photo by Steve Hengstler

Hüsker Dü releasing previously unheard live album from 1979-80 (stream a track)

April 4, 2023

photo by Steve Hengstler

A previously unheard Hüsker Dü live album recorded across four nights between July 1979 and September 1980 at Minneapolis, MN’s Longhorn Bar has been announced. It’s called TONITE LONGHORN and it’s getting a limited edition 2xLP black vinyl release on Record Store Day (4/22), followed by a digital release on August 25 via the band’s own Reflex Records. The first single is an early performance of “Do You Remember?,” which was recorded for the band’s first demo and later released as an Everything Falls Apart bonus track and on Numero Group’s 2017 Savage Young Dü box set, and this live recording sounds even more garagey/’70s-style punk than the studio version. It’s a pretty far cry from the music they became best known for, but a fascinating peak into the band’s formative years and an early glimpse at their knack for pop melody. Check it out below.

Bob 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.”

Greg Norton says, “The audition. Bob was done with his freshman year and we didn’t have any gigs lined up. He was considering going home to Malone for the summer. Grant shows up all frantic and tells us we need to load the gear and get to the Longhorn, we had an audition. We arrived during their lunch service, load in and start playing. The manager comes storming out of his office and stops us. What the hell do you guys want? He asks. Grant says, we want to play here. He replies, fine, you can play the opening set Friday night, just stop playing and get out of here. That set is here, July 13th, 1979. We passed the ‘audition’ and the rest is history.”

The album includes original flyers and artwork (much of which was created by the late Grant Hart) and liner notes by Thurston Moore, who says:

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… “Sexual Economics” and “Do You Remember” are righteous rippers with Bob’s metallic and perfectly-fuzz-boxed guitar sounding like a punk take on the MC5, his leads sputtering off the fretboard like a demented refraction of Wayne Kramer and Fred ‘Sonic’ Smith. The momentum is like a horse bolted from its harness, where the specificity of notes get trashed on the way to the next immediate move, Grant’s drums rolling forth both in apprehension and thunderous command, Greg’s bass acting as two melodious hands, primal and swinging, holding the jowls of the guitarist and drummer, keeping the two in check as the trio blasts to a breathless finish line.

Check out the new song, artwork, and tracklist…