Wednesday, November 26, 2008

hare krsna



artwork by
annie.

Formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota (hello Matt) in 1979.

Bob Mould: guitar, vocals; Greg Norton: bass; Grant Hart: drums.

A trio, manager David Savoy Jr. was considered the fourth member of the band; his suicide was a major contributing factor in the group's dissolution just four years after this album's release. Apparently, Greg Norton now runs a successful restaurant business. I wonder if the menu is vegetarian.

"Hüsker Dü", I only recently discovered, is Norwegian for "Do you remember ?"

HÜSKER DÜ: HARE KRSNA from "Zen Arcade" 2 x LP (SST) 1984 (US)

PURCHASE ZEN ARCADE

10 comments:

Ramone666 said...

I always thought it was Danish, so let´s compromise & say it´s Scandinavian. They took it from a boardgame btw.

ib said...

That's a compromise ? It says on Wiki it's Norwegian, but let's face it, you're probably right... What else id Wiki but a hotbed of unsubstantiated rumour ?

Ramone666 said...

That´s right. Google a bit and you´ll find it´s from Danish, Swedish, Norwegian or even Scandinavian (now what language is that?)... Never mind, they´re probably my fave band ever. Word verification is ´diessap´btw, which is definitely Finnish.

ib said...

Ha! I don't know, ramone666; it's all 'double dutch' to me... ;)

I was listening to some of "Zen" when I was putting this up, and it's definitely one of those albums which rewards you for persevering through it in its entirety. I'd almost forgotten how much better Bob Mould was as part of Husker Du. Very strange.

Sven Hassel was Finnish, right ? What a great name.

Ramone666 said...

Sven Hassel was Danish. Jari Litmanen was Finnish... What a great player.

ib said...

Ouch!

Ajax; Barcelona; and Liverpool. Not bad.

Nazz Nomad said...

what kills the zen arcade album from being even better is the horrible production that SST's house producer, Spot, did on the album.

If ever there was an album that needs remastering, it's Zen Arcade.

ib said...

A remastered version with more punch and separation would be great. It does suffer from the same kind of muddy flatness that ailed Iggy's "Raw Power".

Empire Hancock said...

One of my favorite bands, though maybe not one of my favorite tunes (I guess it works better as part of the album than as a stand-alone tune. Fine with me, for the most part I'm more an album listener than a single tune listener, yet I say that while I'm listening to mp3s on random play.)

I think the production on Zen Arcade was right for the material and right for the time. After hundreds of spins, I'd hate to hear it too cleaned up. Either way, I think it sounds better on wax than on a shiny disc. It suffers somewhat from the "this was obviously a master that was EQ'd and balanced more for vinyl and we're just gonna slap it on a shiny disc" sound, yet still rips boatloads of ass somehow.

I like most of Husker Du's output very much, but my favorite record might actually be the live album from their last tour, The Living End. There are moments on it that put some of the studio recordings to shame. Very powerful recording.

ib said...

Nicely said, EH.

I agree it sounds better on vinyl in its current incarnation, through a warm valve driven amplifier.

It is definitely an album, rather than a collection of songs which just happened to be laid down in the studio at the same time as a matter of convenience. The track sequencing is crucial, too.

I would still like to hear a remaster, mind you, having agreed with much of what you say.

I wouldn't mind seeing Steve Albini let loose on the job.