I’ve been a bit busy dealing with a job loss, job search, and other stuff lately. So, The Feast has been a bit quiet. One thing I’m happy to report is that people actually read my shit. Who needs more validation than that? My recent post on Greg Norton got some comments and it’s nice my opinions matter somewhat. I was contacted by a very nice guy from the Netherlands who told me about his Husker cover band named, appropriately, Husker Dutch. Hope you all enjoy it!
Being in a band is all about politics. Oh, you thought it was about the music?
Sure, it starts out like that. It’s the organizing principle. To make music and make your statement with it. But the minute you get two or three people in a room together, relationships begin to grow and become more complex every day. People define themselves against each other as well as changing in other ways. This is both the mystery and curse of bands. They are never the sum of their parts.
In every band, you have a breakdown of labor. On top of learning and playing instrument some people write the songs, some people sing, and others provide booking and logistical report. In successful bands (and I use that term loosely), all folks are working towards the band being the best possible representation of itself. However, it’s not a democracy. At best, it’s a benign dictatorship.
Why is that? Well, the people that write the songs generally call the shots just a little bit more. You have to have original material to perform. When it gets better and you have people clamoring for your songs, your power increases. This external feedback alters a bands chemistry. What once was a all for one and one for all dynamic is subtly altered. If you’re in an intense band like Husker Du, that pressure can be extreme.
Now, I’ve done a bit of touring with Grant Hart and I’ve met Bob Mould and read his memoir. Neither one of those gentlemen lack for opinions and perspective. They are strong willed guys. I’d hate to be in the middle of that. And that’s exactly where Greg Norton was. But to assume he had no personality is a big misread. There’s no way someone between those two opposites was some weak willed person. Rather, Norton had to be the balance in that band. That requires a whole lot of skills, particularly discretion and diplomacy. I think probably more than Mould or Hart did at that point in their lives.
Being a drummer or a bass player can be a thankless task. You help keep the beat and provide the foundation for the songs. Typically your reward comes along the lines of, “That guitar player is awesome.” A rhythm section’s competence is expected and not rewarded. A lot of times, you’re only noticed when you fuck up. Greg Norton is no bass playing slouch.
I’m not sure if it’s some kind of sonic revisionism that has gone for the past 25 years or so; but his bass playing seems to not get much respect. Unfortunately, some of that is from his former band members. Mould mentions it in his memoir with an anecdote about he and Hart recording their own bass parts after Norton initially provided them. on Candy Apple Grey and Warehouse. That is a real disservice.
Part of it is band nitpicking. If it’s your song, you obviously have an opinion of the parts being played and you may want something different than the bass player has provided. But using that control issue as an aesthetic justification is a bit shady. Yes, change them if you must, but don’t blame your bandmate of the past 6 or more years. That’s a decision that’s on you.
The whole message of the seems to be that Norton’s playing is sub par. I’d argue against that any day of the week. To my ears as a bass player and a fan of the band, he’s an integral part of the sound. The lines he comes up with and the timing of the lines are interesting and come more from Charles Mingus more than Dee Dee Ramone. His playing and Hart’s drumming really elevate Husker Du about their more popcentric peers like the Descendents. If Mould wanted the rhythm section he got in Sugar, Husker Du would not have the musical sweep it had.
Additionally, people seem to hold the production of the band’s SST output against Husker. Sure, it’s easy to pick on. The high frequencies on those records sound like frying eggs and the bass and drums don’t have much bottom end or presence, but it’s punk rock for god’s sake. You don’t hear that shit about Black Flag so either go after all the SST bands or stop singling one band out. The complaining underscores the real point which is that Husker Du DESERVED better production due to the strengths of the songs and bands.
Some of the other things Mould mentions in his book strike me as the same kind of crap every band member levels against another. It’s the most trivial stuff blown out of proportion. So, Norton likes to golf. Bob likes to bowl and Grant collects cars. I mean, come on. I can go pro or con on all three of those. Band members are like family members; they can say the most disagreeable shit to each other. The fact that this stuff gets public is where bands start sliding downhill towards breaking up.
Yeah, Norton could have gotten in there and been just as stubborn, assertive, and intense as the Hart and Mould. Would that have broken up the band earlier tho? If that’s the case Norton’s attempt as being the more relaxed peacemaker probably enabled Husker Du to function as effectively as it did. Bands are a whole lot more than who gets the songwriting and publishing credit. Greg Norton deserves as much credit as Hart and Mould as creating and pushing Husker Du too the great heights that band achieved.
What was is about Husker Du that made such an impression on me? One thing was simply their relatively normal appearance. People seem to forget before grunge came along that being in a rock band had a much more serious style component. The closest you came to normal wear was either in the hardcore punk scene (a scene Husker Du initially sprang from) or in the heavy metal scene. In both cases you had a jeans and t shirt uniform; however, the length of hair was the difference. Most of the time, to be an authentic hardcore punk guy, you had to have to rock the Kojack hair style a la DC straight edge. Not that there was a lot of straight edge in Roanoke. By the time I was cognizant of various subcultures; most punk rock folks had embraced various quasi forms of punk that bumped up against other musical styles. In 1984 and 85, you had a lot of skate punk in Roanoke. Mostly because of skating more than punk. That being said, I remember guys with Vans inking the words “JFA” on them and giving me shit for liking Hall & Oates. They just didn’t know how punk I was liking an uncool band…or something like that…shut up. To be honest, I preferred the guys who were into Metallica and Sabbath because they were less self righteous
But I digress. The point is that Husker Du wrote some kickass songs and were loud as god’s balls and look like guys I saw in the smoking block. They seemed indifferent to the whole look-at-me punk rock identity politics and kept their focus where it belonged. There was universality to their songs that surpassed most underground bands at the time. This is partly because being part of the underground in the 80’s really meant taking pride in your place because you certainly weren’t going to achieve Nirvana like success.
Husker’s Minneapolis competition, The Replacements, was a band I greatly admired, too. But while they had great songs about alienation and other great rock themes, they seemed impossibly cool in that New York Dolls, Stones, Heartbreakers vein. They didn’t have the avenging dork style of Husker, which seemed to be handed down from the Ramones.
Being a gangly lad, I didn’t have any obesity problems. But let me tell you, being a skinny guy in the south is a pain in the ass, especially in the early 80’s which was a far less tolerant time. If you weren’t tough guy, you were considered about unmanly and effeminate. And if you liked books, music, and art; let me tell you that could be grounds for an ass kicking. So, seeing two fat guys and another guy with a handlebar mustache blow out minds and ear drums was extremely rewarding. And the fact that the fat guys were gay and the guy everyone thought was gay was straight was a mind fuck I appreciated enormously. The Replacements seemed just way too traditional compared to that.
So, I spent an enormous time listening and practicing to my Husker Du records. And by “records”, I mean shitty Maxell 90 min cassettes because I didn’t have the money to buy all those records. And then I wrote my first song…which sounded exactly like Grant Hart’s Don’t Want To Know If You Are Lonely.
Clearly, I had a lot more work to do.
Phil Venable's Feast of Snakes 