Cataloguing: A Bob Mould Retrospective
American songwriter on the best of his post-Dü work...
Not all punk veterans have a work ethic like *Bob Mould*. It’s one thing that he’s released a positively raging new album entitled ‘Blue Hearts’ - his fifth in eight years, emerging swiftly after last year’s sterling ‘Sunshine Rock’ - but hot on its heels comes further illustration in the form of his new compilation ‘Distortion: 1989-2019’. Gathering a total of 18 studio albums, four live albums and various rarities collections, with every track newly remastered, it’s a pretty good way to get your head around everything he’s released since his seminal power trio Hüsker Dü split up in 1988.
We catch up with Bob via telephone from San Francisco, where he’s dealing with the effects of the California wildfires, following ‘varying states of lockdown’ prompted by the coronavirus pandemic, but he’s in good spirits.
‘Blue Hearts’ - his most politically-charged work in some time - has been extremely well received, demonstrating how this particular songwriter is always looking forward even as ‘Distortion’ looks back. “Sort of like a weird rip in the fabric of time,” he chuckles, making this a fine opportunity for us to explore some of his favourite songs from a remarkable back catalogue.
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*SUNSPOTS*
The instrumental opener to ‘Workbook’, Bob’s 1989 solo debut. Comprising delicate, acoustic finger-picking and soft melodies, it’s a far cry from the scorching punk of his first band.
“That was the first thing that anybody heard after I left Hüsker Dü. it’s a curious song; probably the last thing anybody would have expected after the fire that was Hüsker Dü was extinguished. A beautiful little finger-picked guitar introduction to what I hoped would be a new language for me.
“In 1988, the year that I spent writing ‘Workbook’, I was up on a farm in northern Minnesota and not really connected to the world much. A fellow at Nonesuch Records sent me a box of world music. I remember there was a lot of Appalachian bluegrass in there, a lot of Celtic music… Those were the things that were informing my new approach to the guitar.
“Finger-picking - I’m terrible at it. If you asked me to play that song right now, I’d probably have to spend ten minutes refreshing my fingerpicking. It was just totally the opposite of what I’m sure people were expecting and I enjoyed that song for that.”
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*IT’S TOO LATE*
A blast of sunny melody set against a darker message, serving as a fine introduction to his face-melting sophomore effort ‘Black Sheets Of Rain’.
“A pop song, but it had a political conscience to it. It was talking about the climate; the destruction of the world by corporate forces, and it was also one of my gestures as part of the LGBT community - at that time not being out, but being mindful of the community.
“I put a lot of politics into the video for that song, including [the slogan] ‘silence = death’, which was a nod to the folks at Act Up. In 1989 they really started doing all the heavy work to get the United States government and the world at large to pay attention to HIV/AIDS. They’re very important; political protest and theatre combined.
“Larry Kramer was one of the main protagonists and oddly enough a lot of his vitriol was hurled at the NIAID’s Anthony Fauci - who’s now being victimised by Donald Trump. It was a really pivotal moment for HIV/AIDS and the World Health Organisation.”
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*HOOVER DAM*
The centrepiece of ‘Copper Blue’, Bob’s commercial high point with his early 90s outfit Sugar, and still a regular feature in his live sets.
“Oh my gosh, what a great song! All the great ‘60s pop songwriting homages that are in there - the harpsichord solo, the nods to The Left Banke, flip-the-tape-upside-down Beatles era… it’s just loaded up with all the good stuff.
“Great pop songs… I get lucky once in a while with good ones, but the ones that set a place and a time immediately - you know, ‘Standing on the edge of the Hoover Dam, on the centreline, right between two states of mind’ - I don’t get that lucky that often. It’s one of my favourite compositions, to be sure.
“I’ve been there [the dam itself] many times, it’s a gigantic structure - when you’re up on it, you’re between two time zones, you’re standing in the winds, you’re over the Colarado River, there’s a lot of massive power lines… it’s a pretty powerful setting. That’s such an easy place to start in terms of metaphor.”
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*JC AUTO*
A full-pelt stormer from ‘Beaster’, the raging yin to ‘Copper Blue’s sweetly melodic yang, which sees Bob howling ‘I’m your Jesus Christ’ at its apocalyptic peak.
“Oh boy. ‘Copper Blue’ and ‘Beaster’ were recorded in the same session, that was the same three-month period for both records. ‘JC Auto’ was the central point of that suite of songs, so I guess it’s the core of that record. It’s autobiographical - that’s the JC Auto part, the Jesus Christ autobiography.
“It’s just one of those blood-letters that people love, and that I don’t really want [to play] on stage (laughs). If I do, there goes the rest of the tour because I will lose my voice!
“The record sets a pretty high bar for that kind of emotional content and that kind of performance - going out and doing that every night was a lot of work. I was 32 years old; I can’t imagine having that sustained rage at this point in my life.”
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*CIRCLES*
In 2005, after a few years away from guitar-focused work, Bob returned with ‘Body of Song’ - a fusion of rock and electronica bolstered by Fugazi’s Brendan Canty on drums.
“In the 2000s I moved pretty deeply into electronica, with the beginning of my DJ life in Washington DC with my work partner Rich Morrell. We started a party called Blowoff at the beginning of 2003 and that was a very successful DJ night for 11 years. It was a really popular event for the LGBT community - I guess specifically the bear community.
“When I walked away from the rock music motif in late 1998, I seriously thought, ‘I’m done with this.’ Part of the reason I wanted to get away from rock music was to spend my time in New York City in the gay community, finding my sexual identity and a new lifestyle and really changing myself as a person.
“I guess when I came back to it in ‘05 and started touring at the behest of Brendan Canty, it was nice to come back. People were happy to have me back, there were good shows, and it was the beginning of rebuilding that part of my musical identity alongside my electronica, alongside Blowoff and all the DJ stuff, which was really important to me as well.”
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*SHELTER ME*
2008’s ‘District Line’ offered something a little closer to Bob’s surging anthems of old, in particular with single ‘The Silence Between Us’, but also found time to explore house music.
“‘Shelter Me’ was the most straight-up progressive house track that I have ever written. I felt with that song that I had really nailed the vibe of a lot of things I was listening to at the time - a lot of the stuff on [trance/progressive house label] Anjunabeats, I’m really really fond of all the music they’ve put out over the decades. I guess after that one I was like, ‘Woah, I pretty much mined that thing as much as I need to.’
“With ‘District Line’ I was digging a lot of the simple pop music at the time, like Kelly Clarkson - you know, really cleanly written pop-rock songs... God, what a great voice and strong presence. What’s not to like?
“She’s a pretty honest artist, I think… I would love to try to write with her. Boy, to be able to write for someone who has that kind of range? That would be a blast. After Janelle Monae says no, maybe Kelly Clarkson’ll say yes!”
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*I’M SORRY, BABY, BUT YOU CAN’T STAND IN MY LIGHT ANYMORE*
A ballad for the ages from 2009’s ‘Life and Times’ - the first record in Bob’s catalogue to feature Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster, who remains in his band to this day.
“Jon Wurster always reminds me about this song. It’s an homage to early-to-mid-’70s American AM pop, but also it’s so like classic country. Just the whole story - ‘maybe i’m the broken one’, calling back a lot of Phil Spector, a lot of old Philly records, Righteous Brothers... all those vibes, wrapping all that up in one song. “Maybe someone will cover it one day as a country song. That’s the world that that comes from.
“Jon came in and learned the songs real quick and added a lot of life to the demos that I had made for the record. In retrospect I don’t know if I utilised Jon’s capabilities to their full potential on that record, but we certainly remedied that next time around.”
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*THE DESCENT*
From ‘Silver Age’, which introduced us to his current band of Wurster and bass lieutenant Jason Narducy, and kickstarted the hot streak that led to this year’s album ‘Blue Hearts’.
”The beginning of the fun times! 2011… that was a great year. The book [Bob’s autobiography ‘See A Little Light’] was well received, the work with Foo Fighters was well received [he guested on their album ‘Wasted Light]’, and all of that led to a really great, quick writing period that got ‘Silver Age’ in shape. Got Jon on board and Jason, then we got [engineer] Beau Sorenson and off we went, a great run of records that continues to this month.
“I think ‘return to form’ is fair. It was the 20th anniversary of ‘Copper Blue’, there was a lot of interest in the nostalgia of things. Merge Records came to me originally for the Sugar reissues and then I proposed a new album which they agreed to... so, much like right now, it was a lot of nostalgia mixed with a lot of current energy.
“So 2012 and 2020 are not that dissimilar; a lot of retrospective alongside what I think is some pretty solid, pretty vital new work. ‘Silver Age’ hearkened back at times to ‘Copper Blue’, at least in the intention of the record - intending to be a concise pop record. And ‘The Descent’ was a real good first song to share with people.”
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*VOICES IN MY HEAD*
The lead-off track to 2016’s ‘Patch The Sky’; a relatively downbeat record but still chock-full of Bob’s signature powerpop.
“‘Silver Age’ was a record that had a lot of shine, a lot of love and a lot of energy behind it. My dad passed while we were touring that record, and that loomed over the writing of [2014 LP] ‘Beauty And Ruin’, and then when i was touring that record my mom passed, which loomed over the writing and the making of ‘Patch The Sky’.
“Both pretty sombre records, I think - sort of a compounded depression, maybe. But ‘Voice’ was nice. The intro - just those couple of bars, all that ethereal sparkle and that deconstructed riff - it was two bars of the solo that were flipped round sequentially.
“The riff to me is very reminiscent of a song like ‘Wishing Well’ [from ‘Workbook’], where it’s just the 12-string, the voice, then the big solo. The subject matter’s very clear, I think the words speak for themselves.”
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*SUNSHINE ROCK*
A consciously upbeat follow-up to ‘Patch The Sky’ with some of the sunniest melodies in Bob’s catalogue.
”Now there’s a fast opener! And a celebration! That was the intention, to make an optimistic record. And also living in Berlin, that made a big difference. The Berlin years were really great for me.
“After losing both my folks, San Francisco was starting to get me down a little bit. I wanted a change and had a lot of friends in Berlin. It’s a really progressive city, it’s got a really great gay history much like San Francisco; a lot of great art, a lot of great culture, a lot of great history. ‘Sunshine Rock’ is definitely a love letter to that city - just renditions of days, literally just chronicling days of happiness after years of sustained depression. It was nice to go to Berlin to write my happy record. Go figure.
“You see how it goes, right? I just sort of find a thing, and if it makes me happy I just keep following that thread as long as it can hold my attention… until the thread breaks, I guess. The beauty of getting to now; a thread that’s strong and durable and colourful, you stitch with it as long as you can, but after 40-plus years, there’s a whole bunch of different threads, different colours… that’s sort of what the box will hopefully show. It’s a lot of fun. I do it every day. It’s a good job to have.”
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Distortion: 1989-2019’ is out now - order it *HERE.*
Words: *Will Fitzpatrick*‘
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