The band that famously blasted through 17 songs in 26 minutes at 7th St. Entry to create its 1982 album “Land Speed Record,” Hüsker Dü is on something of a tear again.
A live EP featuring 1985 recordings at First Avenue in January 1985 was rush-released to streaming platforms without advance notice Tuesday, along with a promise that there are more live recordings to come. This is only the fourth formal catalog release by the Twin Cities punk trio since its acrimonious breakup in 1988.
Chicago’s renowned reissue label Numero Music Group announced the five-song EP — simply titled “Jan. 30, First Ave Pt. 1” — on its social media channels along with a lengthy note explaining the circumstances behind it.
“On January 30, 1985, Hüsker Dü recorded a peak high performance to 24 track tape at Minneapolis’ First Avenue club in front of their hometown massive,” the post reads.
“This performance was supposed to come out as a live album later that year, but the band’s rapid upward trajectory caused priorities to shift. The tapes were shelved — thought to be possibly lost in the same 2011 house fire that consumed a precious portion of the Hüsker Dü archive.”
Numero went on to explain that the recordings were “rescued from the abyss” and remastered at late Nirvana/Pixies producer Steve Albini’s studio Electrical Audio in Chicago with Beau Sorenson handling the mixing. That’s the same studio and engineer that Hüskers singer/guitarist Bob Mould enlisted for the making of his rager of a new solo album, “Here We Go Crazy.”
Lots of details were left out by Numero, though. The Chicago label also did a long, fun rollout of the band’s 2017 box set of early demos and unreleased recordings, “Savage Young Dü,” which singer/drummer Grant Hart helped cull together before his death to cancer that year.
The First Avenue concert will be paired with other live recordings from 1985 as an ambitious box set that will be released late in the year, which marks the 40th anniversary of that pivotal year in the group’s short but impactful trajectory.
