― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Saturday, 26 October 2002 00:09 (twenty-one years ago) link
For the record, I think and thought that the Huskers were overrated, and that Bob Mould's ego kept them from being a better band. And, while the Huskers were overrated, I loved them just the same. And since we're playing full disclosure, I will readily admit that the legacy of the Replacements is just as overrated as their live shows were. That hasn't kept them from being one of my favorite all time bands, either. If I had to measure artistic credibility or musical ambition on everything I loved, my record collection would be pretty tiny.
And that's sort of my point, actually. Within every music scene there is snobbery, and more than often than not, this snobbery is directed at bands who encounter success or at the very least, notoriety. On a larger scale--say nationally or worldly, for example--it's not all that destructive to detest the success of, say, Creed and blame it all on the mooks or other knuckle draggers. But on a local level it's quite destructive, especially when virtually any local success that translates beyond the immediate realm brings more attention to acts that normally would never see an audience. Maybe Nirvana was too rockist or too commerical for your taste, but they introduced a lot of kids to the Wipers, the Raincoats, and even Sonic Youth. The Replacements had the same effect on me; without them, I never would have ever bothered with many of the other local bands of the day, whether it was the Suburbs or the Hang Ups or 24/7 Various or any of the other wannabes who never made it. It's hard to imagine AmRep ever having a life at all without the attention the Huskers and Replacements brought to Minneapolis in the mid 80s.
That's why, to read your post, even though I knew it was hyperbole, disturbed me so. It reminded me of when I was younger and living up there and participating in a scene that so clearly measured quality by a lack of quantity in records sold. I'm sure *you* were objectively not interested in whatever the Replacements were doing in those days, but so many others who hated the Replacements did so out of jealousy and little reason else. At least you aren't interested in that style of music. Every other hata I knew based most of their anger on the fact that the Replacements got great ink wherever they went.
I guess the short version is that you, who aren't predisposed to even like music like the Replacements, couched your argument two separate times in the context of how the band represented the Twin Cities. That kinda hurt, and jackasses like me are predisposed to fly off the handle.
BTW, the Suburbs were a great band.
― Don "The Dapper" Weiner, Saturday, 26 October 2002 01:13 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Joe (Joe), Saturday, 26 October 2002 01:40 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Saturday, 26 October 2002 12:19 (twenty-one years ago) link
― paul, Monday, 4 November 2002 08:50 (twenty-one years ago) link
Classic, so ya know. (though Dan's got me doubting some songs on Tim if not Let It Be, which IS perfect - the best rock album evah, goddamnit).
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Saturday, 14 June 2003 13:48 (twenty-one years ago) link
I usually never tell people I like em - statements like "If you never liked the 'Mats (GOD I hate that name) you never liked rock'n'roll" piss me off too - but I adore the seemingly (genuinely?) tossed-off feel of those records, their goofy, un-self-conscious humanity. Let It Be is like a classic Howard Hawks film, or an old issue of Spiderman, or a great Fitzgerald short story: both shallow and strangely deep, timelessly rewarding in a very mysterious way, and very American.
― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 15 June 2003 04:40 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Sunday, 15 June 2003 04:48 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Francis Watlington, Sunday, 15 June 2003 05:35 (twenty-one years ago) link
The Black Diamond cover is HI-larious and great IMO. But Let It Be is simply my fave album ever, so I'm kinda biased.
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, 15 June 2003 21:08 (twenty-one years ago) link
-- Anthony Miccio (anthonymicci...), June 15th, 2003.
You are quite obviously a man with marvelous taste. I only prefer The Clash's s/t and Funhouse to the glorious Let It Be.
― Francis Watlington, Monday, 16 June 2003 04:47 (twenty-one years ago) link
― MerkinMuffley (MerkinMuffley), Monday, 16 June 2003 05:48 (twenty-one years ago) link
― scott m (mcd), Monday, 16 June 2003 18:24 (twenty-one years ago) link
Clash and Fun House both make my top ten, Francis, but I think the Mat's side 2 is stronger than the Stooges, and some of Mick Jones's songs on the Clash keep them from upstaging the Mats.
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 16 June 2003 19:59 (twenty-one years ago) link
― Chuck Tatum (Chuck Tatum), Wednesday, 9 July 2003 19:34 (twenty years ago) link
― Clarke B. (Clarke B.), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 17:09 (twenty years ago) link
In the movie, two Replacements songs are used by the prom band..
I had this to ask on the ILE thread (no answer yet..)
I was wondering if Michael Stipe used that [Replacements song] because for 20 years he may have been saying that the Replacements were the ultimate teen movie prom band. .. Or was it just that they were looking for some music and decided that "Inherit the Earth" was a good song to use. I'm choosing the former because they used "Skyway" also.
― dave225 (Dave225), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 17:39 (twenty years ago) link
Is this the first ILM hive mind accusation? (Not that I haven't made similar comments from time to time.)
― Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, 16 June 2004 17:43 (twenty years ago) link
― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 17:45 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 17:46 (twenty years ago) link
― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Thursday, 17 June 2004 03:35 (twenty years ago) link
but, um, stipe didn't direct the movie, so he may have had nothing to do with it. or maybe he just suggested it to the director, who was also the writer, who did the writing before stipe had anything to do with it.
but then again the movie really sucked, and the idea of the christian prom band playing "we'll inherit the earth" was one of the only things about it that got even a half-smile out of me.
― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 17 June 2004 03:43 (twenty years ago) link
― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 17 June 2004 03:47 (twenty years ago) link
Yeah that album sounds like shit even though there are some good songs on it. I don't know if they got Huey Lewis to produce it or anything, but it should not be anywhere near anyone's canon. (x-post)
Also I find sorry ma...the trash to be classic. Better than any Ramones album to me, even.
― christhamrin (christhamrin), Thursday, 17 June 2004 03:49 (twenty years ago) link
And and and...but hell, I was a white suburban American teenage male in the mid-1980s, my judgment is hopelessly skewed...
― spittle (spittle), Thursday, 17 June 2004 04:46 (twenty years ago) link
Totally. 'sorry ma' was my first placemats album, purchased at Big Star Records, a second hand place that opened in Wimbledon just as i hit 15 or so. The place sold me my first Dinosaur and Husker Du albums too, just as the rise of Grunge piqued my interest in these bands, and got me into OBSESSING about Stevie Wonder and Funkadelic, as opposed to merely being aware that they existed.
But 'sorry ma' is killer. i was 17 or so when i got it, and had the time on my hands to completely immerse myself in it. and, yes, it is 'power trash', a messy speedjag of a record, but there's so much heart to it as well. 'don't ask why' is an *amazing* love/break-up song, while the sense of pig-headed youthful frustration that pervades the album is so killer; and 'johnny's gonna die' is a perfect slice of nihilistic melancholy...
still prefer 'let it be' now, though.
― stevie (stevie), Thursday, 17 June 2004 08:01 (twenty years ago) link
The worship that surrounds them also smacks of the worst sort of Beatles fan, the type of stuff that makes me wanna just sit down and listen to the records by my own damn self, with my own damn thoughts, without any Greatest Of All Time mythos. "Mats," indeed.
Fave story about these guys: My friend Carol (R.I.P.) and I once watched them from a staircase beside the stage at a place called Going Bananas under an ice cream shop in Richmond, Va. Tommy's bass strap broke a few minutes into the show and he called for a shoelace. Carol pulled one of hers out, and he tied everything up after handing her some crumpled ones from his pocket. He sought her out after the show, and they traded back.
TS: 'The Shit Hits the Fans' v. 'Like Flies on Sherbert.'
― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Thursday, 17 June 2004 10:01 (twenty years ago) link
"The worship that surrounds them also smacks of the worst sort of Beatles fan, the type of stuff that makes me wanna just sit down and listen to the records by my own damn self, with my own damn thoughts, without any Greatest Of All Time mythos. "Mats," indeed."
PHHHHHHHFFFTTT.
― Francis Watlington (Francis Watlington), Thursday, 17 June 2004 12:30 (twenty years ago) link
― Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 17 June 2004 13:08 (twenty years ago) link
― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 17 June 2004 13:23 (twenty years ago) link
― 0r4l R0b3rt5 (ex machina), Thursday, 17 June 2004 13:24 (twenty years ago) link
The 'Mats were about as classic as classic gets. Their best stuff was so brilliant, so much better than so many other bands of the same genre that they more than made up for their own mediocre stuff.
Take the hatuhz outside in the backyard and let them have their own darn thread!
― Bimble (bimble), Thursday, 17 June 2004 15:40 (twenty years ago) link
― 0r4l R0b3rt5 (ex machina), Thursday, 17 June 2004 15:42 (twenty years ago) link
― danh (danh), Thursday, 17 June 2004 15:53 (twenty years ago) link
― 0r4l R0b3rt5 (ex machina), Thursday, 17 June 2004 15:53 (twenty years ago) link
― danh (danh), Thursday, 17 June 2004 16:00 (twenty years ago) link
― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 17 June 2004 16:12 (twenty years ago) link
― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 17 June 2004 16:20 (twenty years ago) link
― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 17 June 2004 16:22 (twenty years ago) link
― danh (danh), Thursday, 17 June 2004 16:22 (twenty years ago) link
― peter smith (plsmith), Thursday, 17 June 2004 16:28 (twenty years ago) link
― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 17 June 2004 16:36 (twenty years ago) link
― Kris (aqueduct), Thursday, 17 June 2004 16:39 (twenty years ago) link
― queen grungelfzaggin, Thursday, 17 June 2004 16:41 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 17 June 2004 16:41 (twenty years ago) link
― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Friday, 18 June 2004 02:36 (twenty years ago) link
― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Friday, 18 June 2004 02:37 (twenty years ago) link
― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Friday, 18 June 2004 02:41 (twenty years ago) link
Totally fucking classic.
Classic even when they sucked.
Classic even when they put out shit.
― dan carville weiner, Friday, 18 June 2004 02:50 (twenty years ago) link
― Bimble (bimble), Friday, 18 June 2004 04:05 (twenty years ago) link