Hüsker Dü, "Never Talking to You Again"

I hope I never hate anyone as much as Grant Hart hates whomever he's singing about here.



In just over a minute and a half, with two chords and a few words repeated over again, Hüsker Dü's drummer wrote an impossible-to-forget breakup scene. Heartbreak songs can usually be divided into two categories--sympathetic and unsympathetic perspectives. But I have no idea where to put this one, where the narrator seems too hurt to hear how malicious he sounds. It's not a flattering choice for Hart, but it's a brave one. I'm commending him today for putting the song above his own self-image.

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.