Hüsker Dü: Candy Apple Grey (Warner Brothers/1986)

Hüsker Dü's fifth album Candy Apple Grey is their major-label debut for Warner Brothers. The band released three albums and an EP for legendary indie SST signing a lucrative deal with Warners in 1985. There isn't anything on the album that screams sell-out; it was produced by Grant Hart and Bob Mould, recorded in Minneapolis, and contains the same approach as Flip Your Wig does.

The album starts off with the Mould scream-fest of “Crystal” which clearly indicates the band isn't going soft just because their sudden major-label status. The albums two singles are both written by Hart and they are absolute classics; “Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely” is a perfect kiss-off pop song and even charted at number 96 on the UK singles chart. It was later covered by Green Day and is featured in the series Halt And Catch Fire and the film Adventureland. “Sorry Somehow” features mournful minor-key organ and a mid-tempo arrangement.

“I Don't Know For Sure” sounds like Mould was trying to rewrite “Makes No Sense At All” and Hart's “Dead Set On Destruction” doesn't really go anywhere memorable. “Eiffel Tower High” references getting high and going to the movies and “All This I've Done For You” is a perfect slice of Du PopPunk. The album features three acoustic classics;“Hardly Getting Over It” which deals with death in a mature, thoughtful way, “No Promise Have I Made” a stately piano piece that is a nice lyrical example of what makes Grant Hart such a special songwriter and “Too Far Down” is a Mould song that is almost a blueprint for his solo work. All three work well within the cold, Wintery-feel that pervades the album as a whole.

The album was well-recieved at the time by the mainstream music press but was generally snubbed by the bands hardcore following. It charted at a dismal 140 in the Billboard Top 200. It is generally overlooked after the acknowledged classic trilogy of Zen Arcade, New Day Rising and Flip Your Wig.

It certainly deserves wider-currency.

Here's the video review:

No Alternative (2013/1993 Legacy/Arista Records)

No Alternative is a compilation album that was released in the Autumn of 1993 by Arista Records and was funded by the Red Hot Organization. The Red Hot Organization is a non-profit organization that has released over a dozen album and raised over 10 million dollars towards AIDS-research. No Alternative is a various artists compilation of several leading lights of the mid 90's alternative pop movement. This was the age of  MTV's 120 Minutes and Alternative Nation, when clueless major labels signed any and everything vaguely “alternative”. This made for an interesting time as bands who weren't given the time of day (before Nevermind by Nirvana introduced Modern Rock and Alternative to those who'd otherwise had never been exposed to it) were suddenly given the keys to the kingdom.

In tandem to the record's release, MTV produced and hour-long No Alternative special which was later released on home video. To celebrate it's twentieth anniversary, it was reissued on 180 gram vinyl and was issued on RECORD STORE DAY in 2013. Like other alternative comps of the day (i.e. DGC Rarities Volume One, Born To Choose and the Singles OMPS) No Alternative was something of a staple of the Alternative Music Lover's collection and thus has something of a 90's relic status.

The inherent problem with compilations like these, is that no one artist ends of bringing their best material to the table. There are several live versions of songs and covers as well. Stars of the day include Soundgarden, Smashing Pumpkins and an unlisted track by Nirvana. Established acts like Bob Mould, Sonic Youth, Beastie Boys, Jonathan Richman and the legendary Patti Smith. Bands on the cusp of their stardom like Matthew Sweet, Goo Goo Dolls, Sarah McLachlan and Soul Asylum. And indie stars like Pavement, Uncle Tupelo, Buffalo Tom and The Breeders.

Obviously there's going to be plenty of hit-and-miss per individual listener. But my personal favorite tracks are “Superdeformed” by Matthew Sweet featuring the fantastic Ivan Julian of the Voidoids and the Outsets on lead guitar and the legendary Nicky Hopkins on piano, “For All To See” by Buffalo Tom, “Can't Fight It” by Bob Mould (recorded just before his stint with Sugar) and “Unseen Power Of The Picket Fence” by Pavement. That's not to say that the Goo Goo Dolls cover of The Rolling Stones' “Bitch” isn't amusing as it features the late Buffalo lounge singer The Incredible Lance Diamond on lead vocals or Sonic Youth's take on their early track “Burning Spear” isn't worth an precarious listen or the Beastie Boys live take of “It's The New Style” isn't flat-out great.

That's for you to decide.

Here's The Video Review:

Dedicated to: The Incredible Lance Diamond

Hüsker Dü: Statues EP (Reflex Records 1980 & Numero Group 2013)

 After being passed over by Twin/Tone Records for local upstarts The Replacements, Hüsker Dü entered Blackberry Way Studios in Minneapolis to record their would-be debut 10" EP. They instead paired it down to a more financially-feasible 7" single and released it on their own Reflex Records. Taken long-thought lost safety masters, it has been issued on Record Store Day 2013 as a deluxe 7" EP on Numero Group Records, including the two tracks that were dropped once the 10" release was scrapped.

"Statues" has a nice cyclical flanged bass-line and is a Public Image Limited-esque Grant Hart song about the straitjacket of punk conformity. "Amusement" is live recording of a Bob Mould-penned song that obliquely refers to the band being slighted by Twin/Tone Records. "Let's Go Die" is a Greg Norton song that was previously appeared on the 1993 Rhino Records compilation Everything Falls Apart And More. "Writer's Cramp" is a previously unreleased mid-tempo Buzzcocks-flavored song written by Bob Mould.

It's a fine debut single, and it barely hints at the direction the band would next take. It neither points toward the amphetamine-fueled live album Land Speed Record nor the debut studio album Everything Falls Apart.

Released as part of Numero Group's 700 Line (reissues), limited to 4,000 copies (2,000 on white vinyl & 2,000 on black vinyl) and packaged in a 28pt board gatefold sleeve. The artwork is exactly duplicated from the original Reflex issue on this very nice release. If there are still any post-punk aficionados who have not yet heard Hüsker Dü (which to my mind is like a baseball fan not being all that familiar with who Nolan Ryan was), you need to hear this release, or New Day Rising, Flip Your Wig and Zen Arcade asap.

Here's the video review:

Thanks to Numero Group Records, Fake Name Graphx & Stephen Gersztoff.