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join the army or a cult, becomes a musician and finally winds up at
a computer company before waking up and realizing that it was all a dream.
The narative may not be that explicit, but Mould wanted the record "to leave
things up to people's imaginations instead of making concrete definitions.
We didn't want it to be a rock opera."
"Zen Arcade" has hit the top of independent record charts and is a mainstay of
college radio stations. Not bad for a group that could barely play its
instruments when it started in 1979.
"We didn't even know what hard core was wen we started," Mould explained. "We
just wanted to play fast." Taking its Swedish1
name (translation: "Do you
remember?") from a children's board game, the ragged but determined trio
released its first single in May, 19792.
The first stirrings of national interest came with the blitzkrieg combo's
appropriately titled 1982 live album, "Land Speed Record," released on New
Alliance, the label run by L.A.'s Minutemen, whom the Huskers met through
Black Flag (Husker Du now records for Black Flag's SST Records).
Like the Minutemen, Husker Du is a band that maintains a no-pose stance. "We
wear everyday clothes and sing songs about
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everyday stories,"
Mould noted. "People get the image that we'll have
Mohawks (haircuts). When they see us
setting up, they think we're the road crew — then we plug in and
blow them against the wall!
We don't have pretensions to anything but writing good songs.
The group is already at work on its next album, "New Day Rising," and Mould,
who shares the songwriting credits with drummer Grant Hart (bassist Greg Norton
completes the lineup), feels it's a stronger album than "Zen Arcade." "It's
more first-person in a third-person way," he said.
Husker Du has even started attracting major-label interest, an unusual
situation for a group whose music Mould describes as "not so much a wall of
sound, but more like a bed of nails."
Mould says the group's recent show at New York's Ritz was attended by a host
of record company execs, but he views the situation with bemused
detachment.
"With record compaines, it's like a game to see which label doesn't
get you first, rather than who does," he said. "It's nice that they're
interested, but it doesn't matter to us if we sell 2 million records or
two records. We're interested in making music because it's our living."
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