Calling all The Replacements fans - this a thread for the best damn band your friends have never heard of {and the best band of the 80’s, and that’s even counting The Clash and The Pixies}. My favourite album - All Shook Down, their last and mellowest. My favourite song - Skyway, off Pleased To Meet Me. Best maudlin drunk at 2 am album - Don’t Tell A Soul. Never got the chance to see them live, sadly, since they never toured down here. So share your favourites…
Great band. Went to see Westerberg about 2 weeks ago, and the week before that Tommy Stinson, which is about as close as you’re gonna get these days. Both of them fucking ruled.
Can’t hardly Wait’s my favourite tune.
My favorite albums are probably the first two; I love the rawness of them. My favorite song is probably “Skyway” or “Color Me Impressed.” I never got a chance to see them live, since I was only eight or something when they broke up, but I did see Superdrag do a kickass cover of “Bastards of Young” a few years ago!
My favorite listening experience for the 'Mats: side one of Tim. There’s not an imperfect moment in there.
Favorite individual songs:
“I Will Dare,” “Seen Your Video” and the “torchy” section of “We’re Coming Out” from Let It Be.
“Kiss Me On The Bus” from Tim.
“Nightclub Jitters” and “Can’t Hardly Wait” from Pleased To Meet Me.
“Achin’ To Be” from Don’t Tell A Soul.
“Attitude” from All Shook Down…from what I understand from one review, the only song on that album with all the band members (at the time) present.
I’ll also add that Westerberg did a ferocious version of ‘Left of the Dial’ at his solo show too, which is another fave, along with ‘Talent Show’.
There were bits when he kept saying this is when Bob’s supposed to come in though.
OMG the Replacements rule. “Tim” is one of the best albums ever made, IMHO. Fuckinay! 
Let It Be and Tim were a big part of my running soundtrack in the mid-80s. Answering Machine and Bastards of Young being particularly poignant to me. Saw them in a club in 87 and was blown completely away.
Let It Be.
I suppose if I had to pick one song, it’d be Alex Chilton.
I never really used to like *Pleased To Meet Me * all that much. I think it was the way the band sounded without Smokin’ Bob Stinson. However I watched Paul’s Come Feel Me Tremble DVD a while back and saw him perform Valentine. Since then I’ve been listening to PTMM and enjoying it a lot more. I still have problems with Can’t Hardly Wait though. The brass and strings really grate on me. The live *Shit, Shower and Shave * has a great version of the song.
Lastly, I’d like to say that The Replacements are way better than The Beatles.
Sorry…joke from another thread.
He’s done that at shows when I’ve seen him too. I’ve also heard him bash Chris Mars during his shows (and in the press). Do you ever wonder if he had it to do over again, if he’d rather kick Chris out of the band instead of Bob?
I saw the Replacements a couple of times in 1989 and 1990. Both times Stinson was so stinking drunk he was laying down on the stage by the end. They were still great. I love, and still listen to all the time, Sorry Ma and Hottenanny. Their musicianship certainly improved over the years, but they lost some of that early energy. Color Me Impressed is one of the great songs ever written and was the anthem of my teenage years.
You’re the coolest guy that I ever have smelt…
I just put on “Can’t Hardly Wait” on vinyl like a week ago.
FUCKIN’ CRANKED IT.
You just can’t stress enough how simple the music can be if there’s real emotion behind it.
Personally, I’m a big Slim Dunlap fan (I know he was later). If you don’t have “The Old New Me” and “Times Like This” I suggest plugging your deficiencies tout suite. Just good, stripped down, sounds-like-you’re-listening-to-it-in-a-bar stuff. Both are nice short rockers without a weakness.
Shoulda said, “Pleased to Meet Me” which “Can’t Hardly Wait” is off.
I like Slim too. Personally I think Bob Stinson’s balls-out, mistakes-be-damned playing suited the band better. By the last two records though, Westerberg’s songs were different and likely better suited to Slim’s style than Bob’s.
Those of us in the Twin Cities are fortunate enough to have the option of seeing Slim every month at the Turf Club. It’s always a fun time. Slim is a charachter.
I now lay my chin in my hand, and wistfully stare out the window, dreaming of a road trip (that will never happen) to Minnesota with my best man who got me into The Placemats in the first place.
My brother lives in Minnesota, and back around '87/'88 or so, he send me a couple of records of “this local band that you’ll probably like”. However, my brother really didn’t know jack about me or my tastes.
See, at that time I was your typical spiked wristband-wearing “Heavy Fuckin’ Metalhead”, dude, and weak crap like what he sent me deserved to be smashed! Yeah! Rawk!
So my copies of the first few Replacements albums wound up in pieces all over Lynnwood Avenue.
Geez, I was shithead. :smack:
Seen Westerberg twice live, once on the Grampa Daddy tour (solo), and when he was touring for 14 Songs way back when (with a full replacement, not Replacement, band). He was playing a free concert outside in Norfolk, and it started storming really fucking hard. A bolt of lightning hit the river a couple of hundred yards behind the stage.
“Just what I need, to give my life for a free fucking show,” says Paul. A beautiful moment.
paulberserker, did he let a bunch of fans come up on stage with him on that show? I wanted to go see him when he came to town on this tour but missed it because of an emergency.
As for Mats stuff, I’m gonna sound like a lame-o, Sean-come-lately fan (but I’m not), and say Don’t Tell A Soul is my favorite. Yeah, I know why it shouldn’t be, but it still is.
Slim at the Turf, 11/27/04. Come on out. Twin-Tone vet Curtiss A opens for him. Only $4 to get in. Air fare not included.
If you’ve never seen him, it’s worth your time. A couple of Slim’s most fun songs aren’t on his records. He’s got a song called Big Star Big (yes, about Big Star…sort of) that he’s never recorded. He also does a send up of The Breeders’ song Cannonball, called The Breeders Cannonball which is lots o’ fun.
Sorry, I won’t be there. Mrs. Hat and I are on the road for the holiday. If you can’t make it, there’s always December. It’s not as cold as you think.
Never miss a chance to gloat when you’ve got it over a young’un.
Being in school in Madison, WI during the Twin/Tone days, plus having relatives in the Twin Cities, I probably got to see them 20 times. Also a couple of times in Denver after 1985. I think Twin/Tone would send their young bands to Madison first to give them a taste of life on the road. I just went to their website and its amazing how many of those artists I saw.
The Suburbs
Soul Asylum
The Slickee Boys
'Mats
Johnathon Richman
R&B Cadets
Pere Ubu
The Jayhawks
Robyn Hitchcock
I once saw Bob Stinson drink three pitchers of beer in a two hour show, and he was already drunk when he took the stage. He didn’t bother with a cup.
I like them quite a bit. I have Let it Be, Tim, and Pleased to Meet Me. I’m not sure which other albums of theirs I should get.
It looks like some people like their other albums? Which ones should I get?
I wouldn’t call them the best band of the 80’s, simply because there are so many. Maybe the best Minneapolis band of the 80’s, but even then they have some competition from Husker Du.
I have a friend whose dad actually had the chance to play with the Replacements. He was a guitar technician or something, and this was after Bob Stinson was kicked out. I don’t remember the story well, but I guess someone told my friend’s dad to get out there and play the guitar, but he didn’t.