Oh, Sugar

Why you should care about the reissues and return of Bob Mould's number 2 band.

Bob Mould has been a fixture in the slightly-left-of-mainstream music industry for just shy of 50 years. Back in 1979, when he was 19 years old, he and two friends formed Hüsker Dü while attending Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Over the decade of the band’s existence they released a handful of albums for SST Records and eventually Warner that were and are considered to be essential documents of punk and alternative music. Their sound blended the speed and aggression of punk rock with a kind of Midwestern open heartedness that was less formulaic and more inventive than most of their peers.

In the aftermath of Hüsker Dü’s fairly messy breakup, Mould hunkered down to get sober and to write a solo album called Workbook that veered into an amplified folk-tinged acoustic sound and scored him a well-charting single with the song “See A Little Light” in 1989. The next year’s follow-up, Black Sheets of Rain, turned back towards the heavy electric sound his early band was known four, feeling a bit like an exorcism of the last of his demons.

The lure of the power trio proved very strong, and so in 1992 Mould formed Sugar along with David Barbe and Malcolm Travis. Their first album, Copper Blue, was one of the key texts of the burgeoning college rock / alternative / whatever branch of music that dominated in the early 90s. It was named UK music paper NME’s album of the year. The ride only lasted until 1995, but in that span they released a trio of album that stand the test of time. Their sound is one that fans of current not-quite-but-almost-punk bands like Pup, Idles, or Turnstile would certainly appreciate.

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Now, 31 years after their breakup the band is getting together for a “Love You Even Still 2026 World Tour” kicking off in May. In the lead up their three albums have been reissued and are now available at Backstreet! Have a listen and we’re pretty sure you’ll dig ‘em.

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