The Front Porch – County Highway

Editorial

Original Names of All Fifty States

By The Editors

Alabama — Bamalama Alaska — Freezeyerassoff Arizona — Levi’s Sandbox Arkansas — Suweee-Suweee California — Cocina del Diablo Colorado — White Man’s Mountains Connecticut — MILF Party Central Delaware — George Washington’s Pissoir Florida — New Israel Georgia — Scalp-u Hawaii — The Hoochie-Coochie Islands Idaho — The Base Illinois — Jimmy’s Discount Land Indiana — The JC Mellencampment Iowa — Mutt Kansas — Jeff Kentucky — Chicken Puck-Puck-Puck! Louisiana — Susie’s House of Snatch Maine — Larry’s Lobster Trap Maryland — Crabsville Massachusetts — God’s True and Holy Kingdom Michigan — New Slovakia Minnesota — Tim Mississippi — Peeonupeeonme Missouri — Easy Lay Montana — Saskatchewan Nebraska — Roosterville Nevada — Dry Gulch New Hampshire — The Banishment New Jersey — New Delhi New Mexico — Mexico New York — New Amsterdam North Carolina — Big Tar North Dakota — North of Eden Ohio — Oioha! Oklahoma — Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs — and Tornados! Oregon — The Dutchy of Meth …

Interview

Q&A With Bob Mould

Hüsker Dü was the loudest, fastest band in the world while prefiguring nearly the entirety of '90s indie rock.

Now ex-lead singer Bob Mould speaks in his ‘quiet voice’ after living in a farmhouse with chickens for company.

Camped out on Jello Biafra’s back porch; though they were better than U2. Now he wants everyone to listen to Best Coast.

By Susannah Samuels

In order to understand what Hüsker Dü accomplished as a band, it’s important to look at the vacuum in which it existed. The band was created in 1979 — a time when the Ramones, the Damned, the Clash, and Buzzcocks were the hip new things. But when I listen to Hüsker Dü now, it doesn’t really feel like it’s from the same era. The Ramones can feel like classic rock. Hüsker Dü has eternally felt and sounded like a ’90s band to me. Their music has a forever-young Peter Pan quality. That’s because Hüsker somehow vaulted ahead of its own genre while introducing a specific sound that people had never heard before. In a great documentary by PBS, titled Hüsker Dü, the Fastest Band in The World, one of the first things said is this: “I said, like, ‘What’s Hüsker Dü?’ And he’s like, ‘They play fast.’ ‘Like what, like fast… like the Ramones?’ ‘Like, maybe faster.’ ‘Like, really?’ ‘Faster than the Ramones.’ You’re like, wow.” Hüsker Dü’s creative arc also prefigured a now widespread phenomenon: So …