Husker du

A TRIPLE-CD of radio broadcast live recordings of Minneapolis' finest. Two of the discs feature Hüsker Dü live action, taped at a 1981 show in Portland and in Minneapolis 1985. Disc #3 features a fine 1989 performance, given by singer-guitarist Bob Mould (after the band split up) at a radio station in Germany.

A celebration of all things noisy and extreme, featuring tracks from My Bloody Valentine, Yoko Ono, Neu!, The Fall, King Crimson, Jonny Greenwood, Sunn O))) and more!

This Rhino U.K. 2012 budget-priced box set rounds up the prime of the Replacements: five albums, beginning with their debut Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash, continuing with the Twin/Tone landmarks Hootenanny and Let It Be, then concluding with their major-label debut Tim and their first post-Bob Stinson album Pleased to Meet Me. These aren't the expanded versions Rhino put out in the 2000s; they're just the albums, but that's enough to make this a worthwhile purchase, particularly at this price. The Replacements were an American rock band formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1979. Initially a punk rock band, they are considered one of the pioneers of alternative rock.

Arriving after years of sonic bombast in Hüsker Dü, the reflective, acoustic nature of Bob Mould's first solo album, Workbook, was a bold statement of renewal. Like all of Mould's work, it's an intensely introspective record, finding him purging demons left over from the dissolution of Hüsker Dü. Instead of relying on raging guitars, Mould explores a wide variety of styles, from pure pop ("See a Little Light") to reflective folk laced with cellos. It's an astonishing array of styles, and the songs are among Mould's finest. For many observers, the record established him as a major songwriter, but it also established a way for underground post-punk artists to mature – echoes of Workbook could be heard throughout the '90s, from R.E.M.'s elegiac Automatic for the People to Nirvana's use of cellos on In Utero and Unplugged. But Workbook remains a stunning work of individuality, marrying a distinctive body of songs with an original musical vision.

The Ontario band Dirty Nil's Higher Power offers punk with high-end production values meant for big rooms. However antisocial they may get, the music here is intended to be a communal experience.