NOT A REVIEW

I was the right age for American hardcore, but it really never appealed to me in a huge way.  Sure I have my early Black Flag stuff, I owned “Group Sex” by the Circle Jerks for a while, I still have my Crucifucks comp, the Dead Kennedys are awesome (but they’re also so much more than “hardcore”) but, for the most part, I like my guitar tunes to have a little more rhythm.

As an old man, this is even more true.  I still listen to my old Husker Du albums, but let’s face it – anything before “Zen Arcade” isn’t really essential.  People will tell you how they were so much better than the average hardcore band, but is that really saying much?  They never attained greatness until they discovered melody.

So, I’ll probably have to pass on the new retrospective of ultra-early recordings “Savage Young Du”.  Would I ever listen to it?  Once, maybe.  Does the included book sound cool?  Hell, yeah, so maybe I’ll buy it for that if I ever find a cheap copy.  I already own the Rykodisc reissue of “Everything Falls Apart” w/ bonus tracks, so I don’t need that material, and an even a better sounding version of “Land Speed Record” is still “Land Speed Record”.

I have no idea why the SST stuff isn’t being remastered and reissued.  Ginn and Mould are both proven assholes, so who’s to say where the fault lies here?  I know that Ginn declined to let the SST stuff be used in a box set, so it looks like the fault might lie on his doorstep but, shit, sue the fucker and get the master tapes back, you know?  Worked for Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr and the Meat Puppets……

And about Ginn – the man is living proof that smoking pot makes you stupid. To go from Black Flag/Minutemen/Husker Du to all that free jazz and 3^rd rate Sabbath sludge and Greg Ginn side project crap in such a short time – just, wow.  They were still releasing some good shit up to about ’90 or so (Leaving Trains, Dinosaur Jr, Buffalo Tom, Screaming Trees), but the majority of it was the sound of half-baked slackers jerking off.

But I digress.

For the youngsters, I’d recommend box set, just cuz it’s Husker Du.  For seniors such as myself, we’ll stick to the Starlight Vocal Band.