The alternative group returns with its first new music & live dates in over 30 years
Sugar, the iconic alternative rock trio led by Bob Mould alongside bassist David Barbe and drummer Malcolm Travis, returns with their first new music together in over three decades, “House of Dead Memories.” Recorded at Tiny Telephone Oakland in June 2025, the song is available everywhere now via Granary Music/BMG.
In addition, Sugar will celebrate “House of Dead Memories” with their first live performances together since January 1995, set for New York City’s Webster Hall on Saturday, May 2nd and Sunday, May 3rd, and London’s O2 Forum Kentish Town on Saturday, May 23rd and Sunday, May 24th.
Next month, Sugar’s essential 1992 debut album, Copper Blue, will be commemorated with Copper Blue – The Singles Collection, a limited edition 4 LP box set to be released by BMG on November 28th as part of Record Store Day Black Friday. The new box set collects such anthemic favorites as “Changes,” “A Good Idea,” and “If I Can’t Change Your Mind,” all originally released on 12-inch vinyl in the UK via Creation Records backed with beloved B-sides like “Needle Hits E” and “Clownmaster,” as well as live recordings from Sugar’s 1992 performance at Chicago’s Cabaret Metro. Copper Blue – The Singles Collection now sees those classic releases returning to vinyl with original artwork and track listings lovingly restored. In addition, “Helpless” – previously released only on CD – is presented here on 12-inch vinyl for the first time alongside updated B-sides, finally joining its companions in its full glory.
“Sugar was a meteorite,” says Mould. “I spent all of 1991 writing and performing new material at solo shows. David and Malcolm had never met but I was certain we three would work well together.
Having already placed his indelible mark on the future direction of rock with Hüsker Dü, Mould teamed with bassist David Barbe and drummer Malcolm Travis to found Sugar in late 1991, making their live debut early the next year at Athens, GA’s famed 40 Watt Club. Sugar’s now-classic debut album, Copper Blue, immediately proved a sensation, earning worldwide acclaim and landmark status for the melodic strength and intensely cathartic popcraft of songs like “A Good Idea,” “Helpless,” and the alternative rock radio hit and MTV favorite, “If I Can’t Change Your Mind.” The trio quickly found themselves performing on increasingly larger stages, including a legendary show-stealing set at London’s Great X-pectations Festival in Finsbury Park.
With the wind at their back, Sugar unleashed Beaster in 1993, making a momentous debut at No. 3 on the UK’s Official Albums Chart and at No. 4 on Billboard’s “Heatseekers” chart in the US. Though recorded during the same sessions that yielded Copper Blue, the six-song mini-album evinced a more visceral energy and dark melancholy than its predecessor, highlighted by such pulverizing expressions of sacrilegious fury as “Judas Cradle” and “JC Auto.” 1994’s second full-length LP, File Under: Easy Listening, once again made an explosive arrival among the top 10 on the UK Official Albums Chart, landing in the upper reaches of the overall Billboard 200. The album saw Sugar pushing boundaries yet again on songs like the country-flavored “Believe What You’re Saying” and the incendiary “Gee Angel,” tackling a wider range of musical approaches without sacrificing their signature intensity and unrestrained power. Despite their successes, Sugar called it a day following a Japanese tour in early 1995. A series of live recordings, reissues, and anthologies served to magnify the band’s legacy over the three decades since, confirming Sugar as incontrovertible masters of high-volume guitar-fueled rock for the ages. The original members of Sugar reconvened in June 2025 to record “House Of Dead Memories,” the first new Sugar song in over three decades.
