The Replacements: Classic or Dud?

I saw the Goo Goo Dolls at CBGB once! Christ, they sucked.

Speaking of which, I saw The Lemonheads once at CBGB and they were grebt. But don’t just take my word for it, guy from my high school who became a record company exec thought so too.

I'll co-sign Superstar Car Wash.

re: BUff Tom, Let Me Come Over was a great record, Taillights Fade especially

Not sure how well this translates three decades later:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVnNm-bORpk

i will however continue to stand up for corny old "runaway wind"

otm! i love proper mats but will definitely stand up for AORwesterberg, which is i guess the "pleased to meet me" version of Can't Hardly Wait, through the Singles songs, through I dunno, the few good bits on "Eventually"

Even Here We Are, Dyslexic Heart, Blackeyed Susan, Hide N Seeking, Runaway Wind, Knockin on Mine, Tears Rolling Up Our Sleeves, love all those corny rock songs

Yeah. I'd add "best thing that never happened" to the list of stuff that holds up against the mats.

But really, David Buckley said in his Ferry/Roxy bio that even the worst Roxy record is better than the best Ferry record. This applies to Westerberg too.

so the algorithm tells me my number two song for the year was the Maxwell’s version of “Can’t Hardly Wait.” I’ll take it.

is there a thread for us all to post our “results” ?

Think people are just using My Spotify playlists, let me show you them

Maxwell's slow jam ride through "Can't Hardly Wait" is even better than Fine Young Cannibal's "Ever Fallen in Love", thanks for the tip!

lol

His this one been posted yet?
https://thekey.xpn.org/2016/03/13/listen-replacements-rock-living-hell-upenns-houston-hall-1986/

http://myfavoritealbum.libsyn.com/303-bob-odenkirk-on-the-replacements-sorry-ma-forgot-to-take-out-the-trash-1981

cool.

That's great. I'm going to check the Better Call Saul thread and make sure it's there too.

Pleased To Meet Me box coming

https://store.rhino.com/artist/the-replacements.html

Following up last year’s DEAD MAN’S POP, PLEASED TO MEET ME (DELUXE EDITION) will be available as a 3 CD/1LP set and digitally on October 9! More than half of the music (29 of the 55 tracks) on this deluxe edition set is unreleased material, including demos, rough mixes, and outtakes, as well as Bob Stinson’s last recordings with The Replacements from 1986. Pre-order your copy and listen to six previously unreleased “rough mixes,” including “Alex Chilton,” here: https://Rhino.lnk.to/pleasedtomeetme

Several exclusive bundles can also be pre-ordered now at www.Rhino.com, which include a variety of limited edition items including a t-shirt, tote bag, iron-on patch, bumper sticker, placemat,
and a cassette featuring a previously unreleased interview with Paul Westerberg recorded just before the release of the album.

i would wear that t shirt !

Don’t even like that album that much but I would too.

Could be interesting, though the six rough mixes are kind of underwhelming - the tracks themselves aren't bad, they've been issued before, but these rough mixes sound exactly like preliminary mixes that never would have made the album, nothing special.

And "Birthday Gal" (best heard on All for Nothing/Nothing for All) should have made the album. It would've been the logical album closer if "Can't Hardly Wait" had been included on Tim (also best heard on All for Nothing/Nothing for All).

Considering most of the record was assembled on a Fairlight, I’m curious in what form the rough mixes exist: as tapes? As a collection of Fairlight discs? On a Fairlight hard drive?

(I should note that I also have no idea how a Fairlight actually works, beyond the very basics.)

It's just a sampler, essentially. I don't think most of the album was assembled on a Fairlight at all. if the book is accurate I think Dickinson just used a sampler to, as needed, loop the best bits of the best takes. Which is to say, I'm sure there are lots of versions of the songs, just maybe not up to the (relatively) slick standards of the finished album.

Wonder what a Fairlight version of Birthday Gal sounds like.

That riff is exciting when one of the guitars playing it or playing off it is played by Bob Stinson, kind of boring in any other hands.

― U or Astro-U? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, August 1, 2019 9:37 PM (one year ago)

Another track from the upcoming Pleased to Meet Me box set:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yUf2x5aK1c

Also, as many figured, a Rhino rep said they hope to continue doing these box sets as an ongoing thing, similar to Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series, though the well's going to dry up much faster since they only had seven albums and an EP to work with, of which two are now done. (Also, most likely they'll jump around in terms of chronology rather than continue moving backwards one album at a time.)

can't wait to hear Stink without the strings

26 bonus minutes of Dave Pirner yelling at cops.

Has this been discussed anywhere yet? https://www.stereogum.com/2096712/josh-boone-replacements-biopic-nat-wolff-owen-teague/news/

i saw chris r. the music writer for the strib say it was not real?

Weird if that's true, it's being reported all over the place.

Oh I see it's on his Twitter.

Along with Surly closing their beer hall? WTF, no!

There was some Replacements discussion on a Jason Isbell twitter thread (sorry, I love his twitter, more than his music, tbh), where, inevitably, someone brings up that they could have been huge, like the Stones. And Isbell, as a great songwriter, I think nails why that was never in the cards: "Those songs were just so damn deep." That is, as silly and insecure as he could be, Paul's best songs were the product of serious introspection, whether he'd admit it or not, and that kind of stuff rarely fills arenas. It's a good point, imo. "Unsatisfied" might be one of the greatest anthems ever written, but it's not the kind of anthem that sells records or tickets.

Also saw another related take on the thread that the Replacements were "all Keith Richards with no Mick Jaggers," which was sadly otm.

Yeah, more or less *sigh*

Or even anyone who wanted to be a Mick Jagger. If you look at their contemporaries who broke bigger — U2, R.E.M., 10,000 Maniacs — they all had lead singers who filled that lead performer role in ways Westerberg wasn't comfortable with. The Replacements could never decide how much they wanted people to like them.

And did their best to offend anyone who did. Oppositional attitudes like that rarely lead to career success in any field?

yep

after reading Trouble Boys and their almost pathological career self sabotage, my takeaway was less "why weren't these guys huge?" and More "It's a miracle and a testament to his songwriting that they ever got as big as they did"

Pretty much

after reading Trouble Boys and their almost pathological career self sabotage, my takeaway was less "why weren't these guys huge?" and More "It's a miracle and a testament to his songwriting that they ever got as big as they did"

Same here. Their lives could have easily gone in another direction in a very, very bad way. Obviously they still had problems and Bob died from his, but if they had no musical or artistic talent whatsoever, I'm not sure what they could have made of their lives tbh.

Just found this Dallas Observer article on Chris Mars from 1995. It was written soon after Bob's funeral. I can understand why he doesn't like to talk about the 'Mats anymore given what he says here.

Sometimes, Mars half jokes, he wakes up in a cold sweat, still finding it hard to believe all the shit he pulled when he was a 17-year-old--riding half-drunk down the freeway on a motorcycle, sitting down every night behind his drum kit as the room spun around him, sharing the stage with a grown man who wore women's clothing. "It's kind of scary to think of some of the stuff I did and made it through, ya know?" he says now, 14 years after the Replacements formed.

Also had no idea there were reunion rumors right after Bob's death (or that AOL had a Replacements message board).

https://www.dallasobserver.com/music/no-mere-replacement-6404405

Can’t say I expected that Sorry Ma would get the boxed set treatment, but this looks pretty cool:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/replacements-sorry-ma-forgot-to-take-out-the-trash-box-set-1210479/

It does! My favorite album by them by a long shot, but this may be more than even I need.

Rhino's Jason Jones (obviously an enormous fan) has been on other music forums discussing these box sets and answering questions. He kind of hinted Sorry Ma would be next when Pleased to Meet Me came out. He says he hoped to do a box set for every album (no answer whether Stink would get its own box set, but I'm guessing it'll be lumped in with Hootenanny), and he did indicate that he wouldn't go in strict reverse chronological order either, he would jump around and do a few anniversaries. Sorry Ma seemed like a very good bet since an anniversary would mean a whole lot more for a debut album.

Also, he said sales for Pleased to Meet Me actually exceeded expectations despite COVID slowing everything down, so that was a very good sign that more would be coming.

Also, he said one box set per year seemed like a reasonable pace, but obviously that's not set in stone.

Stink should have it's own boxset, podcast, and Netflix series

And glow-in-the-dark stickers. I want stickers goddammit.

I'll settle for scratch n' sniff.

i am only a mid-level replacements fan but they're doing such a good job with these sets, glad that they keep on coming.

Absolutely, though they seem to be at the mercy of whatever Twin/Tone or Sire recorded. (Even with at least one soundboard tape circulating, no relevant live shows were included on the Pleased to Meet Me set.) I'm especially looking forward to Tim (new mixes? "Nowhere Is My Home" finally from a first-generation master?) and there's definitely gems leftover from Hootenanny (the great, full band "You're Getting Married" that Bob vetoed). Let It Be's my favorite 'Mats album, but given the underwhelming bonuses on the 2008 CD, I'm not expecting the box set to be one of their best ones.