In 1989, Bob Mould took a left turn. Already legendary before his 30th birthday for his noise-and-nuance work in Hüsker Dü, Mould had recently walked away from his old band. He re-emerged with his debut solo album: Workbook . Filled with chiming acoustic guitars, multitracked vocals, pristine production, and even a cello, Workbook was both admired and questioned for Mould's perceived departure from his post-punk roots. Three decades later, the album has emerged as a key for understanding the nascent alternative rock genre and the concerns Mould would explore for the duration of his career. Fusing post-punk sound and confessional lyrics with a richer emotional and musical range, Mould's Workbook merged worlds that seemed unbridgeable at the time. Alternative rock emerged from the wreckage of the 1980s, and Workbook was a model for the genre's maturation. Workbook serves its title in two ways-as a map for musicians to follow into a new mode, and as a journal of Mould's struggle toward adulthood. It opens conversations about rock, identity, spirituality, authenticity, and the perils and promises of mainstream culture. Walter Biggins and Daniel Couch, two critics who grew up with Workbook , extend these conversations-through letters and emails to each other, and through correspondence with Mould and Workbook's musicians and producers. That crosstalk leads to, through this seminal album, a deeper understanding of “alternative rock” at the moment of its inception, just before it took over the radio. “Being in a literary conversation style, between an editor and a professor that have known each other since childhood… this 33 1/3 entry makes for interesting reading.” ― QRO Magazine Walter Biggins is an executive editor at the University of Georgia Press, as well as a freelance writer, based in Atlanta, Georgia. His work has appeared in Glide Magazine , Bookslut , RogerEbert.com , The Comics Journal , Pop Matters , and The Baseball Chronicle , among other periodicals. Daniel Couch is a professor of English literature and composition at Chemeketa Community College, USA and the editor of What, Where, How: The Practical Handbook for College Writers. His work has appeared in Tape Op Magazine , One Week // One Band , and the Quietus , among others. Workbook 33 1/3 By Walter Biggins, Daniel Couch Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Copyright © 2017 Walter Biggins and Daniel Couch All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-5013-2135-1 Contents Introduction, 1, Influence, 13, Fathers and Sons, 21, It's All Coming Back in a Way, 33, Necessary Evils, 41, Workbook as Notebook, 47, Try it On, See How it Fits, 53, Salinger and Bob's (Workbook), 63, Wall of Sound, Wall of Words, 71, Zebra Cocktail, 79, Skateboards and Suits, 87, Independence and Interdependence, 97, Ch- Ch- Ch- Changes, 105, The Road Not Taken, 119, Notes, 129, Resources, 137, Thanks and Acknowledgments, 143, CHAPTER 1 Influence Dear Walter, Do you remember? It was the end of lunch, and we were getting ready to head back to class. You passed me a mixtape with Hüsker Dü's live album The Living End on one side and Sugar's Copper Blue on the other. Your measured nonchalance is something I've learned to account for in the decades since, but at the time, the gesture left me hugely unprepared for what I was about to hear. The Hüsker Dü live show starts with "New Day Rising," and it certainly was one for me. Up to that point, I paid attention to music in only the most cursory ways, and to the degree that I did, it belonged to a more juvenile world I was eager to leave behind. From your tape, I charted two paths of departure and traveled both at once. The first headed to the past and into the Hüsker Dü back catalogue. The second led me to the present to finally listen to the music of my generation. Sugar, sure, but I also sought out anyone who claimed Hüsker Dü as an influence. Band led on to band, and soon I was on a road that had less to do with Bob Mould and more to do my own journey of discovery. You may not realize this, but I credit that day — you, the tape, our resulting friendship — as one of the most influential of my life. Part of why I moved to Austin after high school was because Bob Mould, this paragon of cool in my mind, lived there when he could be living anywhere. I took a job at a record store because after all of my listening, I felt more qualified to do that than anything else. More importantly though, music helped me sort and solidify my relationships. Making mixtapes, playing in bands, going to shows: all of these things became the ways I connected with the people in my life. As formative as Bob's music was for me, I realized the other day that my review of his newest album, Beauty & Ruin, was the first time I've found occasion to write about him. I confess that while I followed his second solo career for a while, I eventually lost track. It wasn't until Silver Age and its laudator