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According to the internet, Bob Mould performed at the Marquee in New York City on March 8, 1991, touring his second solo album, Black Sheets of Rain. As an 18-year-old, I won two tickets to the show by calling into the local Long Island alternative radio station around 2am. Because no one I knew was interested in joining me, and because I wasn’t enthralled with the prospect of training it into the city to see some hardcore vet named Bob—whose music I had limited exposure to—the tickets sat in my suburban bedroom’s desk drawer for years. I assume Bob actually played this show.
Bob, who’d made a name for himself with Minneapolis-based punk trio Hüsker Dü, began a solo career following the group’s breakup in 1988. He put it on hold in the ’90s for the more successful, albeit short-lived, band Sugar.
With the exception of a few electronic detours, he’s been sticking with his guitar-driven, rock band sound since 1996, most recently with this year’s Here We Go Crazy.
I admit, I’m still not an aficionado, but the latest comes across as more of what fans would want and probably expect from Bob at this stage of his career. More guitar, more melodic vocal rage. Truth is, he’s had such a long list of famous musicians crediting his influence that it’s hard to imagine him dropping another surprise on everyone like his electronic Modulate (2002). It’s already been more than a decade since he wrote his biography, so where else can such a giant of the alternative-rock world go? If you said Charlottesville, you’d be a winner.—CM Gorey
