The Hüsker Dü Album-by-Album thread

This was also my first Du. It's a great album by any measure, though it also, like NDR, declines on side 2. What really stands out for me most about it is the sound, really unique. So so dry, with bass and guitar utterly differentiated and bass losing out in the balance wars. Then that compressed guitar sound creates such an incredible texture. And that crappy 80s drum sound. There is no fidelity here, but an incredible experience. If you really crank it you will hear all kinds of phantom sounds in the guitar.

 

got this one the day it came out, I was in my indierock heyday at the time. I guess I was expecting them to continue in a more serious direction at the time and found Flip to be a collection of songs, some really good, some kinda flakey, but upbeat for the most part. looking back on their complete discography I think Flip does stand out as an unusually happy record for the band. Seeing it that way now I can appreciate it for what it is, and there are some great songs on it, consider it more a collection of short stories as opposed to a novel.

favorite tracks would be

1. "Flip Your Wig" (Mould) – 2:33
3. "Makes No Sense At All" (Mould) – 2:43
7. "Games" (Mould) – 4:06
11. "Private Plane" (Mould) – 3:17
12. "Keep Hanging On" (Hart) – 3:15

 

Great comments about "Green Eyes", Jason.
I want to give the album a fresh listen before I write anything more, so don't move on without me!

 

i have that comp as well, but i've never compared it to the Flip Your Wig or the CD single. i'll take a listen tonight and report back here.

 

Flip Your Wig is one of my favorite albums by anyone, let alone Hüsker Dü. As Jason said, it has a fantastic pop feel to it that (IMO) makes better use of the band's strengths. Underneath all that sheer noise, Bob really could fashion lovely melodies using the guitar's overtones in conjunction with his unusual chords (a technique later elaborated on by J. Mascis).

"Green Eyes" is possibly the band's best song, and a first-rate performance (especially by Bob, whose solo here is breathtaking). All of the songs benefit from much better production than had obtained previously.

 

According to Michael Azzerad's Our Band Could Be Your Life, Flip Your Wig almost was Hüsker Dü's Warners debut, but the band decided that they owed SST one more album, not contractually, but morally, I guess. Azzerad goes on to suggest that Warners was not happy that the band delivered such a poppy album to SST and then gave them the relatively down Candy Apple Grey. None of the Bob Mould songs on Candy Apple Grey are anywhere near as catchy as "Makes No Sense at All."

 

I imagine if they'd released Flip Your Wig on Warners instead people would have jumped all over them with accusations of sellout because of the poppy, optimistic songs and cleaner sound. Not to jump the gun, but I love the fact that their major label debut is also the most lyrically depressed album in their not-particularly-cheerful career.

 

i took a listen and looked at the waveforms, and i've confirmed that the Eight Miles High/Makes No Sense At All CD single and 7 Inch Wonders of the World comp contain the exact same mastering for "Makes No Sense At All."

next, i compared the Flip Your Wig CD against the Eight Miles High/Makes No Sense At All CD single. they sound drastically different - even more different than I had remembered, actually.

take a listen for yourself, and i think you'll agree. here's a file which contains two clips: the first 20 seconds of "Makes No Sense At All" from the Flip Your Wig CD, and the first 20 seconds of the same song from the Eight Miles High/Makes No Sense At All CD single. anyone know which sounds closest to the vinyl?

Makes No Sense At All comparison

i always thought the Flip Your Wig CD version sounded out of place compared to the rest of songs on that CD, sound-wise. the CD single version sounds closer to the rest of the songs on the Flip Your Wig CD.

 

There was a specific moment in around 1992/1993 when I sensed that Husker Du lacked the staying power that would allow subsequent generations to discover them. A friend of mine, younger than I by six years, was discussing new music he liked, and I asked if he had ever heard Husker Du. He hadn't, and asked me to play a tune which I felt was representative of their sound. I played him "Makes No Sense at All." When it came to Grant's snare roll leading into the chorus, my friend started laughing--laughing quite hard--because he found the drum sound feeble and antiquated.
Obviously this was not the response I had expected, but it seemed to me to indicate that what I got about the band--that which made them special to me--didn't appeal to him; he was unable to find the uniqueness of the band simply because of the production decisions made by Bob and Grant.
Sadly, I find myself agreeing with my friend these days.
The clicking bass drum, the cracking, echoey snare, the burying of Grant's cymbals in the mix, create a robotic, artificial sound that simply does not appeal to me anymore. When I play this record, my focus is immediately drawn to that annoying click-click-click of the bass drum, to the detriment of everything else.

But the songs themselves, thankfully, are excellent throughout, and, in the end, that's what counts, I suppose. Many of my favourites are here, and I can only echo the sentiments Jason expressed with respect to "Green Eyes" and Grant's other songs.
Bob's "Find Me" is another one of his great guitar orchestral pieces that has a kind of Goth edge to it, for lack of a better term. "Games" is another standout track.

And as someone else already mentioned, I love the songs on which Bob and Grant share the vocals. The have a real group feeling to them which I find endearing.

 

i thought the snare roll sounded lame when i first heard it, too. i still think it sounds lame, although i'm used to it by now. they still became one of my favorite bands ever...

 

While we're in this point of Hu Du history, I first saw them live in feb '86 at SUNY Binghamton. I drove from Binghamton to NYC and back in the snow the night before to try and see The Replacements at The Ritz (it was sold out). Soul Asylum opened for Husker Du and was one of the loudest act's I've ever seen, Husker Du was positively tame compared to Soul Asylum, I don't remember much else about the show, but I didn't find them to be a seminal live act.

 

Revisiting NDR for a bit...
Did "Terms of Psychic Warfare" ever make anybody else think of the Rolling Stones when they heard it?
Something about it (maybe the vocal stylings or pronounciation) always reminded me of Jagger...

The last time I saw Husker Du was on the Warehouse tour - the one where they were reportedly playing Warehouse (and only Warehouse) from start to finish each night. It was during a beat poets festival called "The River City Reunion." They opened with "New Day Rising" and everybody in the crowd went wild.

Cody

 

picked up near mint vinyl copies of new day rising and flip our wig today after having enjoyed zen arcade so much. listening to flip your wig right now. "makes no sense at all" has been the standout to me on side one , likely owing to the chorus.

i was going to say that i wasn't digging it as much as zen arcade but then i put the headphones on it and cranked it up a little and yeh, it's rocking my world alright.

 

well, i'm enjoying new day rising a little more than flip your wig. although "how to skin a cat" is kind of annoying.

 

To top it off (the 80s production), isn't the vinyl Masterdisk DMM? I'm almost certain Warehouse is, pretty sure on CAG, less sure on FYW.

 

for the brain dead like me what's DMM?

 

I just compared, and my LP of Flip Your Wig has the same version of "Makes No Sense at All" as the Flip Your Wig CD. I would guess the 45 must have had the 7-Inch Wonders version.

I never noticed the difference before in all these years, despite the fact it is a fairly significant one. They seem to be different mixes, but it's possible they are the same mix with channels reversed and drastically different EQ/compression. It's hard to be sure. The main thing I notice is that the 7-Inch version has way more bass. You can especially hear it at the point when Bob sings "When I play along, when I play along" and Greg is playing a little bass run in the background. The bass is almost inaudible on the Flip Your Wig version but you can hear it on the 7-Inch version. Looking at the waveform, the 7-Inch version has more dynamic range, too. That is what's weird... you would expect a single version to be brighter and more compressed, not the other way around. The 7-Inch Wonders version sounds notably better. Thanks for pointing this out...

 

DMM = direct metal mastering. Do a forum search, but overall IMO it gives a clean but thin sound compared to lacquer mastering, of a piece with 80s production.

 

I always thought, based on the main riff, that it sounded like it was based on a sea shanty, or an old folk song.

 

dmm is too short for a search. like searching for the who.

and i've heard about direct metal mastering and its shortcomings before but had completely forgotten about dmm in the 20 year interval.

 

I actually like the drum sound on Husker Du records.It may be “crappy 80s” “feeble and antiquated” etc etc but I like it .Its the sound of the period ,when I hear it,it reminds me when I young in high school and had just bought FYW listening it on my crappy Technics turntable. Those where the days . FYW just like NDR is a bit patchy but both are 70-80% pure gold.What an amazing band.

 

I think you're drawing too much of a conclusion from your friend's reaction. I agree that the records are all produced/mixed badly, and that the drums sound especially bad, and that one song may be the worst sounding the drums ever got. But I don't think the sound of the records has any impact on their legacy. It didn't prevent them from getting fans in 1985, and I don't think it has any significant effect on them acquiring new fans now (your friend notwithstanding). Look at the Replacements... they tried several producers and several production styles, and have records that sound great as well as records that sound awful. None of that had much effect on their success at the time nor has it affected their legacy or stature now. I don't buy the notion that Hüsker Dü might be more popular or influential now if their records had been better produced. I don't have my finger on the pulse of these things, but isn't Hüsker Dü just about as popular as any other band from that era who achieved the same amount of success they did? What bands from that era do you feel have the "staying power" that HD lacks?

 

i'll bite.

well the Replacements are much better known and actually played on radio stations whereas i haven't heard HD on radio since college radio but i've heard that one semi popular Sugar single on radio. whether or not they were more popular in their day is debatable i suppose.

the Minutemen also seem to get a little more cred in these parts than HD. but i like HD a whole lot more personally.

 

Actually, I think Husker Du is behind its peer bands in creating new fans and garnering critical reaffirmation. Who were their peers '84-88 at the top of the indie rock/noise demimonde? I would name Sonic Youth, Minutemen/Firehose, Dinosaur, Mission of Burma, Big Black, Replacements, Fugazi--hold on there--lets just use the bands Azerrad wrote about, plus the Pixies.

Sonic Youth persists making good and critically acclaimed music and was feted all summer. Dinosaur's been playing to sold out crowds and positive reviews and did a reunion record; likewise Burma, who are about to get the reissue treatment for the second time. BB played that Touch'n'Go thing last year and were clearly the highlight for many, plus have legions of Shellac fanboys (yeah, I love Shellac too). Pixies--sold out reunion tour. Fugazi still has young devotees. Black Flag is still a touchstone of punk rock, and I see kids with Black Flag bars tatooed when I'm in the places one might see that. Of all those bands, I guess the Buttholes are least important, their brand of shock no longer so shocking.

So that leaves the Minutemen and the Huskers and I would submit that their profiles are quite low at the moment. However, it's not because of production of their records, but because SST doesn't have capital? inclination? to do some deluxe reissues and the bands aren't going to reform and tour. I guess it would be risky for SST to invest in reissues when the ownership of the material is in question, that is if they could even finance it.

For this reason, I don't think Husker Du is even as influential as Slint at this point, and they were a tiny tiny band when they existed.

But I'm sure at some point they will be restored to the top of the 80s food chain, second only to Sonic Youth.

 

Huh, the Replacements are actually played on the radio? Wow, I did not know that. I've never heard them on a non-college station outside the Twin Cities, but then I guess I don't listen to the radio that much.

Looking at the bands Ed listed, a big reason Hüsker Dü has a lower profile is that they did not stay together through the alterna-boom of 1994, like Sonic Youth, Fugazi, Meat Puppets, Firehose, and Dinosaur (sorta). Nor have the reunited like the Pixies. I'd like to think a HD reunion tour would be at least as successful as the Pixies... am I wrong?

Regarding reissues... that certainly is another factor in the low profile. Reissues are a way of attracting attention, even if they are inferior (Replacements, Dinosaur). According to Bob, they feel Greg Ginn is in breach of contract but can't agree amongst themselves how to proceed, so nothing gets done to rectify the financial situation with SST, much less get reissues done. This is from a Mould interview in Billboard two years ago:

Like the Replacements, the Husker Du back catalog has yet to receive the lavish reissue treatment enjoyed by many of its contemporaries. The situation is complicated by band members' differing ideas about how to handle such an undertaking and strained relations with its former label, SST.

"Getting the three people in that band to agree on anything was hard then and is harder now," Mould admits. "SST has not provided a [royalties] accounting in at least seven years. But I keep seeing CDs in the stores, and people keep telling me they're buying them. In my estimation, they're in breach of contract. I could probably put those records out tomorrow on [Mould's label] Granary and there's nothing they could do about it [laughs]."

"Three years ago I tried to create an arrangement where I would get the other two guys to sign off and get out of the way, so I could proceed with trying to get the catalog back and do something that would be beneficial for all of us," Mould continues. "I sort of wanted to move forward unencumbered. I had an idea about how to do that, but they weren't amenable to it, so that was the last time that got looked at."

SST founder Greg Ginn did not respond to a request for comment on the subject.