[snootchiebootchies]

Wow, incredible news that there is finally going to be a Husker Du reissue. Given the acrimonious relationship between Grant Hart and Bob Mould, I thought I would never live to see any reissues. Husker Du are like gods to me. They were the ones who hooked me into post-hardcore and punk rock, and everything has flowed from there.

One more note: Even though Numero Group's website says the album won't ship until November, I got a link to download the MP3 files immediately after I ordered (except for the unreleased tracks from Metal Circus).

Numerophiles-
Seven years ago we started down a path. What began as a simple inquiry snowballed into a sprawling and tangled mess of copyright claims, interpersonal drama, lawyers, endless hours on I-94, cassettes, flyers, master tapes, lawyers, disappointment, tears, and yes, lawyers. We don’t have an official motto, but maybe we need to have this one emblazoned on our front door: Difficulty is our specialty.

When we dreamed up the 200 series that summer of 2010, we had only one band in mind: Hüsker Dü. We approached Grant Hart with a crude mock-up and a lot of moxie. He rewarded us with a swim in Cedar Lake and several years of cryptic emails and late night phone calls. Greg Norton threw up his hands at the onset and told us to let him know when something real was happening. And for the first five years we barely registered on Bob Mould’s radar, sending packages and messages into the void on the hopes that something, anything might just stick. Persistence pays. Don’t let anyone tell you different. For seven years we held open catalog number 200 on the hope that these notoriously difficult dudes would come around. In August of 2016 they finally did. And after a year of listening and sorting and interviewing, we’re extremely pleased to announce the arrival of the first Hüsker Dü-approved reissue in 25 years.

Promo from Numero Group:



Additional information about the unreleased tracks from Metal Circus - spoilered as this post is already becoming quite large

Spoiler!

Hüsker Dü: Extra Circus

When Hüsker Dü lit out for the west coast a few days after Xmas 1982, they did so with twelve new songs in the chamber. The road-battered group arrived at Total Access in Redondo Beach the second week of January intending to cut the entirety of their new repertoire in a single all day session, but the power had been shut off just prior to their arrival. “We were trying to jump power from other parts of the building,” recalled Bob Mould. The session ended up taking two days, and from those twelve, only seven would make their blistering 1983 Metal Circus. Left on the cutting room floor were “Heavy Handed,” “You Think I’m Scared,” “Won’t Change,” “Is Today The Day?” and “Standing At The Sea.” Several would leak out on bootlegs over the years, but when a previously thought-to-be-lost safety master turned up in the process of making Savage Young Dü, it seemed like the perfect cliff hanger for the next project.

We first saw the color negative for Metal Circus back in 2010, when a mysterious package showed up from Grant Hart. Hart had painstakingly set the scene up in the office of Revolution guitarist Des Dickerson’s father in downtown St. Paul’s Milton Building. The desk is a visual representation of the Hüsker’s discography to date; the framed photo of Mao references the cover of Statues, a Statue of Liberty calendar represents In A Free Land, magnifying in on the desk one can spy the logo that appears on the back cover of Everything Falls Apart. The plane’s wing carries the catalog number for Land Speed Record: NAR007. “The whole thing was the most satisfying graphics project that I ever connected with Hüsker Dü,” Grant Hart told Andrew Earles. “By the time it was all set up, I had to race the sun and deal with drunken street revelers getting in the way of the shot. The shoot was on St. Patrick’s day, and there were a ton of throw aways where you can see the tips of those party horns entering the frame.”

Extra Circus is only available from numerogroup.com.