Bob Mould (part 5)

Continued from part 4

Anne: Is it your first time performing at Coachella?

BOB MOULD: It’ll be my 1st time performing and my 4th time on the grounds. I went 3 years in a row and then I didn’t go last year, so that means I went for ’06-’07.

Anne: I went the year the PIXIES played.

Matt: That was ’04.

BOB MOULD: It’s two weeks early this year, so it’ll be 10 degrees cooler. There’s a big difference between late April and the beginning of May out there. There’s no humidity. If it’s 95 out there, you just have to get some shade and some water. It’s not as bad as 90 in DC or in Philly. 90 in Philly is like 110.

Anne: That was my memory of it. It was hot and I had a really good time. It’s a really beautiful site.

BOB MOULD: It really is. It’s a really well-run festival. They really have the production part down. I was there the year that Daft Punk and MADONNA played and spend almost the entire weekend in the dance tent.

Anne: I was gonna ask if you spent the whole weekend stalking Madonna. (laughter)

BOB MOULD: Actually, a friend that went with me was pretty much. We were 20 feet away from her. We had to do this camp-out thing.

Matt: Did you go out there at 9 in the morning or something to stake out a spot?

BOB MOULD: It wasn’t that bad, actually. It was right before PAUL OAKENFOLD spun (he spun before she played) and that’s when my friend wanted to get in position. It wasn’t worth it to me. Daft Punk, on the other hand… I love them and that was the debut of the pyramid. Apparently, KANYE WEST, who did a walk-on on the main stage…

Anne: Gee, Kanye West loves Daft Punk? (laughter)

Matt: Gee, he just might’ve gotten a few ideas from them. (laughter)

Matt: I noticed that on the last couple of tours, you’ve played a lot of stuff from Copper Blue and also more Husker Du material than when I’d seen you play before that. I’m curious if you have a special affinity for Copper Blue on one hand but also if it’s hard to play songs that are now 16 to 17 years old and with the HUSKER DU material, that’s 25 years old now.

BOB MOULD: Not really. I’d never gone back to the Husker Du stuff until Body of Song. BRENDAN CANTY really was on me about it and it seemed like a good time to do it. Especially after Modulate, when I put people through it, it was nice to make amends. I know people wanna hear ‘em. They’re good songs. I feel the same way about Copper Blue from start to finish, too. Why not play them?

Matt: I guess I asked because at that same show/DVD screening we talked about earlier, you said that it was hard to put yourself in the mindset you were in when you wrote the songs on Zen Arcade.

BOB MOULD: I wouldn’t wanna go back to the Husker Du mentality, side 2 of Zen Arcade. That’s not really good for anybody’s health.

Anne: The songs still sound really good.

BOB MOULD: Look at the stuff I play now. “I Apologize,” “Celebrated Summer,” “Makes No Sense at All,” “Could You Be the One,” “Hardly Getting Over It,” “Too Far Down”, sometimes Jon Wurster wants to do “New Day Rising”. I’m sort of like “great”. I love those songs. They live on.

Matt: I heard that “Divide and Conquer” was supposed to be played on the Body of Song tour, but I didn’t hear it on that tour.

BOB MOULD: We played it every night on the last tour (for District Line). We closed the show with it every night. It’s a lot of words to remember. I had them on the floor. It’s like 10 verses. They would tape them down on the floor before the song started, which was hilarious.

Matt: Flip Your Wig is my favorite, though it was the first one I heard, too. I bought it at a record store in my hometown when I was 17.

BOB MOULD: I think that’s the best record. Zen Arcade is the one that everyone romanticizes and rightfully so because that was the real year that punk broke with that one, THE MINUTEMEN’s Double Nickels on the Dime, MEAT PUPPETS’ II and THE REPLACEMENTS’ Let It Be. It was sort of like when Pet Sounds, Revolver and Axis: Bold as Love sort of came out around the same time.

Matt: I guess we should conclude this, but is there anything you’d like to ask us.

BOB MOULD: Is this gonna be on the cover?

Anne: If it were up to us, yes!

BOB MOULD: I thought that was funny. It just came to me.

Matt: No, that’s OK. I like the spontaneity.