Bob Mould to Bring ‘Beauty & Ruin’ on New Album
Former Hüsker Dü and Sugar frontman Bob Mould is still on tour to commemorate the 1989 release of Workbook, his first solo album after leaving Hüsker Dü, but the singer has announced a June 3 release of 11th album Beauty & Ruin.
Mould described the 35-minute new album, his second for Merge Records, as a “compact epic.” The musician will debut Beauty & Ruin at South by Southwest, where he’ll perform March 13th at a Merge showcase and March 14th at a party hosted by A.V. Club.
No tour dates have been announced yet to support the album, but Mould is set to appear at a Tribute to Paul Simon with New York Afrobeat band Antibalas at Carnegie Hall on March 31th.
On Thursday night, Mould appeared on Late Show With David Letterman with longtime collaborators Jason Narducy on bass and Superchunk’s Jon Wurster on drums. The group eschewed any new tracks in favor of “See a Little Light” (which doubled as the title for his 2011 autobiography) from Workbook.
In 2011, Dave Grohl, Ryan Adams, No Age and others staged a two-hour tribute to Mould at Los Angeles’ Disney Concert Hall. “The cruel joke in this whole thing is… if I didn’t have such a strange childhood, and all this anger that I was carrying around and channeling into my music, I don’t know if we would be in this spot tonight,” Mould said.
“If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be making music the way I do, or play guitar the way I do,” Grohl told the audience. “His albums have really shaped me as a musician as much as the Beatles, as much as Led Zeppelin. He’s a real hero of mine and a real American icon.”