History Music / HuskerDu

--'''Hüsker Dü,''' "''Makes No Sense at All''"

* NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly: Their experimental side is probably best seen on ''Zen Arcade.'' While the band's sound was still rooted in fast, aggressive punk, their songwriting had become noticeably more melodic, experimenting with elements of folk, noise, and psychedelic, as well as including piano interludes.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Mostly a 6-7 on their early albums, mostly 5-6 later on (though they have some songs, i.e. "Never Talking to You Again", "Perfect Example", "Too Far Down", and "Hardly Getting Over It", that drop below this point).

* BadassMustache: Greg Norton.
* BasedOnATrueStory: "Diane" is about the real life rape and murder of West St. Paul waitress Diane Edwards by Joseph Ture in 1980. (See MurderBallad below.)

As usual, you can find the basics at [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Husker_Du The Other Wiki.]]

** Other albums have songs like "Perfect Example", "Games", "Hardly Getting Over It" (though this one only counts as a musical breather; emotionally it's as intense as the rest of the album), "She Floated Away", and "No Reservations". The most extreme example is probably "The Baby Song" from ''Music/FlipYourWig''.

'''Hüsker Dü''' were an American HardcorePunk[=/=]AlternativeRock band from [[UsefulNotes/TwinCities St. Paul, MN]] who were together from 1979-88. They were composed of singer / guitarist / lyricist Bob Mould, bassist Greg Norton, and drummer / lyricist Grant Hart. While they never had a hit record, among their most well-known work is the ConceptAlbum ''Zen Arcade'', the follow-up ''New Day Rising'', their CoverVersion of Music/TheByrds' "Eight Miles High", and their single "Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely", which was notably featured in the film ''Film/{{Adventureland}}'' and covered by Music/GreenDay. They are regarded as seminal in the creation of the AlternativeRock and PostHardcore genres.

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

* EagleLand: While not an overly political band (at least by UsefulNotes/{{Punk}} standards), songs such as: "In a Free Land," "Folk Lore," and "Divide and Conquer" portray America as a Type II.
* 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 the songs that appeared on their studio albums (occasional covers and a few tracks credited to the whole band aside; Norton did get the "Could You Be the One?" B-side "Everytime," which also appeared in a live version on ''The Living End''). ''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.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Particularly after the almost nightmarish "The Wit and the Wisdom," "Don't Know Yet," the ending of ''Flip Your Wig'', feels like a musical example.

* EpicRocking: "Reoccuring Dreams" clocks in at 13:47 (14:01 on some versions of the album). The unabridged version of the band's early single "Statues" is 8:45 (it was edited down to a 4:25 mix for the physical release, which is also the version used on ''Savage Young Dü''; the unedited version is found on ''Everything Falls Apart and More''). "Hardly Getting Over It" is 6:07. Finally, ''Savage Young Dü'' gives us a 6:48 rehearsal version of "Data Control" and a 6:16 live version of "It's Not Fair."

* TheGreys: Alluded to in "Books About UFO's."

* {{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 "Hare Kṛṣṇa," "How to Skin a Cat," and "Plans I Make," all five of which are credited to the whole band (Mould gets credited for the latter two's lyrics).

* NonAppearingTitle: "Terms of Psychic Warfare."
* ObsessionSong: "Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill."

* OneWomanSong: "Diane."

** ''Land Speed Record'' refers both to the ferocious speed of the material and the band's fondness (at the time) for amphetamines. And the fact that it is (well, was) a vinyl record. (As Mould explained, "We covered a lot of land. We took a lot of speed. And we made a record.") It's derived, naturally, from the phrase "land speed record," referring to the fastest speed clocked on land.
** The title of "Diane" sounds very close to "dying," and the song is, appropriately, a MurderBallad.

* {{Subtext}}: Mould is gay; Hart was bisexual, although this was not widely publicized at the time the band was active. This knowledge adds an extra layer of meaning to songs like "The Biggest Lie," which thereby becomes a very different song. (Note that, while it was rumored that Hart and Mould were romantically involved and their tensions were a reason for the band's breakup, both of them have flatly denied this).

'''Hüsker Dü''' were an American HardcorePunk / AlternativeRock band from [[UsefulNotes/TwinCities St. Paul, MN]] who were together from 1979-88. They were composed of singer / guitarist / lyricist Bob Mould, bassist Greg Norton, and drummer / lyricist Grant Hart. While they never had a hit record, among their most well known work is the ConceptAlbum ''Zen Arcade'', the follow-up ''New Day Rising'', their CoverVersion of Music/TheByrds' "Eight Miles High", and their single "Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely", which was notably featured in the film ''Film/{{Adventureland}}'' and covered by Music/GreenDay. They are regarded as seminal in the creation of the AlternativeRock and PostHardcore genres.

* 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 {{Heavy Metal Umlaut}}s) as the name of the band.

* BasedOnATrueStory: "Diane" is about the real life rape and murder of West St. Paul waitress Diane Edwards by Joseph Ture in 1980. (See MurderBallad, below.)

** Quite a few of them on ''Zen Arcade'' in particular. The first three examples listed under OutOfGenreExperience below count, as do songs like "Monday Will Never Be the Same," "One Step at a Time," and "Never Talking to You Again".
** Other albums have songs like "Perfect Example," "Games," "Hardly Getting Over It" (though this one only counts as a musical breather; emotionally it's as intense as the rest of the album), "She Floated Away," and "No Reservations." The most extreme example is probably "The Baby Song" from ''Music/FlipYourWig''.
* CallAndResponseSong: The verses of "In a Free Land."

* DanceSensation: "Do the Bee."
* DaysOfTheWeekSong: "Monday Will Never Be the Same."

* GriefSong: "Pink Turns to Blue."

* LonelyPianoPiece: "One Step at a Time" and "Monday Will Never Be the Same."

* MinisculeRocking: ''Land Speed Record'' packs 17 songs into 26 1/2 minutes. Only "Data Control", at over five minutes in length, proves an exception to this trope (it's also played at a much slower tempo than the rest of the album).

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Mostly a 6-7 on their early albums, mostly 5-6 later on (though they have some songs, i.e. "Never Talking to You Again," "Perfect Example," "Too Far Down," and "Hardly Getting Over It," that drop below this point).

* MurderBallad: "Diane," which was apparently based on the real life rape and murder of West St. Paul waitress Diane Edwards by Joseph Ture in 1980.

* ProtestSong: "In a Free Land." "Folk Lore" combines this with AdultsAreUseless.

* RedOniBlueOni: Mould was the Red Oni, with his more aggressive songs, while Hart was the Blue Oni, with his more introspective songs.

** "If I Told You."
** "Plans I Make," more or less; there's one actual stanza repeated a few times, and then the rest of the song just has "make plans" and "go" repeated over and over.
** A lot of early songs, such as the aforementioned "Gilligan's Island."

* SociopathicSoldier: "You're a Soldier," of the "joined up to kill" variety.

** Mould, at the end of "Plans I Make," the last song on ''New Day Rising'': "Who cares? It's the last song on the album."
** There’s also chatter after “Everything Falls Apart” and “Obnoxious,” though you have to turn the volume up a lot to hear it.

* StopBeingStereotypical: In "Real World" and "Deadly Skies," Mould rejects the notion that punk bands need to constantly involve themselves in radical politics, thus emancipating the band from some of the expectations imposed on them by their subculture.

** The verses of “Bricklayer” are in 7/4, though it’s played so fast it’s hard to notice.
** “In a Free Land” has an unusual rhythmic pattern before each chorus that, particularly due to its fast tempo, can be rather disorienting - it can either be counted as seven measures of 4/4 or a longer 14/4 measure. Additionally, Hart syncopates the opening drumbeat of each chorus to make it feel as though a beat has been taken out, though it isn’t actually. Slowing the recording down makes it easier to follow, but only marginally.

** The intro riff to “How to Skin a Cat,” reprised several times in the song, is an arguable variant; it’s so much of a tempo screw that it can’t really be counted as straight 4/4, even though it’s roughly based on patterns of eight. If you try to count using uniform lengths of time, you’ll quickly get derailed from what the band actually plays; moreover, the transition to the song’s other riff takes long enough that it could be counted as having an extra beat – or at least, almost so (again, tempo screw).

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

! '''''Never Troping to You Again''''':

** Quite a few of them on ''Zen Arcade'' in particular. The first three examples listed under OutOfGenreExperience below count, as do songs like "Monday Will Never Be the Same", "One Step at a Time", and "Never Talking to You Again".
** Other albums have songs like "Perfect Example", "Games", "Hardly Getting Over It" (though this one only counts as a musical breather; emotionally it's as intense as the rest of the album), "She Floated Away", and "No Reservations".
* CallAndResponseSong: The verses of "In a Free Land".

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

* DanceSensation: "Do the Bee".
* DaysOfTheWeekSong: "Monday Will Never Be the Same".

* EagleLand: While not an overly political band (at least by UsefulNotes/{{Punk}} standards), songs such as: "In a Free Land", "Folk Lore", and "Divide and Conquer" portray America as a Type II.
* 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 the songs that appeared on their studio albums (occasional covers and a few tracks credited to the whole band aside; Norton did get the "Could You Be the One?" B-side "Everytime", which also appeared in a live version on ''The Living End''). ''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.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: Particularly after the almost nightmarish "The Wit and the Wisdom", "Don't Know Yet", the ending of ''Flip Your Wig'', feels like a musical example.

* EpicRocking: "Reoccuring Dreams" clocks in at 13:47 (14:01 on some versions of the album). The unabridged version of the band's early single "Statues" is 8:45 (it was edited down to a 4:25 mix for the physical release, which is also the version used on ''Savage Young Dü''; the unedited version is found on ''Everything Falls Apart and More''). "Hardly Getting Over It" is 6:07. Finally, ''Savage Young Dü'' gives us a 6:48 rehearsal version of "Data Control" and a 6:16 live version of "It's Not Fair".

* GriefSong: "Pink Turns to Blue".

* {{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 "Hare Kṛṣṇa", "How to Skin a Cat", and "Plans I Make", all five of which are credited to the whole band (Mould gets credited for the latter two's lyrics).

* LonelyPianoPiece: "One Step at a Time" and "Monday Will Never Be the Same".
* LoopedLyrics: "New Day Rising" has no lyrics besides the song's title. "Plans I Make" has a brief loop of: "I gotta make plans for the plans I make / Gotta have plans for the friends I make / I gotta have friends for the friends I make / Gotta have friends for the plans I make / Go make plans." After the first minute, the rest of the lyrics are: "go" and "make plans".

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Mostly a 6-7 on their early albums, mostly 5-6 later on (though they have some songs, i.e. "Never Talking to You Again", "Perfect Example", "Too Far Down", and "Hardly Getting Over It", that drop below this point).

* MurderBallad: "Diane", which was apparently based on the real life rape and murder of West St. Paul waitress Diane Edwards by Joseph Ture in 1980.

* NonAppearingTitle: "Terms of Psychic Warfare".
* ObsessionSong: "Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill"

* OneWomanSong: "Diane".

* ProtestSong: "In a Free Land". "Folk Lore" combines this with AdultsAreUseless.

** ''Land Speed Record'' refers both to the ferocious speed of the material and the band's fondness (at the time) for amphetamines. And the fact that it is (well, was) a vinyl record. (As Mould explained, "We covered a lot of land. We took a lot of speed. And we made a record.") It's derived, naturally, from the phrase "land speed record", referring to the fastest speed clocked on land.
** The title of "Diane" sounds very close to "dying", and the song is, appropriately, a MurderBallad.

** "If I Told You".
** "Plans I Make", more or less; there's one actual stanza repeated a few times, and then the rest of the song just has "make plans" and "go" repeated over and over.
** A lot of early songs, such as the aforementioned "Gilligan's Island".

* SociopathicSoldier: "You're a Soldier", of the "joined up to kill" variety.
* StrawmanNewsMedia: "Turn on the News" attacks sensationalism.

** Mould, at the end of "Plans I Make", the last song on ''New Day Rising'': "Who cares? It's the last song on the album."
** There’s also chatter after “Everything Falls Apart” and “Obnoxious”, though you have to turn the volume up a lot to hear it.

* StopBeingStereotypical: In "Real World" and "Deadly Skies", Mould rejects the notion that punk bands need to constantly involve themselves in radical politics, thus emancipating the band from some of the expectations imposed on them by their subculture.

** The intro riff to “How to Skin a Cat”, reprised several times in the song, is an arguable variant; it’s so much of a tempo screw that it can’t really be counted as straight 4/4, even though it’s roughly based on patterns of eight. If you try to count using uniform lengths of time, you’ll quickly get derailed from what the band actually plays; moreover, the transition to the song’s other riff takes long enough that it could be counted as having an extra beat – or at least, almost so (again, tempo screw).

* BiTheWay: Grant Hart. The ''Every Everything'' documentary reveals that he had a son from a heterosexual relationship early on in his career, but many of his later relationships were with men. At the time of his death, he was married to a woman.

* PunBasedTitle: ''Land Speed Record'' refers both to the ferocious speed of the material and the band's fondness (at the time) for amphetamines. And the fact that it is (well, was) a vinyl record. (As Mould explained, "We covered a lot of land. We took a lot of speed. And we made a record.") It's derived, naturally, from the phrase "land speed record", referring to the fastest speed clocked on land.

* TextlessAlbumCover: ''Warehouse: Songs and Stories''.

* MoodWhiplash: Masters of it. It's one of ''Zen Arcade'''s most obvious musical characteristics. The contrast between the NightmareFuel of "The Wit and the Wisdom" and the SweetDreamsFuel of "Don't Know Yet" is also a pretty notable example.

* EpicRocking: "Reoccuring Dreams" clocks in at 13:47 (14:01 on some versions of the album). The band's early single "Statues" is 8:45. Finally, "Hardly Getting Over It" is 6:07.

* ''Savage Young Dü'' (box set of early material to be released later in 2017)

* PunBasedTitle: ''Land Speed Record'' refers both to the ferocious speed of the material and the band's fondness (at the time) for amphetamines. And the fact that it is (well, was) a vinyl record. It's derived, naturally, from the phrase "land speed record", referring to the fastest speed clocked on land.

* 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. Although Hart's approach to making music post-Hüsker Dü was decidedly more low-key and sporadic than Mould's.

* 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.

** 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 were with men.

** There’s also chatter at the ends of a couple of tracks on ''Everything Falls Apart'', though you have to turn the volume up a lot to hear it.

** “In a Free Land” usually has a bar of 7/4 before each chorus.

** ''Flip Your Wig'' had a much more polished production than their previous records (which had also been their intention for ''New Day Rising, but they were overruled by their label), and largely did away with the remaining traces of their hardcore roots. The band's next two albums would continue in this domain, with a sound closer to Music/{{REM}} than to Music/BlackFlag.

* NewSoundAlbum: Either ''Everything Falls Apart'', ''Metal Circus'', or ''Zen Arcade'' (depending on the listener's perspective) is where their songwriting became melody based enough to differentiate them from traditional hardcore.
** ''Flip Your Wig'' had a much more polished production than their previous records, and largely did away with the remaining traces of their hardcore roots. The band's next two albums would continue in this domain.

* AllJustADream: The first 20 songs of ''Zen Arcade'', given "The Tooth Fairy and the Princess" (song 21).

* {{Subtext}}: Mould is gay; Hart is bisexual, although this was not widely publicized at the time the band was active. This knowledge adds an extra layer of meaning to songs like "The Biggest Lie," which thereby becomes a very different song. (Note that, while it was rumored that Hart and Mould were romantically involved and their tensions were a reason for the band's breakup, both of them have flatly denied this).