Grant Hart

I found out about Husker Du in 1987 - the natural declension from a year-long love affair with The Replacements and Soul Asylum. Like most people I think, I saw it as Bob Mould's band, even though Grant Hart had written my favorite song:

A song so good, I might add, it was on Xmas' Unbeatable Mix 6.1.88

So.

I loved the band, but it wasn't until the release of their live joint The Living End that I realized jeez, 75% of my slices were Grant Hart songs, not Bob Mould. Hart's songs were so melodic. Plus he was a better singer anyways (AND the best backup singer there was, which is even harder.) It was quite a revelation. Oh, Mould wrote some amazing classics, but if we're doing a Lennon/McCartney argument, I go with Hart. Within a few months I picked up some advance ep of his post-Husker band Nova Mob, and this has been a super-slice ever since:

When I moved to NYC years ago Hart was touring to support his GREAT album, Good News for Modern Man and he was playing a solo show at the Mercury, and I went and it was amazing. Fat dude in a sportcoat. Might have had shoes on. Played a fucking jukebox worth of greatest hits slices, Husker cuts and all. Awesome. Including:

Just like the way people have always tried to make The Beatles John Lennon, I've always fought to make sure people realize that Husker Du wasn't just Bob Mould. Dude was lucky to be in a band with Grant Hart. Period.