Pages of Rage, 1984

This long, rambling interview is from Pages of Rage #5, out of Winnipeg MB, where the Hüskers were in the midst of a four-show, two-night stand at the Royal Albert Arms (the series that furnished the live "Masochism World" used for the B-side of "Eight Miles High"). The interview, which features mostly Bob, some Grant, and a smidgen of Greg, was conducted 21 Jan 1984.



     To say that HUSKER DU have evol-
ved from their first album 'Land
Speed Record' is a non-statement.
It also stands to reason that a band
that has been around for so long is
subject to change, and in HUSKER DU
the change is obvious,  Although we
find it strange that the Huskers have
never played Wpg until this recent
show we also admire the band for their
non-conformist attitudes.  This is a
fanzine and typically we interview
the bands we enjoy the most.  In the
case of the Huskers, we watched and
listened with open minds and although
we felt the Huskers were competent
musicians with a fresh, honest ap-
proach, we honestly weren't impressed.
Call us hypocrites, here's what happ-
ened.
HUSKER DU are:
Bob Mould:  Guitar, Vocals
Greg Norton:  Bass, Vocals
Grant Hart:  Drums, Vocals

WHAT'S MINNEAPOLIS LIKE THESE DAYS?
B - The Upper Deck closed; that was
a place where a lot of bands played
for a lot of years.  It closed in
October.
I HEARD IT WAS A RIOT

G - The whole thing was advertised as "The Last Night Ever" at the Upper Deck. I'd left by the time any trouble had broken out, but it seemed like there was a lot of under- lying things happening that caused things to erupt. The bouncers un-







plugged the band; they started boun-
cing....  The papers said it was an
all-out riot.
B - It was a tax writeoff.  But the-
re's still the 7th Street Entry,
Duffy's.
WHAT HAVE YOU GUYS BEEN DOING?
B - We were out on the West Coast in
October and we went out East in Dec-
ember.  We haven't been traveling
that much compared to what we used
to do.  We used to tour constantly.
It gets tiring after a while.  We're
gonna take a break for a while, about
four or five months.
GONNA RECORD ANY BANDS ON YOUR LABEL?
B - Yeah, we got two singles coming
out this week on Reflex, OTTO'S CHEM-
ICAL LOUNGE and FINAL CONFLICT, and
we're gonna start work next week on
Ground Zero's album, so that should
be out in about four or five months.
ARE YOU STILL ON YOUR OWN LABEL?
B - No, we're on SST Records.
IS YOUR LABEL JUST SOMETHING YOU DO
PUTTING OUT MINNEAPOLIS BANDS?
B - We don't have the money to put
out our own records, silly as it
sounds, since we're running a record
label.  But what happens is you have
put all this money up front for 5000
records, jackets, whatever; that costs
a lot of money.  We just don't have









that kind of money to throw around.  It's
easier to work with smaller bands and
keep it sustaining itself, whereas SST
has the machinery, the extended credit,
stuff like that, where they don't have
to play it all at once.  Being a smaller
label, we can't do that.
ARE ANY OF YOUR RECORDS RELEASED IN
EUROPE?
B - The new one's out in Europe.  So
is Land Speed Record.
HOW WELL DO YOU THINK YOU'D GO OVER
IF YOU PLAYED THERE?

B - I don't know, I guess we'd probably
go over all right...just do what we're
gonna do.  You know we're not gonna
change our clothes or nothing, or put
shit in our hair or something.  BLACK

FLAG got a real negative response,
it seemed like.  They're doing a lot
better there now because the
bands that were criticizing them
have all pretty much fallen out of
favor now, like the EXPLOITED.  It's
just nice to have the records out
over there; it's exposure.  We'd
like to go over there; we were sup-
posed to go over there two times
before.  We're supposed to go over

[Continued]