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“Terms of Psychic Warfare” – Hüsker Dü
(Words/music: Grant Hart, available on New Day Rising, SST 1985)

The verses in “Terms of Psychic Warfare” feel like a cousin to “Wild Thing” or other similar 1960s garage rock songs.  It has the same kind of repetitive riff and even Grant Hart’s vocal cadence reminds me of the extended pauses between lines.  That being said, “Terms of Psychic Warfare” is the distorted, slightly twisted take on garage rock, pushing the tinny guitars to the front of the mix and sticking Hart’s somewhat mumbled lyrics further back into the mix.  Ultimately, these cousins share the same loose garage-rock feel and lo-fi production aesthetics.

Of course, “Terms of Psychic Warfare” isn’t, to echo one of 2009’s recurring debate, great because it’s lo-fi; it’s a great song that transcends its production limits.  Even with Hüsker Dü’s standard production budget, the coarseness doesn’t preclude ability both as performers and as arrangers.  Bob Mould’s feedback-heavy guitar contrasts Greg Norton’s carefully plucked bass line, giving the song its strange pseudo-Spectorian wall of feedback beneath Hart’s rantings.  There are even harmony vocals deep in the mix, eeking out just enough to hint at their presence after several listens.  The song’s deceptiveness masks its assets beneath the treble-laden surface yet gives it enough charm to make it interesting many listens later.  Whether it’s embellishing on the garage rock form or funneling an entire lifetime of listening through the sound available to them, Hüsker Dü’s songs like “Terms of Psychic Warfare” warrant a reputation that expands beyond simple shredding.

More on Husker Du: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

TAGGED UNDER: husker du | grant hart | bob mould | 1985 | 1980s | sst records |
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“See a Little Light” – Bob Mould
(Words/music: Bob Mould, available on Workbook, Virgin 1989) 

As much as shrill guitar defined Husker Du’s sound, the cello during the second half of “See A Little Light” signals that something changed.  Where the guitars once cut like a treble-fueled buzzsaw, Mould opts for the rich sound the cello provides in the second half of the song.  It gives the melody a slightly different context - where the beginning of the song feels bright, the second half of the song sounds slightly sadder even as it modulates upward.  It doesn’t redefine the song as much as it incorporates a different thread, weaving this bowed melody in with the acoustic guitars and Mould’s vocals.

This melancholy thread plays off the lyrics too.  If “See a Little Light,” Mould’s first single after Husker Du dissolved, comments on the band’s break (and it certainly may be read as a breakup song without that biographical link), then Mould sounds like he’s moved on.  In this case, Mould focuses on the passage of time - “look how much we’ve grown,” “as the years go by,” etc - rather than casting aspersions.  He’s saying all the right things and encourages the second party to “see a little light” and start to move on as well.  When looking at the words and the general brightness of the arrangement initially, it sounds like Mould moved on.  However, the cello line feels like the sad thought mixed in with the resolution to move on.  This is the nostalgia that creeps up in these situations - one where looking back fondly yields to sadness for the end of an era - and undercuts any sense of closure. In this case, it’s perhaps fair to say that while Mould moved on (and quite successfully), he never left behind his old band entirely, performing Husker Du songs in the same sets where he sings “See a Little Light”

More on Bob Mould: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

TAGGED UNDER: Bob Mould | husker du | 1989 | virgin records | 1980s | i'm too tired to put the umlats into Husker Du so please forgive me |
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“If I Can’t Change Your Mind” – Sugar
(Words/music: Bob Mould, available on Copper Blue, Rykodisc 1992)

(Note: Thank you to thisistheglamorous (who you should read/follow because he is hilarious and a wonderful read) for reblogging this. I accidentally posted tonight’s post to my personal tumblr and Tumblr won’t let you reblog yourself. Anyway, here’s the original post)

Popular culture – music included – provides an opportunity for escapism. We don’t always consider that with music, though; instead, we focus on connecting to lyrics or emotions in songs – on having music to comfort us or celebrate or anything in between. Occasionally, we consider music as a mood adjuster – something that helps to change our mood, motivate us, or drown out something undesirable. Maybe because I’ve always had an overactive imagination (and that I’ve watched enough movies in my lifetime), but I often spend wandering moments playing out alternate scenarios in my mind. It’s sort of like spontaneous short story writing – it begins with a “what if” question and then I play out one or more of the possible outcomes in my mind. I never think of it actively, but these daydreams often have a soundtrack.

Anyway, I remember having a very vivid sequence one time where I turned “If I Can’t Change Your Mind” upside down. In Sugar’s incredibly catchy version, Bob Mould offers a plea to make a lover stay immediately after a breakup. Whether I was sucked in by the bright guitar and up-beat tempo, my daydream involved using “If I Can’t Change Your Mind” as a method of persuasion; someone using it to help woo over a reluctant love interest. I’m not even clear on the details (and I’m not sure I was at the time, either) – whether it was someone who was hurt previously and unwilling to be vulnerable again or whatever – but nonetheless it was the soundtrack to this strangely vivid out-of-context scene in my head that’s stuck with me. Maybe I imagined the song as a dialogue – the part about being heartbroken and teary was one person and the other replying “if I can’t change your mind, who will?” Maybe in my head romantic comedies expand their soundtrack past the half dozen stock songs that end up in every movie and I wanted to give Bob Mould one of those sweet royalty checks. Probably, though, it was a bit of wishful thinking – we all want to be the kind of person to win each other over, and in both scenarios (the song and this imaginary sequence), the protagonist has a longing to be important and persuasive to a specific person. I’d like to think that my subconscious honed in on this shared idea and made the connection between the real song and the imagined scenario. Maybe I’ve just watched too many movies where music carries this sort of charged emotional persuasion (Say Anything and High Fidelity off the top of my head) that I immediately targeted that part of the song – since it’s so melodically convincing, it must be emotionally as well.

More on Sugar: Allmusic | Amazon MP3 | Emusic | Last.fm

TAGGED UNDER: sugar | bob mould | rykodisc | 1992 | 1990s | track analysis | songs as persuasion | songs as escapism |
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