'11 In Overview – Husker Du – Books, Song Covers and more!

While chances of Husker Du reuniting are close to zero, IHRTN still likes to keeps tabs on all the activities of ex-Huskers – Bob, Greg and Grant.
First up is a wonderful collection of live tracks/outtakes from the band – courtesy of Captains Dead blog.
Up In The Air includes material from majority of band’s releases (including posthumous collection The Living End)  – 23 tracks altogether.
Now – for the members of the band…
This summer saw the release of See A Little Light: The Trail Of Rage And Melody – Bob Mould’s autobiography written in collaboration with Michael Azerrad (an author of Our Band Could Be Life – an important chronicle of 80s indie underground). Light was published just a year after Andrew Earles book The Story Of Noise-Pop Pioneers hit the shelves, but peculiarly enough Bob was the only member of the band who refused to be interviewed for Earles book.
Needless to say – Light (as well as aforementioned  books by Azerrad and Earles) are essential reads for anyone who have even the passing interest in Husker Du and/or 80s punk/indie rock.
A.V. Undercover is a music video-series from A.V. Club which includes 25 covers performed by 25 bands. Among other things on the list are two Sugar related covers – one is Bob Mould “covering himself” and another one is The Decemberists doing a cover of the same song. The song in question is If I Can’t Change Your Mind – it originally appeared on Sugar’s 1992 LP Copper Blue.
2011 also saw the release of new Grant Hart’s single So Far From Heaven / Morning Star on Con’d’or Records.   Two tracks included on a single are from his forthcoming album The Argument.
And, finally, there wasn’t much of musical activity on the part of Greg Norton in 2011 – he’s still focused on restaurant business (although his band Gang Font Feat Interloper released a self-titled album back in 2005).
Also – a couple of items from 2011 that need to be mentioned in relation to Du:

• Don’t Want To Know If You Are Lonely is a 7″ single which includes the original as well as a Green Day cover of the song. The single is a part of Warner Bros / Reprise “Side by Side” series and came out on Record Store Day in a limited amount of 50 to 100 copies.

• Serbian band Stereolimit recorded a song entitled Dan Se Radja, which is a cover of New Day Rising sung in their native tongue. It appears on the band’s album Indikacije, Kontraindikacije I Neželjena Dejstva (which is available in its entirety here) and they also made a video for the song, which you can watch below.