The Replacements: Classic or Dud?

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,

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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

omg this conversation is totally inane!

Music was so much better back in the olden times. I remember when the Replacements *exchanged clothes* in between songs on SNL. You don't see transgressive shit like that these days!

They were known to take a sip onstage then and again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zuT-p4lWDg

The Replacements changed clothes, the Goo Goo Dolls played without shoes

Whatever next

Back when the 'Mats reissue came out, the reviewer in Mojo wrote something along the lines of them being "America's Smiths", which is equally right and wrong.

seems ... mostly wrong? how is that right?

that is very wrong

I'd say it's wrong in terms of visibility/popularity; the Replacements never came close to having the profile in the US that the Smiths had in the UK. The Smiths at least had some big chart hits, didn't they? The most the 'mats could do was one brilliant SNL appearance, and a self-sabotaged opening slot on a Tom Petty arena tour.

the replacements were the warren g harding of bar bands

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/Warren_G_Harding-Harris_%26_Ewing.jpg/220px-Warren_G_Harding-Harris_%26_Ewing.jpg
Look me in the eye
And tell me that I'm satisfied

I'll Be You was top 100 I think, barely

seems ... mostly wrong? how is that right?

• Fans above-average emotional attachment. The 'Mats connected to teens in the states in a manner not unlike The Smiths did with young Brits.
• Openly direct lyrics about relationships.
• Charismatic frontmen w/solo careers that way overshadows rest of group members post-band work.
• Bands heydays roughly parallel.
• Catalog centers on one totemic masterpiece.
• Hugely popular in States despite not actually connecting w/masses.

•Catalog centers on one totemic masterpiece.

no way this is true w/ the smiths, tho I agree w/ various other parts

like the smiths, the replacements used the emerging indie rock sound of the era to deliver fairly sophisticated, poetic and personal lyrics. each band was also very strongly of its nation.

Being one of the bigger underground bands in a massive place like the US is a bit different to having actual top 40 hits in the UK

Replacements were hardly bigger than Sonic Youth (were they, I really can't tell) in the late 80s

westerberg's solo career has been a bust commercially except for the song from the singles soundtrack

Replacements were hardly bigger than Sonic Youth (were they, I really can't tell) in the late 80s

I would say the 'mats were definitely bigger than pre-Dirty SY. The 'mats had been on national network TV twice, were a major label since 1985, and got the aforementioned Petty slot. SY at the time was still playing 1500-3000-capacity places, and didn't get on DGC until 1989.

think the results here reflect the way i remember it, and I WAS THERE, MAN

HUSKER DU V. Replacements

There are days when I think nothing of comparing the two together, there's others where I think they have absolutely nothing to do with each other

Du vs. Mats I mean

stink and sorry ma are still great, they were better when they were still figuring out what the hell they were doing

eh, i love them best as a vehicle and foil for westerberg's brokenhearted everyman-poet shtick: "color me impressed", "androgynous" (yeah, i know), "answering machine", "here comes a regular", "skyway"

cry in your beer type shit

[almost typed "cry in your bear", but i guess that works too]

Back when the 'Mats reissue came out, the reviewer in Mojo wrote something along the lines of them being "America's Smiths", which is equally right and wrong.

― Lady Writer, Male Seether (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, January 19, 2012 3:15 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

one of the first threads i remember on ilx years ago was the one about "guns and roses are the american smiths"

Mr. Shuffle reminded me this morning about-

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

If all their post-Let It Be output was produced and performed like this, there would be much less debate about the Sire years.

The American Smiths

bendy OTM. one of my favorite songs of that era.

Nah, that's an example of the kind of song that deserved the gentler treatment IMO - something the Replacements did better and more frequently than the Du

Then again I prefer the bells and whistles version of Can't Hardly Wait, what do I know

Always thought "The American Smiths" were Long Island band and nabisco favorite My Favorite, but looking forward to entertaining other points of view.

I was listening to a mid-period Replacements live tape-flac earlier today, unrelated to this thread, and wondering about their placement.

It wasn't really punk or hardcore like the sst or homestead bands, and it was too raw to fit in the the Americana stuff like Blasters and Long Ryders.

I also heard some Blue Ash today, and I think that is were the Replacements fit, Midwest Faces influenced power-pop, played a little bit too loud and sloppy. I love their songs though.

I think they were the "American Cure". because "Androgynous" goes well with "Love Cats" on a cassette.