In 1983, Hsker D's singer-guitarist Bob Mould told Matter fanzine writer Steve Albini, "We're going to try to do something bigger than anything like rock & roll... I don't know what it's going to be, we have to work that out, but it's going to go beyond the whole idea of 'punk rock' or whatever."

"We had to come up with an idea after saying stuff like that," says Mould, and the epochal Zen Arcade was the result. Hsker D originally embodied the hardcore ethos "loud fast rules," but now the trio -- Mould, singer-drummer Grant Hart and bassist Greg Norton -- was introducing melody, introspection and a host of outside influences into punk rock, which was groundbreaking and catapulted Hsker D to the forefront of the indie underground. The ripples from Zen Arcade extend from the Pixies and Dinosaur Jr to Nirvana and way beyond.

A Look Back at 1984: Full Coverage

In the autumn of 1983, Hsker D toured out to California and in October they recorded (with SST house producer Spot) 25 tracks in 45 hours, then mixed it in 40 hours. Apropos of zen, all but two of the tracks were recorded in one take.

Zen Arcade had begun with epic, acid-and-speed-fueled jams in a deconsecrated St. Paul church where Hart was squatting. The band's two gifted songwriters were vying to outdo one another, and "we started to weave this framework that we built around all the songs we'd been writing," says Mould. The storyline: A young man runs away from a troubled home, seeking refuge in the big city, only to find a corrupt, industrialized wasteland. He flirts with joining a cult and meets a girl, but she fatally overdoses. He comes home, retreats into himself and then begins to find strength. But it turns out the whole thing was a dream, and now he must face real life. Cue "Reoccurring Dreams," a 14-minute instrumental full of the tumult and serenity of any life; it ends with a minute of flatlining feedback.

And why was it punk rock to make a double album with a 14-minute improvisation? "Because," Mould explains, "it was against punk rock."

Dispensing with the usual hardcore hectoring, the lyrics had an almost confessional singer-songwriter tone, while the music is variegated and full of invention: pop melodies, backwards recording, folky vocal harmonies, tape collage, acoustic songs, piano interludes, psychedelia, and jazzy extended improvisation. "It's geodesic-shaped," Hart quipped at the time. "Everyone will have to get a new stereo."

But while the album's departures from hardcore orthdoxy were huge, the hardcore parts are blood-and-guts intense, incendiary tirades that, to this day, would send entire rooms full of people into a frenzy of rabid moshing.

This was Hsker D's artistic, commercial and even cultural breakthrough. It also marked a coming of age for the American indie underground: after that, the audiences changed, the music changed and eventually mainstream music followed suit.

Zen Arcade gives "a sense of what it was like in 1984 in America, you're in the Reagan era, and you feel a little oppressed, marginalized," says Mould. "As I figured out years later, that was me -- the disenfranchised, marginalized gay kid who was watching the beginning of the AIDS crisis and the Young Republicans taking over; I was watching all that stuff and feeling a little powerless, confused as to why things were going that way. "

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Bob Mould Looks Back at Husker Du's Breakthrough Indie Album 'Zen Arcade'

Photo: Heart of Zen Related Coverage

Hawaii County police have issued an advisory on traffic changes in Pahoa due to the lava flow.

Pahoa Post Office Rd. is restricted to one-lane for traffic heading out of Pahoa town (eastbound). There will be no parking along road shoulders.

Also, traffic entering Pahoa town is limited to the intersection of Route 132/Route 130 near Pahoa High School.

Hawaii County Civil Defense have added those closures to their report that also includes Pahoa Village Road between Apaa Street and Post Office Road. The road is limited to area residents only.

In addition, Civil Defense and public safety personnel will be operating in the area round the clock to maintain close observations of flow activity.

Chaos at Pahoa Post Office this morning, before they made it a one way road, only allowing cars to exit Pahoa. Tourists are parking in the post office stalls and nosy people are cluttering our roads. It took 20 minutes to find parking just to check our mail. Heart of Zen via Facebook

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Lava causes Pahoa traffic changes

Daniel Radcliffe just cast another spell on audiences, but this time he did it with his mad rap skills.

The "Harry Potter" alum, goaded by host Jimmy Fallon, performed Blackalicious' complex "Alphabet Aerobics" on "The Tonight Show" on Tuesday.

Fallon asked the "Horns" and "What If" star about his interest in music, and Radcliffe surprisingly admitted that he was into Eminem and was one of the first people in his class to learn all the lyrics to "The Real Slim Shady."

"I've always had kind of an obsession with memorizing complicated, lyrically intricate and fast songs, I guess," the 25-year-old said. "It's a disease."

The audience giggled, and that's when Fallon suggested "Alphabet Aerobics" as a true test of Radcliffe's claims. So the British star threw down the gauntlet, removed his blazer and delivered an impressive and impeccable cover of the alliterative 1999 rap while Fallon displayed letter-emblazoned cards to track Radcliffe's progress through the alphabet.

The performance was worthy of the Roots front man Questlove, whose band delivered a "Harry Potter" rap last June. Questlove sent a tweet to the Blackalicious artists to tune in for Radcliffe's performance.

"dear @realgiftofgab & @ChiefXcel make sure you and the entire @blackalicious_ fan base watches & dvr's #FallonTonight. trust. #!!!!!!!!" he wrote.

Radcliffe also dropped his British accent along the way, and -- speaking of accents -- the actor and Fallon swapped impressions during the interview, with Radcliffe explaining that he learned to do an American accent while growing up by watching WWF wrestling. (His "Potter" costar Emma Watson learned hers from "Keeping Up With the Kardashians." What does this say about our across-the-pond exports?)

The young star also said that he's a huge fan of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson -- an admission that drove Fallon to say that a band movie called "Rock 'n' Radcliffe" would be a good idea.

Follow me on Twitter @NardineSaad.

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Daniel Radcliffe shows rap muscle with 'Alphabet Aerobics'

NEW YORK, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- British actor Daniel Radcliffe wowed the crowd at Tuesday's taping of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon where he rapped to Blackalicious' "Alphabet Aerobics."

"I am a big fan of rap, which surprises a lot of people about me," the former Harry Potter star told Fallon.

Revealing he loves American hip-hop artist Eminem and the British rap act Plan B, he went on to say, "I've always had kind of an obsession with memorizing complicated, lyrically intricate and fast songs.

"It's a disease," Radcliffe confessed.

After Fallon asked him if he knew "Alphabet Aerobics" by heart and Radcliffe swore that he did, Fallon presented the 25-year-old actor with a microphone and a challenge.

Radcliffe then perfectly performed the rap, which Fallon had moments earlier decribed as "one of the trickiest, fastest songs" he knew.

2014 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

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Daniel Radcliffe raps 'Alphabet Aerobics' on 'Tonight Show'

Daniel Radcliffe: child actor extraordinaire, theater star, and now, budding hip-hop idol?

In an appearance Tuesday on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, the boy who lived became the man who rapped, with an incredible interpretation of Blackalicious Alphabet Aerobics. By any measure an extremely difficult rap to repeat, Alphabet Aerobics employs a heavy dose of mouth-numbing consonance as it wends its way through each letter of the alphabet. But Radcliffe proved himself a wizard on the mic, barely dropping a syllable.

As impressive as Radcliffes performance is, the most enjoyable part of the video might just be Fallons exuberant head bobbing, especially by the letter S. A scintillating spectacle, stunning spectators, especially the shows sign-squeezing emcee? Radcliffe and Blackalicious can take it from there.

Read next: Alan Rickman Played an Epic Prank on Daniel Radcliffe While Filming Harry Potter

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Watch Daniel Radcliffe Rap Alphabet Aerobics with Jimmy Fallon

Daniel Radcliffe is a man of many talents, which he proved yet again Tuesday.

The Horns actor put his rap skills to the test when he performed Blackalicious' "Alphabet Aerobics" on NBC's The Tonight Show. Before taking the stage, however, the 25-year-old Englishman confessed that he's always a big hip-hop fan, "which surprises a lot of people." He was inspired by Eminem years ago. "I think I was the first kid in my class to learn all the words to 'Real Slim Shady,'" Radcliffe recalled. "I've always had kind of an obsession with memorizing complicated, lyrically intricate and fast songs, I guess."

"It's a disease," he joked.

Fallon called "Alphabet Aerobics" one of the "trickiest, fastest songs" he knows. Radcliffe took his jacket off for the impromptu concert. Backed by The Roots, the movie star proved to be a masterful musician.

"Come on!" Fallon said as the actor received a standing ovation. "Daniel Radcliffe!"

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Radcliffe doesn't aspire to become a full-time rapper, but he does hope to try something new on the big screen. "I harbor a not-so-secret desire to somehow find a part for me and Dwayne Johnson to play in the same movie. He knows I'm a fan because I've had mutual fan who've dressed him on other films...My initial thought was like a buddy cop movie about two unlikely partners who are forced to work together. This came out of another idea that me and friend were having one night where we were just coming up with bad pun names for films. We decided a buddy cop movie about two cops that are joined over their love of music should be called Siren Song," he told Fallon. "It's not a musical movie!"

"Wouldn't you like to see me and The Rock do that?" he asked.

Harry Potter may be long over, but Radcliffe still knows how to cast a spell on audiences.

VIDEO: Was Daniel Radcliffe nervous for What If's nude scene?

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Daniel Radcliffe Raps Blackalicious' "Alphabet Aerobics" on The Tonight ShowWatch the Video Now!