Jazbo wrote:
I've got that '91 breakup show on tape, having seen them 3 months earlier at the Aragon in Chicago. I'm pretty sure The Posies opened. Anyway, I met Westie before the show up in the balcony, and he seemed a little disgusted by it all, barely smiling while a group of us shook his hand. Maybe the lack of any kind of commercial success after 10 years of solid work in the studio and slugging it out on the road finally beat him down. Plus, the orig.drummer had just quit, and while the show was still better than most everything else out there for me, it just didn't have the punch of the classic lineup with C. Mars & Bob Stinson I'd seen several times.

Perhaps Paul knew it was all going to be over by mid-summer...

I was there when they walked off the stage in Chicago, no more....sad.

HOOTENANNY!

Paul Westerberg collaborated with Glenn Campbell on his (Glenn's) last album. 'Last' as in 'he's not going to make any more because he's dying'.

The album is very good. Paul's writing, with Glenn's voice, aged but still strong, is quite a combination. Definitely worth a listen. Or two.

treatment_bound wrote: Yep. I have it. Love the Mats.

I wasn't aware until today that there was a 45 rpm single for the song "Alex Chilton" with this sleeve from the Pleased to Meet Me album.





Does anybody out there have this thing?

Stingray wrote:

What the hell is so good about your language you elitist, intolerant fuck?

Darlington wrote:
I just saw that movie recently. The placement (no pun intended) of the song you're talking about (Bastards of Young) was excellent, as was the rest of the soundtrack and the movie, actually.

At their best, The Replacements were the world's greatest party band. A DJ friend of mine from college called them "Minneapolis's greatest keg-sters" I think that summed it up pretty well.

I admit to a little nostalgia now and then (why didn't I buy a t-shirt at that Stones show in Memphis, I should've skipped school and went to the Skynyrd show in Evansville...) but I sure wish that The Replacements had worked as hard at being the best at their craft as they did at getting inebriated.

My 22 year old self wouldn't agree, but I see a tremendous waste of an unbelievably good band. Not the hard and fast truth, just an old geezer's opinion.

Rock on!

Went back to Mpls. over Thanksgiving, and took in a 'Mats tribute show at First Avenue. They're having them annually now on Black Friday...Fun for all!

Here's a quickie review of the show from the paper:
Replacements tribute is tightest yet

The Tribute to the Replacements returned to First Avenue for a third year Friday , a Minneapolis celebration of the most Minneapolis band. True to the Replacements' always-unexpected form, Friday's five-hour marathon centered on the group's raw, scrappy and downright snotty 1981 debut album, "Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash" — but the music actually sounded more rehearsed and sincere than in previous years. Few could've expected songs like "I Bought a Headache" and "Shiftless When Idle" to be taken so seriously. Religiously, even.

Guitarists Ryan Smith (of the Melismatics) and Terry Eason — who led the house band through the entire "Sorry Ma" album — played the spitfire guitar parts better than Paul Westerberg and Bob Stinson ever did post-recording. Highlights among the rotating vocalist stints included: the kickoff tear through "Takin' a Ride" by punk vet Dale T. Nelson; Pink Mink singers Arzu Gokcen and Christy Hunt's sassy spiking of "Rattlesnake" and "Don't Ask Why," respectively, and Japhies singer Reed Wilkerson's stage-diving delivery of "Otto."

Only two songs had a bratty flair: a glammed-out Curtiss A screamed his way through "Johnny's Gonna Die," while Jimmy "Dude Weather" Gaines delivered "I Hate Music" as an Elvis impersonator.

A dozen other acts also played 'Mats sets. Some were straight-up and well-rehearsed, especially High on Stress' nailed-it hammering of "Color Me Impressed" and "Left of the Dial." Some were more playful and clever, including Martin Devaney's montage of Slim Dunlap songs (the guitarist who replaced the late Bob Stinson) and BNLX's fuzzed-out approach to "Merry Go Round" and "You Lose."

The yin-yang approach was especially prevalent when stomp-rockers the 4onthefloor sloppily, drunkenly raised "Hootenanny" and "Treatment Bound" on the main stage while, minutes later, Poverty Hash played the same songs next door at 7th Street Entry with a bluesy bend. Both approaches worked beautifully.

Love these guys. Can't hardly wait to hear more from the mats.

ohhhh memories, DT MPLS in their heyday...still love to dance to this one!

Darlington wrote:

I've been with 'em since just about the beginning (having lived in Mpls. from '77 - '82). They weren't really top dog locally then, as the Suburbs ruled the bar scene for about 5 solid years. But the Suburbs never really broke out of the Midwest, even though they eventually also signed with a major label after 5 years of slugging it out on Twin Tone (same as The 'Mats).

On the contrary, The Replacements had a much bigger following nationally (especially with critics after Let It Be ) than the Suburbs, and are revered way more now than when they were back when they actually existed.

It's never too late to get on board.

Here's a reprint of a recent article from Rolling Stone about where they're at physically and mentally today...

>>Ever since the Replacements broke up in the summer of 1991, fans have been praying for some kind of reunion. In an exclusive interview with Rolling Stone , Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg admits that he has mixed feelings about the possibility of reforming the group. "I don't know, man," he says. "You catch me on one day and I think, 'Oh hell, why not?' Tommy has never stopped. He's a performer. I'm more of a writer-artist, though I perform as well - or at least I used to. But, God . . . I don't know."

Replacements guitarist Bob Stinson died in 1995 and drummer Chris Mars now devotes his life to art and hasn't played drums in years - which raises a logical question. "Who are the Replacements?" asks Westerberg. "Me, Chris and Tommy? Chris wouldn't do it. He might get together in a room and sit around and shoot the shit and if there were instruments, might play. I don't know more than that. I don't think Chris would ever go out and tour. I met with him last year a couple of times just for fun. Tommy is a little more aggressive towards it, because I think he needs a gig."

Unsurprisingly, Tommy Stinson - who currently plays bass in Guns N' Roses and Soul Asylum - doesn't agree with Westerberg's assessment of the situation. "He thinks I need a gig?" Stinson says. "That's funny. I got fucking three or four gigs going at any one time. Paul likes to sit home and record in his basement, and that works for him. I like to perform. But you never know. I'm more like, if a reunion happens, it happens. If the planets align and the oceans don't swallow up the earth first."

Stinson does share some of Weterberg's reservations about a possible reunion. "Why would we do it?" he asks. "The only reason we would ever do it would be to get paid. We're not going to recapture anything. I think I could probably have fun with it though. It'd probably be a short-lived moment of having fun with it, but I ultimately think it might not be very good to try and go back."

In 2006, Westerberg and Stinson reunited the Replacements to record two new songs for a compilation LP. Session drummer Josh Freese played drums, though Mars did contribute background vocals. "From time to time we'll get together and jam just for fun," says Stinson. "We do it without any sort of expectations or anything. We didn't break up in any sort of a nasty fashion. There was no dispute or anything. We just kind of walked way from it. I'm not so sure if there's any point in really revisiting it necessarily."

While a reunion may be unlikely in the near future, Westerberg has spent a lot of time recently combing through his past for a planned box set. "On a whim I got to dig through some old tapes," he says. "I found one song I never put on anything for people to hear. Then I dug deeper and found the original 'Good Day' Eventually>. That pretty much stunned me. I have to close this box set pretty soon because this could take the rest of my life just going through all these things and going, 'God, why was that there.'"

Westerberg hasn't released any new material since his 2009 EP PW & The Ghost Gloves Cat Wing Joy Boys , and that's unlikely to change anytime soon. "I write stuff, but I haven't written much lately," he says. "I played a little saxophone last year, more or less just for something else to do. I wouldn't say I'm working on a record. I have enough stuff to release one tomorrow, but why bother? In this day and age, my thought is to make a song everyday and erase it as a sort of Dadaist protest.<<

Thanks to their prominence in the Soundtrack of "Adventureland," the Replacements were my big "re-discovery" music wise of last year. Too bad I did not discover/listen to them much back in their "heyday."

Jalmari wrote:

Jalmari wrote:

What are these strange "pens" "stamps" and "letters" that he speaks of in the beginning of this song? Was this an early form of communication?

Aika mitäänsanomatonta, heikkoa poppia.

jjbix wrote:
agreed — it's not doing a thing for me either............

gumbo73039 wrote:

Wow, someone needs a aural history lesson re: the Replacements. I'm Waterboys fan too, but these too are not alike in anyway.