Husker Du book!

Henry alluded to this book in one of his recent Chunklet blasts and, much like the Mats book a couple years ago, it was a foregone conclusion that this guy was going to have it in his hot little hands with the quickness. I was passingly familiar with Earles from Chunklet and hoped that the title would be the most ponderous aspect of the whole affair. Entitled Husker Du: The Story Of The Noise Pop Pioneers Who Launched Modern Rock and bound like a school textbook, I was cautiously optimistic, but feared for the worst. Whether the author plays the sycophant or the iconoclast makes a huge difference in these situations. Earles does a good job of finding a happy medium between the two. He has ample opportunity to go either way: Bob declined to participate in the project, while Grant and Greg were active in the entire process. Evidently Mould has his own book coming out (a co-write with Our Band Could Be Your Life scribe Michael Azerrad). That should be an interesting read, especially in light of Earles' decision to keep as much of the band member's personal lives from the book as possible. That is an exceedingly admirable gesture, but the inner shit-stirrer in me would love to hear an Albert Goldman-esque treatment of the affairs. These are litigious times, however, and such thoughts do much to distract from the fact that Husker Du were (and are) an amazing band and a true force to be reckoned with. I have been a fan for a long time, but only after their demise and had failed to take into account that they had released such a huge amount of material in their relatively short tenure as a band. Husker regularly delivered entire sets of material with amazing tracks like Diane that would not appear for two (or more) releases, regardless of the strength of their current recordings. Earles offers great insight into the Husker history and creative process. It's obvious that Earles is a total fanboy, but he sports a level of discretion equal to his formidable writing skills. Plain and simple: If you are a Husker Du fan, this is a must-read. I honesty hope that down the line there will be a reprint of this with some Mould insight. The only other people better suited to address the subject would be 'fourth Husker' Terry Katzman or online Husker Dude Paul Hilcoff and in the absence of that, run don't walk your ass down to your local book purveyor and snap this up with the quickness. I'm halfway through my third time reading it and still enjoy it just as much as the first time I cracked cover. Get it here, along with some clips.

R