New Day Rising

It’s been nearly 22 years since, as legend has it,
Hüsker Dü split up one night in Columbia, Missouri. And it’s
been about a decade since former Hüsker drummer Grant Hart
released a solo recording—even longer if you’re looking for one
with any staying power. In all that time Hart’s body has been decimated
by countless bottles of methadone, and a seemingly endless war of words
with former bandmate Bob Mould that’s been far more destructive than
any substance that’s coursed its way through his bloodstream.

As the other post-Hüskers found decades of success—Bob
Mould as a revered solo artist, Greg Norton as a chef—Hart
aimlessly dissolved deep into the shadows. Labeled a punk rock Peter
Green or a tabloid-free Pete Doherty, Hart’s cursed life has seen
everything from a false positive HIV test result to a career forever
stained by the absolute worst recordings known to man (in which his
drumming is condensed into a sound akin to a tin can being mercilessly
kicked down a vacant hallway).

Hart went from an iconic musician to an overtly tragic character
whose very existence seems to be trapped under the haze and
disappointment of a permanent storm cloud. Logic dictates that there
would be no possible way a new recording from Hart would be even
tolerable, much less enjoyable. Yet as Hot Wax finds its way out
from under Hart’s cursed legacy, more people will come to see it as not
only a vibrant collection of pop songs, but as what might be the best
post-Hüsker solo recording since Mould’s Black Sheets of
Rain. The album is a jittery rekindling of Hart’s raw rock ‘n’ roll
youth, accentuated by his longtime flair for vulnerable lyrics and
soft, raspy delivery—you’ll never know how much you missed Hart’s
wounded voice until you hear this album.

Captured on tape by members of Godspeed You! Black Emperor at the
Hotel2Tango studio in Montreal, Hart sounds infinitely relaxed and
loose as he bashes out succinct rock numbers with a youthful finesse.
While there are those that might comb the lyrics for more shots fired
across the bow against Mould, Hart insists such things are mere
fabrications of an overly eager media. “You can’t blame two people that
are living and let living,” he says.

Suffering beneath the weight that afflicts so many musicians from
venerated bands—constant questioning about reunion tours, old
songs, and a past they can never quite shake—Hart has it all the
worse, his well-documented fall from grace being something of a punk
legend. But ultimately the 48-year-old is grateful for his Hüsker
days, for having fans who go as far as to name their child after him,
and Hot Wax is without question his first real effort to carve
out something more to his legacy than all that happened during
tumultuous younger days, and to let go of his past.

And if there’s any resentment still lingering in Hart’s bones, it’s
not for his former frontman, but for Greg Ginn at SST Records. “If
there’s any boner that Hüsker Dü pulled, it’s having
committed ourselves to SST after moving to Warner Brothers,” he
explains. “If someone were to expose what has really taken place with
the ownership of our master recordings… I wish that was the battle
that people were writing about instead of the Mould/Hart ping-pong
match.”