Husker Du: The Story of the Noise-Pop Pioneers Who Launched Modern Rock
Author(s): Andrew Earles (Author)
Publisher: Voyageur Press
Publication Date: November 18, 2010
Edition: First Edition
Language: English
Print length: 288 pages
ISBN-10: 0760335044
ISBN-13: 9780760335048
Book Description
Bob Mould, Grant Hart, and Greg Norton formed Hüsker Dü in 1979 as a wildly cathartic outfit fueled by a cocktail of anger, volume, and velocity. Here’s the first book to dissect the trio that countless critics and musicians have cited as one of the most influential bands of the 1980s. Author Andrew Earles examines how Hüsker Dü became the first hardcore band to marry pop melodies with psychedelic influences and ear-shattering volume. Readers witness the band create the untouchable noise-pop of LPs like New Day Rising, Flip Your Wig, and Candy Apple Grey, not to mention the sprawling double-length Zen Arcade. Few bands from the original American indie movement did more to inform the alternative rock styles that breached the mainstream in the 1990s. Hüsker Dü truly were visionaries.
Considered one of the most influential rock bands of the 1980s, the Minnesota-based Hüsker Dü helped to lay the groundwork that led to the ultimate success of such pop-punk groups as the Replacements, Sonic Youth, the Pixies, Soul Asylum, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, and Green Day, among others. Earles offers biographical portraits of band members—guitarist Bob Mould, drummer Grant Hart, and bassist Greg Norton—and discusses the group’s tuneful hard rock, or, as he describes it, “super-noisy songs.” Although they never achieved widespread mainstream success, Hüsker Dü were among the first underground rock bands to sign with a major label (Warner Brothers in 1986), which prompted more than a few fans to accuse them of selling out, an accusation Earles considers to have been “greatly exaggerated.” Charting their early days, nonstop touring, and defiant embrace of the DIY ethic, Earles carefully examines the band’s output in thoughtful criticism of their work, including Land Speed Record, their seminal concept album Zen Arcade, and their Warner Brothers debut Candy Apple Grey. A must for all followers of contemporary rock. –June Sawyers
About the Author
Andrew Earles is a writer and humorist based in Memphis, Tennessee. His work has appeared in several media outlets, including Spin, The Onion, Pitchfork, McSweeney’s, Harp, Paste, Magnet, and Alternative Press. Andrew lives in Memphis, Tennessee.
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