AW60

Today would have been Andrew Weatherall's 60th birthday. His absence is felt very strongly among his family and friends and in the corners of the culture he inhabited. His presence is there too I think, in the open minded spirit of adventure, of finding new music and doing things your own way. Fired up by youthful rebellion, the DIY spirit of punk and acid house and an interest, often obsession, in what was happening on the margins, he was a singular character. In the end, by the time he died in February 2020, he was approaching national treasure status. At the start he was an inexperienced DJ asked to bring his box of 'weird records' down to Shoom. Then he was a novice remixer asked to make something new from an indie rock 'n' roll record (in fact his remixes of Happy Mondays and That Petrol Emotion both pre- date Loaded, as do his remixes Word Of Mouth, Deep Joy and West India Company- the chronology is not entirely clear but all those were released before Loaded). In between 1989 and 2020 he took us on a ride from the Balearic network to techno, from Sabres to Swordsmen, from deep house to rockabilly and 60s garage to the multi- coloured cosmic chug of the 2010s, all of it underpinned by dub. He moved on, working quickly and always looking forwards. The way he became a master in not just one form of electronic music but several is largely unparalleled- not many of his peers could play several hours of dub one night, techno the next and house the third and do it well, brilliantly in fact. 

With Andrew you weren't just buying records either, you were getting into something deeper- he left clues scattered throughout his back catalogue, in song titles and remix names, references to books and artists that you might not pick up on until many years later. You also were not just buying a record. In 2007 he released Wrong Meeting, an album of rockabilly, garage rock and experimental rock 'n' roll with the man himself singing. The album came out on vinyl (at a time when virtually no one was buying vinyl never mind releasing new albums on it), in a box with an illustrated lyric booklet, a t- shirt and a hand signed print (a print of a Weatherall linocut of guitarist Chet Atkins from the cover of his Workshop album). 

There are a series of events taking place during April to celebrate his 60th birthday. Tonight at Fabric in London a host of names will play records/ CDs in several rooms, starting at 11pm and going through until dawn- David Holmes, Daniel Avery, Sean Johnston, Dave Congreave, Adrian Sherwood, Miss Kittin, Fantastic Twin, Radioactive Man, Ivan Smagghe, Manfredas, Optimo and Fi Maguire will all play to rooms full of friends and fans, trying to capture something of the spirit of the man in music. 

Later on this month, in a turn of events which still baffles me at times, I will be part of the birthday celebrations at The Golden Lion in Todmorden. On the Saturday afternoon and evening myself and four other fans/ DJs (Martin, Mark, Dan and Baz) will play support to Timothy J. Fairplay and Justin Robertson as The Flightpath Estate DJs. This blog and my repeated writing about Andrew Weatherall and his music led to this- I like to think in some way reflecting the spirit of Andrew, do what you want to do, create something you love, do it yourself. 

I've put together a mix of songs inspired by Andrew for today. There's so much variety in his life and work you could put together ten mixes and only scratch the surface. His radio shows at 6 Mix and NTS, his Music's Not For Everyone banner that took in goth, garage, rockabilly, 80s indie, cosmic blues and country, rock 'n' roll and punk, where endlessly inspiring and I've tried to reflect some of that in the hour of songs below with one of his songs in the middle. 

AW60 Mix

• The Triffids: Wide Open Road
• Chuck Prophet: Play That Song Again
• Forest Fire: In Shadows
• Grant Hart: You're The Reflection Of The Moon On The Water
• The Dream Syndicate: John Coltrane Stereo Blues
• Dennis Wilson: Carry Me Home
• The Replacements: Sadly Beautiful
• Two Lone Swordsmen: Get Out Of My Kingdom (Demo)
• Rowland S. Howard: She Cried
• White Williams: Route To Palm
• Rose City Band: In The Rain
• The Jesus And Mary Chain: Darklands
• Cowboys International: The 'No' Tune

Wide Open Road was on The Triffids' 1986 album Born Sandy Devotional, an album widely seen as the band's masterpiece. The song is on Andrew's The Black Notebooks YouTube playlists, Volume One of which you can find here. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. You'll find plenty in there to keep you going. 

Chuck Prophet was the guitarist in US roots rockers Green On Red. His solo career included a 2012 album called Temple Beautiful and this song is built around a cracking guitar riff and a load of good one liners- 'You go fight the power/ I'm fighting off a cold'. Andrew played it on one of his Music's Not For Everyone radio shows for NTS that year, a series that were a monthly treat and are missed beyond words, his voice, his wry sense of humour and his song selection. 

Forest Fire were an experimental rock band from New York whose second album Staring At The X came out in 2011. The song here, In Shadows, is superb and much played in my house. The way the rhythms, FXed guitars and vocals merge into one rush of sound hits me every time. Andrew played it on his third Music's Not For Everyone in 2011. 

Grant Hart, ex- Husker Du drummer and solo artist, features in Andrew's Black Notebooks and radio mixes. You're The Reflection Of The Moon On The Water is a blistering wall of guitars and drums with words inspired by the sayings of the Buddha and came out in 2009. Andrew played it while at 6 Mix in March 2010, a show he did with Fuck Buttons as guests. 

The Dream Syndicate's John Coltrane Stereo Blues is an eight minute epic, from their 1984 album Medicine Show. Andrew played it memorably while doing a MNFE set at Terraforma, a music festival held in Italy, in 2017. The fifty minute film of him DJing in sunglasses and 1940s work clothes to a crowd of young, beautifully lit Italians is here. The song appears alongside Fujiya and Miyagi and Moon Duo, sequencing only Andrew would attempt. 'I got some John Coltrane on the stereo baby/ Make you feel alright/ I got some white wine in the freezer mama/ I know what you like/ We gonna learn about love on a three ply rug'

Dennis Wilson's Carry Me Home was recorded in 1973 but didn't make it onto Holland, The Beach Boys album of that year. It is a broken, beautiful funeral blues for a soldier dying in Vietnam. Andrew produced Primal Scream's cover on their 1992 Dixie- Narco EP, ably assisted by Hugo Nicolson. 

Sadly Beautiful is a Paul Westerberg song from The Replacements' 1990 album All Shook Down, a song he wrote with Marianne Faithful in mind. She was supposed to sing it but that never happened so Paul recorded it for All Shook Down instead. By 1990 The Replacements were to all intents and purposes a Paul Westerberg solo project although Tommy Stimson plays bass on much of the record. Sadly Beautiful shows up in Andrew's Black Notebooks and on various tapes he made for friends in the early 90s along with songs from the previous Replacements album, 1989's Don't Tell A Soul. That album is not the group's best, marred by a glossy radio friendly production but some of the songs are classic Westerberg, Achin' To Be, Rock 'n' Roll Ghost and We'll Inherit The Earth among them. Talent Show is a song I've had a weird soft spot for for thirty- five years. 

Get Out Of My Kingdom was perhaps the pinnacle of the final incarnation of Two Lone Swordsmen, the live band, garage/ rock 'n' roll, Andrew on vocals version of the band. I saw them play at Sankey's Soap in 2008 supporting the Wrong Meeting album, the full live band tearing it up in a corner of the club. Sankey's was once the only thing you'd head into Ancoats for, a maze of streets and dilapidated buildings north of city centre Manchester. Andrew commented once that artists are the vanguard of gentrification. Now Ancoats is the place to live/ work/ socialise.

She Cried was on Rowland S. Howard's Teenage Snuff Film, a 1999 album. The former Birthday Party/ Bad Seed was joined by Mick Harvey. They covered Billy Idol's White Wedding on the album. She Cried is itself a cover of a 1961 melodrama single by Teddy Daryll and has been covered by others including Johnny Thunders, Del Shannon and David Hasselhoff (insert your own joke here). The Horrors also borrowed from it on Who Can Say in 2009. She Cried is in Andrew's Black Notebooks playlists. 

Route To Palm is by White Williams, a song that somehow combines both rockabilly and krautrock and is therefore perfectly Weatherall. White Williams is from New York and released the album Smoke in 2008 (on Domino). Andrew played it on his 2009 6 Mix, a legendary show in the Bagging Area which took in Wayne Walker, La Dusseldorf, Andrew's remix of Primal Scream's Uptown, The Glitter Band, his remix of David Holmes' I Heard Wonders and much more besides. Route To Palm turned up on FACT Mix 85 too. 

Rose City Band is one of three groups headed by cosmic guitarist/ singer Ripley Johnson- Wooden Shjips and Moon Duo are the other two. Ripley's music is all over Andrew's radio shows. In The Rain was played on Music's Not For Everyone in 2019. 

Darklands was the title track on The Jesus And Mary Chain's 1987 album and has been selected by Andrew on various occasions- when on tour in Australia and asked to compile his formative influences in 2018 and in an internet article called Five Songs For The End Of The World (or similar) which I can't find right now. 

The 'No' Tune was on a 1979 album by Cowboys International called The Original Sin, a band that included Keith Levene, Terry Chimes and Marco Pirroni in its number. The 'No' Tune was the theme to Andrew's Music's Not For Everyone shows, the chiming guitar line announcing the start of two hours of adventure, two hours of Andrew's Gnostic Sonics. As the guitar notes faded, The 'No' Tune's space lullaby would be replaced by Andrew's voice. 'Huddle round your devices, don your ceremonial robes and headgear...', he would advise, and we'd be off into new territory, music from the past and present sewn together in ways only he could do. 

As such, rather than have the two minutes and forty seconds of The 'No' Tune as an ending, in the spirit of Andrew it should be a beginning, the gateway to music new. Go and find something new today, something from the margins, the edges, the sidelines- and when you do, raise a glass to the man. Happy 60th birthday Andrew.  

All Of My Senses

More heartfelt music from the American leftfield today- the terms indie and alternative rock don't seem to underplay these artists and their songs but I guess that's roughly where R.E.M., Rose City Band and Grant Hart sit. In 1989 Grant Hart, drummer, singer and songwriter in Husker Du  was fresh from a band break up that involved among other factors drug abuse, the suicide of their manager David Savoy and a complete communication breakdown between Hart and Bob Mould. Grant was first to release a solo album, Intolerance, in 1989. The album is organic sounding, all instruments played by Grant- organs, handclaps, rolling drums, harmonica, splashy cymbals as well as guitars, a world away from the buzzsaw wall of noise and speed of Husker Du. Intolerance is personal and confessional, littered with references to addiction, broken relationships, regret and loss. Album opener All Of My Senses blasts off with distorted, howling voices before a 60s organ part and handclaps drone into earshot and Grant's wracked voice takes the lead. 

All Of My Senses  

She Can See The Angels Coming has droney church organ, cymbals and Grant singing a moving lament for a dying girl. 

She Can See The Angels Coming

Grant died of cancer in 2017 and would have turned sixty a few days ago (18th March) had he lived. His post- Husker Du work is far less well known and covered than Bob Mould and Grant often seemed to have been handed the shitty end of the stick after the split- but Intolerance and the rest of his solo work is well worth seeking out. 

You're Not The Moon

Grant Hart put this song out back in 2009 on an album called Hot Wax. The lyrics are based on a Buddhist meditation.

'You're the reflection of the moon on the water
But you're not the moon.

You are the scent of the sea on the night wind
But you're not the sea

You are the shadows from the light of a fire
But you're not the light

You are the sound of the rain on the dry earth
But you're not the rain'

Sung in Grant's familiar edge- of- his- register voice and surrounded by the fuzz of guitars and the rattle of drums, an organic sounding, circular song and a four and a half minute white knuckle ride. It popped up on an old CD compilation I found recently and I thought it was definitely worth a re-post. The last time I posted it was back in March 2010 which as I keep noting is a fairly long time ago. The album is well worth tracking down, not least for this and closing song My Regrets.

You're The Reflection of The Moon On the Water

There On The Beach, I Could See It In her Eyes

After writing about them at the weekend I've been thinking about Minutemen a bit this week, digging out some of the records and cds, thinking about an ICA for The Vinyl Villain and then it occurred to me that I could tie together two of this week's posts quite neatly.

One of the Minutemen's key songs is Corona (off Double Nickels on The Dime but more famous as the theme tune to Jackass. Let's try to ignore tattooed MTV idiots stapling their arms and scrotums and focus on the song). D. Boon, Mike Watt and George Hurley all wrote lyrics for the songs. Inspired and turned on by punk rock they decided early on that they would write lyrics that meant something. D. Boon wrote Corona after a trip to Mexico.

Mike Watt can explain the song better than I can- 'Corona is very heartfelt. D. Boon wrote that one on a trip to Mexico. After all the drinking and the partying, the morning after, there's a lady picking up bottles, to turn them in to get monies for her babies... it really touched him. Music was personal with us, it's how we were together, and then the [punk] movement let us do it in front of people. The movement was so inclusive, and it seemed that if you wanted in, you had to bring something original – it was kind of a toll. And for D. Boon, I remember him telling people, “Okay, whatever we play, it sounds like the Minutemen”. And that's what I hear in Corona.There's a little Mexico in there, it's got a little 'thinking out loud' – what D. Boon called our lyrics. Like, D. Boon's thinking about what's going on here: we're having a party at the beach, and this lady, by using the empty Corona bottle – it's not like D. Boon liked Corona beer! – no, she's using that bottle to help. So there's a real connection there. That's why I really like Corona – it's a strange mixture of things, but to me it's the nice things about the Minutemen'.

There's so much about this 2 minute 25 second song- the Mexican riff at the start followed by the trebly guitars and double time drumming, the fizz and buzz of the bass, D. Boon's punk poetics- he manages to say so much with so few words-

'The people will survive
In their environment
The dirt, scarcity, and the emptiness of our south
The injustice of our greed
The practice we inherit

The dirt, scarcity and the emptiness of our south
There on the beach
I could see it in her eyes
I only had a Corona
Five cent deposit'

Corona

In 2003 Calexico put out their fourth album, Feats Of Wire, the one that brought all the pieces together with some career high points. One edition of the cd came with some bonus tracks, including a cover of Corona, a pretty logical song for them to cover. Calexico slow it down a bit and add some lovely mariachi horns

Track 32 (Corona)

While looking for a picture for this post I found this image of a pair of SST labelmates, pictured in front of a poster for Husker Du's 1984 double album, D. Boon (who died the following year when their tour van crashed) and Grant Hart (drummer of Husker Du, who died this year of cancer).

Big Windows To Let In The Sun

Until yesterday I didn't know that Grant Hart's song 2541, his solo debut in 1989, was covered by Robert Forster (of The Go-Betweens). Forster put it out in 1994 on a four track e.p.

I like it, Forster's voice is good but he sticks largely to Grant's song, it's a pretty straight cover. When I found it on Youtube and then played Grant's own version afterwards, I found that in the trail of comments beneath Grant himself had logged in and left a comment saying he preferred Forster's version.

The song is a beauty, full of great lines and hard won wisdom. It tells the story of a couple getting together, moving into a new home and then the break up and the leaving. Grant builds in small details that root it in personal experience- Jerry and Jimmy in the first verse who find the place and the phone number, moving in and having to keep the stove on all night long 'so the mice wouldn't freeze', putting their names on the mailbox. The dream turns sour in the second verse though as Grant admits 'it was the first place we had to ourselves, I didn't know it would be the last'. From there the only way is down but all the while through the chorus we get the reminder of the attraction of the home, the big windows to let in the sun. The final verse sees the couple apart and moving out...

'Well things are so much different now

I'd say the situation's reversed

And it'll probably not be the last time

I'll have to be out by the first'

Story telling, moving and real, painting pictures with words, Grant had the full package as a song writer. He recorded the song twice himself, once for an ep 2541, a largely acoustic version (the one I posted yesterday) and then a fuller, band version that came out on his 1989 album Intolerance (which is my favourite). So here's that version too...

Twenty-Five Forty-One

Grant Hart

I was deeply saddened yesterday by the news that Grant Hart had died aged 56. It seems a bit silly to be actually saddened by the death of a musician you've never even met but there you go. Husker Du are a band whose songs and albums hold a place close to heart. Someone once said that Bob Mould's songs in Husker Du were more consistently excellent but Grant's peaks were peakier and it's easy to roll off a list of Grant Hart songs that completely hit the spot- The Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill, Books About UFOs, Green Eyes, Keep Hanging On, Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely, Pink Turns To Blue, Turn On The News, She's A Woman (And Now He Is A Man), Sorry Somehow, Never Talking To You Again, Flexible Flyer, She Floated Away...

Grant Hart was the hippie in a hardcore band- long hair, love beads, drumming with bare feet- who realised early on that drumming in a hardcore band could end up being pretty boring if that was all he did. So they became much more than a hardcore band, spearheading indie-punk through the 80s, paving the way for others to follow. Grant Hart was a drummer who knew how to write melodies and a songwriter who mainly dealt with the heavy stuff, but could cover it with shards of light. He took much of the blame for the break up of the band but he seemed to be the easy one to blame- he didn't hide his problems with drugs. His first solo album Intolerance is open about it. His post-Husker Du albums are full of great songs too- 2541, You're The Reflection Of The Moon On The Water, She Can See The Angels Coming, The Main, My Regrets, Admiral Of The Sea- all come close to his Husker songs and pack an emotional punch. Grant and Bob were estranged for much of the rest of Grant's life, appearing together only once to play two Du songs. They seem to have become more reconciled recently, communication opening up with a band agreed website to sell merchandise and a box set of their early works coming out in November. Their SST recordings still belong to SST who don't seem to want to sell. And they should, so something right and proper can be done with the back catalogue.

Last year I wrote a Husker Du ICA for The Vinyl Villain- you can read it here. I named my 10 track compilation after one of Grant's songs, Keep Hanging On (a song from Flip Your Wig) and used it to close my imaginary record. This is what I said about Keep Hanging On and I stand by every word even more now...

'Keep Hanging On- there are so many songs I could or maybe should have closed this album with but this one always hits me right there. From Flip You Wig, buried away towards the end of side 2, the guitars are deliciously distorted, Greg’s bass builds, the drums thump and Grant sings his heart out. His voice sounds like he is just about hanging on but ultimately this is uplifting, life affirming stuff.

Only angels have wings, girl
And poets have all the words
The earth belongs to the two of us
And the sky belongs to the birds

You've given me so much happiness
That I'll wrap up and give you this song
You gotta grab it with both hands
You gotta keep hanging on’

Thank you for all the songs Grant. They mean so much. 


Bob Mould put this tribute on his Facebook page yesterday morning-

'It was the Fall of 1978. I was attending Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. One block from my dormitory was a tiny store called Cheapo Records. There was a PA system set up near the front door blaring punk rock. I went inside and ended up hanging out with the only person in the shop. His name was Grant Hart.

The next nine years of my life was spent side-by-side with Grant. We made amazing music together. We (almost) always agreed on how to present our collective work to the world. When we fought about the details, it was because we both cared. The band was our life. It was an amazing decade.

We stopped working together in January 1988. We went on to solo careers, fronting our own bands, finding different ways to tell our individual stories. We stayed in contact over the next 29 years — sometimes peaceful, sometimes difficult, sometimes through go-betweens. For better or worse, that’s how it was, and occasionally that’s what it is when two people care deeply about everything they built together.

The tragic news of Grant’s passing was not unexpected to me. My deepest condolences and thoughts to Grant’s family, friends, and fans around the world.

Grant Hart was a gifted visual artist, a wonderful story teller, and a frighteningly talented musician. Everyone touched by his spirit will always remember.

Godspeed, Grant. I miss you. Be with the angels.'

The Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill

2541

Eight Miles Again

Husker Du's version of Eight Miles High is just indescribably good, a 7" single worth its weight in gold. Blistering, white hot, ferocious, 60s rock meeting 80s punk, with Bob Mould lacerating his vocal chords and fingertips.

Eight Miles High

There are several live clips on Youtube. This one is Husker Du live in Camden in 1985. Astonishing, sheets of metal feedback from Bob and manic drum thumping from Grant Hart.



Live in 1987 at a Dutch festival from someone's collection of home recorded VHS tapes, slightly less manic...

You Can Live At Home

We've had precious few guitars here recently so here's a blast of Husker Du's indie-punk perfection, what turned out to be their last recorded notes. By 1987 the Huskers were thoroughly fed up with each other and the band. During the making of Warehouse: Songs and Stories Bob Mould told Grant Hart he would never have more than half the songs on any Husker Du album and true to his word Bob's tunes outnumber Grant's again. They sequenced the twenty songs alternately by writer but the last song is Grant's. You Can Live At Home is mini-punk epic, with shards of guitar and echo laden vox. Mould hits a chord around the two minute mark that sends shivers up and the spine and the long coda fade out sees the two men vie for the final word on Husker Du, Bob soloing away and feeding back while Grant repeats the song title over and over. It is as good as they ever were (the Husker Du purists would disagree with me on this one. Warehouse came out on Warners. Sell outs and punk traitors y'see).

If it sounds a little tinny and small, this is what small bands with small budgets sounded like in 87- the radio loudness wars and punchy digital sound were years off. It'll shrink sonically in comparison to other stuff if you play it on shuffle. But it'll sound better. Husker Du were real one offs. Truly, there is no other band who could combine 60s idealism and writing, 80s punk, and melodies like this one could.

You Can Live At Home

Is The Sky The Limit?

Grant Hart- Husker Du survivor- has a new double album out shortly on Domino. It's inspired by both John Milton's Paradise Lost and William Burroughs, which would seem quite daunting were it not for the quality of the tunes, or at least the ones I've heard so far. Grant has a real way with melody and mood and let's be honest- although Bob Mould is remembered as the key Husker, Grant wrote at least as many of their great songs. Grant's solo career has its high spot moments too- the 2541 single, the Intolerance lp, the Hot Wax album from recently, some of Nova Mob's stuff. The Argument promises to be up there amongst them.

Husker

The Bagging Area cat Husker died on Saturday evening. He was eighteen (human) years old, a good old age for a cat, and had lived with us since the summer of 1994. He will be missed. It has got to me much more than I thought it would.

He'd been slowing down all week and on Saturday afternoon his back legs were all wrong. When he couldn't get up onto the sofa I knew it was the end. The end came with the emergency vet at an animal hospital in an industrial estate in Worsley (that is every bit as grim as it sounds). I signed the papers, watched him die and then came home.

His namesake, the band Husker Du and one of Grant Hart's songs from 1984's Zen Arcade.

Turn On The News

Don't Want To Know If You Are Lost And Lonely

Nothing blows the cobwebs away quite like a blast of Husker Du. This song, a kiss off to somebody, written and sung by Grant Hart is a gem where the band do the Husker trick of marrying 60s pop and 80s hardcore. Top drumming too.

Don't Want To Know If You Are Lonely

Oh You've Got Green Eyes

Jon Auer is one of The Posies, who play power pop. I think I know what power pop is without being able to describe it. I don't know much about The Posies either, other than that Prestwich Stuart put a song of theirs on a tape he did for me years ago, the chorus of which went 'It's a different door to another dimension' (or something like that) and I really liked it. Another band that I never delved any further into, despite the internet. Here, Jon Auer does a very lovely acoustic cover version of Green Eyes, a Flip Your Wig era Husker Du song written by Bagging Area favourite Grant Hart. It's worth bearing in mind that given Grant's sexuality this song is probably sung by a man to a man. Which gives it a different slant somehow.

Green Eyes

I'm Sending All Of My Regrets To You

Grant Hart, ex-drummer, co-singer and songwriter in 80s indie-punk heroes Husker Du, has had a fits-and-starts solo career. His debut solo album, Intolerance, was a cracker, a mix of 60s garage and 80s punk. His 90s band Nova Mob produced a couple of albums of serviceable indie rock, one being released on the day Rough Trade folded, pretty much scuppering the lp's chance of success. More recently he put out Hot Wax, which led with a blistering single- You're the Reflection Of The Moon On The Water- which I posted over a year ago. He's got a new one out, Oeuvrerevue, a collection of oddities and odds and sods, which I haven't heard yet. Grant lost all his possessions and equipment in a housefire in March, which must be grim.

This is My Regrets, the closing song from Hot Wax, an end of the night kind of song, with scuzzy guitars, organ, clattering drums and massed backing vocals. In the wrong hands this would become a huge chestbeating, stadium/festival anthem. In Grant's hands it's a fuzzy, outsider, underdog anthem. Very good indeed.

My Regrets

Grant Hart 'You're The Reflection Of The Moon On The Water'

I've written about Husker Du survivor Grant Hart before, when I posted his first post-Husker solo song 2541. I'd forgotten all about this, until a certain Mr A. Weatherall played it on his 6 Mix show the other weekend. Grant released his first solo album in ten years last year, Hot Wax, which I got from emusic, played a few times, and then sort of forgot about. This is as good a reason why the BBC should not axe 6 Music as any- a station where this kind of stuff gets played by people like Weatherall is not easy to find.

I used to be a massive Husker Du fan, still am I suppose but I don't find myself playing their stuff that often anymore. We have a fairly geriatric cat called Husker. Grant Hart has been a bit overlooked and over shadowed, releasing the odd solo album, forming and then splitting Nova Mob, rumoured to be working with Godspeed You Black Emperor (I can't remember where they put the exclamation mark anymore). This song sent me back to the album it came off, and it's pretty good, but this is the stand out track, a buzzing, rock and roll song, with nicely muddy yet fizzy production. Apparently the lyric is inspired by a buddhist saying 'He's the reflection of the moon on the water, but he's not the moon'. You can probably get as much or as little from that as you want.

Youre The Reflection Of The Moon On The Water.mp3

Grant Hart '2541'

I hate business speak and jargon. I sat through a meeting at the end of work today (and I don't work in a business environment) where people used phrases like 'giving you the heads up', 'upskilling' and 'actioning'. I've started to visibly flinch when I hear them. Foul.

That's not got anything to do with this post, just wanted to get it off my chest.

Since Husker Du split up Bob Mould has been the busiest, with solo albums, Sugar and writing scripts for wrestling. Bob's solo stuff is good in parts, but it's dour. Grim and dour. He had an album called Black Sheets Of Rain, which works quite well as a title for his whole post-Husker solo stuff.

Grant Hart had the drug problems and suffered by being seen as being the second song writer in Husker Du. Also, he was a singing songwriting drummer, like a post-punk Phil Collins. But he was first off the mark with this 1988 release 2541, off an album called Intolerance.

This sounds nothing like Husker Du (depending on your taste for US hardcore that'll be either a relief or disappointment). Lots of organ, great tune, story telling lyrics. A couple move into a new home (2541), with 'big windows to let in the sun'. The song's got loads of little lines painting pictures ('got hold of a van and a man and moved in the very next day', 'we had to keep the stove on all night long so the mice wouldn't freeze', that sort of thing)and then moves on to the couples splitting, and moving out of 2541. Great little song, not dour at all. Just giving you 'the heads up'.

2541.mp3