Bob Mould's thread o' positivity

1) Copper Blue
2) Self-titled (hubcap)
3) Body of Song
4) New Day Rising (Husker Du)
5) Black Sheets of Rain

Favs off Body of Song :
1) I am Vision, I am Sound
2) Best Thing
3) High Fidelity
4) Underneath Days
5) Beating Heart the Prize

Thanks for reading

anyone else?

Listening to it for the first time on my way to work. Track two annoyed me with the Cher effect on the vocals. Thought I heard a bit of that effect in the back on track 3 too. His voice is great without the fx.

I'm not a fan of the gay disco vocals either, though I think Modulate had some really underrated and interesting songs. "Lost Zoloft" and "Comeonstrong" blew me away. In particular, a song like "Trade", which doesn't thrill me on record, can pretty much bring me to tears when it's just Bob and his electric guitar. I don't always agree with his execution of songs (like the chimes and organ on "High Fidelity"), but the core of most of Bob's songs are pretty solid. In some form or other (on record, live, acoustic, electric, etc.), it works.

As for favorite LPs…jeez. Here's my list of favorites according to era:

Husker Du top 5
1) Warehouse: Songs and Stories
2) Flip Your Wig
3) Zen Arcade
4) New Day Rising
5) Everything Falls Apart

Sugar
1) Copper Blue
2) Beaster
3) Besides bonus live disc
4) File Under: Easy Listening
5) Besides

Solo
1) Black Sheets of Rain
2) Bob Mould
3) Workbook
4) Body of Song
5) Modulate

So what are we gonna do? Bob Mould was a featured artist on last week's episode of The OC. And it was prominently featured – it was the montage music of the episode, if I recall. And then they put up the "Body of Song" album at the end of the episode.

Wow.

Shows in a few days, I'm getting excited (the Mould show, not the next episode of The OC!!).

Bags, all I can say is that the 2nd Chicago show was absolutely mind-bending. The only other show that might have been better (now mind you I never got to see Husker Du) was Sugar on the Beaster tour. And let me just say…Brendan Canty on drums and Jason Narducy on bass is one hell of a rhythm section. I couldn't stand still throughout almost the entire thing. The DC show is going to fucking KILL.

Originally posted by bearman:
Bags, all I can say is that the 2nd Chicago show was absolutely mind-bending. The only other show that might have been better (now mind you I never got to see Husker Du) was Sugar on the Beaster tour. And let me just say…Brendan Canty on drums and Jason Narducy on bass is one hell of a rhythm section. I couldn't stand still throughout almost the entire thing. The DC show is going to fucking KILL.

yes, yes. Have a friend coming in from Philly for the DC/Friday night experience. YEAH.

I've been looking forward to this show for a while. This quote from Bob at The Onion AV Club has me very excited.

I'm really excited about the Sugar stuff more than anything else, you know, Copper Blue and so on. It's such a cool record, they're such fun songs to play live, I think that's gonna really be a blast… There are a lot of great songs in that stretch of my songbook, so that's the focal point. The new record is the focal point. I think Hüsker hits are a focal point. You know, a lot of the Workbook stuff is so great in the acoustic setting; I might just leave it where it works best. It's rock time.

I'm going up for the Philly show as well. It's just too darn good a time to pass up. Who knows if he'll ever do this again. When the band blasts into "Could You Be the One?" it just doesn't get much better than that. The way that Brendan sets that frantic pace through the Husker Du material is a thing of beauty. This is one of the better rock shows anyone can see this year. Hate to say it, but it blew away the Queens of the Stone Age show I saw earlier this year.

ah, to hear the praise of kindred spirits. new day rising was definitely a turning point in my little life.
and what a great ride since then. his career has given us celebration, angst, sorrow, regret, longing, love, lust, energy, comfort, and ever present celebration.
i always think of him when i see those commercials with the guy calmly listening to his ipod or equiv. yet his shadow or reflection is totally jamming.
that is what mr mould has always given me, my own little jam session.
less than 48 hours. i will be the one having more fun than anyone else. maybe including you.

Hmmmm…someone possibly giving me a run for the money? Well than by all means, rock out we shall. In less than 24 hours I get to see him in Philly :)

vh1 classic just played sugar's "helpless" … great tune …

Originally posted by HoyaParanoia:
vh1 classic just played sugar's "helpless" … great tune …

indeed. . ."hoover dam" is probably my favourite off of copper blue though. course, when sugar played it live, it was over in like 30 seconds.

It doesn't take them too long to get through "Hoover Dam" on this tour…but the ones that they really blast through are "Could You Be the One?", "A Good Idea", and "Makes No Sense At All". I can't friggin' wait for tonight's show at the Troc. Does anyone know if you can bring a camera in? Not necessarily to take photos, but just to have on you for later?

Can anyone tell me about Copeland?

They're labelmates of "the other band named cartel"

i "dogpile"d them and found a video on mtv's site.

14 hours and counting. i just shined my shoes.

Mould Plans Live DVD, Acoustic Tour
By Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

To chronicle his first tour with an electric band in seven years, Bob Mould will film a tomorrow's (Oct. 7) show at the 9:30 Club in his Washington, D.C., home for a live DVD. "It will be a seven-camera shoot with the same crew that [drummer] Brendan [Canty] uses for [the live DVD series] 'Burn To Shine,'" Mould told Billboard.com last night (Oct. 5) after his show at New York's Irving Plaza.

The trek, which winds down Oct. 15 in Los Angeles, has found Mould performing everything from Husker Du classics ("Makes No Sense At All," "Celebrated Summer," "Chartered Trips," "I Apologize") to solo cuts ("Egoverride," "See a Little Light") and songs from his sting fronting rock trio Sugar ("A Good Idea," "Changes," "If I Can't Change Your Mind," "The Act We Act").

Mould is also playing a healthy dose of his new album, "Body of Song," released in late July via Yep Roc. The set, which features Fugazi drummer Canty on drums, debuted at No. 22 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart.

Having rocked out for the past month, Mould will take some time off before returning the road for an 11-date acoustic tour that gets underway Nov. 11 in Cleveland.

Here are Bob Mould's acoustic dates:

Nov. 11: Cleveland (Grog Shop)
Nov. 12: Indianapolis (Vogue)
Nov. 13: Madison, Wis. (Stage Door)
Nov. 15: Milwaukee, Wis. (Shank Hall)
Nov. 16: Ann Arbor, Mich. (the Ark)
Nov. 18: Louisville, Ky. (Headliners)
Nov. 19: Columbus, Ohio (Little Brother's)
Nov. 25: Annapolis, Md. (Ram's Head Tavern
Nov. 29: Alexandria, Va. (Birchmere)
Dec. 2: Philadelphia (North Star)
Dec. 3: Brooklyn, N.Y. (North Six)

October 7, 2005

A Punk Adventurer Returns in Both Old and New Form

By JON PARELES
The New York Times

Bob Mould was still a teenager in 1979, when his trio Husker Du played its first performance. By the mid-1980's, the band's melodic roar and Mr. Mould's frayed, exasperated, adamant voice had pointed the way toward both grunge and emo. Mr. Mould's next band, Sugar, continued to use Husker Du's old blare, but more recently Mr. Mould, 44, has tried to pull away from that sound: performing solo on acoustic guitar and, in the studio, toying with electronic sounds.

Yet neither his audience nor his ear will let him give up the electric guitar. At Irving Plaza on Wednesday night, he was back in a black T-shirt, leading a band through new and old songs with the old amplified roar.

The set dug into Mr. Mould's latest album, "Body of Song" (Yep Roc), along with half the songs from Sugar's 1992 album, "Copper Blue" (Rykodisc). Perhaps he was self-conscious about reclaiming his old sound; he opened the set with a Sugar song, "The Act We Act," which muses, "The act we act is wearing thin/ I think we wear it out again."

As he did with Sugar, Mr. Mould mixes guitars and keyboards in his new songs, particularly the swelling psychedelic drone of "I Am Vision, I Am Sound." His band includes Richard Morel on keyboards, recreating parts Mr. Mould played on the album. But with Brendan Canty (from Fugazi) on drums and Jason Narducy on bass and harmony vocals, many of the songs harked back to the power-trio impact of Husker Du, and the sound and songs hadn't worn thin at all.

That's because Mr. Mould was hardly naïve to begin with. "Walking around with your head in the clouds makes no sense at all," he declared in the Husker Du song he used as a final encore, and his songs, old and new, are filled with failing romances and other disappointments he's determined to overcome.

The songs are also built on punk simplicity and pop tunefulness: just three or four chords supporting well-shaped melodies. Mr. Mould is a skillful lead guitarist; he played barbed, Celtic-tinged lines in "Hoover Dam," and bits of jabbing hard rock elsewhere. But punk economy reigned. Most songs didn't bother with solos at all, and he often played two or three without a pause.

Mr. Mould's newer songs have more to reflect on, and they aren't in the rush that Husker Du's songs often were. He allowed himself a ballad now and then. But slowing down was a choice; Mr. Mould sounded perfectly at home when the music revved up to punk speed and his voice rose to match it. He probably won't keep playing this kind of music forever; he's clearly fascinated by other approaches. But many of his fans wouldn't mind if he did.