"Treatment Bound" probably the second worst song on this. But then there is stuff like "You Lose" which I forget even exists but totally enjoy listening to.
― Solaris Ocean Blue (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 28 February 2022 18:39 (two years ago) link
I think the key to "Mr Whirly" is all the nods to the Beatles, which is the band acknowledging more than just the usual FM butt-rock (in self-destructive slapdash fashion). And then to follow such a piss-take with "Within Your Reach" ...
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 28 February 2022 18:47 (two years ago) link
"color me impressed" <3
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 28 February 2022 18:49 (two years ago) link
the sequencing that leads from Mr Whirly to Within Your Reach
you had to flip the album over to get one to the other, for whatever that's worth. also i love "mr. whirly."
"treatment bound" is fantastic ("too bored to thrash" one of their many manifestos). "you lose" is hella good (and a kind of rosetta stone for westerberg's melodic sensibilities).
if someone says something negative about "run it" or "lovelines," i'm going to cry.
"willpower" is the one misstep hootenanny for my money.
― fact checking cuz, Monday, 28 February 2022 18:49 (two years ago) link
on misstep *on* hootenanny
i came back here to praise "willpower" -- i really liked that song more than i thought i did. i think it's genuinely bleak-sounding and i love the part where he says "my life". the vocal treatment sounds pretty genuinely haunted and it's about lacking willpower, a relatable and relevant to the band concept. i think it's pretty good!
― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Monday, 28 February 2022 20:12 (two years ago) link
Seconded.
― Solaris Ocean Blue (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 28 February 2022 20:18 (two years ago) link
Also, "How to Skin a Cat" is really not that bad. Sort of a bit like "Lovelines" which I, um, love.
― Solaris Ocean Blue (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 28 February 2022 20:21 (two years ago) link
It's not bad, just kind of annoying.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 28 February 2022 20:26 (two years ago) link
I guess Lovelines is annoying too, but it's kind of catchy and silly and it doesn't seem designed to clear the room.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 28 February 2022 20:28 (two years ago) link
But basically we all seem to agree that Hootenanny is in fact a pretty solid album listening experience.
― Solaris Ocean Blue (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 28 February 2022 20:36 (two years ago) link
I do believe so.
For me Lovelines is on that level of very annoying. I didn't like it as a young person and found myself not liking it again today. I would be ok never hearing it again.
― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Monday, 28 February 2022 21:02 (two years ago) link
Treatment Bound" probably the second worst song on this
Are you out of your fucking mind?
― zacata, Monday, 28 February 2022 21:47 (two years ago) link
(xp) i do believe so too.
lovelines grew on me over the years. i think of it as a throwaway that completely works. the glorious goofiness of the swing. "oh yeah, oh yeah, kitten!"
agree about the genuine bleakness/hauntednesss of willpower; it's just that musically it's never seemed of a piece with the rest of the album, or even that whole era of the band, to me. it sounds to me like an outtake from an album they wouldn't make for another five or six years.
― fact checking cuz, Monday, 28 February 2022 21:50 (two years ago) link
Yeah that’s probably right. Also lol the part about Kitten is EASILY my least favorite part of Lovelines. I chalk it up to being female and yet still enjoying this hapless bro band.
― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Monday, 28 February 2022 21:54 (two years ago) link
ha. i think i've always heard that as "hey here's a chance to turn to turn a line from one of these classified ads into a rock cliché, let's do it," and i've never given it a thought beyond that, but i'm not female and, yeah, i hear you.
― fact checking cuz, Monday, 28 February 2022 22:19 (two years ago) link
I always assumed they kinda swiped the idea from the Circle Jerks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tymn7qY4nL0
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 28 February 2022 23:06 (two years ago) link
I saw them at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago in 1989. They were incendiary. Saw them later the same year opening for Tom Petty, they were almost literally phoning it in. I suppose that's pretty much a good representation of the arc of their career overall.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 28 February 2022 23:13 (two years ago) link
I almost saw them at the Aragon that year, but didn’t (long story, but I’m still pissed about it). I didn’t see the Petty show at Poplar Creek, but I remember many people calling into a morning radio show the next day talking about this weird band that had opened. The whole segment lasted maybe 20 minutes, and I thought, “Morning shows don’t usually spend 20 minutes on the previous night’s Petty concert, so chalk this one up for the ‘mats.”
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Monday, 28 February 2022 23:20 (two years ago) link
That Aragon gig was a hell of a show. It was oversold. I was up on the balcony to the left of the stage. I really worried that the thing was going to collapse.
Pretty fucking great setlist, too.
1 intro2 Color Me Impressed3 Talent Show4 I Don't Know5 Back to Back6 Favorite Thing7 Achin' to Be8 The Ledge9 Anywhere's Better Than Here10 Nightclub Jitters11 Cruella DeVille12 Waitress in the Sky13 Asking Me Lies14 Within Your Reach15 I Will Dare16 I'll Be You17 Another Girl, Another Planet (The Only Ones cover)18 Can't Hardly Wait19 Lovelines20 Black Diamond (KISS cover)21 Unsatisfied22 Darlin' One23 Bastards of Young24 Here Comes a Regular25 Valentine26 Never Mind27 Alex Chilton
https://archive.org/details/the-replacements-1989-06-10-chicago-08
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 28 February 2022 23:22 (two years ago) link
Saw them later the same year opening for Tom Petty, they were almost literally phoning it in. I suppose that's pretty much a good representation of the arc of their career overall.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, February 28, 2022 5:13 PM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
They talk about the Petty tour in Trouble Boys, it was their typical lack of confidence meets toxic arrogance that led them to kind of sandbag the tour. Petty was frustrated because 1) he couldn't conceive of giving less than 100% 2) he really like their songs and wanted them to go over
anyway Tommy and him were walking through some State Fair they were playing and Tommy was being an elitist dickhead and cracking jokes about how lame it was and Petty says "Why are you here then?", Tommy turned the question around on him and Petty says "I'm here because I'm getting paid $200,000 to be here, how about you?"
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, 28 February 2022 23:25 (two years ago) link
My most vivid memory of Tommy was him at the Aragon, wearing one of the big beer buckets they were selling on his head.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 28 February 2022 23:28 (two years ago) link
Thereby foretelling his future stint in Guns N’ Roses.
― Solaris Ocean Blue (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 28 February 2022 23:34 (two years ago) link
You're thinking of Buckethead.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 28 February 2022 23:43 (two years ago) link
🤔
― Solaris Ocean Blue (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 28 February 2022 23:47 (two years ago) link
Oh, was that the joke? It's confusing, because Tommy and Buckethead were both in GNR at the same time!
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 28 February 2022 23:51 (two years ago) link
TS: My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless" followup vs. Guns 'N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy".. who will win the photo finish??!!!
― Solaris Ocean Blue (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 1 March 2022 00:13 (two years ago) link
I was at that Aragon show. Utterly life changing - I got a recording of it off dimeadozen at some point, ‘Shit Shower Shave’ was most of Milwaukee show same tour I believe. My date that night still chat about what a great show it was, whenever we see each other.
― BlackIronPrison, Tuesday, 1 March 2022 00:44 (two years ago) link
"Shit Shower Shave" is such a good boot, and a great counter to claims the band was nothing but a trainwreck live.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 1 March 2022 00:50 (two years ago) link
This may be a bizarre take but I kind of see a parallel between the Replacements and Blink 182 w/r/t to the silly songs and "antics" on their earlier albums.
― DT, Tuesday, 1 March 2022 02:33 (two years ago) link
I was at that Aragon show. Utterly life changing
No kidding. I was living in Denver at the time--I just happened to be in town for the Blues Fest. My buddy, who lived in Chicago, and I were trying to figure out what to do that night and I was like, "Hey, look at this, the Replacements are playing tonight."
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Tuesday, 1 March 2022 14:04 (two years ago) link
xpost I think Blink-182's shtick always came off as such. The one time I saw them live it was just insufferable, because they were undeniably tight and catchy but then they would just stop the show for a few minutes to make fart jokes, like it was expected of them. But it came off as momentum killing to me. When the Replacements got wrecked, they took the whole set down with them. And when they had it together, they blew the roof off. Not knowing which Mats you were going to get was I suppose part of the appeal, vs. Blink, who were gimmicky goofs. Similar affinity for covering the Only Ones, though.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 1 March 2022 14:35 (two years ago) link
At least the Replacements had the decency to be utterly self-destructive and self-sabotaging alcoholics
― politics is about vibes and the vibes are off (stevie), Tuesday, 1 March 2022 14:37 (two years ago) link
Also there is nothing in the Blink songbook even in the same galaxy of sensitivity and power as, say, Sixteen Blue.
Reminds me of a story a friend of mine told me about seeing Coldplay two nights in a row (his kid was a big fan). Not only was it the same setlist both nights, they told the same jokes.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Tuesday, 1 March 2022 14:38 (two years ago) link
Blink 182 mostly sucks but it seems like millennial nostalgia is pretty stuck on them
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 1 March 2022 14:40 (two years ago) link
The best thing about them was the title and cover of "Enema of the State."
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Tuesday, 1 March 2022 14:41 (two years ago) link
Late to the conversation, but a.) I love Hootenanny — spiritually it might be the best encapsulation of the Replacements whole ... gestalt; and b.) "Mr. Whirly" would be classic just for the songwriting credit: "Mostly stolen."
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 1 March 2022 15:08 (two years ago) link
The most remarkable thing about the Replacements, and maybe it is because they were so sort of uneven by design, is I can imagine any of their albums being someone's favorite album, except maybe the last one.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 1 March 2022 15:10 (two years ago) link
I like Hootenanny but I think Sorry Ma also captures their chaos but just has way more good songs
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 1 March 2022 15:29 (two years ago) link
Sorry Ma was my first Mats album, which I found for sale for £5 on vinyl at a record store round the corner from my house in 91 as a teen who'd just bought Nevermind and wanted to get into everything that came before it (same shop also sold me dirt cheap OG copies of Zen Arcade, You're Living All Over Me and SY's Bad Moon Rising). I just loved the bratty joie de vivre of it so much - my mate had bought copies of Hootenany and Let It Be and I didn't dig those nearly as much (I changed my mind on the latter as I matured, however). Raised In The City is still a personal anthem for me, and Don't Ask Why is a fantastic break-up song.
― politics is about vibes and the vibes are off (stevie), Tuesday, 1 March 2022 15:40 (two years ago) link
Stink also fucking rules, sometimes I think that's still the best one
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, 1 March 2022 15:42 (two years ago) link
I always forget about Stink.
― politics is about vibes and the vibes are off (stevie), Tuesday, 1 March 2022 15:51 (two years ago) link
I LOVED Sorry Ma when I heard it (after ASD) and I feel like Hootenanny is where the dots are connected, the bridge between early and late Replacements
― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Tuesday, 1 March 2022 16:18 (two years ago) link
Yes, ^this exactly.
― Gary Gets His Tonsure Out (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 1 March 2022 16:19 (two years ago) link
Although sometimes I prefer Sorry Ma. Sorry, LL.
― Gary Gets His Tonsure Out (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 1 March 2022 16:20 (two years ago) link
Boringly, I think Let It Be is their best — it has a little bit of everything they ever did, and the songs are mostly great. But huge affection for everything before it too.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 1 March 2022 16:33 (two years ago) link
I usually prefer Sorry Ma too, if I’m in the mood for this band — that’s why I hadn’t listened to Hootenanny in so long. I was also afraid of it conjuring bad memories but it didn’t, which was a huge relief frankly.
― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Tuesday, 1 March 2022 16:40 (two years ago) link
Bad memories because of something you read in Trouble Boys or…?
― Gary Gets His Tonsure Out (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 1 March 2022 16:52 (two years ago) link
No just my life back when I was super into this band, sad lol
― Piggy Lepton (La Lechera), Tuesday, 1 March 2022 16:55 (two years ago) link