Bob Mould
(born Robert Arthur Mould
, October 16, 1960, Malone, New York) is an American musician, principally known for his work as guitarist, vocalist and songwriter for alternative rock bands Hüsker Dü in the 1980s and Sugar in the 1990s.
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BOB MOULD TICKETS
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Early life
Born in
Malone, New York, Mould lived in several places, including the
Minneapolis-St. Paul area, where he attended
Macalester College. There, he formed
Hüsker Dü in the late 1970s, with drummer/singer
Grant Hart and bass guitarist
Greg Norton.
Musical career
Hüsker Dü
Hüsker Dü first gained notice as a
punk rock group, with a series of recordings on the independent label
SST Records. One of the first 1980s
underground bands to sign a contract with a major record label (
Warner Brothers), Hüsker Dü found only moderate commercial success, but were later often cited as one of the key influences on 1990s
alternative rock.
In the late 1980s, Hüsker Dü broke up acrimoniously amid members'
drug abuse and personal problems. Mould and Grant Hart, the band's other songwriter and vocalist, still take occasional jabs at each other in the press, though the two revisited their Hüsker Dü back catalog together at a 2004
benefit concert for an ailing friend, the late Karl Mueller of
Soul Asylum.
Solo works
After Hüsker Dü broke up in 1988, Mould sequestered himself in a remote farmhouse in
Pine City, Minnesota, quit drinking and drugs, and wrote the songs that would make up his first solo album. Signing to the newly-formed Virgin Records America label, 1989's
Workbook
eschewed Mould's trademark wall-of-noise guitar for a stripped-down, atmospheric sound featuring acoustic guitars and
cellos. 1991's jagged
Black Sheets of Rain
put Mould in more familiar territory, recalling Hüsker Dü's loudest, angriest moments.
In 1994, he recorded
The Turning Of The Tide
for
Beat The Retreat
, a tribute album to the
English guitarist and
songwriter Richard Thompson.
Mould also started a record label, Singles Only Label, which released singles from up and coming bands such as
Grant Lee Buffalo and
R. Stevie Moore.
Sugar years and afterwards
Mould then formed the group
Sugar, a college/alternative radio favorite in the mid-1990s. Along with extensive touring, Sugar released two albums, an EP and a
B-sides collection before breaking up.
Mould returned to solo recording, releasing a
self-titled album in 1996 (which is often referred to as
Hubcap
because of the cover photo) and 1998's
The Last Dog and Pony Show
.
During a stint living in
New York City in the late-1990s, Mould's tastes took a detour into
dance music and
electronica. Those influences were clear on his 2002 release
Modulate
, which featured a strong electronica influence to mixed critical reviews. To pursue this sound, Mould also began recording under the
pseudonym LoudBomb (an
anagram of his name). He has released one CD so far under this name.
Mould took a brief break from the music world to get involved with another passion of his,
professional wrestling, when he joined
WCW as a scriptwriter for a brief period. Creative differences with some of the other writers led to Mould leaving the company and returning to music. The
liner notes for
Modulate
thank some of the wrestlers he associated with, most notably
Kevin Nash and
Kevin Sullivan.
In addition to his solo work, Mould is also a live
DJ in collaboration with
Washington DC-area dance music artist
Richard Morel, under the collective banner
Blowoff (frequently staged at the
9:30 Club in Washington, DC). A recording under that banner was released in September 2006. Mould has been asked to do remixes for a variety of dance and alternative rock artists. A recent remix of the
Interpol song "Length Of Love" has led to more critical acclaim for the veteran artist.
For much of the 1990s, Mould toured playing solo acoustic renditions of his catalog (occasionally switching to electric guitar midway through his set). In 2005 his solo album
Body of Song
was cross-announced with his first band tour since 1998.
Brendan Canty, best known as the drummer for
Fugazi, and Mould's Blowoff collaborator, Morel, played drums and keyboards, respectively, for the 2005 tour.
District Line
, was released
February 5,
2008. Little over a year later on
April 7,
2009, Mould will release his next album entitled
Life and Times
.
[1]
Mould recently announced that he is writing a memoir with
Michael Azerrad, the author of
Our Band Could Be Your Life
and
Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana.
The book will be released in autumn 2010.
[2]
Personal life
Though his
homosexuality was previously something of an open secret, Mould was
outed in the early 1990s; he is now
openly gay.
In 2006, Mould contributed the song "If I Can't Change Your Mind" to the album
Wed-Rock,
an album to promote legalisation of
same-sex marriage.
Pop culture
On
September 29,
2005, Mould's song "Circles" was featured on
The OC
as
Marissa Cooper was starting her first day at her public school in Season 3.
Mould's song "Dog on Fire" is the theme song for
The Daily Show
.
They Might Be Giants perform the current version. On December 19, 1996, Mould made a cameo appearance on
The Daily Show Holiday Spectacular
in an homage duet of "The Little Drummer Boy" with Mould playing the part of
David Bowie to
Craig Kilborn's "
Bing Crosby".
The song "See a Little Light" has been used more than once in various television applications: It was used in the closing scene of the original un-aired test pilot episode of
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
, it became one of the principal theme songs for the
HBO series
The Mind of the Married Man
and was also used in a television commercial for
TIAA-CREF (August 2007). Mould also composed the theme for the
TLC program,
In a Fix
.
Mould and director
Cameron Crowe were rumored to be close friends. The character Bob Sugar (played by
Jay Mohr) in Crowe's 1996 film
Jerry Maguire
possibly was named for both Mould and his former band, Sugar.
Mould appeared on an episode of
Independent Film Channel's
The Henry Rollins Show
on
June 15,
2007.
Mould also played lead guitar in the house band for the film of
John Cameron Mitchell's
Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
Mould also participated in a Hedwig tribute album,
Wig in a Box
, on which he covered the song "Nailed."
In 2000, Mould performed "He Didn't" (written by
Stephin Merritt) on
The 6ths' album
Hyacinths and Thistles
.
Discography
Studio albums
- Workbook
(1989)
- Black Sheets of Rain
(1990)
- Bob Mould
(1996)
- The Last Dog and Pony Show
(1998)
- Modulate
(2002)
- Long Playing Grooves
(Granary Music)
- Body of Song
(2005)
- District Line
(2008)
- Life And Times
(2009)
Compilations
- Poison Years
(1994)
- No Alternative
(1994)
- Wig in a Box
(2003)
Singles and extended plays
- See A Little Light
(1989)
- Wishing Well + Four Live Tracks
(1989)
- Egøverride
(1995)
Live albums
Bands produced
- Man Sized Action, Claustrophobia
- Soul Asylum, Made To Be Broken
- Articles of Faith, Give Thanks
and In this Life
- Magnapop, Hot Boxing
- Verbow, Chronicles
- The Zulus, Down on the Floor
- Impaler, If We Had Brains... We'd Be Dangerous
- Low, Tonight the Monkeys Die
Remixes EP
- Half a Chicken, Food For Thought
References
- http://www.anti.com/news/index/582/Bob_Mould_Schedules_Performances_Leading_up_to_the_Release_of_his
- http://modulate.blogspot.com/2008/09/press-release-from-little-brown.html