Hello all, hope everyone who celebrates Thanksgiving had a good one, and anyone who had to work Black Friday had a tolerable one.
One of my favorite things about BEA is being able to receive different view points from some smart fucking music lovers all over the world. Not only for me to be able to discuss the artists, songs, and albums I already love, but to discover more about an artist I feel like getting into. So here's a thread that will possibly be recurring as I reach surface level with new artists. With these threads I not only want to learn about certain artists, their catalogs, and who they influenced.. I mainly want to know why you all may like them. I hope to take all of your accounts into consideration while furthering myself with a bands discography.
TELL ME MORE ABOUT- #1: Hüsker Dü
A Shitty "Review" of Zen Arcade After One Listen
So with my first of this type of thread, I want to know more about Hüsker Dü. I decided to listen to Zen Arcade last night for the first time. I was really blown away. It seemed ahead of its time with what a great balance of noise and melody it contained, even flipping the switch entirely on tracks like One Step At A Time and Never Talking To You Again. Something I Learned Today hooked me, and made me embrace the 23 song tracklist. I wanted all of it. Even though it's the highest rated track from the album on this site, I have to agree Pink Turns to Blue is phenomenal. One of the best mixes of immediacy and melody I've ever come across. The structure of that song combined with the passion in the vocals was so wonderful. Although the entire album was great and each track had at least something unique to offer to the flow of its order and "story", Pink Turns To Blue is a fucking masterpiece.
So I mentioned that I thought Zen Arcade was ahead of its time, but its placement in the timeline really makes sense. It came along right as it needed to. I can hear the influence it had on bands I've been listening to for years now like Nirvana, Foo Fighters, QotSA, and Mastodon (Grant Hart's drumming on this album is one of Brann Dailor's obvious influences). In fact, the first time Hüsker Dü ever came on my radar was hearing Bob Mould's voice on the Foo Fighters' track Dear Rosemary from their 2011 record Wasting Light, a life changer for me.
So anyway, the point of this thread is to learn more about the band itself. If you'd care to, answer any of the following:
1.) What are your thoughts on Zen Arcade
2.) What is your favorite work by Hüsker Dü?
3.) What about the band do you enjoy overall? _________________ Attention all planets of the solar federation: We have assumed control.
[size=12]So with my first of this type of thread, I want to know more about Hüsker Dü. I decided to listen to Zen Arcade last night for the first time. I was really blown away. It seemed ahead of its time with what a great balance of noise and melody it contained, even flipping the switch entirely on tracks like One Step At A Time and Never Talking To You Again. Something I Learned Today hooked me, and made me embrace the 23 song tracklist. I wanted all of it. Even though it's the highest rated track from the album on this site, I have to agree Pink Turns to Blue is phenomenal. One of the best mixes of immediacy and melody I've ever come across. The structure of that song combined with the passion in the vocals was so wonderful. Although the entire album was great and each track had at least something unique to offer to the flow of its order and "story", Pink Turns To Blue is a fucking masterpiece.
So I mentioned that I thought Zen Arcade was ahead of its time, but its placement in the timeline really makes sense. It came along right as it needed to. I can hear the influence it had on bands I've been listening to for years now like Nirvana, Foo Fighters, QotSA, and Mastodon (Grant Hart's drumming on this album is one of Brann Dailor's obvious influences). In fact, the first time Hüsker Dü ever came on my radar was hearing Bob Mould's voice on the Foo Fighters' track Dear Rosemary from their 2011 record Wasting Light, a life changer for me.
Honestly, it seems like you understand them already and their importance. They were the first hardcore band who started experiment with BOTH noise and melody and thus had a huge influence on the furutre of underground rock and college rock. That combination of 1) hardcore punk, 2) Noise/experimentation, and 3) Melody is perfected on this album. And it's easily their high water mark although they're all awesome. But this is their best and one of the most important albums in the history of punk rock. After this they would become even more melodic with time culminating with Mould's band Sugar which made some of the best accessible, melodic punk songs ever. I honestly need to listen to more of Grant Hart's solo albums since my friends who are even bigger Husker Du fans than I tell me hew was the sould of the band for them.
Cool to hear about the drumming. I love Mastodon and had no idea that Husker Du was an influence. Cool Stuff.
Hope this helps, but , really seems like you got it already. Maybe this will help Mercury finally get into this album. lol.
Anyways, definitely one of the most important albums of the 80s underground easy.
I'm a Bob Mould fan, but mostly because of Sugar. So of course I own all the Husker Du albums, but it seems like my favorite ones aren't the same as everybody else's. Everybody seems to love Zen arcade and metal circus, but I don't. And nobody seems to like their first albums very much. But I do. Here's my favorite ones in order:
The Living End
New Day Rising
Warehouse: Songs and Stories
Everything Falls Apart
Candy Apple Grey
And then all the rest I kind of like equally.
And Bob Mould's solo album called Bob Mould is up there with my favorites. And Grant Hart solo albums have a lot of good tracks on them too.
Last edited by bobbyb5 on 11/25/2017 22:50; edited 4 times in total
[size=12]So with my first of this type of thread, I want to know more about Hüsker Dü. I decided to listen to Zen Arcade last night for the first time. I was really blown away. It seemed ahead of its time with what a great balance of noise and melody it contained, even flipping the switch entirely on tracks like One Step At A Time and Never Talking To You Again. Something I Learned Today hooked me, and made me embrace the 23 song tracklist. I wanted all of it. Even though it's the highest rated track from the album on this site, I have to agree Pink Turns to Blue is phenomenal. One of the best mixes of immediacy and melody I've ever come across. The structure of that song combined with the passion in the vocals was so wonderful. Although the entire album was great and each track had at least something unique to offer to the flow of its order and "story", Pink Turns To Blue is a fucking masterpiece.
So I mentioned that I thought Zen Arcade was ahead of its time, but its placement in the timeline really makes sense. It came along right as it needed to. I can hear the influence it had on bands I've been listening to for years now like Nirvana, Foo Fighters, QotSA, and Mastodon (Grant Hart's drumming on this album is one of Brann Dailor's obvious influences). In fact, the first time Hüsker Dü ever came on my radar was hearing Bob Mould's voice on the Foo Fighters' track Dear Rosemary from their 2011 record Wasting Light, a life changer for me.
Honestly, it seems like you understand them already and their importance. They were the first hardcore band who started experiment with BOTH noise and melody and thus had a huge influence on the furutre of underground rock and college rock. That combination of 1) hardcore punk, 2) Noise/experimentation, and 3) Melody is perfected on this album. And it's easily their high water mark although they're all awesome. But this is their best and one of the most important albums in the history of punk rock. After this they would become even more melodic with time culminating with Mould's band Sugar which made some of the best accessible, melodic punk songs ever. I honestly need to listen to more of Grant Hart's solo albums since my friends who are even bigger Husker Du fans than I tell me hew was the sould of the band for them.
Cool to hear about the drumming. I love Mastodon and had no idea that Husker Du was an influence. Cool Stuff.
Hope this helps, but , really seems like you got it already. Maybe this will help Mercury finally get into this album. lol.
Anyways, definitely one of the most important albums of the 80s underground easy.
I don't know if Grant Hart was the soul of the band, but he was definitely the better songwriter than Bob Mould. Most of my favorite Husker Du tracks he wrote and sang. Like The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill, Books About UFOs, and She Floated Away. Those are my three favorites. But I'm a song person rather than a noise person, so....
Yeah, cool thread idea. I've never heard them and they seem like a blind spot for me considering the number of bands that pay tribute to them. Would they be second only to the Pixies in directly influencing the early to mid 90s alternative rock sound of Nirvana, Pavement et al?
Also, where in the heck do Dinasaur Jr fit in? I've never heard them either!
I remember the first Hüskers track I ever heard - it was "Real World" off Metal Circus, the EP that came out immediately before Zen Arcade (and probably the best place to head next, if you ask me). It was off the back of two things - an amazing compilation CD free with the Melody Maker (which coincidentally also saw me discover Nick Drake, The Modern Lovers, Sonic Youth and the New York Dolls - quite the watershed moment), and my adoration of the aforementioned Copper Blue, which is where Mould honed his craft to make the radio friendly alt.pop he'd always threatened to break out with. In fact, "If I Can't Change Your Mind" still stands out for me as his finest moment, but that's for another conversation.
I can tell you exactly where I was when I bought Zen Arcade. It was August 1993, and I had a Saturday job at a branch of a famous chain of British department stores which I loathed. On this particular day instead of serving customers on the shop floor and making friends with the pretty girls on the cosmetics counters I was seconded to a stockroom, which I loathed and ended up telling the person I was working alongside how shit the company were for making me lug boxes about all day. My one hour of solace was my lunch break, and after grabbing a sandwich from the canteen I took the short walk up Guildford's Quarry Street and Castle Hill to Soundbarrier, where I listened to and consequently bought said CD. What immeidately struck me was the energy - so much fire, zip, passion, grunt; it sounded like Mould's guitars wanted to escape out of the headphones and burrow into my brain through my ear canal. I remember the tracks that clicked instantly were (unsurprisingly) all Mould - "Chartered Trips", "Newest Industry", "Broken Home, Broken Heart". But it was the suite of tracks from "Beyond The Threshold" to "The Biggest Lie" that stood out most - I was having a shitty day, and perhaps may not have bought the album if I'd managed to successfully ask the girl on the Lancome counter out. Pumped, I hand over my £7.99 (iirc) and head back to work. As I get back to the store, within 5 minutes I'm hauled in front of the store's Personnel Manager - my earlier rant had made an impression it appeared as I'm told in no uncertain terms not to slag the business off to the MD's PA (who just so happened to be the 'colleague' I was lifting boxes with) and how 'I'm lucky to still have a job'. Wankers. I was seething. Hence forevermore, and with the sound of "Beyond The Threshold" still ringing in my ears, I will always associate Zen Arcade with this event until the day I die. It's the soundtrack to the pissed off 16 year-old me, which from time to time still comes out of this 40+ years-old body and throws his toys out the pram.
To answer your questions - Zen Arcade (and Copper Blue, for that matter) have been in my Overall 100 virtually since the day I heard them. There are days I might prefer to listen to one over the other, but they are my yin/yang LPs and sit next to each other in the record box I would grab (after my son and wife) should (perish the thought) my house go up in flames. The tracks I didn't think much of when I first heard them I've warmed to over time - it works as an album to consume in one sitting, or a record that you can pick out your favourites depending on what mood takes you. Biased towards Mould over the late Grant Hart and his tracks will always be my picks, but I think Hart's "Pink Turns Into Blue" and especially "Turn On The News" (which should have by any rights been a worldwide radio smash) are his finest moments. I totally, unconditionally fucking adore Zen Arcade. Aside from "Reoccuring Dreams", natch.
Zen Arcade is my favourite Dü by quite some way, followed by Metal Circus and New Day Rising. I've owned all their albums over the years (apart from Land Speed Record) but have purged all but the above and Candy Apple Grey, mainly for "Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely", "Sorry Somehow" and the beautiful "Hardly Getting Over It". Ironically enough I bought a Bob Mould solo LP this week from a charity shop (from 1996 - self-titled, as Bob mentioned earlier in the thread), stuck it on and felt like a teenager again.
Not sure what it is about the band I enjoy the most - the songcraft, the tone of Mould's guitar (which I've always admired and if I could get my set-up to sound like that I'd be laughing - the start to "Somewhere" still makes my heart skip a beat) and the depth of emotion in Hart and Mould's delivery all spring to mind. But if push came to shove and I had to give an answer it would simply be this - there's a part of my adolescene stuck inside the grooves of every Hüsker Dü LP/CD I own, and like a sonic time machine I can close my eyes and instantly picture my much younger self flopping his fringe in front of the mirror, turning the sound down so his mother doesn't get upset by the screamy vocals and occasional blue word, and lying on his bed letting it all soak in.
For me Bob Mould and Grant Hart are the Lennon and McCartney of indie. They are one of my favorite bands ever just because of their masterful combination of noise and fantastic song writing.
I discovered them with Zen Arcade which I also only discovered in 1989 but to me Flip your Wig is about as good.
Of course I also like everything Bob Mould with Sugar and solo, and Grant Hart with Nova Mob and solo have done afterwards but Hüsker Dü is still my favorite.
And you know what: I envy you for hearing Hüsker Dü for the first time. Just keep on discovering their other albums: you won’t regret it.
Thx also Jimmy Dread for your first experience with Zen Arcade.
I first started listening to Husker Du in high school in what was one of my first swan dives into the depths of music. Listening to Zen Arcade for the first time was one of those "ah ha!" moments, when you realize that this is why all of your favorite bands sound this good; because, this better one already laid down the blueprints for them to follow. My Top 3 tracks on the album are probably Standing by The Sea, Pink Turns Blue, and Chartered Trips, but the rest are all top tier as well. There is not much more I can add that has not already been said, but I would suggest listening to New Day Rising; it's a great record full of the same energy.
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