The August Album Challenge: 9. Three Piece Band

There have been some pretty amazing and successful three piece bands throughout music history: Motörhead, Thin Lizzy, Nirvana, Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Shangri-Las (though at times there were four of them - long story!), Green Day, Manic Street Preachers (there was four for awhile), Cream, ZZ Top, Stray Cats, Crosby, Stills and Nash, The Minutemen, The Beastie Boys and The Jam to name but a few!

My pick for today is those Minnesota wonder boys Hüsker Dü and their second album of 1985 (New Day Rising was released in January of '85 and is a gem in its own right). Considered by some to be their finest album, Flip Your Wig was hugely successful (by their terms) on the UK Indie Charts reaching the top spot.

 Trouser Press describes the album as "Positively brilliant — fourteen unforgettable pop tunes played like armageddon were nigh", while AllMusic's review says "Flip Your Wig would be a remarkable record on its own terms, but the fact that it followed New Day Rising by a matter of months and Zen Arcade by just over a year is simply astonishing."

Flip Your Wig - Hüsker Dü

SST (SST 055)

Produced by Bob Mould and Grant Hart

Released September 1985

UK Indie #1

Single

Makes No Sense At All/Love Is All Around (Mary Tyler Moore Theme Tune)

Alphabet Beats #053: H is for....Hüsker Dü

H is for...

Hüsker Dü was an American rock band formed in Saint Paul, Minnesota in 1979. The band's continual members were guitarist/vocalist Bob Mould, bassist Greg Norton, and drummer/vocalist Grant Hart.

Hüsker Dü first gained notability as a hardcore punk band, later crossing over into alternative rock. Mould and Hart split the songwriting and singing duties.

Following an EP and three LPs on independent label SST Records, including the critically acclaimed Zen Arcade (1984), the band signed to Warner Bros. Records in 1986 to release their final two studio albums.

Click on the links to have your ears assaulted with thunderous noise!

The Albums

Land Speed Record (1982)
    Everything Falls Apart (1983)
    Zen Arcade (1984)
    New Day Rising (1985)
    Flip Your Wig (1985)
    Candy Apple Grey (1986)
    Warehouse: Songs and Stories (1987)

Everything Falls Apart and More (1993)

The Living End (1994)

Singles and EPs

Statues (1981)

In A Free Land (1982)

Metal Circus EP (1983)

Eight Miles High (1984)

Celebrated Summer (1984)

Makes No Sense At All (1985)

 Don't Want To Know If You're Lonely (1986)

Sorry Somehow (1986)

Could You Be The One? (1987)

 She's a Woman and Now He is a Man (1987)

Ice Cold Ice (1987)

Live in Camden London 1985