Song of the Day: Hüsker Dü, "Ice Cold Ice"

Just like that, the guest host of Chelsea Lately goes back to being punk. Here's Dave Grohl joining Bob Mould for Hüsker Dü's "Ice Cold Ice," in a clip from a Mould concert film that's currently taking donations on Kickstarter.



Mould is usually pigeonholed as Hüsker Dü's "difficult" songwriter, as opposed to the poppier Grant Hart, but he wrote a perfectly dour pop-rock song here. Had R.E.M. recorded it, or maybe even if Hüsker Dü had not split up before the year that punk broke, it would be played on FM radio today.

Instead, "Ice Cold Ice" was Hüsker Dü's last single before breaking up. How many other bands have ever blitzed out so forcefully?

Song of the Day, Hüsker Dü, "Makes No Sense at All"

How did it take me so long to get Flip Your Wig? Everything I'd read about Zen Arcade and New Day Rising on Allmusic.com and the Spin Alternative Record Guide led me to believe that they were Hüsker Dü's best records, but over ten years later I'm getting just as delirious for Flip Your Wig, released in the same one and a half-year period of creativity.

Maybe "Makes No Sense At All" would have been Copper Blue's hit, had Bob Mould saved it for a few years. It'd be unthinkable in 1985, but now it sounds more radio-friendly (in an alternative way) than anything on Mould's newest, Silver Age.




Grant Hart gets most credit for writing Hüsker Dü's catchiest songs, but I think this one is more ingratiating than anything else that they ever recorded. I also like the lyrics--how many songs do you know about arguments that aren't about break-ups? Stressing that point for the sake of both Mould and Hart.

Song of the Day: Sugar, "If I Can't Change Your Mind"

Sugar's Copper Blue is having its best year ever. A sweet 20th anniversary reissue and a tribute tour from frontman Bob Mould, in which he's playing the album front to back, are both making the case that his penchant for the supermelodic didn't stop with Hüsker Dü. Watching him perform Copper Blue last Friday, much of it sounded as strong as his renditions of "Something I Learned Today, "I Apologize" and "Makes No Sense at All."

Is there anyone who likes rock music who can dislike this song?



Copper Blue is often thought of as Mould's stab at commercial success. Released post-Nevermind, when alternative rock had taken over the airwaves and Mould was maturing into a more tuneful and less belligerent songwriter, it almost seems surprising that it didn't go gold. But if Sugar can't change your mind...

Five Songs for Neil Armstrong that aren't R.E.M.'s "Man on the Moon"

In Flames, "Moonshield"

What is the Moonshield? And why must one reach for it? NASA, In Flames is concerned about you.



Iron Maiden, "Moonchild"

Neil had already made it and returned by the time Maiden dropped Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, but Maiden preferred to honor earth's orbiter with Aleister Crowley characters.



Smashing Pumpkins, "Tonight, Tonight"

In his best years, Billy Corgan knew more about what to do with a high budget than any other alternative rocker. This song is about Chicago, but the video is a creative re-imagining of Georges Méliès' A Trip to the Moon.



Sugar, "Man on the Moon"

2012 is a great year for Copper Blue, now enjoying a three-disc reissue and getting played in its entirety on Bob Mould's current tour. Check it out as one of the first glimpses that the guitarist from Hüsker Dü would get poppy enough to write the Daily Show theme.



Ernie, "I Don't Want to Live on the  Moon"

I don't know many songs about rainbows, but there are plenty about the moon. None more transcendent than this one.