Our Band Could Be Your Life poll

I need to find the schematic for Mould's guitar rig. Mould wins for best guitar sound in this poll, even with SY. Ferocious and swirling and beautiful and punishing and FAST FAST FAST. the moment when they launch into "Something I Learned Today," after very politely and mildly asking the crowd to mind the PA, and suddenly they become a para-military unit just annihilating.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em4SItAdd-w

subjective reasons for appreciation > bullshit reasons for dismissal, imo

Mould has always rocked the MXR distortion pedal. Also, lots of ringing open strings, though I could have heard Billy Corgan (of all people) say that Mould used to do stuff like record his guitars at half speed and then speed them up to match another real-time take to give it that trademark stun guitar sound.

yes! that interview is from 2000, with Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis, right before the final Metro show. Billy said that he heard Mould would record his parts 5 cents slow and then double it 5 cents fast. But that only accounts for the records. I'm pretty sure Mould detailed his set-up thoroughly in his book but it escapes me right now. MXR distortion, MXR chorus, and stereo splitting between his three/four amps.

also, it's pretty cool how most Hüskers songs can be played in first position with a drone note going throughout the song (like the D in "Makes No Sense At All"). Hüsker Dü win for being the most proficient and inventive players, too. YES, even over Dino Jr! Who rule, but didn't do anything knew with their 70s shredding

*new

For the studio, Mould plugged into the board, and either pushed the level into the red (a la "Revolution"), used a distortion box, or both (and this was in addition to his amp rig).

Ferocious and swirling and beautiful and punishing and FAST FAST FAST. the moment when they launch into "Something I Learned Today," after very politely and mildly asking the crowd to mind the PA, and suddenly they become a para-military unit just annihilating.

Yeah, that's why I always preferred Du over Flag. I don't dislike Damaged, but BF is the Stones to Husker's Who.

Minutemen

love 2/3 of those bands.

GOLD: Sonic Youth

SILVER: Butthole Surfers

BRONZE: Fugazi

right before the final Metro show.

Wow, great memory! That's totally right, it was Jim and Greg interview Billy back when anyone cared.

peak value for me are Husker, Mats and Minutemen, SY for longevity. MoB excellent but essentially b4 my time.

prob HD if i must

saw all of em live but for Minor Threat, tho B Flag was late ('86?)

Saw Sonic Youth ('92, opening for Neil Young), Butthole Surfers ('90 headlining, then '91 at Lollapalooza) and Mudhoney ('89, as described above).

I would probably have cut the Mudhoney and possibly the Minor Threat chapters.

Minor Threat chapter is not the most thrilling in the book, but it adds another traditional hardcore band, tells the story of a fertile non-LA HC scene, and gets in "Dischord and the importance of independent labels" stuff as well.

That said, Azerrad probably could have done a chapter on Bad Brains and accomplished basically the same thing, though I don't know if they fit his "independently released" criteria.

I liked the Mudhoney chapter because, more than the other chapters, it's less about a band and more about the entire scene they were apart of, plus it has the increasing realization among the players involved that the whole scene was on the verge of becoming a major moneymaker.

Saw Sonic Youth ('92, opening for Neil Young)

Pretty sure that was 1991 (unless Neil had them open the mostly-acoustic Harvest Moon tour, which I seriously doubt).

I saw them -- SY & NY -- on that '91 tour, and it was brilliant. It was the third time I'd seen Sonic Youth in four months -- saw them in November '90 headlining, in December opening for Public Enemy, and in February '91 opening for Neil and Crazy Horse.

During their set, a grizzled older boomer next to me said, "You like this shit?!" I said, "Yeah, it's just like Crazy Horse, but faster!" He paused for a minute, then smiled and said, "Yeah, I guess you're right!"

saw last Minutemen NYC gig (Oct '85) w/ SY opening

'89-93 are a blur. I saw so many shows back then...

I liked the Mudhoney chapter because, more than the other chapters, it's less about a band and more about the entire scene they were apart of, plus it has the increasing realization among the players involved that the whole scene was on the verge of becoming a major moneymaker

Yes, but he's already done this in his Nirvana book.

If anything, he's selling Mudhoney short (I don't think their 'story' is as interesting as 2/3rd of this book, but anyway).

Two MacKaye chapters is overkill. Sonically, he really that interesting when detailing the actual music involved (Bob Mould is ten times the hardcore guitarist Lyle Preslar is)

he really 'isn't' that interesting

I'll agree that MacKaye isn't interesting enough for two chapters, honestly I'd probably cut the Fugazi one, since so much of Fugazi's strongest work is outside of the time period of the book (though I guess you could make an argument that it should be included because it represents the continued spirit of the 80s "underground")

I do think the book is better for having two bands whose most famous work is meat-and-potatoes hardcore. It gives a chance to emphasize the city-by-city scenes of kids inspired to start bands. Otherwise it'd just immediately jump to the all the bands that were outliers for being more arty or melodic or jammy.

Also it'd be weird to write a book about hardcore punk and what came out of it and not include the early 80s DC scene. Like I said upthread, a Bad Brains chapter would have accomplished the same thing, though I legitimately don't know if their recordings fit the criteria that Azerrad used as far as independent labels/distribution.

As far as the Nirvana book, I have never read it, I'll take your word that it makes a lot of the Mudhoney chapter redundant.

Is Jess' review of this for Freaky Trigger still around? I'd dig it up via archive.org, but that's blocked in China ...

Surprised this book's become as canonical as it has considering the defects - whole bunch of Guangzhou musicians I know have read it, and find Beat Happening p.inspirational.

absolutely baffles me that everyone around here loves the Huskers and hates Black Flag.
I'm guessing that's related to one Greg Ginn.

Faves: MoB, Huskers, Mats, Big Black, Raymond Pettibon.

I like Black Flag especially the marquee 84 gig, but do like that whole heavy as rock grinding thing they were doing around that time and the Chuck Dukowski version of that material too.

Shakey, you need to hear My War, jesus. At least side 2. I can leave everything bf did after that.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Re: later Black Flag stuff, My War is def worth hearing but I like In My Head even more

Realize this won't be a popular vote, but I saw a ton of Replacements shows in their first few years. Loved 'em more than anything else on this list by far.

Like:
Sonic Youth
Beat Happening
Dino Jr
The Replacements
Big Black
Fugazi
Husker Du

Dislike:
Black Flag

Even heard enough:
Mudhoney
Butthole Surfers
Minor Threat
Mission Of Burma
Minutemen

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

100+ votes is pretty good turnout

Poor calvin

yeah i'm fine w/ beat happening, enough time has passed, but there was no way in hell i was voting beat happening. that said calvin is the hero of this book. voted fugazi as that's the one i'm by far most likely to listen to nowadays, would guess sonic youth is the one i've listened to most (over husker du) but that's mainly sheer volume of releases. except for mudhoney, beat happening, and i guess butthole surfers (all of whom i like)(like those first few butthole surfers way more than any mudhoney or beat happening, they just fell off pretty hard and became supertiresome in general for me), i love every group up there.

I think this book would have been improved with some levity towards the end - I would possibly have made some room for Camper Van Beethoven, for example. Sonically, there's some 'spirit of punk' right there (compared to one or two groups who talked the talk but sounded not unlike everyone else)

Ian MacKaye's problem with T&G ("they were the ones who smoked cigars and ate ribs") - what's that about? It seemed like a contemporaneous interview.

wasn't T&G was pretty well respected? i thought i heard they uniformly did 50/50 recording contracts with bands

maybe that's not that great, idk

i wonder if ian mackaye has ever had a conversation with paul westerberg about the proper performance state of mind

I always took that "cigars and ribs" remark as reflecting a pretty clear culture clash between the Dischord wing of steadfast DIYism and the T&G/Albini/"pigfuck" wing. It's easy to imagine that the guy who wrote the lyrics to "Suggestion" might look askance at the part of the scene that plays host to a band called Rapeman.

It's also a working class midwest mindset vs. activist/political east coast mindset.

Trying to think which of the midwest punk/indie bands of the era ever got political. Not the Effigies, Naked Raygun, Big Black, Jesus Lizard, Killdozer ...

Effigies 'We're Da Machine' is v pointedly political

but yeah there was an avoidance of hectoring or anything that might resemble it in nearly all cases

toxic reasons?

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