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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZMOULD, Bob(b 16 October 1960) Guitarist, vinyl freak and pop junkie from Lake Placid MN who started punk trio Hüsker Dü (Swedish for 'do you remember') with Greg Norton on bass (b 13 March 1959, Davenport IA), Grant Hart on drums and vocals (b 18 March 1961, St Paul MN; d of cancer 14 September 2017); they began with an uncompromising loud thrash sound, but soon outgrew punk. Early albums on various minor labels were later on SST; the trio became critical favourites with Land Speed Record '82, EP In A Free Land, album Everything Falls Apart '83 and EP Metal Circus (long available as a 10-inch LP); Zen Arcade '84 was a two-disc concept album about a boy leaving home who turns out to be dreaming, which is getting pretty far from punk. After New Day Rising and Flip Your Wig they signed with WB and had two chart albums with Candy Apple Grey and two-disc Warehouse: Songs And Stories '86-7, then broke up. Eight Miles High/Makes No Sense At All compiles a cover of the Byrds hit and other things; The Living End was issued on WB '94. Mould began a solo career, endearingly issuing only vinyl singles for a while from his own company; then his albums were Workbook and Black Sheets Of Rain '89-90 on Virgin. The poppish Sugar was another trio, with David Barbe and Malcolm Travis: Copper Blue on Rykodisc was followed by Beaster '92, which compiled singles Mould had issued on vinyl plus demos and EP tracks; and the first 25,000 copies of the CD included a bonus disc of a concert recorded in Minneapolis. After Sugar's File Under: Easy Listening '94 came a third solo album Bob Mould '96 on Creation. He had always preferred his demos to finished studio product; on this one he wrote it (lyrics on the dark side), played all the instruments, produced it and even designed the sleeve; it had lots of guitar noise as well as acoustic strumming, and the sounds of side-ending and needle-lifting halfway through the CD. Life & Times 2009 was described as his 9th solo album by Greg Kot in the Chicago Tribune, whp praised his uaual 'direct-to-the-point songcraft'; Mould again played all the instruments, except for drums by Superchunk's Jon Wurster. |