The Replacements: Classic or Dud?

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."

And let's be clear, that song was pretty awful.

Tommy Stinson – who currently plays bass in Guns N' Roses and Soul Asylum
still so weird

If it were anybody else it might be but in this case not that weird.

Why don't more bands cover this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EonYQxlpLfI&feature=related

afghan whigs covered that once when i saw them and the crowd went nuts

Think I saw Austin local legend Michael Hall cover that one once at The Hole In The Wall and it went over pretty well.

When I heard that the Goo Goo Dolls covered that, I thought, surely they got that from the the Replacements

Didn'y they cover the Cross as well?

Soul Asylum did "The Cross" as part of "James at 16 - Heavy Medley" on a 12-inch B-side. Don't think Replacements ever did it.

One of my favorite Replacements covers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKpmpe6ysEY

This - a group of tricenarians (well, maybe except for Stephen King on the bass) playing a set in front Sam's Italian Pizzeria while families stroll across the plaza, listening to the haunting tunes of a 25-year-old song about suicide. "She's trying to be reached on her CELLphone…."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fPFA7YdXz4

"We're CERTIFIED ANGUS from Lansing. Happy Mothers Day!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a90Eq7gqCbk

welp

The singer comes across as a douche, but it's completely possible that they're the second- or third-best Mats cover band in Mid-Michigan.

and arguably the only one specializing exclusively in "pleased to meet me" covers

haha

Mats cover bands each need their own version of Bobby Stinson

wear footie pajamas onstage and you're halfway there

Reading through a box full of letters/notes from my youth, I found one from 9th grade ('89-'90) to my bff on which I doodled the following unattractive but heartfelt doodle at the top of the page.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7169/6718436027_a8c0ffb9ee_z.jpg

omg <3 4ever <3 <3 <3

okay that is rad

would buy a tee-shirt with it printed on

Have only heard Sorry Ma..,

I bought it to play in a hire car driving through Germany with my then 8 year old daughter.

I thought it was pretty good. She called it "Grandpa music".

I never played it much after that.

Your loss!

That's one wild 8 year old.

i guess kids don't follow

I feel like the Replacements is one the most difficult bands to transmit to younger generations. Their loss, though.

of

Not to be rude, and lord knows I bought all their albums at the time, but I think they're hard to transmit because they weren't actually all that good. Just didn't have much competition at the time, and followed an unusual progression for a few albums. Not enough reasons for an 8-year-old to like them. My 4-year-old likes Fucked Up and The Police, fwiw.

I mean, back when they were around it was either The Replacements or Zoogz Rift. And how many people were cool enough to make the right choice there, way back then in ancient times...?

not sure what's meant by younger generations here. I wasn't born when Let It Be came out but i still love it, and i know plenty of people who do as well

The Replacements had loads of 'competition' surely

Let It Be is an alltime great. Sadly, the rest have not aged as well. Tim has some good songs but the sound is so thin it's hard to get past it.

xpost: Well, there was Brian Brain and Rude Buddha, to be sure, so maybe it was the high quality of the Mats' albums that won out in the end...

I saw most of their "competition," they were exceptional.

Oh shit, that's right: I forgot about Thelonious Monster!

Did you also forget about Scruffy the Cat?

Oh god yes! Gerard Cosloy's favorite band ever, if memory serves.

> it was either The Replacements or Zoogz Rift

lolz

Not to be rude, and lord knows I bought all their albums at the time, but I think they're hard to transmit because they weren't actually all that good. Just didn't have much competition at the time,

SEARCH PAGE > 'RONG' THREAD > C+P

the production aesthetic of PTMM on was tough for me to get past tbh

let it be was all i cared about for a long time

Their "competition" was pretty much R.E.M., wasn't it? Or was I suckered by all those Creem articles.

our band could be your half-life

Stink is the best by far, to my ears now

their competition? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBwBhpen8QM

xpost. And, in fact, to most well-informed ears. Great EP! I'd challenge any 8-year-old to deny it.

what about meat puppets too? and sonic youth and dino jr and shitloads of other bands

Hippies, Artists, Stoners. Replacements are the Bruce Springsteen of indie rock. Don't compare them to those poseurs...

i was a die-hard replacements fan during the years between hootenanny and pleased to meet me. loved all those records at the time, the slicker sounds of PTTMM no less than the rougher early stuff. for whatever reason, i sort of agree with keyes that they're a hard sell to people, young or old, who weren't fans at the time. worse, my own appreciation has faded considerably. then again, in the long run, i've found that almost anything i seriously obsess over tends to wear thin after a while.

they had tons of worthy american contemporaries, a lot of them on SST: black flag, minutemen, mission of burma, husker du, etc.

see:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7b/Our_Band_Could_Be_Your_Life_book_cover.jpg/205px-Our_Band_Could_Be_Your_Life_book_cover.jpg

Punks, Jazzbos, Artistes, Conceptualists... Replacements had no contemporaries!

nothing compared to the fresh original indie rock of today of course