Hüsker Dü
A collection of 28 previously unreleased early live tracks by hardcore powerhouse Hüsker Dü called Tonite Longhorn will be released later this month as a double-vinyl set at brick-and-mortar retailers for Record Store Day as well as on double-disc CD and in digital formats.
The collection is being released on Reflex Records and is assembled from the “historical Hüsker Dü recording archives” of Minneapolis punk scene mainstay Terry Katzman. It features songs recorded across three different shows in 1979 and 1980 at the Longhorn Bar in Minneapolis.
The 2CD and digital versions will be released April 21 — and can be pre-ordered via Amazon.com — while the 2LP Record Store Day edition will be available at participating independent retailers on April 22.
The label is pitching the live set — recorded more than a year before Grant Hart, Bob Mould and Greg Norton released their first Hüsker Dü single — as a companion to Savage Young Dü, the box set of early recordings released by Numero Group in 2017. “The 28 tracks presented here are the aural and enchanting equivalent of a time machine that vividly thrusts the listener straight back to Husker Dü’s embryonic unsheathing on stage,” Reflex Records writes.
You can get your first taste of the new live set via a 1979 recording of “Do You Remember?” below.
In announcing the new live album, Mould says:
“Most artists begin their careers by looking to their heroes for inspiration. Tonite Longhorn is a comprehensive overview of three teenagers paying homage, experimenting with different genres, and — most importantly — building a foundation for things to come. We knew what we had: good chemistry, great melodies and harmonies, and an overabundance of young (and sometimes dumb) enthusiasm. We knew we were different, and we knew we were on to something different.”
The set features new liner notes from Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, who writes:
“Hüsker Dü could play hardcore to death but they were not hardcore through and through – they were something else. And that’s what I fully related to and what I’m hearing in these live recordings unearthed from those days which made such magnanimous impressions it’s as if they are the batteries of our lives as we continue to tick off the years.”
The set also includes reproductions of original flyers and artwork, much of which was designed by the late Hart.
Below, check out “Do You Remember?” and the full tracklist.
Husker Dü, Tonite Longhorn
DISC 1
Live at Longhorn Bar: July 6, 1979
1. “Insects Rule the World
3. “Sex Dolls”
4. “Can’t See You Anymore”
5. “Sexual Economics”
6. “Do You Remember?”
7. “Nuclear Nightmare”
Live at Longhorn Bar: July 16, 1980
8. “All Tensed Up”
9. “Strange Week”
10. “Don’t Try to Call”
11. “Industrial Grocery Store”
12. “Do the Bee”
13. “Do You Remember?”
14. “Ode to Bode”
15. “Don’t Have a Life”
DISC 2
Live at Longhorn Bar: Sept. 25 1980
1. “All I’ve Got to Lose”
2. “Don’t Try It”
3. “Writer’s Cramp”
4. “Gilligan’s Island”
5. “What Went Wrong?”
6. “Uncle Ron”
7. “MTC”
8. “Drug Party”
9. “Chinese Rock”
10. “Termination”
11. “Call on Me”
12. “Gravity”
13. “Statues”
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- SPOT — SST Records’ producer for Black Flag, Minutemen, Hüsker Dü and more — has died
- Bob Mould to chronicle post-Hüsker Dü career with 24-disc ‘Distortion: 1989-2019’ box set
- Watch: Greg Norton joins The Posies onstage in St. Paul to blast through Hüsker Dü classics
- Stream this goldmine of ’80s/’90s live tapes from Sonic Youth, The Fall, Hüsker Dü, Pixies and more
- ‘Do You Remember’ 5-part podcast series to trace origins, legacy of Hüsker Dü
- Grant Hart, co-founder, songwriter and drummer for legendary Hüsker Dü, 1961-2017
