Perhaps you can imagine that the Hardcore, shaped by the Hardcore, simply overwhelmed from the mid-1980s. Too many ideas, too many ambitions and vanities. The scene became too small, this small world, as Bob Mould she describes in his book “See A Little Light”: spending the night with friends of friends, the community excluded, exclude any kind of sale.
Recommendations of the editorial team
Molds Hüsker Dü now also wanted more. Her fifth album Candy Apple Gray moved away from the rattled Hardcore of early recordings in 1986. Sure, the anger was still there. But it has now been channeled. “Crystal” is the name of the song with which Hüsker Dü are represented on this box. On four CDs, curator Mark Arm from Mudhoney traces how it sounded when hard and post-hardcore formed into many new subgenres. Of which became so successful from the end of the eighties and alternative skirt that the English had to invent Britpop to regain dominance.
81 tracks are in the box, but there is a lot of missing. What not? The US UNDERBROUND experienced a creative explosion. Bands like the Meat Puppets, Dinosaur Jr., Pixies, Luscious Jackson, Soundgarden, Flaming Lips, L7, Pavement, Mother Love Bone or Sonic Youth all got back in their way. A style of music that was still quite dead in 1984, stunned from the FCKW from the hairspray cans of the Poser bands. Because there were no rights to obtain this project with many relevant bands, a lot of names are missing. Mark Arm ensures a few great finds. The Superobskure “Plan” from Pavements early drummer and nonsens performer Gary Young. Or the crazy groovy “My Only Fan” by Malfunkshun, the proto-grung band by Andrew Wood, before he founded Mother Love Bone in 1988
This review first appeared in the MusikExpress 10/2025.