The Popstream: The Obligatory Replacements Post

Let's face it: you don't need me to tell you the history of the Replacements, about how great they were and how they put Minneapolis rock on the map and all that, since we get some reminders about it in our local press something like every other month and this blog is named after one of their songs, ferchrissakes. And then on the other hand, I wouldn't be able to look myself in the mirror if I were to play the irritating contrarian, and claim that they're not that big a deal and that I'm totally sick of hearing about 'em and that we need to focus on what's happening in our scene now instead. Because as easy as it is for me to take the 'Mats for granted when I read about them, it's pretty damn difficult to when I listen to 'em. Basically what I am saying here is that it is good to just listen to the Replacements every so often, maybe ruminate on their influence or just completely ignore it if you want and simply grin like a dork at the way Paul yells "the radio's blastin', turn that shit off!"
Now, three brief observations about this clip, which was videotaped during a 7th St. Entry show in 1981:

1) Sandwiched between Sorry Ma classix "Takin' a Ride" and "Careless" is a song called "Staples in Her Stomach", which wasn't made widely available until the reissue of Stink earlier this year. It's a mystery to me why it was never actually released back in '81, since it fits Stink's obnoxious fun character perfectly and has a murder-death-kill guitar solo.

2) Tommy Stinson is somewhere between 14 and 15 years old in this clip. When I was 15 I was trying to figure out how to make Ryu do a dragon punch in Street Fighter II.

3) Everyone likes to go on about how drunken and crazy and sloppy and chaotic their live shows were, but here they're totally fucking laser-focused and sound every bit as good as they did in the studio. I guess choosing between this and bearing witness to Bob naked in a trash can is difficult in a way, but this makes me wonder just how consistently good they actually were live.

 


Download Stink on Amazon.com, and get Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash while you're at it