I’ve lost count of how many songs I’ve written in the position.” 2) Hüsker Dü | “Celebrated Summer” from ' New Day Rising' (1985) “At the same time, I can walk all of the chord changes around with the lower two strings. “I could also leave the high B and sometimes sneak in the high E completely open, and I’ve got the two middle strings frozen as the foundation of the chord. I do all of that without ever moving from that position. “This song is a perfect example of that, where I’ve basically frozen the D and G strings in that first-position B, and I’m playing the bass part on the two lower strings. I mean, we were writing constantly Bob Mould I think I’ve exhausted every possible permutation of how you could write an entire song without ever moving off of that chord. Technically, that first-position B chord could be described as a hallmark chord of mine. “‘Something I Learned Today’ was a great opener for Zen Arcade. “When you finish the tour, you write new songs to record a new album, and you keep repeating that. Then you tour to show people these new songs in the live setting. Then you record the album and wait a few months for it to come out. We were in this cycle in that you write enough songs to have what you think is an album. Suddenly you’re writing a lot in E, A, D, G and B – keys where you can build chord structures and still have the I chord or the IV or V chord resonating as you’re playing a solo. “That’s something Townshend did with the Who. “That began to inform my songwriting, knowing that I could only solo a certain way. “We were a three-piece, so automatically I had to cover a lot of sonic ground, even when I was taking a solo,” he says. Mould points out that a strong, economical rhythmic sense was essential in his early Hüsker Dü days. I always seem to come back to a sound that I adopted back in my youth Bob Mould “I’m pretty comfortable saying that I excel at rhythm guitar,” he says, “even more so as I get older and age affects the way that I play and the fury I put into it.” “I like to try new things occasionally, particularly if I’ve stayed at one thing too long,” he explains, “but I always seem to come back to a sound that I adopted back in my youth.”Īt the center of it all is his artful, muscular rhythm guitar playing – earth-moving stuff crafted from equal parts British Invasion (Pete Townshend looms large here) and New York punk. Abrasive and bruising guitar work has long dominated Mould’s oeuvre, although there have been fascinating detours into introspective, acoustic guitar-based songs and even a dalliance with electronic music.
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