Hüsker Dü - Flip Your Wig

Hüsker Dü - Flip Your Wig
SST, 1985
Acquired: Love Garden, Used, 2010
Price: $8


I've been working my way through Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life lately. I never read the whole thing. It was assigned for my Pop Culture of the 1980s class and we only read the Black Flag chapter in that class, but I knew I wanted to read the rest of it someday. Fuck, that class was amazing, come to think of it. I mean, any class that requires you to read about punk rock is a good one, right, in particular that book. So I read the Minutemen chapter and then I skipped a bunch of pages and read the Husker Du chapter because, quite honestly, Husker Du is one of my favorite bands of all fucking time...in the future. When I'm 30, Husker Du will be in my top 5. There's some work to be done, but I know they will be there. I will obsess over Zen Arcade with the best of them. I know, I know. But right now, here's where I'm at: I adore New Day Rising and I wrote a song that directly references “I Don't Want to Know If You're Lonely” and that's my extent of Husker Du. But it should be more. Combining punk rock distortion with pop hooks is my goddamned bread and butter.

According to that book, this should have been Husker Du's major label debut. It's their most accessible record, apparently, and um, yeah, I kind of get that. It's catchy. But there's still a lot of New Day Rising in this one, after all, the records were released in the same year. 1985! Both before I was even fucking born! So yeah, writing about this record is weird. As if I know shit about anything, but Husker Du is the only band I deliberately steal from when I write songs. I long for Bob Mould's chord progressions. And Grant Hart's intensity in “Keep Hanging On,” fuck, to achieve that would be a goddamned dream. To find an album with at least four songs that leave me drained is a triumph. Blah blah blah blah blah. I felt like every song I ever wrote was just a different iteration of “Every Everything.” And how come I've never listened to this goddamned record before? Goddamnit. Goddamn, damnit. How does this band have two other records that are more highly acclaimed? Because this, my friends, is just tops.


It's alarming how well "Makes No Sense At All" syncs up with um, the theme song from "The Mary Tyler Moore Show."


But fuck if "Makes No Sense At All" is the most perfect blend of punk and pop ever. Listen to that shit! GODDAMNIT. GODDAMN GODDAMN A THOUSAND TIMES GODDAMN!