The members of Hüsker Dü first performed together when Grant Hart, Bob Mould, Greg Norton, and keyboardist Charlie Pine began playing in January 1979.

), they instead started shouting any foreign-language words they could remember, including the title of the popular 1970s memory board game Hūsker Dū?

Mould has written that he considers the band's first "real gig" to have been May 17, 1980, at the renowned punk club Jay's Longhorn Bar.

Through heavy touring, they soon caught the attention of punk trailblazers including Black Flag and Dead Kennedys' Jello Biafra, who helped introduce Hüsker Dü to new fans.

The band was hoping to release their next record, the mini album Everything Falls Apart, on SST, but the label still wasn't in the position to do so and they ended up putting it out on Reflex.

Hüsker Dü's more melodic take on hardcore struck a chord with college students, and various tracks from Metal Circus, particularly Hart's "Diane," were put into rotation by dozens of campus radio stations across the U.S.[7] In addition, on Metal Circus the band showed more invention, skill, and melody than it did over the course of their previous full album, Everything Falls Apart.

.While the band at this time was still firmly rooted in the loud, fast punk rock style, the trio were beginning to experiment with songs featuring a more melodic, though no less aggressive, sound.

[12] Zen Arcade is a concept album[citation needed] following a boy who leaves home to face a harsh and unforgiving world.

[citation needed] Zen Arcade received critical praise and significant mainstream music press attention, ending up on several year-end best-of lists.

[13] In his review for Rolling Stone, David Fricke described Zen Arcade as "the closest hardcore will ever get to an opera ... a kind of thrash Quadrophenia.

[citation needed] At year's end, both New Day Rising and Flip Your Wig ranked in the top ten of the Village Voice annual Pazz & Jop critics' poll.

[18] Mould also cited distribution problems with SST as a reason for the move, noting that sometimes there were no records to sign at promotional events.

Rather, Warner Bros. valued the group's grassroots fanbase and "hip" status, and by keeping the overhead low, the label anticipated the band would turn a profit.

Candy Apple Grey was the first Hüsker Dü album to chart on the Billboard Top 200, but despite receiving exposure on radio as well as MTV, it could get no higher than No. 140.

Mould's backing band features Jason Narducy (Verbow, Split Single) and Jon Wurster (Superchunk, The Mountain Goats) on bass and drums, respectively.

In addition to his restaurant duties, in 2006 Norton returned to music as the bassist for the Minnesota-based band The Gang Font, featuring Interloper.

On October 21, 2004, Mould and Hart reunited at a Minneapolis benefit concert for ailing Soul Asylum bassist Karl Mueller, who had been receiving treatment for cancer.

Norton told the Star Tribune that he, Mould, and Hart had worked out a licensing agreement for their music and that a Facebook page is "likely to go online soon."

[30] In a public statement, Mould remembered his former bandmate as "a gifted visual artist, a wonderful storyteller, and a frighteningly talented musician.

"[31] On November 10, 2017, the Numero Group label released the three-CD/four-LP box set Savage Young Dü, which spans the band's first four years, containing demos, studio, and live recordings.

"[34] While the band included some slower material earlier in its career, Hüsker Dü developed a fast repertoire as a result of having less time to play while billed as an opening act, and to antagonize their audience when it headlined shows.

[35] NME journalist Andy Gill contended that Hüsker Dü's characteristic sound crystalized on the Metal Circus EP, incorporating "thunderbuck, hiccup" drums, a melodic yet solid bass, and "carillions [sic] of distorted guitar, with shouted vocals rasping hoarsely from deep in the mix."

As the band members progressed as musicians, they discovered they were able to play at slower tempos while still maintaining the rhythm, allowing for extended melodies.

[52] According to Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic, Hüsker Dü's music combined the "screaming self-examination of Bob Mould with the biting pop-romanticism of Grant Hart.

Azerrad wrote, "Hüsker Dü played a huge role in convincing the underground that melody and punk rock weren't antithetical.

"[56] Kim Deal joined Pixies in response to a classified ad placed by Black Francis seeking a female bassist who liked both Peter, Paul and Mary and Hüsker Dü.

Frontman Andy Cairns has cited Hüsker Dü as an influence, and additionally listed Zen Arcade as his seventh-favorite album of all time.

"[62] The bands have often been compared to each other,[63][64][65][66] and The Village Voice described Torche as "the legitimate sons of a union between Hüsker Dü and The Melvins.

I mean, Black Flag was early on, and then when I discovered Zen Arcade I thought, God, these people write songs, man.

The stars recognize performers that have played sold-out shows or have otherwise demonstrated a major contribution to the culture at the iconic venue.