The Replacements: Classic or Dud?

No Keef tho

Nice, that Neighborhoods video ended up making my night! I didn't realize that the version of "Prettiest Girl" I know is a cover. I have it on the lone 45 from Jimmy Zero's short-lived post-Dead Boys band, Club Wow, given to me by Jimmy himself when I was in high school. A Cleveland college radio station let me have a show during the summer when there weren't a lot of students around to host. Following my show there was an hour-long pre-recorded program, so after getting the tape started I would go into another studio and play records for myself until the next DJ showed up. One afternoon I was listening Night of the Living Dead Boys when I heard the door to the station open and the DJ say "Hey Jimmy, he's playing the Dead Boys!" JZ was super nice and autographed a copy of the Club Wow 7 inch for me.

I wish I could remember the name of the DJ, or her show. She was a super-cool punk college girl so a bit intimidating to me, but really friendly. I started Googling around trying to figure out who she was. I remember Cheetah Chrome being arrested at the same station and think it might've been during her show, but couldn't find any references to the event that mentioned her. But I did find a lot of online reminiscence of '80s Cleveland college radio and the scene in general which made for great reading. Between that and some Club Wow on YouTube it was a very nostalgic evening.

So thanks! And sorry for the hijack . . . back to The Replacements.

scored a ticket to the midway stadium show on saturday should be pretty fun

josh freese is also pvnk he was originally from the Vandals

but anyway he kinda rules, i saw DEVO with him and he really made the older stuff tense and awesome

I saw the Neighborhoods open for Husker Du, Jan '85

Didn't they kick starter a reunion album?

david minehan and josh freese = westerberg's original post-mats band, more or less.

I used to see the Neighborhoods on a regular basis in the mid- to late-'80s in Providence/Newport, RI. That video I posted was actually made a few years before I first saw them, when they had a different bass player. They were simply fantastic live. When I first saw Westerberg solo, Dave Minehan was in his band and they were playing Providence. Some people in the crowd were screaming for “No Place Like Home” or “Prettiest Girl” and Westerberg turned to a mortified Minehan: “Is that one of yours, Dave?”

Man twin cities media is replacements crazy!

It's so bad I am travelling to a remote cabin deep in Wisconsin woods to think about my feelings!

gary's got a bon iver

Well played, sir.

A+!

i'm worried about jim walsh

well?

He's boycotting

Im beginning to think that the "we just wrote this" real time approach of the likes of Hold My Life and Favorite Thing is my uh, favourite thing about this band, more so than anthems, ballads or trainwreck image. I think it takes a particular skill to write songs like that in that way and make them stick in your head at the same time.

I was at the Midway show (travelled from Chicago), and I gotta say the crowd didn't seem that into it (perhaps it was a bad case of 'Minnesota nice'). 'Killed by hype' was overheard, and I thought 'killed by people talking about getting back to their babysitters.' There wasn't even people dancing, even towards the front. I saw 'em at RiotFest in Chicago last year, and it was just such a transcendent experience - energetic crowd, singalongs, screams and fun. Not so much at Midway. Cool setting and great set by the band, though. 'Unsatisfied' was a great closer.

it was a fun show! didn't transport me to another dimension like some ppl are saying but they played really well (shout out to josh freese a pro's pro)....

did some cool things like "if only you were lonely" and "nowhere is my home"..."tommy gets his tonsils out"

The idea that a member of the Replacements can be lauded as "a pro's pro" makes me sad.

I feel like 90% of the people I know in the Twin Cities area were at that show

singalongs at pricey shows = must to avoid

a complete impossibility

Doesn't look super-pricey though.

it only costs you your youth

The idea that a member of the Replacements can be lauded as "a pro's pro" makes me sad.

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, September 15, 2014 12:52 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

honestly after all these years of being in GnR and other stuff, Tommy is pretty dang pro himself...Westerberg was the only one who was kinda sloppy at times...

on a base level, they sounded great....they played and sang some song that mean a lot to me and it sounded good. i dunno, i don't buy that heavily into the mythos of the 'mats anyway, so yeah it wasn't some rapturous event but it was a fun night, they did good....but whatever it was meant to signify or whatever old magic from the 7th street entry 30 years ago it was supposed to conjur up were likely out of reach in a baseball stadium with 15,000 ppl

having seen them twice, 1. they play drunk 2. they play a lot of old songs and occasionally cover something out of nowhere 3. it's a good time

this doesn't seem to me tremendously distinct from the experience of seeing the mats back in the day except for venue size, but i wasn't there

RS piece hints at new album:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/the-replacements-the-greatest-band-that-never-was-20140922?page=2

Now, the Replacements say they'll likely make an album at some point in the future. Westerberg, who often writes on piano as well as guitar, has plenty of songs in the hopper. One candidate for inclusion might be called "Are You in It for the Money?"; another is titled "Dead Guitar Player" (which he says was written before Dunlap's illness).

Eh, I guess it'll be as much of a 'mats record as All Shook Down was (likely moreso, in spots).

snarkiest Paul interview comment from old days: "They've ALL been solo records"

Mostly fun and good gig in DC last night. Paul did get bored at times and turned "Treatment Bound" and another one into slowed down faux-country numbers with twangy vocals, and he forgot a verse of "Skyway" but I was happy to hear "Within Your Reach", and energetic versions of most of the big #s-"Alex Chilton", "Can't hardly Wait", "Bastards of Young" etc.

A friend who had also seen 'em at that NY Forest Hills gig with Hold Steady opening, said that Paul seemed less into the DC show than that one. Plus he didn't give DC "Unsatisfied" or "16 Blue". Some of his criticisms said to me it was just Paul being Paul after being on tour for a bit.

Oh, they also did a goofy fake blues/blues-rock number about "going to Whole Foods" and getting "a premium shake to keep my girlish figure"

this doesn't seem to me tremendously distinct from the experience of seeing the mats back in the day except for venue size, but i wasn't there

― emo canon in twee major (BradNelson), Monday, September 15, 2014

In some ways it was the same (old guy me did see 'em in early 8os), but now you have so many more people there and so many who who know the songs, band membership is slightly different, and the band's status is different as relaxed vets versus left of the dial underdog screwups who might become stars if they get the right break. Also, now you also have people attending based on the band's name who are just standing there gawking after having paid the big bucks ticket.

Saw an ilxor referring to Replacements as problematic on twitter; eh, I will deal with that, as long as they have that great catalog I eard parts of friday night.

heard

"problematic" whut

I guess the song lyric phrase "you ain't nothing but a waitress in the sky"

“‘Waitress In The Sky’ has been misconstrued since day one. It came from my sister, who was a flight attendant, and she used the phrase in disgust, explaining that she was treated like a waitress in the sky. So I took the role of the demanding bastard in the aeroplane who expects the flight attendant to be a nurse and a maid. Some took it as a slam, but it was me trying to speak through her experiences. Nobody ever threw a drink on me over it."

...paul westerberg said aeroplane?

The interview is from Uncut. I notice UK publications tend to Britishize not just spellings but idioms, even in direct quotes that were obviously not said that way. (I don't think US pubs do the same, but it may be a partly unconscious process, so maybe it does happen.)

(xp) that's the way alex chilton pronounced it in "the letter," so i would expect nothing less from westerberg!

ha, both hoos and fcc otm

(xp) that's the way alex chilton pronounced it in "the letter," so i would expect nothing less from westerberg!

― fact checking cuz, Thursday, May 14, 2015 10:44 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

otm, and pvmic for a fact checking cuz

there are plenty of other things to be offended by, i'll give paul a pass. i don't think i would have liked them as much as i did when i was a teen if they were hella offensive, considering it was the early 90s and there was plenty of other stuff around that was way more gross than "waitress in the sky"

http://pitchfork.com/news/59854-paul-westerberg-says-the-replacements-just-played-their-final-show/

We will see

what song did the roadies play?

"Hi We're the Replacements"

paul is being so fucking annoying

He's certainly honoring his passive-aggressive MN roots!

for me, they played their last show in '91 so bon soir

dunno seems like the right amount of time for a reunion...probably everyone who wanted to catch them has had the chance?

omg at that "waitress in the sky" bit - "I was trying to sympathize with the plight of the flight attendant by writing a jaunty jingle from the pov of someone who disrespects them". Probably not the best way to write your "Angel From Montgomery," Paul!