Music Snobs: Why isn't Husker Du considered super-cool?

I always like them, but most of my record snob friends write them off as almost "mainstream" - even though they were less mainstream than many other super-cooler bands. Why? Where does this anti-Husker-Du attitude come from?

I think some were pissed when they signed with a major. Was that on Zen Arcade or Candy Apple Gray?

On edit: I think Land Speed Record and New Day Rising were anything but 'mainstream' at the time.

was on SST, Candy APple, was on a major, last time I saw Husker Du was 1985, and they kicked ass at the Cubbie Bear in Chicago. I still have the drum stick from that show.... AOF opened for them. I just wish I had film for my camera or I would have some cool shots...

In the late 80s/early 90s, my record snob friends though Husker Du was the shiznit. I don't have record snob friends anymore though, I just listen to my "Monsters of Rap" CDs over and over and it repells them.

Are you infested with music snobs? Are you annoyed with the "talent police" who not only expound on their musical superiority but berate you for your "obvious" lack of taste?

Then you need Music Snob Repellant in three strengths!

Music Snob...
Indie Kid...
and Extra Strength Jazz and Classical!

Send them pests packing!

Husker Du and any other Bob Mould vehicle has always been considered so cool it's painful. I don't know who the heck you're talking to!

They signed with a major, but that shouldn't remove their cool credentials.

I worked in a record store for 10 years and I've never encountered this anti-Husker Du mentality that you speak of.

Cat

they were one of the big bands in the early progressive grunge in the mid eighties. Bob Mould is considered one of the Godfathers of progressive music. That's pretty fair consideration, IMHO. ;-)

but I read somewhere that Bob Mould is gay.

But they did NOT have an affair with each other.

All my record snob friends in high school would give me that "record snob look" when I told them I had never heard of Husker Du.

For the record, I think they're outstanding, and lost none of their appeal when they signed a major label deal. I don't think Uncle Tupelo did, either - their music was just as valid to me...

Honestly I thought they've always been super cool, especially since Nirvana became super successful using their formula and hardly ever gave them their propers.

I remember in '87 or '88 they had the backlash about signing to a major which at the time was a big move. But I can't imagine anyone still holding a grudge about that.

Husker Du is my favorite band ever in the whole entire world.

all the talk about losing their cred by people off this BB is just immature talk. I'm sure they probably don't think that anymore. Green Day went thru that too, but the musicians always want their music to reach as many people as possible. Who can see anything wrong with that. Having seen Husker DU twice live, I was able to track down a bootleg of one of those shows. I was thrilled as I had to drive 3 hrs in a blizzard to see them.

Husker ROCKS ETERNALLY. Anyone who considers themselves a *proper* indie music snob and thinks differently needs to go back to their own planet! :P ;)

I'll never forget you-greatest love song ever.


Husker Du destroys so much of this new "emo" music that's out now.

in 86, the first band to "graduate" to the big time from SST. To understand the vitriol spewed at the Huskers back then and now, one must realize that SST in the early eighties was where ALL the action was happeneing re: rock music. Joe Carducci's book "Rock and the Pop Narcotic" paints the picture of a bunker-like, hermetically hostile environment at SST, a kind of "us against the world" to the sixth power, where grudges are held forever, a "new redneck" philosophy of getting your hands dirty with constant touring, work, practice, and work. And then some more work. All the bands on the label were supposed to uphold the same values as Greg Ginn, and when they didn't, they were shunned, Amish-like, by the label's employees.

When Husker Du signed to Warner Brothers, immediately, according to legend, the SST staff started badmouthing the band to publicists, zine interviewers, and college radio consultants; apparently Ginn had held it against Mould, Hart, and Norton that they weren't "redneck" enough, that they were getting progressively poppier, and that they claimed in interviews that signing to a major might be a good idea. Thus, Husker Du became the first victim of an indie backlash.

As to why the band is not as fondly remembered as they ought to be today, I think it's because we as music fans have had to put up with so many Husker copyists over the years; what sounded so fresh and exciting in the mid eighties became a formula, and driven into the ground. Also, Bob Mould making an ass of himself in Sugar (a wretched excuse for a rock band) hasn't exactly endeared him to his previous fans. His new solo record is also terrible, a techno-synth mess, devoid of rock.

As for myself, I'll always love the Huskers; they helped me get through High School. I hold no ill will toward them at all. Sorry for being so long-winded, but I'm kind of an SST junkie/scholar and can't help myself.

I remember them as among the "coolest." I have impeccable "cool" credentials and loved them.

Seen on a boatload of T shirts and bumper stickers.

Not that SST was entirely consistent in their aesthetic. After they lost the Huskers and d boon's untimely death broke up the Minutemen, they cast about for another sub-genre to champion, and Henry Kaiser convinced them that the avant-garde non-idiomatic improvisation scene was happening. They released a bunch of stuff by Kaiser, Fred Frith, Elliott Sharp and Carbon, Ginn's new improv-core band Gone, the underrated Alter Natives, and a bunch of lesser jazz/fusion wannabes.

Then they lost over half a million dollars when one of their biggest distributors went bankrupt, and tore up all these weirdos' contracts and reverted to the punk ideology.

Personally I feel the Huskers peaked with Zen Arcade. (Actually my favorite stuff is on the Metal Circus EP, but I'm reluctant to declare that a record where you have to pay $14 for seven songs is the essential work!) So Candy Apple Gray was kinda lame, and Warehouse has only a couple songs that blow my doors off-- but New Day Rising wasn't so hot either, so it wasn't just the curse of the major label.

The way they treated Negativland was unforgivable. Ginn is an idiot.

/soapbox

but then again, what would you do? Island deserves the blame, and U2 for not doing anything about it, they could have.

Notice that U2 got into their electronic sound after that? Tell me Negativland didn't influence that.

Negativland was indeed treated unairly, and if you talk to most bands on SST, you'll hear about payments coming late or never, about tricky, Enron-esque accounting practices, etc. However, without SST most of my favorite artists would never have committed their sounds to record, and some of the most vital music of the twentieth century would have been mere ether. SST's aesthetic may is an important one, and their contributions should not be overlooked.

Again, tho, this is coming from a guy who owns Treacherous Jaywalkers, Painted Willie, Elliot Sharp, Slovenly, and Ras Michael albums. Like I said, I used to be an SST junkie. I even bought an Always August EP!

Read "Rock and the Pop Narcotic" or James Parker's Rollins biography, "Turned On", or Stephen Blush's "American Hardcore" for athe only available history of the label, and you'll get an idea of how fascinating the crew at this label was.

Now call me what you will but weren't they quite alternative and underground when they were about and the likes of Poison & Motley Crue were the big acts. In truth I'm a bit of a music snob myself but there ya go! And what's more when I brandish my copy of Zen Arcade and start playing Pink Turns to Blue to all & sundry that just conforms it with most people.

I was at the V2003 festival at the weekend and if you want any reccomendations from that I can always point DUers in the direction of Asian Dub Foundation. Foo Fighters and Queens of the Stone Age are all good, Killing Joke were great, but ADF were just brilliant!

Pretty much a joke band I guess, but I like them when I was 13.