one of the favorite records i've stumbled upon online recently is an old fave, husker du's true breakout LP "new day rising". the album is marked by incredible songwriting and performing AND one of the worst mixes known to mankind. let's just call it high end squall. SST house producer spot's days were numbered after this (still incredible) debacle, and mould and hart went on to awkwardly produce the rest of their canon (i never could stand that drum sound). it's no secret why the posthumous live record "the living end" is often my go to husker record. on it, they're unleashed, non-compressed to hell, AND grant hart sings his ass off. his backups on mould songs are often high points of seriously great songs.
ndr has always been my favorite record by the band. i saw them perform it in its entirety before it was released. it took what was promised on a half-dozen or so tunes on zen arcade and blew up. it has the requisite du complete crap at the end of the record, but it started a 3 album run that can hardly be quantified in terms of godhead.
the reason i'm bringing this up is a download i came across. it's the final mix of the record. i'm assuming pre-mastering, or perhaps the last mix the band okayed before spot made final changes. it is in a word, fucking AWESOME. norton's bass is audible, large, and rules. you forget how much he was a part of the sound. the mix just explodes out of the gate. unrelenting. also, there's an unreleased cut that won't change anyone's mind either way and thanks to it i finally have a digital version of "erase today" (from the blasting concept comp). godiluvtheinternets* ....
*it ain't hard to find
