husker du Archives

Fans will have the opportunity to experience Hüsker Dü's formative live sound from a period well before the legendary underground rock trio had officially released any music. The group's new archival release, Tonite Longhorn, features 28 previously unreleased tracks recorded at the Longhorn Bar in Minneapolis across four shows between July 1979 and September 1980. A limited black vinyl edition with artwork from late Hüsker drummer Grant Hart and liner notes from Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore will be released on April 22 in celebration of Record Store Day, while a digital version will arrive Aug. 25 through Hüsker Dü's own Reflex Records. Additional vinyl variants are expected at a future point. The first taste of Tonite Longhorn is the breakneck, Bob Mould-sung "Do You Remember?," which was recorded at Longhorn on July 13, 1979, when Mould and Hart were still only 19 and had only been playing together with bassist Greg Norton for a few months. The performances were taped by the band's longtime soundman, Terry Katzman, who also helped Hüsker Dü self-release some of its early music on Reflex. Indeed, the material on Tonite Longhorn, which includes a cover of the Ramones' "Chinese Rock," was recorded several months before the January 1981 release of Hüsker Dü's first official single, "Statues" b/w "Amusement." https://www.youtube.com/watch?vRkEfaNlb5mI “Most artists begin their careers by looking to their heroes for inspiration," says Mould. "Tonite Longhorn is a comprehensive overview of three teenagers paying homage, experimenting with different genres, and — most importantly — building a foundation for things to come. We knew what we had: good chemistry, great melodies and harmonies, and an overabundance of young (and sometimes dumb) enthusiasm. We knew we were different, and we knew we were on to something different.” “The audition. Bob was done with his freshman year and we didn't have any gigs lined up,” says Norton. “He was considering going home to Malone for the summer. Grant shows up all frantic and tells us we need to load the gear and get to the Longhorn -- we had an audition. We arrived during their lunch service, load in, and start playing. The manager comes storming out of his office and stops us. What the hell do you guys want?, he asks. Grant says, we want to play here. He replies, fine, you can play the opening set Friday night -- just stop playing and get out of here. That set is here, July 13th, 1979. We passed the 'audition' and the rest is history.” While a full reissue campaign of the group’s SST Records discography remains stalled due to longstanding disputes between the two parties, Tonite Longhorn can be seen as a complement of sorts to Numero Group's 2017 boxed set Savage Young Dü. That long-gestating project featured four LPs of rare and unreleased music dating from the band's formation to its 1983 signing with SST, including alternate takes of Hüsker Dü's entire 1982 debut full-length, Land Speed Record. “Hüsker Dü could play hardcore to death but they were not hardcore through and through -- they were something else," Moore writes in the Tonite Longhorn liner notes. "And that’s what I fully related to and what I’m hearing in these live recordings unearthed from those days, which made such magnanimous impressions it’s as if they are the batteries of our lives as we continue to tick off the years." Hüsker Dü split acrimoniously in 1988 after a brief, failed tenure on major-label Warner Bros. Records. Mould went on to a fruitful career as a solo artist and with his '90s band Sugar, while Hart also recorded solo and with Nova Mob before his 2017 death from liver cancer. After years of refusing to do so, Mould now regularly performs Hüsker Dü material in concert, including such classics as "Flip Your Wig," "I Apologize," "Makes No Sense at All," and "Hardly Getting Over It." Norton largely stepped away from music in the early 1990s to pursue a career in the restaurant industry, but was planning to tour last year with the band UltraBomb before he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. A GoFundMe campaign set up to raise money for his treatment has generated more than $62,000 to date. Here is the track list for Husker Dü's Tonite Longhorn: Insects Rule the World I’m Not Interested Sex Dolls Can’t See You Anymore Sexual Economics Do You Remember? Nuclear Nightmare All Tensed Up Strange Week Don’t Try To Call Industrial Grocery Store Do the Bee Do You Remember? Ode to Bode Don’t Have a Life All I’ve Got To Lose Don’t Try It Writer’s Cramp Gilligan’s Island What Went Wrong Uncle Ron MTC Drug Party Chinese Rock Termination Call on Me Gravity Statues

husker du

Hüsker Dü Live Album To Chronicle 1979-80 Shows At Minneapolis Bar

Glen ‘SPOT’ Lockett, Producer/Engineer of Classic SST Albums, Dies at 72

Hüsker Dü’s Greg Norton Battling Cancer, GoFundMe Launched

Bob Mould on the Unfiltered Truth of New LP Blue Hearts

Bob Mould Shares ‘Autobiographical’ New Single ‘Siberian Butterfly’

Bob Mould to Release 24-CD Distortion: 1989-2019 Box Set

Bob Mould Shares ‘American Crisis’ From Upcoming Album

Meat Puppets: Our 1986 Interview

Hüsker Dü: Our 1985 Interview With Bob Mould

Review: Hüsker Dü – Candy Apple Grey

Numero Group Offers Charming Tribute to Hüsker Dü’s Grant Hart: “Just a Boy Living on Heaven Hill”

Revisit Our 1989 Interview With Grant Hart on the Breakup of Hüsker Dü: “After the Fall”

Billie Joe Armstrong, Craig Finn, Ryan Adams and More Pay Tribute to Grant Hart of Hüsker Dü

“The Band Was our Life”: Hüsker Dü’s Bob Mould Pens Poignant Tribute to Grant Hart

Hüsker Dü’s Grant Hart Dead at 56

Hear Tons of Unreleased Hüsker Dü Material From Forthcoming Early Reissue Set

David Crosby Reviews Hüsker Dü’s “Eight Miles High” Cover: “Didn’t Get Me”

Watch Johnny Depp, Ryan Adams, and Bob Mould Help Butch Walker in the Studio

Husker Dos and Don’ts: Grant Hart’s Secrets to Success

Bob Mould Finally Gets His Sitcom in ‘Star Machine’ Video

Hüsker Dü’s Rare First Single Reissued for Record Store Day

See Dave Grohl and Bob Mould Power Through Husker Du’s ‘Ice Cold Ice’

Watch: Husker Du’s Greg Norton Joins Du Tribute Band on Stage!

PLAYLIST: Bob Mould Picks Electronic, Punk & House

The SPIN Interview: Bob Mould

IMPACT

Bloom Vol 29: Schemas

Navigating a Crisis: Music Health Alliance Aids an Industry in Peril

Urban Heat’s Jonathan Horstmann on Getting Sober for His Kids

The Zombies on the Importance of Musicians Staying Grounded

more from spin

Bloom Vol 29: Schemas

5 Albums I Can’t Live Without: Eugene Hütz of Gogol Bordello

Foo Fighters Give Their Loved Ones A Cathartic Rock’N’Roll Sendoff On Revelatory But Here We Are

Get New Music, News, Reviews, And More Delivered Right To Your Inbox.