Well it's been almost a month since I last left you with Part One of our examination of Minneapolis in 1984, or "MPLS1984" as I'd like to call this series. Thanks for sitting tight avid blog readers, for Part Two is here! You haven't been this hungry since Supreme Clientele!

Into The Threshold

There was something about growing up in a Midwest town that just made you want to leave. Being from the Midwest made you know that whatever was not labeled "Midwest" had what you were looking for and where you had to be. Reagan made the world a bleak place for young people, and as a result of this and appalingly horrible popular culture, a large underground music scene sprung up across America. In big city and little towns alike, bands and record labels sprung out of the woodwork as an outlet for teenagers who didn't want their MTV. Minneapolis was no different, and the decade saw from the city spring a fertile punk scene. Little is remembered of this scene aside from three key bands: The Replacements (stay tuned!), Soul Asylum (there's one in every family), and VH1-approved Hüsker Dü (#68!).

The Huskers started out as an amphetamine-fueled hardcore outfit performing songs not only faster and louder than anyone in the town had seen at the time, but eventually more expansive and songwriting-oriented than most hardcore bands at the time; they were equally inspired by the likes of Black Flag and Wire. The band would eventually be signed to Greg Ginn's SST Records after performing at a Black Flag afterparty.

After a trio of appropriately titled releases (Land Speed Record, Everything Falls Apart, and Metal Circus), the band sought to expand their horizons and while on tour churned out the ambitious double album Zen Arcade. Recorded in a total of 85 hours and almost entirely first-takes, the underground hadn't seen an album quite like it: it was an amalgumation of hardcore, punk, indie rock, jazz, folk, and psychedelia and one could extract from it the tale of a young boy running away from his self-destructing home ("Broken Home, Broken Heart"), discovering the world ("Beyond The Threshold"), and realizing the disturbing nature of the outside ("Turn On The News").

However, whatever plot there may be behind Zen Arcade (and whether or not it was all just a dream as evidenced by the 14-minute conclusion "Reoccuring Dreams") is irrelevant when compared to what it represented to the independent scene at the time. Up to that point in time, no other album had reached its levels of artistic ambition and served as a beacon for the independent bands. One other double album was also released that year on SST, The Minutemen's remarkable Double Nickels On The Dime. Both of these double-monsters stood for two sides of the same coin. While Double Nickels represented the D.I.Y. ethic and purist attitude prevalent among the independent, Zen Arcade was the realization of the potential of the edgy, convention-destroying music of the likes of Sonic Youth, Mission Of Burma, and Big Black.

Hüsker Dü was living the dream of dreaming the dream, spreading the seeds that would blossom in that fateful year of 1992. Although they would eventually be signed to Sire much like thier crosstown rivals The Replacements, the Huskers never recieved that big break they had hoped for.  Hüsker Dü would eventually implode from internal strife and would remain in relative obscurity, barely recieving credit where credit was due. Zen Arcade is a contribution to pop music that is hard to pay back, and it is one that every one of us owes to them.

- Carman

Download: Hüsker Dü – "The Newest Industry" (EXPIRED)