no it wasn’t. Still fucking great.

Think I’m gonna up my score from a marginal 5 to a solid 5, based on listening to them this evening. Just find their music really nourishing and replenishing, and I think I’d kinda forgotten that.

4 Likes
#193

Oops just listening to Celebrated Summer again

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#194

The “mom and dad I’m sorry” bit in this captures teenage isolation so well. It really called out to me as a 16 year old, like it was supporting me somehow. It’s a fantastic song, the way the music fits the mood of the lyric.

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#195

the ‘YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA’ bit in this

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#196

Hart is the more subtle and fully formed style I feel. Mould is more direct and likely to be raging / exorcising. It’s a really close call and they stopped writing together relatively early on, this results in almost two bands in one. Two of the best bands off all-time that is - Husker Two (not a score, that would be Husker Five).

#197

New Day Rising is such a relentless album. The first side is as good a sequence of songs as I’ve heard. Mould’s guitar sounds like it’s plugged into a pylon, and the songwriting is superb.

5 Likes
#198

Loving this.

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#199

Hardcore Opera my friend. Hardcore Opera.

#200

Just a remembered a really nice piece on the album I read recently - it really captures what I want to get across:

There’s a very particular sound to this album — a treble-heavy mix that is like nothing before or since, in which every note is enveloped in a fuzzy, fizzing, needles-pegged curtain of sound. Many people — including the band members themselves, reportedly — have always rued this peculiar mix, but to me it’s the ideal vehicle for the group’s sound. Here is the “HĂŒsker buzz,” as I call it, naked and cranked to eleven. (What I wouldn’t give to hear some of the cuts from Zen Arcade or Flip Your Wig** remixed like this.) The style is “hot” in soundboard lingo, but to me the music has a crystalline, sub-zero quality to it: it sounds like ice. The songs are as melodically solid as any top-40 hits of the time, but all whipped up in a great Minnesota blizzard.

3 Likes