Well, I'm not sure how well I've convinced the skeptical to reappraise former Hüsker Dü drummer Grant Hart's (see here) accomplishments. However, I have apparently done a number on myself, as yesterday I purchased his long out-of-print 1990 solo album, Intolerance, alongside the Japanese-only, Bob Dylan Live 1961-2000. This pair of purchases forced me to haul out the old Dylan Stick, that crude tool we who feel compelled to write about music so often use to determine just how well any singer who write his own words and music measures up to the mighty Bob.
It's an endlessly fascinating activity, but the outcome is never in doubt. Bob's untouchable, even if he puts out endurance-defying crap (Christmas in the Heart for fuck's sake!) during his cyclical nadirs, he still fascinates more than most artists at their apex. That being said, Grant Hart and Bob Dylan share more in common than you'd think. They're both Minnesota boys, influential underground song-writers who were later branded sell-outs and who, after hitting their greatest commercial successes (assisted by near-lethal doses of narcotics), crashed and had to rebuild their reputations. Of course Dylan never played drums in a hardcore band and Intolerance isn't Hart's Blood on the Tracks. Instead Intolerance is like the mid-way point between the soundtrack for Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid and the almost-comeback album Planet Waves. Listen to the fluttering harmonica on "Now That You Know Me" or the rueful anger in "2541" or that warping of a traditional folk melody (probably "A Pair of Brown Eyes") to devastating effect on "The Main" and judge for yourself how high up on the Dylan Stick he gets.
Grant Hart's fall from rock n roll grace was swift and brutal. As we said last time, "it seems that in the divorce settlement that Mould got to keep the cultural cache that Hüsker Dü had built up. Hart's solo career did began with brilliance but he soon stumbled and has never fully re-gained his footing."
While the stories from people I know who've met Hart are usually grisly (it's an eight-hour drive to Minneapolis from Winnipeg but it's still our closest urban neighbour) the comments section here at MRML has been alight with Hart defenders. To those die-hard Hart-ians (I can sympathize despite my Mould fandom) here's one of Hart's other highlights, the glowing, "Shoot Your Way To Freedom". The 1991 CD-EP from his band Nova Mob also contains the fine "Ballad Number 19" and, unfortunately, two more "funky B-sides" which are actually not entirely terrible.
On of MRML's most commented-upon series was the one in which I argued that Hüsker Dü singer/drummer Grant Hart's solo career had been unfairly marginalized in contrast with the justly celebrated work of his former partner, singer/guitarist Bob Mould. Now following a well-recieved 2009 comeback album backed by Godspeed You Black Emperor, a new documentary,Every Everything, currently looking for support at Kickstarter, we may be seeing a redress in the balance of praise.
Surprisingly,
considering how he'd referred to Mould's late period Hüsker Dü work as
"square", Hart's debut was even more more sensitive singer-songwriter
fodder than Mould's! "2541" is however, a moving song of loss with a
fittingly mournful melody. The fine lyrical details and the the swelling
chorus make for the perfect eulogy for the Hüskers. It's blatantly
autobiographical but unsentimental and it contains many a stinging line
like, "It's probably not be the last time I'll have to be out by the
first".
The rest of the EP "Come, Come" and "Let Go" is less-than-spectacular but as this recording of "2541" is very different then the one on Intolerance, it's a crucial release.
So what do you make of Hart's comeback? Of "2541"? Let us know in the COMMENTS section(where you'll find the 2541 EP link).
So while Mould's solo debut came after Hart's, it seems that in the divorce settlement that Mould got to keep the cultural cache that Hüsker Dü had built up. Hart's solo career did began with brilliance but he soon stumbled and has never fully re-gained his footing.
Surprisingly, considering how he'd referred to Mould's late period Hüsker Dü work as "square", Hart's debut is even more more sensitive singer-songwriter fodder than Mould's! "2541" is however, a moving song of loss with a fittingly mournful melody. The fine lyrical details and the the swelling chorus make for the perfect eulogy for the Hüskers. It's blatantly autobiographical but unsentimental and it contains many a stinging line like, "It's probably not be the last time I'll have to be out by the first". While "Come, Come" is a respectable, if a bit duff, "Let Go" is the dreaded "funky B-side" which is, as it always must be, a real low point in the entire artist's discography.
{MRML readers leave a comment: Who's first A-side, Mould's or Hart's, was better?}
Another of the sad joys scattered throughout Hart's sketchy discography, is the 1990 single. "All of My Senses". In the A-side, an organ-driven dose of thin wild mercury music, there's a weighted pause after Hart sings "I'm using" which might hint that this is a record about heroin. Then the b-sides, "The Main" (an eerily familiar cross between a Lennon ballad and an old Irish one) and the Love cover, "Signed D.C." will remove any doubts about the role of the junk herein. A mighty, sad and beautiful record
Having argued, somewhat fancifully, that Hüsker Dü were the Great American Rock Band, America's Beatles even, let MRML present you with not only their single greatest achievement but also one of their Beatles covers.
"Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely" is the perfect example of what made Hüsker Dü so thrilling. It's all here; fuzz guitar attack, propulsive drumming, psychedelic break-it-down parts, melodic bass work, an indelible chorus and bitter lyrics ("Please leave a number and a message at the tone or you can just go on and leave me alone" goes the final line). And it's a Grant Hart song. Yup, Hart, the singer/drummer whom bassist Greg Norton called the McCartney to guitarist/singer Mould's Lennon. While this analogy quickly breaks down in their solo careers, the greatness of Hüsker Dü, like the Beatles, wastheir collective strength. As a songwriters Mould and Hart were equals in the band and the latter's solo dominance, in contrast to the former's marginality, does not prevent this song from being their finest moment.
The B-sides here include the song that inspired the Manson murders and an eight minute song that repeats the lines, "All work and no play make Jack a dull boy" that sent Jack Nicholson into that murderous rage. Both songs are harsh, abrasive and endurance-defying. Just as the boys intended I'm sure.
When Hüsker Dü split over innuendo about drugs, suicide and selling out, the members found themselves in terra incognita. After all they began the eighties as a hardcore band on indie SST Records before becoming a major label college rock band in the mid-eighties and finally ending the decade as solo artists. (Well Bob Mould and Grant Hart became solo artists, Greg Norton went back to the kitchen.)
Mould sobered up, got a new record label and sequestered himself in a farmhouse to write the gentler-but-not-kinder songs that would become Workbook in 1989 . Workbook's folk-rock sound, with its prominent cello and acoustic guitar, found critical acclaim but no more commercial success than Hüsker Dü. This problem prompted a re-think for Mould's next solo outing (the results of which in turn prompted an even greater re-think; Mould's a re-thinking kinda guy.) Whether you fully embrace this slightly more pastoral album or not (and it's surface calm is deceptive), it's not hard to believe that "See A Little Light" is one of the most gorgeous songs he's ever written.
Besides the luscious pop of the title track, this e.p. contains the more Hüsker Dü-ish, "All These People Know" as well as a rawer live take on the album's "Compositions for the Young and Old" and Mould's blistering live version of Richard Thompson's "Shoot Out the Lights".
With first lines of the album, “I’m on way to bigger and better days” it’s clear that the Doughboys (John Kastner on guitar/vocals, Scott McCullough on guitar, Jon Bond Head on bass and Brock Pytel on drums) were going to be a more driven outfit than the Asexuals.
With the 1987 passing of both Minneapolis’ Husker Du and the L.A.’s the Descendants (both of whom honed their maniacal work ethic under the charge of SST Records), it seemed to be Montreal's the Doughboys who were destined to carry on those bands' tradition of melding aggression, distortion and songcraft.
The band (dubbed The Whoa-boys for those relentless whoa-oh sing-alongs) did bear that torch with aplomb. In fairness, with their major label affiliations, Vision Streetwear sponsorship and those damn white-boy dreads, they also furthered the commercialization of North American punk, even hanging on long enough to get a hit single in the grunge era.
1987’s Whatever, however, proved punks of that era who grew out their hair didn’t have to play college-rock or speed metal. This album drives like a hardcore record but it’s swarming with hooky tunes and melodic guitar lines. It’s hit-after-hit and even a certain uniformity of sound can’t slow this fucker down.
Kastner’s song writing is at a peak herein (as heard in such chargers as “Tradition and “I Remember”) but he is not the group's only force to be reckoned with. One of the secrets behind a pop-punk band of depth is the drummer/songwriter a la Tommy Ramone of the Ramones, Grant Hart of Husker Du and Duncan Redmond from Snuff. To prove they’d learned this lesson well, The Doughboys kit-basher was one Brock Pytel, who wrote what may be the album’s most memorable song, the zen-punk, “Holiday” (“There’s no holiday from living there’s no shelter from it all, there’s no escape from dying – no one sees you when you’re standing tall”).
Many people consider the altogther-excellent Whatever the Doughboys most powerful album. They are wrong but easily forgiven.
There' a pointless yet deeply enjoyable game of Rock Nerd one-upmanship being battled out over at the Onion A.V. over the question of who were the Great American Rock Band (i.e. the American Beatles). America is fixated on the cult of the individual and so the clearest choices (Elvis, Dylan, Hendrix) are disqualified and, judging by the number of names in contention, no final victor is likely. We can't cover all of the nominees (plus Sly and the Family Stone and Bruce Springsteen and E-Street Band count as solo artists to me) here are a few of the prominent ones:
The Beach Boys? Brilliance in composition, harmonizing and studio wizardry does not make the Beach Boys a rock n' roll band. The Beatles were an ass-kicking bar band before Epstein put them in suits, Jagger-Richards bonded over old blues records and Dylan wanted to join Little Richard. Brian Wilson wanted to be in the Four Freshman. No knock on his well-established genius, his band just lacks rock cred.
The Funk Brothers? It's no compliment to these masters to claim that they, and not the singers and the songs (um, Smokey Robinson anyone?), were what made Motown the Sound of Young America.
CCR? Too few great years, with their awe-inducing run of singles lasting between 1969-1971.
The Velvet Underground? Their intensely adventurous, frequently beautiful body of work is wounded by art-school self-indulgence.
The Ramones? Would get my X on the ballot straight off but since they didn't develop terribly well and really only upset the status quo's apple cart once (while the Beatles did that a few times) they lose some points.
The Grateful Dead? Fuck. Off.
So with no indisputable winner, why not Hüsker Dü?
Yes, Hüsker Dü's so-called creative arc was more imperfect than the Beatles. In fact, they had no hits, no support from the music industry and no media presence. But that was the fate of most Great American Rock Bands of the eighties, from the Bad Brains to the Replacements to the Pixies. Unlike the sixties, it was a terrible time to be great, at least if you played guitar and wrote your own rock n' roll songs without dominant keyboard parts. So Hüsker Dü accomplished one of the most wild, sustained creative streaks in American music almost entirely under their own power.
With Hüsker Dü, you had Bob Mould and Grant Hart, two fantastic song-writers locked in an epic struggle between each other and their addictions, churning out glorious pop songs and sprawling conceptual double albums at an incredible pace, all of which redefined what constitutes rock n' roll. While Land Speed Record is definitely no Meet the Beatles, Zen Arcade might be the White Album AND Sgt Pepper's combined, thus allowing New Day Rising and Flip your Wig to be their double whammy like Rubber Soul and Revolver. A stretch perhaps, but well worth considering.
Let's consider an example shall we? Listen to the distorted, ringing folk-rock put-down that is, "Makes No Sense At All" followed by the pulverizing but sweet cover of the "Mary Tyler Moore Theme" and deny that Hüsker Dü are anything less than a Great American Rock Band.
MRML Readers: Who do you believe is the Great American Rock Band?
Yet an-other list? Yup, those damn bloggers keep spreadin' unjustifiably unheard music around the world for almost zilch reward.
Remember those almost iron-clad caveats: - avoid full versions of readily available releases - offer full releases (single, e.p. or album) with artwork - give a write-up offering at least some context
This is an actual picture of the collection(or some portion thereof).
13. John Fogerty Mid-period singles (Lodi swamp-rock) Power Pop Lovers(Link shows two singles, "Walkin' Down the Road", which is great and "You Got the Magic" which is not.)
14. Sleeper Wasted Today (U.S. Dischord-ant pop-punk,1993) Punks on Postcards
20. Cringer Zen Flesh, Zen Bones (U.S. Anarcho-syndicalist-pop-punk, 1988) Mustard Relics
21. The Pleasers - S/T (UK Beatles-rip-off, 1977) Ratboy
22. English Punk Invasion (A grab bag of singles) Bombs of Peace
Due to my own limitations, many great bloggers are not represented here - find more musical spadework in my blogroll.
Thanks to for keeping tabs on so much of what goes up.
Just to add a great singles post, here' s Scotland's Rezillos (more here) with their slightly muddy 1978 BBC Sessions which includes a revamped "I Can't Stand My Baby".
I was going to say that I could talk about the Undertones for days but MRML readers already know my weakness for obsessing over shoulda-beens and kinda-weres ad nauseum. So before I return to discussing Grant Hart marginalia, I need to remind you of what likely is the last great Undertones single, "It's Going to Happen". The song is from the 1981 album Positive Touch and it's a heart-breaking indication that a great band could have been borne of Feargal's ambitions and the band's growing prowess, a band that could groove like ska and rock like power-pop. But the band instead elected to play an eighties brand of soul; it's a deep loss, one that may bear some obsessing.
Finding this high concept, Buster-Keaton-meets-Ed-Wood video, full of Feargal's high-camp made posting this song a necessity.
What percentage of songs that came out this year in the Western world (to say nothing of the REST of the world) have you heard? Even for most music fanatics (takes one to read one), the number is not only single digit, it's probably a count-on-your-little-piggies digit. So the MRML Twenty-Two makes no claim to enumerate the GREATEST song of this calendar year, just ones I heard that shouldn't languish in that >95% mass of missed music.
The list is tightly bound by my taste for the punchy over the swishy, the pounding over the lilting, the catchy over the fancy and the relentless pursuit of relentlessness. When I say punchy, pounding, catchy and relentless, you'd think punk and you wouldn't be wrong but the lifeboat's got room for folk, country, power-pop, ska, the much-maligned (by me anyway) indie-rock and perhaps a 450 pound Royal Bengal tiger.
1. Manic Street Preachers "Jackie Collins Existential Question Time"
While Journal for Plague Lovers is not as immediate to me as Send Away the Tigers, this track with it's refrain of, "Oh, mommy, what's a Sex Pistol?" is as good of a smack-in-the-face as anything they've done.
2. Radio Faces "Slippin' Back With You
Milwaukee-ite Nato Coles 2nd best album of the year (see the next list) could be given a ridiculous genre like "bar-punk" or "honky-punk" but songs like this are just rough-hewn, mid-western rock n' roll played like the final closing time is nigh. Listen here
3. Pugwash "Monorail"
If I was Australian (where this Irish band had a huge hit this year) I'd hate this song but since it's a novel obscurity with cool keyboards, a lyrical list and, befitting the album's name, Earworm, a chorus that slithers into your ear like Kahn's mind-controlling eels and just takes over it'll fit here. See here
4. Teenage Bottlerocket "Skate or Die
The fact that Teenage Bottlerocket (and their kin, The Lillingtons) so often resemble an old-school hardcore band as much as a pop-punk band is their secret strength.
5. Classics of Love "Slow Car Crash"
I've a bit of weakness for survivors, like ex-Operation Ivy/Common Rider singer Jesse Michaels but he's still a all-out performer with a knack for wise, sharp-eyed lyrics and choruses that a crowd of sweaty kids can yell along to instantly. Listen here 6. The Bomb "Space Age Love Song"
Despite the abundance of ripping rockers ( "Haver", "Integrity") on Speed is Everything that sees Chicago punk legend Jeff Pezzatti (of the fearsome Naked Raygun) giving the kids hell, I chose this mid-tempo, post-punk ballad because it hearkens back to "Holding You" a longing ballad from the neglected album Raygun, Naked Raygun. Listen here
7. Two Hours Traffic "Territory"
The pride of Prince Edward dish out sprightly power-pop with a dollop of wussiness. See here
8. Frank Turner "The Road" Poetry of the Deed was a bit of a let-down but this song is not only a clear-eyed statement of Turner's philosophy of itinerance, it's also a grand, booming song whether played solo or with the band. See here
9. Shonen Knife "Ramones Forever"
I'm a sucker for a heartfelt tributes to great bands and for Osaka's Shonen Knife. Listen here
10. The Methadones "Gary Glitter"
I'm also a sucker for savage put-downs like this one from Dan Vapid formerly of Chicago's Kings of Pop-Punk, Screeching Weasel. Listen here
11. Said the Whale "Camillo (the Magician)"
With "Camillo" Said the Whale prove that while there may be not be any good band names left to pick there's still a near-inexhaustible supply of power-pop hooks as yet uncast. See here
12. Dear Landlord "I Live in Hell"
Pop-punk schleps Adam and Brett from Chicago's the Copyrights name their sideband after a Dylan song and rock like hell. Listen here 13. Roman Candle "Why Modern Radio is A-OK With Me"
A little alt-country is good for what ails you, especially when it's astute, tuneful and not too studied. See here
14. Carbon Silicon "What's Up Doc?"
While I wish that Mick Jones and Tony James would remember that songs can be over in 2 minutes fifty-nine, you gotta love a rip-snorting rocker like this:
15. Grant Hart "You're the Reflection of the Moon on the Water"
A hummable zen-noise-pop song from the former Husker Du man and members of Godspeed You Black Emperor.
16. Dr Frank "Bethlehem"
The doctor must need to write catchy pop-punk songs with clever lyrics and quirky bridges since he keeps recording music despite his massive literary success (calling the sequel to his best-seller King Dork, King Dork Approximately is a sly Dylan reference). Listen here
17. Tinted Windows "Kind of a Girl"
Okay, the classic super-group paradox (the whole is less than the sum of the parts) kicked in for this Cheap-Trick-Smashing Pumpkins-Fountains-of-Wayne-Hanson aggregation but, fittingly, the single was a grand-scale pop song. See here
18. Ida Maria "I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked"
As I've said before, the hype, or lack thereof, is irrelevant, if the song (in this case one by a sexy Norwegian) makes you want to sing along or air drum than you've got a winner.
19. Jeffrey Lewis "Whistle Past the Graveyard"
New York cartoonist and anti-folk standard-bearer Lewis tries on his cow-punk boots then contemplates eternal life and zombies. See here
20. Oak Ridge Boys "Seven Nation Army"
Stop using that word novelty like it's a bad thing, as if this White Stripes classic didn't always need some gnarly country veteran going bom-bom-bom-bom-bom in the background. Listen here
21. Dan Magann "Tina’s Glorious Comeback"
As a singer and song-writer I'd slot Vancouver's Magann somewhere between the Violent Femme's Gordon Gano and the Weakerthan's John K. Sampson and while some of Nice, Nice Very Nice is occasionally a bit hushed or precious, when his cleverness and tunefulness come together it's impressive. See here
22. Bob Dylan "It's All Good" Together Trough Life was not a great record by any stretch but this song is one of those "Foot of Pride" style attacks on the world's ills that even a half-assed, strangulated Dylan pulls off well. Listen here
(Bonus: Bryan Scary and the Shedding Tears will confuse the hell out of everyone with Queen-like piano-punk song, "Andromeda's Eyes".)
Okay, MRML Readers, leave us a comment on our choices and then tell us your picks for the great songs of '09
For the entire playlist click here and please remember to delete any material downloaded for education purposes from your computer within 48 hours.
And on a less legalistic note go to please got to Interpunk,Amazon or even (shuddder) iTunes and buy some music!
MRML is a blog about the devestating effects of culture: music, politics, comics plus etc. blah blah blah. At times MRML will post fine, unpurchasable three-chord obscurica (punk, pop-punk, new wave, mod, power-pop, gospel, reggae, hardcore, rockabilly, folk, country...whatever.) - - - - - - "The otherwise unavailable files in this blog are posted for a limited time and are intended for educational, non-commercial use. These files were transcribed from what are believed to be out-of-print sources. If you are aware of any of these items being readily available from commercial sources, or if any of these files infringe upon rights that you hold, please notify us so that we can quickly remove the referenced items immediately." - - - SUPPORT THE ARTISTS - BUY MUSIC!
If you have any questions or music to donate you can contact me at musicruinedmylife (at) gmail (dot) com
Re: Re-Ups
MRML does not plan to restore all of the content lost in The Great Mediafire Gutting of 2012. Polite requests may be made in the appropriate section, regular commenters will get priority.
If you'd like to support the artist check out Hart's first new album in years,(recorded with members of Godspeed You Black Emperor), available here.
