History Music / HuskerDu

* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: How they ended up with their name. While doing a cover of Music/TalkingHeads' "Psycho Killer" during a rehearsal, they were unable to remember the French portions of the lyrics and instead started shouting out any foreign words they could remember. One of the phrases ended up being "Husker Du," and they decided to use that (with added HeavyMetalUmlauts) as the name of the band.

* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: How they ended up with their name. While doing a cover of Music/TalkingHeads' "Psycho Killer" during a rehearsal, they were unable to remember the French portions of the lyrics and instead started shouting out any foreign words they could remember. One of the phrases ended up being "Hüsker Dü," and they decided to use that as the name of the band.

* BreakupBreakout: Bob Mould and Grant Hart both pursued solo careers following Hüsker Dü's break-up. While neither artist is quite mainstream, Mould would appear to be a lot more popular, as his listeners on ''last.fm'' outnumber Grant Hart's ten to one and he played on two Music/FooFighters songs.

* MetalScream: Hart and Mould both were really good at this..

* StraightGay: While it had been an open secret in the Twin Cities music community for some time, Bob Mould officially came out as gay in the early '90s.
** Grant Hart is usually described as gay or bisexual. The ''Every Everything'' documentary reveals that he had a son from a heterosexual relationship early on in his career, but most of his adult relationships have been with men.

* StudioChatter: Mould, at the end of "Plans I Make", the last song on ''New Day Rising'', says: "It's the end of the album".

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Norton wrote a few songs on the early releases ("Let's Go Die", "M.T.C.", plus co-writing "From the Gut" and "Blah, Blah, Blah" with Mould), but from ''Metal Circus'' onward, Hart and Mould wrote all their songs (occasional covers and a few tracks credited to the whole band aside). ''Everything Falls Apart and More'' also features experiments with a few styles that they wouldn't do much with later (e.g., PostPunk), and the early releases feature much more MinisculeRocking than they would use later.

* LiveAlbum: Two. Their full length debut, ''Land Speed Record'', and ''The Living End'', a compilation released after the band collapsed.

* CoverVersion: "[[Music/TheByrds Eight Miles High]]", ''Donovan'''s "Sunshine Superman", and the theme song to ''Series/TheMaryTylerMooreShow''. They also were known to cover "[[Music/{{Help}} Ticket to Ride]]" and "[[Music/RocketToRussia Sheena Is a Punk Rocker]]" in live concerts; the latter can be found on their live album ''The Living End''.

* VocalTagTeam: Usually, Bob and Grant would each sing on the songs they individually wrote, though sometimes they'd each take different vocal sections on the same song. Greg took a few lead vocals early on as well, mostly on the songs he wrote.

** On ''Metal Circus'', "Diane" -> "Out on a Limb" (a faint one, but still present).

* OutOfGenreExperience: Even bearing in mind its stylistic diversity, ''Zen Arcade'' is structured so that the last song on each album side is dissimilar to the rest of that side’s content. "Hare Kṛṣṇa" is a bizarre, chant-heavy, Eastern-influenced piece that sounds like nothing else on the album. "Standing by the Sea" is essentially the album's "[[Music/{{Quadrophenia}} Love, Reign O'er Me]]"; it's subdued and, at the same time, anthemic. "The Tooth Fairy and the Princess" is a CreepyAwesome psychedelic song. "Reoccurring Dreams" is a lengthy instrumental jam, the only one of its kind in their discography.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Norton wrote a few songs on the early releases, but from ''Metal Circus'' onward, Hart and Mould wrote all their songs (occasional covers and a few tracks credited to the whole band aside). ''Everything Falls Apart and More'' also features experiments with a few styles that they wouldn't do much with later (e.g., PostPunk), and the early releases feature much more MinisculeRocking than they would use later.

* VocalTagTeam: Usually, Bob and Grant would each sing on the songs they individually wrote, though sometimes they'd each take different vocal sections on the same song.

* StudioChatter: Mould, at the end of "Plans I Make", the last song on ''New Day Rising''. says: "It's the end of the album".

* CarefulWithThatAxe: The verses of "The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill" are mostly Grant Hart screaming at the top of his lungs.

* UncommonTime: "Masochism World". Also, the verses of "Bricklayer" are in 7/4.

* CoverVersion: "[[Music/TheByrds Eight Miles High]]", ''Donovan'''s "Sunshine Superman", and the theme song to ''Series/TheMaryTylerMooreShow''. They also were known to cover "[[Music/{{Help}} Ticket to Ride]]" in live concerts.

** ''Land Speed Record'' only has gaps for LP side breaks. Even by the standards of live albums, it stands out here, given that the band would rarely pause between songs at this point when paying live, and in fact, most CD versions of the album have only two tracks.
** ''Everything Falls Apart'' doesn't use it quite as much as ''Land Speed Record'', but still uses it a fair amount:

** ''Zen Arcade'' uses this a lot, too. The only time the CD version completely fades out, actually, is for LP side gaps, but in some cases, it's mostly tape noise. However, there are several songs that very audibly fade into one another:
*** "Broken Home, Broken Heart" -> "Never Talking to You Again" -> "Chartered Trips";
*** "Dreams Reoccurring" -> "Indecision Time";
*** "Beyond the Threshold" -> "Pride";
*** "What's Going On" -> "Masochism World";
*** "Somewhere" -> "One Step at a Time" -> "Pink Turns to Blue" -> "Newest Industry";

* UncommonTime: "Masochism World".

* CoverVersion: "[[Music/TheByrds Eight Miles High]]", ''Donovan'''s "Sunshine Superman", and the theme song to ''Series/TheMaryTylerMooreShow''.

has more clearly defined songs, but they rarely completely fade out before the next one starts. This is generally most conspicuous on the second side of the album, where the band often doesn't even pause between songs.)

* FadingIntoTheNextSong: ''Land Speed Record'' and ''Zen Arcade'' only have gaps for LP side breaks. (''Land Speed Record'' qualifies even by the standards of live albums, given that the band would rarely pause between songs at this point when paying live, and in fact, most CD versions of the album have only two tracks. ''Zen Arcade'' has more clearly defined songs, but they rarely completely fade out before the next one starts. This is generally most conspicuous on the second side of the album, where the band often doesn't even pause between songs.)

* {{Instrumentals}}: "Reoccurring Dreams" and "Dreams Reoccurring" from ''Zen Arcade''; "The Baby Song", "The Wit and the Wisdom", and "Don't Know Yet" from ''Flip Your Wig''. The former two are Norton's only writing credits on any of their later albums apart from "How to Skin a Cat" and "Plans I Make", all four of which are credited to the whole band (Mould gets credited for the latter two's lyrics).

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Norton wrote a few songs on the early releases, but from ''Metal Circus'' onward, Hart and Mould wrote all their songs (occasional covers and a couple of instrumentals credited to the whole band aside). ''Everything Falls Apart and More'' also features experiments with a few styles that they wouldn't do much with later (e.g., PostPunk), and the early releases feature much more MinisculeRocking than they would use later.

* {{Instrumentals}}: "Reoccurring Dreams" and "Dreams Reoccurring" from ''Zen Arcade''; "The Baby Song", "The Wit and the Wisdom", and "Don't Know Yet" from ''Flip Your Wig''. The former two are Norton's only writing credits on any of their later albums (they're credited to the whole band).

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Norton wrote a few songs on the early releases, but from ''Metal Circus'' onward, Hart and Mould wrote all their songs (occasional covers aside). ''Everything Falls Apart and More'' also features experiments with a few styles that they wouldn't do much with later (e.g., PostPunk), and the early releases feature much more MinisculeRocking than they would use later.

* {{Instrumentals}}: "Reoccurring Dreams," from ''Zen Arcade.''

* GenreRoulette: In addition to the clear contrast between Mould and Hart's styles as songwriters, their albums go through an enormous number of musical styles, especially ''Zen Arcade'' and ''Warehouse''. (For instance, "She Floated Away" is basically a sea shanty and "Actual Condition" is a {{rockabilly}} song.)

* FadingIntoTheNextSong: ''Land Speed Record'' and ''Zen Arcade'' only have gaps for LP side breaks. (''Land Speed Record'' qualifies even by the standards of live albums, given that the band would rarely pause between songs at this point when paying live, and in fact, most CD versions of the album have only two tracks. ''Zen Arcade'' has more clearly defined songs, but they rarely completely fade out before the next one starts.)

* PunBasedTitle: ''Land Speed Record'' refers both to the ferocious speed of the material and the band's fondness (at the time) for amphetamines.

* FadingIntoTheNextSong: ''Land Speed Record'' and ''Zen Arcade'' only have gaps for LP side breaks. (''Land Speed Record'' qualifies even by the standards of live albums, given that the band would rarely pause between songs at this point when paying live, and in fact, most CD versions of the album have only two tracks.)