Numero Uno are set to release a 4 LP boxset of rare unissued tracks from the early years of Husker Du titled "Savage Young Du"..
From the label...
Experience the punishing sonic origins of a punk icon. Collected here for the first time, and skillfully remastered from original board tapes, demos, and session masters, this collection is an authoritative chronicling of the wellspring and maturation of Grant Hart, Greg Norton and Bob Mould—three St. Paul teenagers who'd go on to become the most heralded trio of the American punk underground.
Follow the Hüskers to their earliest gigs in 1979, through extensive road dog touring, and to the start of their partnership with West Coast tastemaker SST in 1983 via a 108-page hardbound book crammed full of photos, flyers, and a sprawling essay with participation from the band. Spread across four LPs, 47 of the 69 songs compiled here are previously unissued, and includes In A Free Land, Everything Falls Apart , and an alternate Land Speed Record.
Package details:
•4 LPs or 3CDs
•Tip on jackets or die cut sleeves
•108-page or 144-page hardcover book
•Linen-finished slipcase
•69 songs, 47 previously unissued
•Flyerography
•40 previously unpublished photographs
•12,000 word essay by Erin Osmon
•Sessionography by Paul Hilcoff
•Remastered from the original analog tapes
Preorder here.
We’ve also pressed up a limited edition bonus 7” for mail order customers. Extra Circus gathers five previously unissued songs from the January 1983 Metal Circus sessions and is packaged in a full color sleeve, as designer Grant Hart intended.
When Hüsker Dü lit out for the west coast a few days after Xmas 1982, they did so with twelve new songs in the chamber. The road-battered group arrived at Total Access in Redondo Beach the second week of January intending to cut the entirety of their new repertoire in a single all day session, but the power had been shut off just prior to their arrival. “We were trying to jump power from other parts of the building,” recalled Bob Mould. The session ended up taking two days, and from those twelve, only seven would make their blistering 1983 Metal Circus. Left on the cutting room floor were “Heavy Handed,” “You Think I’m Scared,” “Won’t Change,” “Is Today The Day?” and “Standing At The Sea.” Several would leak out on bootlegs over the years, but when a previously thought-to-be-lost safety master turned up in the process of making Savage Young Dü, it seemed like the perfect cliff hanger for the next project.
We first saw the color negative for Metal Circus back in 2010, when a mysterious package showed up from Grant Hart. Hart had painstakingly set the scene up in the office of Revolution guitarist Des Dickerson’s father in downtown St. Paul’s Milton Building. The desk is a visual representation of the Hüsker’s discography to date; the framed photo of Mao references the cover of Statues, a Statue of Liberty calendar represents In A Free Land, magnifying in on the desk one can spy the logo that appears on the back cover of Everything Falls Apart. The plane’s wing carries the catalog number for Land Speed Record: NAR007. “The whole thing was the most satisfying graphics project that I ever connected with Hüsker Dü,” Grant Hart told Andrew Earles. “By the time it was all set up, I had to race the sun and deal with drunken street revelers getting in the way of the shot. The shoot was on St. Patrick’s day, and there were a ton of throw aways where you can see the tips of those party horns entering the frame.”
