Bob Mould wasn’t sure how to pronounce Maquoketa, the eastern Iowa town his latest tour will visit on April 15.
“Muh-ko-ket-uh,” he said, working carefully through each syllable during a recent phone interview.
Mould can hardly be blamed for his uncertainty. This will be his first performance at Codfish Hollow, the picturesque rural venue outside Maquoketa. No matter the pronunciation, Mould promised his band will deliver their customarily high-energy and eardrum-assaulting performance. And, if Mould’s recent appearance on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon is any indication, his intensity hasn’t dimmed much at 64 years old. His songwriting has evolved since his early days in the legendary punk and alternative band Hüsker Dü, as has his relationship to the anger and aggression that animated that band’s landmark albums, including Zen Arcade and Flip Your Wig.
But that ferocious onstage intensity? It’s still in full effect.
Mould’s new album, Here We Go Crazy, dropped in early March. It features Mould, along with drummer Jon Wurster and bassist Jason Narducy, thrashing their way through 11 tracks that are dense with electricity and emotional potency. Mould said he found himself a little lost after the pandemic wiped out plans to tour his last solo album, 2020’s Blue Hearts. He started writing new material in an almost “stream of consciousness” fashion, without a vision for how the material might come together later. Those efforts formed the nucleus of the latest album.
“I got the record done and I still wasn’t sure what I was trying to do,” Mould said. “Once I started explaining it [to others], it started making sense to me.”
Mould said he hears a three-act arc in Here We Go Crazy. The opening title track acts as a soliloquy that sets the tone for the songs that follow. It also establishes a sense of setting in the California desert where Mould spent much of the last few years. The album opens with the lines, “Way up on the mountain / trees blow in the breeze / flag of many colors / stories that we weave / facing down the truth / heading outward to the sea / I’ll be floating high above the scenery.”
Mould said the four songs that follow deal with conflict and uncertainty, and hints of the Husker-era anger and aggression seethe beneath the towering electric guitars and relentless drums. The second act of the album draws in more psychological complexity and heavier themes. The last three numbers, including the touching “Your Side,” which closes the album, shine with hope and love. Mould described the final act as “a good way to end the 31-minute journey.”
The songs are short and melodic, filled with alt rock hooks and precise musicianship that reinforces the intensity of Mould’s songwriting. He said he processes anger differently now than he did in his younger years, though the latest release’s first act features a trifecta of tracks — “Neanderthal,” “Breathing Room” and “Hard to Get” — that are saturated with elemental fury.
“I don’t have as much anger as I used to, despite what’s in front of us right now in the world,” Mould said. “I was an angry young man reeling against the system.”
As a closeted gay man in the 1980s, Mould said his sense of grievance was justified. He said recent legislative decisions to roll back LGBTQ protections, including a move in Iowa to repeal gender identity as a protected class, remind him of the struggles of decades past.
“It can do a lot of damage to people, young people just forming their sense of self,” Mould said of the current political environment. “To have your government tell you you’re less than at the behest of some moral minority, that’s a lot to carry through life. Decades later, I’ve resolved a lot of that.”
For fans going to the sold-out show at Codfish Hollow, Mould said to expect his customary intensity, as well as a mix of songs from his current band’s recent albums and selections from his extensive discography with Hüsker Dü, Sugar and as a solo artist.
Mould, who came of age in the Twin Cities, joked that he sometimes still feels a twinge of rivalry between Iowa and Minnesota, but he fondly recalled performances at iconic Iowa venues like Gabe’s and the Englert Theater in Iowa City and the Maintenance Shop in Ames.
This month marks his first stop at Codfish Hollow. Mould's prediction for his Maquoketa debut? “It’s gonna be loud. It’s gonna be hot… It’s gonna be physical.”
