Bob Mould - "Workbook" (LP Review)

We're nearing the end of Pride Month and the LP I'm choosing to mark this year's with Bob Mould's first solo LP, 1989's "Workbook".  I haven't listened to this LP in I'm not sure how many years, but I was  recently reminded of it when Bonnie was showing me something on her phone (some kind of photo collage function or something) and the built-in sound effect was the instrumental "Sunspots", the first song on this LP.

I was a huge Husker Du fan in college, but they broke up in 1988, not long after I learned of them.  I purchased his second LP, 1990's "Black Sheets of Rain", while I was still in Blacksburg, but it wasn't until the mid 90s that I bought his debut LP at Plan 9 Records in Richmond.  Conventional wisdom is that "Workbook" is almost folk, whereas "Black Sheets of Rain" was a return to the heavier sound of Husker Du.  As I listen to "Workbook" in 2020, I think the lighter, folk influence, while present, is over emphasized.  Yes, there's a cello and acoustic guitar, but this is still a heavy, angry LP.   It might not be as good as SST Husker Du, but it's arguably better than Warner Brothers Husker Du.

Even though I have it on CD, the first five songs (presumably, side 1 of the LP) are extraordinary, but the second half of the LP is less distinguished.  There are no bad songs on the LP, but it just doesn't close as strongly as it opens: "Sunspots" (a simple yet beautiful instrumental), "Wishing Well" (great riff, solo), "Heartbreak a Stranger" (perhaps my personal favorite on this LP?), "See a Little Light" (pure pop magic), and "Poison Years" (his diss track for Grant Hart).

So what's the connection to Pride Month?  It's now well-known that Bob Mould is gay, but I probably did not know this until the mid or even late 90s.  His homosexuality is not necessarrily part of his musical identity, but I bring this up as an example of how things have changed about how much we know about the artists we follow (as well as our changing attitudes regarding sexuality: I can understand why a gay man in a punk/metal band in the 80s did not want to be out).  In the 80s and into the 90s, if friends introduced me to the music and I liked it, I bought the LPs.  I never really spent much time with Rolling Stone, Spin, or other music magazines, so when Spin effectively outed him in 1994, I missed it.  Now, with Wikipedia, social media, etc., for better or worse, the distance is reduced between artists and their artistic output.  Today, I know more about the personal details of artists I don't like than I knew in the 80s about artists I loved.

I have only a fraction of his considerable post-Husker Du discography, but rediscovering "Workbook" has been a joyful experience for me.  If you're not familiar with it, you should check it out.

Standout tracks: "Sunspots", "Wishing Well", "Heartbreak a Stranger", "See a Little Light", "Poison Years", "Compositions for Young and Old", "Dreaming I Am", "Whichever Way the Wind Blows"

Skip 'em tracks: none

Final score: 8/10

Grant Hart - "2541" (the song remains the same)

About two months ago Grant Hart died.  Grant was a founding member of the seminal punk band Husker Du, a band I've nearly completely covered in F-Measure.   It wasn't until recently that I settled on how to acknowledge his passing: his solo debut EP, post-Husker Du, released in 1988.  The title track, "2541", a poignant song about Husker Du's first shared house/rehearsal space, is a parable about the rise and fall of the band itself ("Now everything is over / Now everything is done / Everything's in boxes / At twenty-five forty-one"). 

After Husker Du broke up, I unconsciously ended up on team Bob.  I have several LPs from solo Bob Mould and Sugar, but never got any solo work from Grant or Nova Mob.  I need to fix that.

Bob and Grant had a fiery, sometimes-on but mostly-off working relationship both during Husker Du and after.  The tension made for some great material in Husker Du, and while they made good material after Husker Du... well... few bands could top their 1985, which saw the release of both "New Day Rising" and "Flip Your Wig". 

I remember hearing this summer about their release of "Savage Young Du", their reissue/retrospective of Husker Du's early days, and thinking that Bob and Grant were back on speaking terms.  Bob posted a note on Grant's passing that stated it was not unexpected, so I'm grateful they patched things up at the end.

Grant Hart - "2541" (acoustic version from the self-titled EP, this is my preferred version)
Grant Hart - "2541" (from the 1989 LP "Intolerance")
Marshall Crenshaw - "2541" (from "Velvel")*

Bonus link: "The Brilliance of Hüsker Dü’s Grant Hart in 10 Songs" from Pitchfork.



* If you saw this and thought "oh cool, I didn't know Marshall Crenshaw covered a Grant Hart song!" then you're definitely a child of the 80s.

Husker Du - "Candy Apple Grey" (LP Review)

"Candy Apple Grey" is Husker Du's 1986 major label debut after four critically acclaimed LPs (and one EP) on Reflex Records and SST Records.  This means there are two general reactions to the LP: many long-time fans accused them of selling out, and major magazines (e.g., Rolling Stone) fawned over the LP in an effort to make up for ignoring their 1982-1985 output.

In retrospect, most reviewers feel the truth is somewhere in between (e.g., Punknews, Culture Fusion).  This is a good LP that should be in your collection, but it lacks the intensity and consistency of LPs like "New Day Rising" and "Flip Your Wig".  It is tempting to put the blame on the big, bad major label but apparently the real villain is the increasing rivalry between Grant Hart and Bob Mould.  Perhaps the Warner Brothers deal kept the band together longer than they would have if they had remained on SST. 

Parts of "Candy Apple Grey" would be at home on any of their previous releases: "Don't Want to Know If You're Lonely", "Sorry Somehow", "Crystal".  Some represent a more poppy, college radio sound that hints at their later solo releases, like "Too Far Down", "Hardly Getting Over It", "No Promise Have I Made".  Those songs are fine, but the weakest moment on the LP are songs like "Dead Set On Destruction" and "Eiffel Tower High".  Those two songs, while not terrible, have a kind of awkward self-awareness; I can imagine Bob and Grant saying to themselves "hey, in the next 30 minutes I need to write a song that rocks harder than {Bob's|Grant's}!".

Standout songs: "Don't Want to Know If You're Lonely", "Sorry Somehow", "Too Far Down", "Hardly Getting Over It"

Skip 'em songs: "Dead Set On Destruction", "Eiffel Tower High"

Final score: 7/10.  WB Husker Du pales in comparison to SST Husker Du, but it is still better than most bands.

Bonus link: MTV review of "Candy Apple Grey" (featuring Martha Quinn), complete with May 1986 tour dates in case you invent a time machine and want to catch them live (after killing baby Hitler, of course). 

Husker Du - "Land Speed Record" (LP Review)

17 songs in less than 27 minutes.  A live, 2-track recording from 1981.  A recording budget ($350) only slightly larger than the capacity of the venue (250 people) where it was recorded.  The seventh release on an independent label.  Song titles like "Guns At My School" and "Tired of Doing Things".  A vaguely political statement for the cover art.  If you don't already know what this sounds like, you haven't been paying attention. 

Released in early 1982, "Land Speed Record" is Husker Du's first LP, and that alone makes it of interest especially since only two of these songs would later be recorded in the studio ("Bricklayer" and "Let's Go Die").  But let's be honest: while the songs are ferocious, the poor recording quality makes them nearly unlistenable.  I'm sure it was a great show to be at, but this is the kind of recording that people claim to love so they can be "very metal". 

I have the SST posthumously re-released 1988 CD version (the band broke up in 1987), which SST did not bother to even segment into separate tracks: just part one and part two.  I love Husker Du and I'm glad I have this CD, but it honestly looks better on the shelf than it sounds coming through the speakers. 

Songs: part one, part two

Final Score: 5/10.   If you want to explore their early catalog (i.e., pre-"Zen Arcade"), it is better to stick with "Everything Falls Apart" or "Metal Circus".

Husker Du - "Everything Falls Apart and More" (LP Review)

"Everything Falls Apart" was Husker Du's first studio LP, originally released in 1983 on Reflex Records and then re-released as "Everything Falls Apart and More" in 1993 on Rhino Records. The "and More" part refers to including Husker Du's first two 7" singles, 1980's "Statues / Amusement" and 1982's "In a Free Land", as well as two unreleased tracks a studio version of "Let's Go Die" (a live version appears on 1982's "Land Speed Record"), and the previously unreleased "Do You Remember?" (which is the English translation of "Husker Du"). The original LP clocked in at under 20 minutes, but the bonus material takes it to 42 minutes. Yes, in 1982 20 minutes was considered a full length LP for punk bands.

I got this LP sometime well after college, so it doesn't have the same nostalgia for me as "Flip Your Wig" or "New Day Rising". And this LP doesn't show the depth, complexity or variety that other LPs would; this is straightforward, hard-core punk. The production is thin & biting (courtesy of Spot, who produced most of the bands on the early days of SST Records) and the songs are short, furious, and rarely last much over two minutes. I wish I had heard this LP when it came out, it would have made a huge impression on me then.

But even still, this is a surprisingly good LP to listen to today. It is mostly angry punk music, but a few glimpses of their future, more melodic sound peek through in a few songs, like "Everything Falls Apart", "In a Free Land", and "Do You Remember?". So while this LP stays well within its genre, it is a genre that Husker Du helped create. Many fans think Husker Du began with "Zen Arcade", but if you're in the mood for a ferocious blast of energy, then give this LP a listen.

Standout Songs: "From the Gut", "Punch Drunk", "Bricklayer", "Afraid of Being Wrong", "Everything Falls Apart", "Target", "In a Free Land", "Do You Remember?".

Skip 'em Songs: their awkward cover of Donovan's "Sunshine Superman".

Final Score: 8/10

Thanks to HUSKERchout for the super-rare concert videos.

Husker Du - "Eight Miles High / Makes No Sense At All" (LP Review)

I recently rediscovered this one out of my stacks of CDs and put it in my iTunes collection. Released in 1990 on SST Records three years after Husker Du had broken up, this 4-song EP is really just two earlier 7" singles combined and re-released: 1984's "Eight Miles High" and 1985's "Makes No Sense At All".

"Eight Miles High", their cover of the The Byrds classic 1966 song, is a non-LP single. Covering a song by The Byrds was quite a stretch for a punk band in 1984, and Husker Du turns out an appropriately heavy, buzz-saw version. The B-Side is a live version of "Masochism World", one of the heaviest songs on the acclaimed double LP "Zen Arcade".

"Makes No Sense At All" is the best song in Husker Du's catalog, and quite possibly the best punk song ever. It is the only single from their outstanding 1985 LP "Flip Your Wig". The B-Side is a cover of Sonny Curtis's "Love is All Around". That's right, as if to prove they could stretch further than The Byrds, they covered the theme song for The Mary Tyler Moore Show (opening credits).

So do you need this EP? If you already have "Zen Arcade" and "Flip Your Wig", then there are only two new songs: "Eight Miles High" and "Love is All Around". The latter is just a novelty, so the former is really the only new song. If you're a hard-core fan (and don't already have the two 7" singles!), then get this EP since it is still in print and reasonably priced (I think the individual singles are out of print). But if you're not familiar with Husker Du, then start with "Flip Your Wig" and "New Day Rising" instead.

Standout songs: Eight Miles High (live 1983, live 1985, live 1987), Masochism World (studio version), Makes No Sense At All / Love Is All Around (in a single video).

Skip 'em songs: none.

Final Score: 6/10. All good songs, but necessary for hard-core fans only.

Bonus Link: The Byrds - "Eight Miles High"

Husker Du - "New Day Rising" (LP Review)

Having already reviewed "Flip Your Wig", it's only right to return to Husker Du's "New Day Rising". NDR was released in early 1985 and FYW was released in late 1985. Most bands can go their whole career and never produce an LP of the caliber of NDR or FYW; for Husker Du to release two such LPs in less than a year is remarkable.

As discussed in the FYW review, NDR finds the band in transition from strictly hardcore punk to punk tempered with conventional pop music structure. That may sound like damning with faint praise, but it really just means there are strong vocal hooks to go with their blistering sound. This ain't Gap Punk...

After reading the FYW review, Danette observed that I had not really dealt with the musicians themselves. Husker Du was a trio, consisting of guitarist Bob Mould, bassist Greg Norton and drummer Grant Hart. Mould and Hart were the principal songwriters. They occasionally collaborated, but most of the songs are individually written with Hart's contributions slowing increasing with each LP. Like any good songwriting tandem (e.g., Lennon/McCartney, Jagger/Richards), there was a great deal of friction and competition between Mould and Hart and it (exacerbated by substance abuse) would eventually split up the band. While Mould would go on to have a successful post-Husker Du career (both as a solo artist and in Sugar), Hart's output is more limited (solo and as Nova Mob). Norton apparently left the music industry altogether. But neither Mould nor Hart have since equaled their banner year of 1985.

While I consider FYW to be a slightly better LP than NDR, I would also argue that NDR has better individual songs, even if they don't form the cohesive unit that FYW does listening from start to finish. Whereas FYW has "Makes No Sense At All", NDR has the title track "New Day Rising", "I Apologize", "Folk Lore", "Celebrated Summer" and "59 Times the Pain" that are all nearly as good as "Makes No Sense At All". The title track proves that it is possible to write an amazing song whose lyrics consist of simply repeating three words: "new day rising..." Listen to it and you'll be hooked.

But why I give FYW the nod over NDR is because tracks like "Perfect Example", "Powerline" and "How To Skin A Cat" are easily forgettable. The latter is punk/psychedelic noodling (in comparison, "Plans I Make" or the "Dreams Reoccurring"/"Reoccurring Dreams" pair from Zen Arcade are better examples of the sound they were after). The former two songs are not really bad, but they're not really good either. They're just there.

Random observation #1: The LP cover art surely has to be in the top 10 of all time. The cover captures the feel of the songs in a way I can't put in words.

Random observation #2: Yes, they have modish heavy metal umlauts over the "u"s in their name. They formed in 1979 and that's just how things were done then. The board game from which they took their name has macrons instead of umlauts.

Standout Tracks: "New Day Rising", "I Apologize", "Folk Lore", "Celebrated Summer", "59 Times the Pain", "Books About UFOs"; the full LP in a single video.

Skip 'em Tracks: "Perfect Example", "Powerline" and "How To Skin A Cat"

Final Score: 10/10. I thought about giving them a 9/10 because of the three weakest tracks, but the strength of the other tracks makes up for those three.

P.S. YouTube user SUICIDEVOM has uploaded a "New Day Rising"-era concert in seven parts: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7. The sound quality is good and it is well worth checking out.

Husker Du - "Flip Your Wig" (LP Review)

"Flip Your Wig" is Husker Du's final LP on the seminal alternative label SST Records (if you listened to alternative music in the early- mid-80s, you had a lot of SST releases and respected them -- until 1987 when SST rolled over on Negativland, but that is a story for another time).

Flip Your Wig is actually the second LP Husker Du released in 1985; earlier that year they released "New Day Rising" and in 1984 they had put the world on notice with their double LP "Zen Arcade". Conventional wisdom says that their best LP is Zen Arcade, closely followed by New Day Rising. To me, Zen Arcade is an important LP with some quite good songs. New Day Rising is an exceptional LP, marred only by a few self-indulgent songs (e.g., "How To Skin a Cat"). But Flip Your Wig represents the band at its zenith: the right combination of punk power (slowing maturing since 1981's nearly unlistenable "Land Speed Record") and pop sensibilities (the first glimpses of which we saw on 1983's "Metal Circus" EP) . Their last two studio LPs on Warner Brothers, while not entirely bad (too much pop and not nearly enough punk), simply can't compare to their SST releases. But for Flip Your Wig, it all came together in an LP that features great songs, furious power, and an LP that is easy to listen to start to finish. Yes, the production quality is thin, but that was par for the course in the mid 80s. Their major label releases had "better" production which ultimately makes for a less enjoyable listen.

It would be easier to list the songs on this LP that are not great: "The Baby Song". That's it. That's the only song you'll skip on this whole LP. And it's not even a song, it's just 47 seconds of silly slide whistle filler. Maybe it seemed funny at the time, maybe they did it on a dare. Past that, there are only two kinds of songs on this LP: excellent and mind-blowingly excellent. I'll only list the latter below. If forced to pick a single song, "Makes No Sense At All" is probably the best punk anthem ever recorded.

Standout tracks: Flip Your Wig, Makes No Sense At All, Green Eyes, Divide and Conquer, Flexible Flyer, Private Plane, The Wit and the Wisdom

Skip 'em tracks: The Baby Song.

Final Score: 10/10.