Spike Jonze's music video for Daft Punk's "Da Funk," a story called "Big City Nights" about an anthropomorphized dog, was filmed in New York's East Village. In the last sad shot, Charles the dog is left standing in front of the old Nightingale Bar on 2nd Ave and 13th St. after he doesn't follow the girl on the bus because he doesn't want to abandon his boombox.

Nightingale's used to be a dive bar. Jam bands like Spin Doctors and Blues Traveler played here early on in their careers, but it's since been remodeled.

Watch "Big City Nights"

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The cover of Hüsker Dü's landmark 1984 album Zen Arcade features a hand-colored photo of a car-crushing yard. This location is down in the Pig's Eye Lake industrial area (not sure if this is the exact address, but it's close to there).

Zen Arcade was released on SST Records (#027), the artwork was done by Fake Name Graphics, and the photo was taken by M. Peterson.

The album was recorded at Total Access Recording Studio in Redondo Beach, CA with SST producer Spot. The band recorded 25 tracks, with all but two songs being first takes ("Something I Learned Today" and "Newest Industry"), in 40 hours.

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Hüsker Dü began work on their double album Zen Arcade in the summer of 1983, immediately after releasing Metal Circus. Bassist Grant Hart was living in a desanctified church-turned-punk squat in St. Paul, MN. The other tenants were drifters, runaways and musicians, and everybody was enjoying the particularly good LSD that had made its way there. The band was reaching their creative peaks at that time, practicing for hours in the church.

The church later became a shelter for at-risk youths and continues to stand today. If you drive by, you can still see the stained glass windows.

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Released in October of 1983, The cover of the Hüsker Dü mini-album/EP Metal Circus features a photo of a desk with a Chairman Mao photo and a view out a city window. The picture was taken looking out of the first floor office window of the Milton Building at this address (next to the Parkside Apartments).


Local history note: the song "Diane" is about the murder of West St. Paul waitress Diane Edwards by serial killer Joseph Ture in 1980. The song has been covered by several other bands.


See Grant Hart next to the building and different view points of the location here.

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Although no longer at this location, the empty parking (next to the Thai restaurant) is where Cheapo Records used to be, on the edge of the Macalester College campus. Bob Mould (guitar/vocals) was a student at Macalester, and he would frequent the record store where Grant Hart (drums) worked as a clerk. Mould and Hart bonded over a shared love of The Ramones.

Grant Hart and Greg Norton (bass) had met while applying for the record store job that Hart would eventually get. Although they started the band as a four-piece (with a keyboardist) called Buddy and the Returnables, by the end of March 1979 the band had morphed into a three-piece called Hüsker Dü. The name is drawn from a board game in the 70s that translates to "Do You Remember?"

To see a picture of Grant Hart pointing to the former location of the cash register at Cheapo, click here.

Cheapo Records is still around, only now it's up the road on Snelling.

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