Listening Post (5/14/11)

As with the various other incarnations of my blog, music will play a heavy role in this one, too.  So, for the first installment of the Listening Post, it seems appropriate to share a song from the album that provides my new blog with its name.  Hailing from Minneapolis, Hüsker Dü is one of the greatest bands to burble up out of the American underground in the early 1980′s. Mixing punk ferocity with the unbelievable melodic gifts of band leaders Bob Mould and Grant Hart, Hüsker Dü (along with compatriots R.E.M., The Replacements, and Pixies) not only epitomized what was great about American music in the 80′s, but provided what would become the template for “alternative music” in the 90′s.

The band recorded at least three classic albums in its short lifespan – among them 1984′s Zen Arcade and 1985′s New Day Rising – and the title of this blog comes from their final effort, recorded as the band was disintegrating in a storm of mutual acrimony and heroin abuse.  This is the lead-off track from that album, 1987′s Warehouse: Songs and Stories, and it’s called “These Important Years.”  Enjoy.