Hüsker Dü

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hüsker Dü
Hüsker Dü logo.svg
General information
origin Minneapolis / Saint Paul , United States
Genre (s) Hardcore punk (until 1982), alternative rock , post-hardcore
founding 1978/1979
resolution 1987
Last occupation
Bob Mold
Drums , vocals
 Grant Hart († 2017)
Bass , vocals
 Greg Norton

Hüsker Dü was an influential American alternative / punk band from Minneapolis / Saint Paul (Minnesota) . The cast consisted of Bob Mold (vocals / guitar ), Greg Norton (vocals / electric bass ) and Grant Hart (vocals / drums ). Mold and Hart shared the songwriting roughly equally between them. Hüsker Dü was never overly successful commercially, but had a far greater impact than its comparatively low sales figures suggest.

classification

Hüsker Dü started out as a hardcore punk band with a fast, noisy sound and roaring vocals, but also with melodic, soulful moments that increasingly came to the fore in the course of their careers. On stage, Hüsker Dü was completely untypical for the hardcore bands of the time: Bob Mold, a bulky guy with a doughy face, who yelled out the lyrics, plus the long-haired, unkempt-looking Grant Hart, who was constantly beating up the drums, and finally the lanky, calm Norton, who mostly wore a waxed mustache.

Hüsker Dü broke with the anti-traditionalist ethos of the early hardcore punk bands. The early songs have influences from folk , 1960s pop , blues and other styles of music and are very melodic. The lyrics contain smart, sharp-tongued views on personal and social matters. Hüsker Düs songwriting met with widespread admiration, and the band showed their extraordinary musical and improvisational skills during the performances. Their sound was very unusual for the time: Bob Mold's full, metallic-sounding guitar sound was described as "molten metal trickling out of the speaker" and shaped the sound of the band. Hart's drumming sounded dull and easily dragged off the beat, Norton played a succinct, finger-plucked bass; the synthesis of these elements gave the band a unique, powerful style.

The particular strength of Hüsker Dü was the combination of the two singers and songwriters Mold and Hart. The differences between their two compositional styles (Mold wrote the more aggressive, Hart the more melodic songs) and their willingness to work together created synergies for both of them and the band.

Their importance lies in the fact that they were one of the first American underground bands of the 1980s to sign a record deal with one of the major record labels ( Warner Brothers ); With this step, Hüsker Dü paved the way for the rise of so-called alternative rock a few years later. Another band from Minneapolis at the time that similarly broke the ice for alternative rock were The Replacements , with whom Hüsker Dü had a friendly rivalry.

history

If you can believe an interview that Hart and Norton gave in 1984, Hüsker Dü emerged from the band Three Guys with Skinny Ties . Possibly it was part of the New Wave scene in this phase, where narrow ties were a popular accessory at the time. However, it is not entirely clear whether this is true, as many of the answers in the interview may have been ironic or funny. Based on Michael Azerrad's book Our Band Could Be Your Life , the band that later became Hüsker Dü was founded in 1978. Mold, Hart and Norton played as a cover band with keyboardist Charlie Pine, whose sound the other band members didn't like. On their first public appearance in 1979, a friend of Hart pulled the plug from Pines Keyboard and showed him the middle finger. The other band members apparently didn't mind, so that from now on they were just a trio.

The name Hüsker Dü was given after a well-known board game called Hūsker Dū? (see below, "Name"), which was written with heavy metal umlauts . With this strange sounding name in a foreign language, they wanted to differentiate themselves from the hardcore punk scene with ideologically influenced band names such as “Social Red Youth Dynasty Brigade Distortion”, to which Hüsker Dü only belonged to a limited extent, although they liked the music.

By 1980 they had already written a large number of songs and their music had developed into a fast, wild, untamed sound. In the same year, the then very well-known punk band Black Flag gave a concert in Chicago , where Hüsker Dü made a wild appearance at an after-show party that ended in a tumult (Hart threw his drums off the stage and then got into a scuffle with an employee of the club whose walls Mold smeared with blue paint). Black Flag was very impressed and toured with Hüsker Dü, which helped them gain some popularity.

The band released their first single Statues in 1981 on the label Reflex Records by Terry Katzman . The first two LPs Land Speed ​​Record and Everything Falls Apart were also released there , and they received critical acclaim. On their numerous tours, Hüsker Dü got to know the band Minutemen , on whose label New Alliance Records they released the single In A Free Land . Then Hüsker Dü moved to SST Records , an underground record company owned by Greg Ginn and which became very popular in the following years, thanks in part to Hüsker Dü.

In 1983 the EP Metal Circus was released , with which Hüsker Dü clearly distanced himself from the hardcore punk scene. The lyrics became more emotional and emotional. They were about their own feelings, frustration , fear , despair and love . The next year, the double LP Zen Arcade was released, which is widely regarded as one of the musical highlights of the band. Zen Arcade is a concept album , it is about a boy who leaves home and is confronted with a harsh and merciless world.

Zen Arcade also received a lot of attention in the established music scene, including a downright euphoric review by Mikal Gilmore in Rolling Stone , who compared the record to milestones such as London Calling by The Clash or Exile on Main Street by the Rolling Stones . It has been recognized as one of the best publications of the year in many music magazines. The album sold so well that SST Records - a small, financially weak record company at the time - had great difficulty pressing enough records.

The successors New Day Rising and Flip Your Wig , which both appeared in 1985, continued the musical development, the tempo and volume were reduced somewhat. Opinions on the relative importance and quality of these two albums differ widely.

When it became known in the mid-1980s that band members Mold and Hart were gay, Hart said, to counter rumors of a relationship with Mold, that they occasionally took their partners on tour and had never started anything with each other: “It would have been fuckin 'bullshit. "

In 1986 the band signed a record deal with Warner Brothers Records, which many on the scene saw as a sell-off. However, there were also dissenting voices: Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth sought advice from Mold when his band received an offer from a major label. The young Warner executives who initiated the contract saw Hüsker Dü more as an object of prestige and less as a hope for high sales. With this step, they wanted to encourage musicians outside of the mainstream rock that was prevalent at the time , who had little access to the distribution channels of the music industry and received little attention from MTV and the music press. In doing so, Warner turned words into deeds, unlike representatives of other music companies who, although highly valued by bands like Hüsker Dü, would never have signed them.

Their two albums, Candy Apple Gray and Warehouse: Songs and Stories (a double LP) released by Warner, showed the band matured musically and in terms of content. However, opinions differ widely as to whether this development away from the hardcore roots was really an improvement. From both albums, which also temporarily to lower rankings in the Billboard - Charts again found some songs were quite often played mainly by college radio stations.

At that time, the differences between Mold and Hart became irreconcilable. Add to this drug problems, particularly Hart's heroin addiction , while Mold tried to get rid of alcohol and amphetamines . At the end of 1987 a further collaboration was no longer possible, Hart left the band (or was thrown out, the statements differ here), which then ceased to exist. Later, in 1994, The Living End was released , a compilation of various live recordings.

Mold and Hart then pursued their own projects, partly alone, partly with the quite successful alternative bands Sugar (Mold) and Nova Mob (Hart). Greg Norton became a chef.

To a surprising joint brief appearance of Mold and Hart came in 2004 at a charity concert for the on cancer diseased bassist of Soul Asylum , Karl Mueller . Originally a solo appearance by Bob Mold was announced, but at the end of which he brought Hart on stage and they played two Hüsker-Dü songs together ( Hardly Getting Over It and Never Talking To You Again ).

effect

The special meaning of Hüsker Dü probably lies in the union of hardcore and alternative rock. In later years, many musicians called Hüsker Dü formative for their work, including the Pixies and Dave Grohl .

Therapy? had a hit in the UK with a cover of Harts Diane from the EP Metal Circus .

The band's career is described in Our Band Could Be Your Life , a study of several major American underground rock bands. The novel Try by Dennis Cooper contains numerous references and text passages from the album New Day Rising .

Surname

"Hüsker Dü" is derived from Husker Du? which means “Do you remember?” in Danish and Norwegian . A music show of the same name, which plays old musical hits, has been on Norwegian television for over 30 years. There was also a board game from Pressman called "Hūsker Dū?" (With accents instead of umlauts) in the 1950s.

Concerts in German-speaking countries

literature

Discography

Albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
UK UK US US
1986 Candy Apple Gray - US140 (10 weeks)
US
1987 Warehouse: Songs and Stories UK72 (1 week)
UK 		US117 (10 weeks)
US
Double LP

More albums

  • 1983: Everything Falls Apart
  • 1984: Zen Arcade (double LP)
  • 1985: New Day Rising
  • 1985: Flip Your Wig

Live albums

  • 1982: Land Speed ​​Record
  • 1994: The Living End

EPs

year Title
album 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
UK UK
1986 Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely UK96 (1 week)
UK

More EPs

  • 1983: Metal Circus
  • 1986: Sorry Somehow (double 7 ″)

Singles

  • 1981: Statues (7 ″)
  • 1982: In a Free Land (7 ″)
  • 1984: Eight Miles High (7 ″)
  • 1985: Makes No Sense at All (7 ″)
  • 1987: Could You Be the One? (7 ″, 12 ″)
  • 1987: Ice Cold Ice (7 ″, 12 ″)

Web links

Commons : Hüsker Dü  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Azerrad, p. 162
  2. ^ Azerrad, p. 179
  3. ↑ Back then commercial for Hūsker Dū? on Youtube
  4. ↑ Hüsker Dü 18 Sep 1985 (Remise, Bregenz, Austria) flyer. Retrieved February 16, 2018 .
  5. ↑ a b Chart sources: UK US