By DAVID PERRY
Sun Staff
When Husker Du fired Grant Hart and called it quits in early 1988, rock lost one of its smartest, most bracing acts. The Minneapolis trio's growth was obvious with each new record,
CONCERT PREVIEW:
Guitarist Bob Mould at Boston's Citi club, Wednesday
from the thrashing 1981 independent label debut, to 1987's masterful mix of blazing rock and pop on major-label double-disc Warehouse: Songs and Stories.
Guitarist Bob Mould, known for his crackling blitzkrieg guitar, put out the introspective, largely acoustic Workbook.
Mould, who plays Boston's Citi club Wednesday, has returned to loud aggression with the new Black Sheets of Rain.
Mould says much of the high-volume intensity that marks Black Sheets of Rain comes from his recent move from his Minnesota farm to New York. "New York definitely leaves its impact on you day after day," he said from his New York home in a recent telephone interview. "Workbook was more pastoral, this is compact. And in the wake of that
"In the country, the air is cleaner and the water is pure. It's not quite like that here. You're just surrounded by homelessness and despair.
"Moving away from the farm was a big deal. I felt like people knew so much about what was going on that it wasn't mine anymore. I really wanted to do other things."
The result is a tough, post-punk catharsis, filled with lyrics of hoplessness and hurt. "Yeah," says Mould, "the usual heavy stuff." Much of the same bitterness marked Hart's forced departure (reportedly because of heavy drug use) and the war of quotes that followed the release of Workbook.
"Workbook set quite a distance between the past and present," said Mould. "In the aftermath of the band, other members made some pretty extreme statements that were hurtful. I'm content to let it go."
Mould was introduced to music at age 4 when he found a box of jukebox singles in his house.
"My dad ran a grocery store, and when the vendor brought around a batch of new ones, he just brought them home."
Mould took up keyboards a few years later, and eventually found guitar.