Hüsker Dü began work on their double album Zen Arcade in the summer of 1983, immediately after releasing Metal Circus. Bassist Grant Hart was living in a desanctified church-turned-punk squat in St. Paul, MN. The other tenants were drifters, runaways and musicians, and everybody was enjoying the particularly good LSD that had made its way there. The band was reaching their creative peaks at that time, practicing for hours in the church.

The church later became a shelter for at-risk youths and continues to stand today. If you drive by, you can still see the stained glass windows.

view full location details...

Released in October of 1983, The cover of the Hüsker Dü mini-album/EP Metal Circus features a photo of a desk with a Chairman Mao photo and a view out a city window. The picture was taken looking out of the first floor office window of the Milton Building at this address (next to the Parkside Apartments).


Local history note: the song "Diane" is about the murder of West St. Paul waitress Diane Edwards by serial killer Joseph Ture in 1980. The song has been covered by several other bands.


See Grant Hart next to the building and different view points of the location here.

view full location details...

Although no longer at this location, the empty parking (next to the Thai restaurant) is where Cheapo Records used to be, on the edge of the Macalester College campus. Bob Mould (guitar/vocals) was a student at Macalester, and he would frequent the record store where Grant Hart (drums) worked as a clerk. Mould and Hart bonded over a shared love of The Ramones.

Grant Hart and Greg Norton (bass) had met while applying for the record store job that Hart would eventually get. Although they started the band as a four-piece (with a keyboardist) called Buddy and the Returnables, by the end of March 1979 the band had morphed into a three-piece called Hüsker Dü. The name is drawn from a board game in the 70s that translates to "Do You Remember?"

To see a picture of Grant Hart pointing to the former location of the cash register at Cheapo, click here.

Cheapo Records is still around, only now it's up the road on Snelling.

view full location details...

Some of the "Sure Shot" music video was shot in and around the Las Vegas Hilton Casino when the Beastie Boys were in Las Vegas for Lollapalooza in the summer of '94. They don't allow recording inside the casino, but Spike Jonze carried the camera inside and captured that footage on the sly. Don't tell.

Watch "Sure Shot"

view full location details...

The Pulitzer Fountain in Manhattan's Grand Army Plaza serves as a water hazard in the round of golf that J Mascis and then bassist Mike Johnson of Dinosaur Jr. play in New York in their music video for "Feel the Pain" (directed by Spike Jonze).

Watch "Feel the Pain"

view full location details...