This month, Gay City News reviews a compilation from the LGBTQ-friendly All Things Go festival and a box set by the punk band Hüsker Dü. Guitarist Bob Mould is gay, while their late drummer Grant Hart was bi.
Various Artists | “All Things Go: 10 Years” | ATG/Futures | November 7th
All Things Go festival has become a successor to the woman-centered ‘90s festival Lilith’s Fair, which was created by Sarah McLachlan. Reviewing the 2024 edition for “Vulture,” Rebecca Alter dubbed it “LESBOPALOOZA,” adding that “the artists were mostly confessional singer-songwriter pop, mostly women, mostly queer.” While it only takes place in a few North American cities rather than traveling the entire continent, it’s become one of our premiere showcases for female and non-binary musicians.
The new 11-song compilation “All Things Go: 10 Years” celebrates its decade in existence as a means to raise money for the Ally Coalition, a charity benefiting queer and trans youth. Most of its artists, including Maren Morris, Bartees Strange, Orville Peck, Joy Oladokun, and Kesha, are members of the LGBTQ community.
To start with this uneven album’s high points, Googly Eyes, Oladokun, and Alison Pointhier’s “Jesus and John Wayne” holds a séance with the spirit of Lilith Fair for an angry but regretful rejection of Christianity. It turns a campfire folk singalong into a protest rally. Their harmonies enhance their anger at conservatives’ perversion of Jesus’ words: “blessed is America, but only for the Americans.” Medium Build and Sydney Rose reinterpret Charli XCX’s “Sympathy Is A Knife,” spinning it into a nightmarish spiral. It starts softly but winds up in a paranoid fit about having to spend time with a frenemy. Strange lets loose with an unbashed rocker, “DCWDTTY.”
As much ground as it covers, “All Things Go: 10 Years” mixes pop, folk, rock and country to varying degrees. A lot of this winds up being rather tepid. Despite the strength of some individual songs, it doesn’t cohere very well as a full album. Overproduction prevents the charged emotions behind many songs from packing a punch. Kesha and Orville Peck’s “Tennessee” brings a brash energy to “stomp clamp hey” music, looking at her roots in the state, but her swagger curdles into schtick. Passion tends to come through in the lyrics more than the sonics. Despite the genre switch-ups, “All Things Go: 10 Years” suffers from a certain homogeneity, as though it were all designed for NPR airplay.
Hüsker Dü | “1985: The Miracle Year” | Numero Group | November 7th
Due to conflicts with the label SST, which released an ep and three albums by Hüsker Dü, a thorough compilation from the band is unlikely to ever appear. In its place, we have a four-album live box set, “1985: The Miracle Year,” which captures the band at its peak and features music ranging across their career. At this point, Hüsker Dü were incredibly prolific. Their three full-length albums for SST — “Zen Arcade,” “New Day Rising,” and
Flip Your Wig” — and major label debut “Candy Apple Grey” were spread out over a period spanning less than two years, from 1984 to 1986. During this time, they were also touring constantly. Although “Candy Apple Grey” was two albums in the future, they were already performing songs from it during the January 1985 gig that makes up half of this box set.
Hüsker Dü began as a hardcore punk band, an era captured on their live debut album “Land Speed Record.” But they started venturing away from genre orthodoxy on their first studio album, “Everything Falls Apart.” They moved forward by drawing on ‘60s psychedelia, releasing a cover of the Byrds’ “Eight Miles High” as a single. They performed it on this box set, alongside the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” and “Ticket to Ride.” Their embrace of pop hooks set the stage for alternative and indie rock to come. But they even made music that’s hard to classify, like the extended chant “All Work and No Play.”
Hüsker Dü’s lyrics could get very dark: “Diane” is written from the perspective of a rapist and murderer. Mould’s contributions to “Candy Apple Grey,” two of which are included on “1985: The Miracle Year,” testify to a state of depression. Yet along with such grim sentiments, the band effortlessly conjured up a buoyant joy, harmonizing over loud guitar and drums. While the music is loud and rough, its pop elements still come across. They’d mastered the use of noise to express excitement. Although it’s a live album, the sound quality of “1985: The Miracle Year” beats the thin studio recordings of their SST albums.
Mould went on to greater popularity with his second band, Sugar. While both he and Hart were closeted during their time in Hüsker Dü, their sexuality was barely concealed. (Although bassist Greg Norton was the only heterosexual member, his mustachioed ‘70s clone look contributed to speculation that he was gay.) Mould came out in the early ‘90s. “1985: The Miracle Year” arrives just as Sugar have reunited and dropped a new single. If Hüsker Dü’s legacy is in danger of being neglected, “1985: the Miracle Year” puts them back at the center of ‘80s rock. Their music is much too vital to be a mere history lesson.
