RIP, Grant Hart

The drummer for the legendary Minneapolis hardcore band Husker Du lived a rough life, dogged by addiction, and he died earlier today of cancer at age 56.  Variety and Rolling Stone have surprisingly detailed appreciations.

Hart was the poppier, quirky yin to Bob Mould's darker, brooding yang in the influential power trio. They and bassist Greg Norton would lead the SST brigade to a major label, Warner Bros., tossing out the great double-album "Warehouse: Songs and Stories" in 1987 and then abruptly breaking up when Mould and Hart couldn't stand each other anymore. They would never play together again as a band.

TRACK LISTING
Start at the top, with Hart's intense pop masterpiece "Don't Want to Know If You Are Lonely" from "Candy Apple Grey":



From his solo career, the surf-inflected ear candy "Run Run Run to the Centre Pompidou":



From the same solo album, 1999's "Good News for Modern Man," comes this ominous wail, "In a Cold House":



Here, from a 2013 performance on KEXP in Seattle, is his solo version of the howling, haunting "You Are the Moon's Reflection." (Here is the full performance, with a lot of chatting.)  (Here is Bob Mould's KEXP appearance that same year.)



The studio version of the same song has a great organ riff throughout, a reminder that Hart was a keyboardist before taking over the drumkit for Husker Du by default: