Hüsker Dü
Hüsker Dü (/ˈhʊskər ˈduː/) was an American punk rock band formed in Saint Paul, in 1979. The band's continuous members were guitarist/vocalist Bob Mould, bassist Greg Norton, and drummer/vocalist Grant Hart. They first gained notability as a hardcore punk band, and later crossed over into alternative rock. Mould and Hart were the band's principal songwriters, with Hart's higher-pitched vocals and Mould's baritone taking the lead in alternating songs.
For other uses, see Husker Du (disambiguation).
Hüsker Dü
The band issued their debut studio album Everything Falls Apart on Reflex Records in 1983 and subsequently released three LPs and an EP on the independent label SST Records, including the critically acclaimed Zen Arcade in 1984. Hüsker Dü signed to major label Warner Bros. Records in 1986 to release their final two studio albums. They disbanded in January 1988. Mould later released two solo albums before forming Sugar in the early 1990s, while Hart released a solo album on SST and later formed Nova Mob.
After their respective bands broke up in the mid-1990s, Mould and Hart continued doing solo work, the latter until his death in 2017.[1] Norton worked as a restaurateur and returned to the recording industry in 2006.
History[edit]
Formation and early years (1979–1980)[edit]
The members of Hüsker Dü first performed together when Grant Hart, Bob Mould, Greg Norton, and keyboardist Charlie Pine began playing in 1979[2] in a band called Buddy and the Returnables.[3] At the time, Mould was a freshman at Macalester College in Saint Paul and frequented nearby Cheapo Records, a Saint Paul record store where Hart was a sales clerk. Hart and Norton had originally met while applying for the same job, which Norton eventually got. Hart and Mould bonded over a shared love of the Ramones, and soon after they enlisted Norton and Pine to form a band. They began gigging, playing mostly cover songs, some classic rock, and frequent Ramones tunes. Unbeknownst to Pine, the remaining band members disliked the sound of the band with Pine's keyboards and began practicing without him, writing a few originals.
The new name originated during a rehearsal of the Talking Heads's "Psycho Killer." Unable to recall the French portions sung in the original (e.g., Qu'est-ce que c'est?), they instead started shouting any foreign-language words they could remember, including the title of the popular 1970s memory board game Hūsker Dū? (the phrase without diacritics meaning "do you remember?" in Danish and Norwegian).[4] The name stuck, and they added heavy metal umlauts to it. Mould said that they liked the somewhat mysterious qualities of the name and that it set them apart from other hardcore punk groups with names like "Social Red Youth Dynasty Brigade Distortion."[5] Mould also said that, while Hüsker Dü enjoyed hardcore punk in general, they never thought of themselves as exclusively a hardcore group and that their name was an attempt to avoid being pigeonholed as such.
Hart, Mould, and Norton fired Pine during their first official performance on March 30, 1979, and continued as a trio under the new name. Mould has written that he considers the band's first "real gig" to have been May 17, 1980, at the renowned punk club Jay's Longhorn Bar.[6]
By 1980, the band was performing regularly in Minneapolis-St. Paul, and their music evolved into a fast, ferocious, primal sound, making them one of the original hardcore punk bands of the Midwest. Through heavy touring, they soon caught the attention of punk trailblazers including Black Flag and Dead Kennedys' Jello Biafra, who helped introduce Hüsker Dü to new fans. Black Flag guitarist/songwriter Greg Ginn later signed the band to his label, SST Records.
Early releases (1981–1983)[edit]
The band started releasing singles on Terry Katzman's Reflex Records in 1981. Their first two albums, Land Speed Record and Everything Falls Apart, brought much critical praise. Regular touring brought them to the attention of the Minutemen, who released their debut and the "In a Free Land" single on their label, New Alliance Records. This, in turn, led to the band signing with SST Records.
The intense but varied Metal Circus EP/mini-album was released in 1983. Hüsker Dü's more melodic take on hardcore struck a chord with college students, and various tracks from Metal Circus, particularly Hart's "Diane," were put into rotation by dozens of campus radio stations across the U.S.[7] In addition, on Metal Circus the band showed more invention, skill, and melody than it did over the course of their previous full album, Everything Falls Apart.[8] In a 1983 interview, Mould recalled the reason the band turned down an offer to sign with major-label Elektra Records during the band's first few years:[9]
Studio albums