Not a mega fan, but I think New Day Rising catches them at a peak point between fury and melody (though the production is somehow... off, in its own weird way: cascading shards of brittleness rather than a full wall of noise-röck-glöry). Flip Your Wig is poorly sequenced and has a little fat to trim but also has some of their best moments ('Games', 'Divide and Conquer', 'Green Eyes') and I always liked Everything Falls Apart best out of their angrier early stuff (esp the version w/ 'In a Free Land' attached, Mould is operating on thermonuclear levels of bitterness on most of that record) .

I'll be a tad heretical and state that I think Zen Arcade is a bit bloated and it's not one I go back to and Warehouse is awful, cannibalising their own sonic territory w/ the most edgeless, wimpy songs - Hart's material is practically vapid on that one.

WH:S&S was also my first Du tape (an actual tape) and I still love that record a lot. Production leaves a lot to be desired...but that's to said about most of the catalog. "You Can Live At Home Now" is a phenomenal last-song-on-the-band's-last-album jam.

EFA if my favorite of their hardcore-era, was also an early acquisition when Rhino reissued it in the 90s w/ the "In A Free Land" and "Statues/Amusement" singles added on.

Pretty hard to pick one from the run of EFA->MC->ZA->NDR->FYW, they've all got some filler but the hits are great enough to make you forget.

kicker_of_elves wrote: Mon Dec 12, 2022 10:33 am

twelvepoint wrote: Mon Dec 12, 2022 10:20 am ok, so here's a question that's vexed me for decades:

On "Makes no Sense at All" there's a 16th note snare drum fill after the verse, going into the chorus. It's way louder than the snare in the rest of the song, sounds different, and I feel like it's also overdubbed, and may even be a drum machine. Anyone else hearing that? Resolving this once and for all would really be weight off my mind.

This was the first record Bob and Grant got to produce on SST instead of Spot. To my ear, the snare on that break has the same tone as the rest of the song, just with the slider pushed way the heck up. Steve Fjelstad engineered Flip Your Wig, and he did a lot with Soul Asylum and the Mats also.

I just listened to this a few times and I agree with this assessment. At that very instant the rest of the band has gone quiet, which may also exaggerate the effect.

Also, oof, now I remember why I go back to The Living End more often than the albums after New Day Rising. I don't think the production does those songs justice.

twelvepoint wrote: Mon Dec 12, 2022 9:42 am I grew up in rural ME and my stores didn't always have the "definitive" records by the alternative artists that make everyone's top 500 lists, so I'd end up with like Century Days being my first exposure to Die Kreuzen, or getting like, the THIRD record (ok, cassette) by the Violent Femmes, etc etc. Husker Du, same deal: Warehouse was my first record (ok, CD) by them and like, I don't know any better, but I did listen to the shit out of that one.

Yep, this is my pretty much experience (semi-rural SE WI, not rural ME). I only got into the first DK LP a few years ago and I'm a Milwaukee guy!

I picked up Warehouse and Metal Circus at Mainstream when I was 18. Loved them both. Nowadays anything by Husker Du is ok by me but listening now I find myself of the mind that all the hardcore bands that 'evolved' never bettered their early work. Not just HD and DK but Bad Brains, COC, DRI, etc.

Not trying to do a hot take or anything. But really the old shit is so much more exciting to me.

I celebrate the whole catalog, or at least most of it (they hadn't quite figured out who they were for the first year and a half). The last few records seems to get unfairly written off by a cross section of listeners and writers. I was surprised last summer when I went through a revisit of the discography how excellently Flip Your Wig stands at the perfect intersection of the earlier aggression and the later song smithing. I suppose that's the balance on every Husker album, but it was the first time I'd heard it as the perfect synthesis. It might be my favorite now.

Also, my band has ended many a set with a cover of "New Day Rising" and it's a great example of when you play a cover and nothing you can write can get as unhinged as that one cover no matter how hard you try.

Metal Circus was a hugely important record for me as a teenager. I went from learning to play guitar playing along to Led Zeppelin records to hearing that first guitar part on real world and having my mind blown, 'how the fuck is this guy doing THAT?'

Other records have plenty of high points, but the production on the Warners LPs just ruins them for me. Was gobsmacked to hear those recent deconstructed Trout Mask Replica tracks, and the Revolver reissue. If some bootleggin' whippersnappers ever took their internet boxes to Warehouse and Candy Apple Grey, I'd love a listen.

Husker Du arrived at just the right time in my life, a revelation at age 19. Their hardcore was so abrasive and brutal yet they liked the Beatles and the Byrds. I didn't know you could do that. They changed the way I listened to (and played) music. The sound created by them and Spot on their SST albums can still peel the paint off your walls, kill your houseplants, frighten your pets and annoy the neighbors.

Zen Arcade and New Day Rising are their peak but all their LPs have a high percentage of great songs. Everything Falls Apart is a personal favorite, packing 12 fully formed tunes into less than 20 minutes.

I never saw Husker Du live but I caught all three solo around 1989. When I talked to Bob Mould backstage at the Metro he acted like he had a golf club jammed up his ass. Grant Hart was one of the most garrulously charming borderline overbearing drunks I had ever met. My roommate and I were seated at a table in Lounge Ax when Grant walked in and changed his trousers behind the mixing board, exposing his bare backside to us. We were on acid. Later we got loaded with him and his band in the basement. Greg Norton's solo project also played Lounge Ax. They sucked and Greg was kind of a dick to everyone.

I don't care for Warehouse , but "Ice Cold Ice" is a cool song.

Everything Falls Apart is their best record, in my opinion. That record is focused and punches hard. Metal Circus, Zen Arcade and New Day Rising are also very, very good, although I agree that Zen Arcade could have been a monstrous single LP. After New Day Rising, I feel like they decline in quality and intensity, with a drop off the cliff following Flip Your Wig. I have no time for Warehouse.

Went with metal circus through new day rising. But with the task being to curate their body of work, I’d prefer to curate these albums and maybe flip your wig to cut out the clunkers so they’d be massively improved. Maybe I’ll listen to these albums today and list my edits afterwards.