Hüsker Dü: The Story of the Noise-Pop Pioneers Who Launched Modern Rock

by Andrew Earles

Bob Mould, Grant Hart, and Greg Norton formed H�sker D� in 1979 as a wildly cathartic outfit fueled by a cocktail of anger, volume, and velocity. Here's the first book to dissect the trio that countless critics and musicians have cited as one of the most influential bands of the 1980s. Author Andrew Earles examines how H�sker D� became the first hardcore band to marry pop melodies with psychedelic influences and ear-shattering volume. Readers witness the band create the untouchable noise-pop of LPs like New Day Rising, Flip Your Wig, and Candy Apple Grey, not to mention the sprawling double-length Zen Arcade. Few bands from the original American indie movement did more to inform the alternative rock styles that breached the mainstream in the 1990s. H�sker D� truly were visionaries.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography, Punk, 21st Century, Rock N Roll

289 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Andrew Horton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite a boring treatment of the greatest rock band of all time, but since it's the only real book out there about the band it gets an auto pass. Husker Du should be a section in the bookstore.

[Ross Creuswell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmm the title of this book has changed since it was added to goodreads database. It's now "Husker Du: The Story of the Noise-Pop Pioneers Who Launched Modern Rock". As a die-hard fan who actually saw Husker Du live in early 1986 and met Bob and Greg at the gig, I was surprised to learn how little I knew about the band. Back when they were together, not much was known about them way down here in Texas in those pre-internet days.

This book is quite flawed but until Bob Mould finishes his memoirs it's all we've got. Which is sad considering how extraordinary and influential this band was, and how long it's been since they broke up. I give the book three stars because of the exhaustive discography and the meticulous attention to detail regarding the recordings Husker Du issued, starting with their humble beginnings in Minneapolis. And also because the author managed to interview both Grant Hart and Greg Norton. (Grant Hart's quotes are about 85% bitter griping about Bob Mould, sadly. Norton's contribution is more balanced).

Where the book falls short is in the area of really conveying who these guys were as individuals and what their lives were like on the road. The author spends too much time obsessing over the fine details of record label business and addressing latter-day arguments over the nature of the band's legacy, which is the domain of the modern fanboy, and not enough time painting a picture of the guys as human beings and a picture of the times they lived in, which is the job of a writer.

The book feels a bit at times like an Internet clip job, with entire passages repeated verbatim in more than one place, so without the input of Hart and Norton would have been an utter waste. However, this is all we have about Husker Du at the moment and for a serious fan, or a younger person who is just now discovering their music and wanting a sense of where it fits in rock history, the book has value.

[Lewis Woolston · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first came across Husker Du when i was a teenager living in a shitty country town in Western Australia and dreaming of escaping to the city to make music.
I used to religiously watch a TV show we had here called "Rage" and the best part of Rage was the "Guest Programmer" segment where they got any Australian band that had just released something or any foreign band that was touring Australia and got them to pick 40 of their favorite music videos.
For a number of years every punk band that was doing the guest programmer segment always picked "Don't want to know if you are lonely" by Husker Du.
It was the most exciting thing i'd ever seen and the fact that it was sort of "underground" and unknown to the meathead kids at my high school made it so much cooler.
This is probably the best history of Husker Du that will ever be written. From the formation, the early years, the height of indie fame and the breakup, it's all covered here. Well worth your time if you're a fan.

[Asciigod · Rating 3 out of 5]

Andrew Earles’ near-authorized (Bob Mould refused to comment?) bio of the Huskers is absolutely exhaustive. Unfortunately, the casual fan may find it ultimately exhausting. (Ha! Awesome cliché-punning. More after the jump!)

This is the type of book that is an ultra-fan’s wet dream. It puts into narrative form the obscure, compulsive lists, cross-references and premium on completionist zeal that is the white hot ichor sustaining the life of the obsessive fan.

And to that specific audience, this book must be an absolute favorite. It explains every detail of the day to day journey of the band: formation, practice, day jobs, song crafting, decision of track listings, touring, playing of songs on tour, differences between tour sets and album sets, major and minor spheres of influence in the national and international scene, etc, etc.

I just wish this was a book about Public Enemy, or Sonic Youth. Two of my personal favorites for whom this amount of minutia would translate into required reading. As is, I struggled to reach the half way mark as the events and ticks begin to meld into one blurring wall-of-text (not sound) which I found myself less, and less, interested in navigating.

Has great research with solid presentation and high quality printing and production, but ultimately destined for the bookshelves of true believers and historians.

[Robert Giesenhagen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as engrossing as the Replacements book but still really really good. The Huskers were just as pioneering, if not more so, than the Mats and their story was maybe not as chaotic but definitely as full of turmoil. Both bands left their own unique indelible mark on underground music and records that hold up against any of the other greats.

[Dav · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book has a lot of flaws, mostly in poor editing. Extra star just because I enjoyed learning more about Hüsker Dü. I'm going to read Mould's own book next for a different bias.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andrew Earles delivers a focused and insightful examination of Hüsker Dü, a band whose influence far outweighs its mainstream recognition. By tracing the arc of Bob Mould, Grant Hart, and Greg Norton from ferocious hardcore origins to melodic, experimental trailblazers, Earles positions Hüsker Dü as a crucial bridge between underground punk and the alternative rock explosion of the 1990s.

The book excels in articulating what made Hüsker Dü revolutionary: their willingness to fuse blistering speed and volume with pop sensibility, emotional vulnerability, and psychedelic ambition. Albums such as Zen Arcade, New Day Rising, Flip Your Wig, and Candy Apple Grey are not treated merely as milestones, but as evidence of a band constantly pushing against genre limitations while reshaping the possibilities of independent music.

Earles contextualizes the band within the broader American indie movement, showing how Hüsker Dü’s DIY ethic, songwriting approach, and sonic fearlessness helped define a blueprint later adopted by countless alternative and college-rock acts. The narrative balances musical analysis with cultural insight, making the book accessible to both dedicated fans and readers seeking to understand the evolution of modern rock.

Overall, Hüsker Dü stands as an essential music biography one that underscores why the band remains revered by critics and musicians alike, and why their legacy continues to echo through contemporary rock.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fairly comprehensive, if extremely dry, biography of Husker Du. I will only recommend this for fans of the band, anyone else will be bored stiff. (Then again, I don't know why anyone who is not a fan of Husker Du would read this book).

I am a pretty big Husker Du fan, but it took be forever to get through this book. Every time I cracked it open, I found myself fighting to keep my eyes open. The prose style is just dull. There is no better way to put it.

Still, if you're a Du fan, this is about it as far as books about the band goes (besides Bob Mould's autobiography and Michael Azerrad's chapter in This Band Could Be Your Life). Though the narrative is a snooze, I give Earles credit for his extensive knowledge of the band, and for purposely not delving too deeply into Bob, Grant, and Greg's personal lives. The focus is almost entirely on the music, and I appreciated that.

[Eric Nagurney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bit of a mixed bag here, though the good outweighs the bad. The prose generally tops out at "functional" and the author gets tangled in his own pet topics too often. Not that invested in whether or not Husker Du gets the credit they deserve (I'm gonna go ahead and say they do and they did back when this book was written). Super not interested in whether the concept for Zen Arcade was conceived beforehand. Despite all that, this remains an interesting dive into an incredible band filled with fascinating quotes from (most of) those involved. Also, I personally liked the stuff about Minneapolis's scene and labels at the time, but I'm a sicko that way.

Three stars for the book, five stars for making me revisit the whole Husker Du catalogue.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strangely written book but I will take it as a fan, and because I doubt there will be a better book ever written about my favourite band from when I was a teenager.

[Tommy Carlson · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a counter-point to Bob's autobiography, I read this Bob-less biography of Husker Du. By Bob-less I mean that Bob didn't contribute to it. If you want the truth about Husker Du, it surely lies somewhere between this book and Bob's.

That's if you can make it though this sprawling mess. Honestly, did anyone edit this? At all? Whole sections are repeated. Seriously. There's a chunk about the Suicide Commandos, including a lengthy quote, that is simply repeated twice. How could anyone miss that? And the storyline jumps about. It's just sloppy.

On the positive side, it's nice to hear the other side of some stories. It makes Grant and Greg look less like the villains from Bob's book.

The author is also, I think, pretty fair in his assessment of various Husker Du records. He's not genuflecting towards everything they recorded. He covers Twin/Tone's rejection, while also admitting that what the Huskers were shopping around at the time wasn't that great. He's even willing to point out that Zen Arcade has a lot of filler. (In the above auto-bio, Bob also admits that Zen Arcade is much more meaningful to fans than it is to him.) Personally, I didn't really start to love Husker Du until New Day Rising. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who didn't absolutely love Zen Arcade.

The author is also generous in his praise of Bob. But there's also some snideness towards Bob's solo work. More than once he talks about Bob finding his patented style. But, the context in which it's mentioned always suggests, to my ears, an accusation of a lack of further musical development. Maybe that's just me.

Again, the Replacements are occasionally mentioned, usually in the same context as above. The Mats just made great records while Husker Du was building a community.

So, bottom line, this is a poorly organized book which still covers some important information and viewpoints. I don't recommend it as a standalone read. But it's a valuable counter-point to Bob's one-sided tome.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been a huge fan of the Huskers/Bob Mould for nearly 20 years (sadly, I'm too young to have seen them when they were around), but put off reading this one for a while despite the fact that it's obviously up my alley.

My main reason for doing that, of course, was because of Mould's own book, published about eight months after this one. (Mould didn't participate in the making of this book because, well, he wrote his own.) Having read Mould's last year, it was time to finally read this one.

As Earles mentions in his introduction, this ultimately does serve as a compliment to Mould's, as it presents several viewpoints not present in his, mainly those of the other 2/3 of the band. Certainly, a fan of the Huskers would enjoy seeing their take on things, and will ultimately enjoy the book.

That said, as others have mentioned, there are serious editing/repetition issues, and more than half the book is given over to the first two years of the band, leaving the author to rush to cover the other seven. There's also a few glaring contradictions with regard to his opinions of the albums (in the main body, he doesn't seem to like "Candy Apple Grey" much but praises it in the appendix - vice-versa for the second Warner Bros. album, "Warehouse: Songs and Stories).

There's also a certain amount of nitpicking I, as a fan, can do with his opinions of the albums, though generally I won't. HOWEVER - not listing Sugar's "Copper Blue" in the appendix's list of "Top 10 Post-Husker Du Albums" is an unforgivable crime, as far as I'm concerned, and I docked a star rating just for that. (He lists Sugar's "Beaster" and B-Sides compilations instead, which is fine, but seriously, HE DOESN'T LIST "COPPER BLUE." THIS IS WRONG.)

In all, it's worth a read, but read Mould's book first.

[Jeff Koeppen · Rating 3 out of 5]

First off, the title of the book I had was: Husker Du: The Story of the Noise-Pop Pioneers Who Launched Modern Rock. I thought the book was OK. Parts of it were about record labels, other bands, and ancillary people in the Husker world and I found those parts to be a slog. The parts focused strictly on Husker Du, especially the last few chapters, I found very interesting. I especially liked the song-by-song breakdown analysis of their albums and first hand take from Hart and Norton about the final years of the band and eventual breakup. (We'll hear Bob's version when his book comes out this summer). The discography and song lists in the appendix were a neat feature, and inspired me to fill in the few blanks I have in my Husker Du music collection.

[Swjohnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

The major flaws of Andrew Earles’ “Husker Du: The Story of the Noise-Pop pioneers who launched modern rock” are evident in the book’s hyperventilating title. Indie rock writing is often a strange mixture of elitism and adolescent overstatement, and Earles is no exception. In his introduction, he lauds the late Twin Cities’ band’s catalog as “untouchable,” while lamenting their tragic, unsung influence on an endless taxonomy of alt-rock bands.

The band doesn’t need such strong, self-conscious cheerleading; their exceptional work speaks for itself, and the book is best when the participants are telling the story. As a work of criticism, it’s fresh off a high school newspaper press. I’ve abandoned reading this book at midpoint for now and am waiting for Bob Mould’s memoir.

[Michael Batz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm only halfway done, but I better rate it now because I may never finish it. Honestly, reading it has become a slog, which is a shame, because the band is awesome and important, and there's a lot of new and lovingly captured stuff in here. It kills me to criticize such a sincere effort by a writer I admire, but I think Earles's short reviews were poor preparation for this beast. It's written in a strange voice that is somehow dryly academic while being full of personal opinion, and it drives me nuts. Moreover, I've never (NEVER) read a published book as much in need of editing. Lots of repeated factoids and a real lack of momentum. An editor could have made the book twice as good, easily. Bummer.

[Al · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read if you're into the band. Andrew Earles talks to everyone except Bob Mould, who is working on his own autobiography. Comes with a "What Would Hüsker Dü?" bumper sticker.

I already knew most every story in the book, but it was still fun to relive it in book form. Something I did now know was that the Dü chose the title "Flip Your Lid" because Mould/Hart were being incessantly compared to Lennon/McCartney at the time. So this band named their album after The Beatles' board game, "Flip Your Wig." One wonders what other subtleties were lost.

[Stephen Hero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every single solidary time I see an asinine sticker stuck to some horse&%^t CD proclaiming, as a selling point, something along the lines of "Five years in the making! Over 70 minutes of music!" I think back fondly to Husker Du and I smile.

Then, I purchase said horse&%^t CD with asinine sticker, unwrap the CD from its encasing cellophane, stick the CD in the corner and fondly urinate on it.


Thank you Husker Du.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty decent overall. The chronology is shakey and there's some redundancy but don't let that keep you from reading it. Covers a really interesting period and has some nice historical background info (ie SST, Soma Records, Nicollet Studios, etc). I'm not crazy that one third of the band (Bob Mould) was never interviewed for this project. Hardcore Husker fans probably won't find anything new here but Mpls music fans in general will likely dig this.

[R.E. Caceres · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried. Believe me I tried. I wanted to like this book. But after trying to read it for six months, I just couldn't get to page 100. Just not good.

There's a wonderful grasp of the subject, but there's a failure in storytelling and organization. Try it, the band deserves your attempt. But don't work too hard to get through it. If you're not feeling it, you're never going to. Trust me, I tried.

[Wayne]

Nice compliment to 'Our Band Could Be Your Life', but focusing specifically on Husker Du & twin cities scene. Lovingly researched & to it's credit, focused more on the music than the gossip...it's a long overdue look at a band that played a crucial role laying the groundwork for today's scene. It sets the stage properly for Bob Mould's bio (due 2011 from Little Brown).

[Barry · Rating 1 out of 5]

I loved Husker Du back in the 80s, but all this book reminded me of was how bland and tedious most mid-80s post-HC "underground" rock was, and how the lousy 90s indie rock that came afterwords can be blamed on it...this book is the literary equivalent of being locked in a grain silo with Garrison Keillor.

[George · Rating 2 out of 5]

A treasure trove of detail, but not a book written with any style or real sense of exactly what Hüsker Dü accomplished; a great opportunity missed. The best stuff on the band remains Azerrad's chatty 30+ pages in Our Band Could Be Your Life and various early journalistic efforts by Simon Reynolds in Melody Maker and Simon Frith in The Observer

[Jacob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had some useful info about a band that is important to me. Author was definitely a super-fan, and that's probably how this book was able to come into the world. But he wasn't necessarily a prose stylist and he was a bit of an indie rock fundamentalist, which perhaps prevented him from pulling out some deeper insights about this band and its place in the history of rock music.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

My full review is on my website: http://rnrchemist.blogspot.com/2014/0...

A good book overall although I found the author's writing style and the way he put the book together a bit grating at times. It's essential to also have Bob Mould's memoir to go alongside this if you want to have the complete story of Husker Du with more details.

[Jon Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised with this book. By not being a part of the Minneapolis scene the author brings a good perspective. He actually did a lot of research and interviews, which I think helped make this a pretty objective book.

[Gary Shindler · Rating 3 out of 5]

True to the reports I read beforehand the book is kind of average telling the band's history. Bob Mould didn't contribute since he is publishing a book at some point. If you're a Husker Du fan this book isn't a waste of your time; it's just not one of the great rock bios.

[Stephane · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this can be interesting for a fan of the Du, this book contains so much repetition that it becomes annoying to read. This is not helped by the fact that Bob Mould was not interviewed for this project as he was working on his biography at the same time.

[Jerry Rocha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good shit here. I had heard of the band, but never listened to them. I was a fan of Earles work in various music magazines, and picked up the book as a "why not?". It's great. Now I love the band and their story.

[Scott Butki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished this - waiting for the answers for my interview.
It's a pretty good book - i'll write up a review as part of my interview

[Louie Verile JR. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good provided you like the band.