RIP Grant Hart

Husker Du changed my life.

I bet there are a lot of people out there who can say that. Husker Du were not just a great band, they were an important band. They had a musical vision that was unique, one that straddled the sound and fury of a great punk band, and the knowing ennui of suburban youth.

Husker Du, the trio made up of guitarist/vocalist Bob Mould, drummer/vocalist Grant Hart and bassist Greg Norton, were one of those bands that seemed to be more than they were. A band where fans heaped their hopes and dreams on their backs and wished them the best, to carry their dreams along with the band.

When I heard the band for the first time, I think it was about 1988, just after I had my punk phase in about 1987. I had heard bands like the Sex Pistols, UK Subs, The Exploited, all the old-school bands and fell in love with the sound. I had never heard music so loud and angry before. Sure, there were a lot of metalheads in high school, but that music didn't speak to me. Punk did.

Then when I heard Husker Du, there was something different about their approach to punk. Less nihilism, less noise, more melody. It was more mature. It wasn't exactly punk. While I didn't know it at the time, it was probably my first exposure to post-punk.

My exposure to their music came at the end of their career, with their two albums for Warner Brothers, 1986's Candy Apple Grey and 1987's Warehouse: Songs and Stories. By then, the band was a melodic noise-rock band, propelled by Mould's stellar guitar playing and both Hart and Mould's songwriting. "Could You Be the One" was a tour de force, an all-encapsulating song about what the band was and what it represented.

Grant Hart and Bob Mould shaped the Husker Du sound together. I immediately became a Bob Mould fan, but Grant Hart's music eluded me. It was subtler, denser, more difficult. And he was less prolific than Mould, so his work was harder to find. Remember, these were the pre-internet days, when you wanted an album, you had to go find it.

Hart's first band post-Husker Du was Nova Mob, who recorded for almost a decade before breaking up. Hart struck out on a solo career after that, recording sporadically up until his death this past week in 2017. His last album, 2013's The Argument, was introspective, and reminded me a lot of David Bowie.

Hart died at the age of 56 from liver cancer on September 13th, 2017