------------------------------------------------------------------------------ / // The\kyway \\ / skyway@novia.net Issue #35 March 22th, 1996 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ (c) 1996 Bastards of Young (BOY/BetaOmegaYamma) Productions list manager: Matthew Tomich (matt@novia.net) technical consultant and thanks to: Bob Fulkerson of Novia Networking ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SKYWAY SUBSCRIPTION/LISTSERVER INFORMATION Send all listserver commands in the body of a letter to "majordomo@novia.net" To subscribe to the //Skyway\\: subscribe skyway To unsubscribe from the //Skyway\\: unsubscribe skyway THE //SKYWAY\\ WEB PAGE Check here for back issues, lyrics, discography, and other files. http://www.novia.net/~matt/sky/skyway.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Send submissions to: skyway@novia.net ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 0. Aimless blather. (Matt Tomich) I. Intros! A. John 'call me crazy' McNally B. John 'too cheap to see the 'Mats' Kawakami C. Bob 'treatment bound' McNichol D. Kristin 'Cajun Tarheel' Boeschi E. Mike 'Hawaiian expatriot' Yasutake F. Neil 'not THAT Neil Young' Young G. Susy 'kiwi' Thomas H. Joe 'I want in!' Colacioppo I. Tom 'bustin' out the soul with the Barry White Boys' Groppe J. Ken 'dodgin' bottlerockets' Feinleib K. Todd 'the wit' Griffith II. Heady contemplation A. To all would be critics... (Dave Forbus) B. Who is the converse of Paul? (Mark Timmins) C. Dialogue on the tradition of 'Mats riffs (Duncan Young) III. Musical dialogue A. Jammin' with the local Deadheads! (James Kaihatu) B. 'Mats reference at the Guided by Voices show in Minneapolis (Mr. Rambo) IV. News A. Westerberg to host MTV's "120 Minutes" March 31st (Duck) V. Covers A. NC punk heroes and somebody else covering "I'm In Trouble" (Sue/JD) VI. Reminiscences, stories, references, and hearsay A. 'Mats at the American Music Awards (Adam Yalowich) B. The story behind all those 'Little Village' references (Bill Ruef) C. The old _Willpower_ fanzine (Peebrane) D. Somebody at NBC listen to _Let It Be_? (Charles Ford) VII. Perfect! A. Articles 1. St. Paul Pioneer Press (Chris Kohler/Bill Ruef) 2. Dallas Observer (Rich) B. Shows 1. San Francisco, CA (Jerry Flip) 2. South-By-Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, TX a. (Charles Ford) b. (Diego Navarrete) VIII. Articles A. "Top College Radio Albums of All Time" from _U, The National College Magazine_ (Neil Young) IX. Wanted A. Copy of March 1st, 1991 Pittsburg, PA 'Mats show (Richard Puerzer) B. _Shit Shower and Shave_, _Don't Buy or Sell_, Boink!_ (Amy Kennebec) X. Chords A. Treatment Bound! (Jeff Wilson) Thanks to Duncan DeGraffenreid for selecting and submitting many of the letters from the alt.music.replacements newsgroup. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Hey, in case you weren't looking at the calendar, happy first day of Spring! (I arrived in Omaha for a one-week Christmas vacation on the Winter Solstice on December 23rd...but luckily, after the insurance company and repair shops, I'm leaving next week back to North Carolina.) However, I won't be there in time for John Anderson's "Eventually" listening party at his joint THIS SATURDAY (as in, tomorrow, the 23rd). If you're in the D.C. area or plan to be or want to be, drop a line to John at "maxsilent@aol.com". Here's the note that was sent out to those who have said they're going to show, if it helps entice your possible attendance: ----------------------------------------------------- Okay folks, this here is the official reminder that the fiesta is tomorrow (Saturday) night, show up anytime after 8. I think you've all got directions, but write or call (703-698-5751) if you still need 'em. If you're coming in on metro, just call from the Dunn Loring station, and I'll be along to pick you up directly. There'll be a keg of something decent (Probably Dominion or Sam - donations happily accepted, but not required), some munchies (feel free to bring something if the mood strikes you), and soda for those with healthy livers. I'm also providing the copy of "Eventually" (obviously), and I've got a sizeable 'mats/paul audio bootleg collection to share, as well as some videos. If you've got a killer tape, by all means, bring it along ! See you tomorrow! John ----------------------------------------------------- (Car-less in the spread-out generic-ly Middle American banality of Omaha has occasionally been a new experience in boredom. Twice I found myself plopped down in front of the tube. I'm hardly a TV watcher, but know I know why it's so popular...the ability to live vicariously! Then again, maybe you can say the same thing for the internet (which is what I did right after I shut off the TV)...but I dunno...the internet is a little more interactive...) The Grammy's! What a load of shit! I will reckon the day Bob Pollard of Guided by Voices will stumble up to the podium and gives his famous "God Bless and shit yes!" speech...the day Perfect will blaze through their rousing cover of "Crocodile Rock" to a national audience...the day Westerberg's acceptance speech will be bleeped by the network censors. The reviews of the Perfect show from SXSW sounded incredible! (Tommy must've been just bored by the hometown crowd when I saw him back in December!) And if you haven't yet, check out the newest 'Mats web page, Mike Monello's Replacements rarities and B-sides page at http://www.magicnet.net/~mikem/. ...now I see why Paul never bothered to learn how to drive! Matt ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: psiclone@interserv.com Date: Mon, 4 Mar 1996 10:23:07 -0800 Howdy fellow 'Matsheads (wow, I wrote "'Matshead" on my Masthead.) I've been getting Skyway for a while now so I figured I might as well make my presence known. My non-net name is Jon McNally, I'm a 25-year-old bookstore clerk residing in Bridgeport, Connecticut. I first discovered the 'Mats when I was about 15 years old back about the _Let it Be_ era. Their name was all over all the music rags and they sounded cool so I combed the malls till I found a copy. I was immediately blown away by their lack of artiness and unapologetically crude and rocking sound. Over the intervening years I managed to accumulate all the "legit" albums plus _Shit, Shower and Shave_, _It Ain't Over Till The Fat Roadies Play_, and a bootleg video of their April 10, '91 Rotterdam Show. Sadly, as I was underage and/or broke during most of their career, I never got to see them live, a void in my life which can never be filled. Finding other Replacements fans has also spawned numerous freindships for me. Among a scene populated by artsnobs and posers, I found myself constantly having to defend my passionate devotion to what these idiots considered a drunken novelty act. When I met another devotee, I could be a fan unapologetic. I have also been a shameless prostletyzer for the 'Mats myself, cramming them on countless mix tapes and forcing (sometimes almost literally) my co-workers to listen to them at closing time. My favorite 'Mats tunes would be "Bastards of Young", "Favorite Thing", "Shiftless When Idle", "Color Me Impressed" and (call me crazy) "Otto". I'm a passionate fan of music in general my collection ranging from Hank Williams and the Shangri-La's to the Ramones, Ice-T, and the Muffs. I'm also a passionate mix trader and would be glad to trade tape for tape with anyone out there. Glad to see all you folks exist! Jon McNally Date: Mon, 4 Mar 1996 11:07:30 -0800 (PST) I guess I'll step up and tell my Replacements story. I'm not as big, or as total a fan as everyone else who's had a story to tell. In fact, I haven't ever seen them live, though I now intend to see Tommy Stinson's band, Perfect, sometime soon. I first got into the Replacements through a radio show called Snap! back around the time _Tim_ came out. I was in high school, in the LA suburbs, and as far as I knew, there were no Replacements fans there. There may have been many out on the westside, where all the NPR listeners live :-), but out in the 'burbs, the scene was all LA hardcore punk/mod, disco, pop, metal, and goth. So, you could get a ride to see the Descendents, or X, or GBH, but no one knew about the 'Mats, and so I missed seeing them in the mid 80's. At the time (round '85), I was really into R.E.M. and Husker Du (and other "college" bands), and in interviews and reviews with those bands, the 'Mats were mentioned frequently. Eventually, I heard them on the radio, and bought _Tim_, which I liked alright. Then I got _Let it Be_, heard Sixteen Blue, and was hooked. I'd just turned 17, and the song just blew me away, with it's lyrics and their mundane details. It was so *real*. I've always been a sucker for funny, hardcore punk lyrics, and an even bigger sucker for slow, sappy songs; Sixteen Blue was a lethal one-two punch. Soon after, _Pleased to Meet Me_ came out, and it hooked me again. By this time, I knew a few other people into the band, but not in any large numbers. Most of their fans were from the Midwest, oddly enough. At the time, I was a broke student, and couldn't afford to go to the all ages shows (they cost a lot, and you had to buy drink tickets), and so missed them in the late 80's. (Besides, there were tons of good local bands that played for free, or nearly free - I was entertained plenty!) _Don't Tell a Soul_ came out, and I hated it. Maybe it's not a tired piece of crap, but I thought it was. After two or three listens, it was shelved, and has been since. They toured, and I, though still a student, finally had enough money to go out *and* get wasted, but the interest just wasn't there. Now I'm 26, making some money - not a lot, but more than I'm used to. It's no problem to blow ten bucks to see a band, but I still find that the free shows and $3 and $5 shows are my favorites. $6 "crosses the line". I could buy drinks at the bar, but I still sometimes "take my own" and sometimes smoke out before going in. Cheapskate habits are really hard to break. Maybe I'll get out to Dragonfly and see Perfect, even if the cover is $7 and there's only one other band. Yeah, I think it'll be worth it. John Hey, I just thought of a new category of punk: cheapcore. People who don't like to pay. We steal cigarettes and french fries, we sneak in the back door, we'll eat cheap beans and fart all day long, we won't buy your CD because we can get a tape. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: TrytmntBnd@aol.com Date: Sun, 10 Mar 1996 00:14:36 -0500 Subject: My intro into the skyway Penn State University Park campus, sometime in 1989 - I went down the basement to find one of my roommates who had a massive tape collection. My mission: to consciously open my mind to forms of music other than classic rock. "Evan" turned away from me to look into his wall of tapes. He paused for a moment, scratched his ass, and then pulled down a cassette... He turned back around and simply said. "try this"...handing me a copy of TIM. Thanx Evan, wherever you are. Kind of reminds me of the time I randomly chose "Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said" (a Phil K. Dick novel) off the shelf of a bookstore... An enlightening moment proving to be a catalyst for change in my life.. Right now Everclear and Jimmie's Chicken Shack (local from Baltimore, Md.) are my preferred bands, but I'm waiting patiently for Westerburg's new one. Don't have the energy to reflect right now, but I'll tell you more about myself after I read my first copy of SKYWAY. I have much to unload. trytmntBnd.@aol.com a.k.a. Bob McNichol ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 10 Mar 1996 21:24:18 -0500 From: kcboesch@med.unc.edu (Kristin Boesch) Subject: hi y'all Well, here goes my story. I guess I was fairly late in discovering the Replacements. I grew up in Houma, Louisiana, on the eastern fringe of "Cajun country", and Replacements fans were, to my knowledge, nonexistent. Nevertheless, I remember seeing some of the songs from _Pleased to Meet Me_ mentioned in a year-end best-of poll in 1987 in some magazine like Creem, and I took notice, but didn't act on it until _Don't Tell a Soul_ was released. I don't remember the exact reason (probably because of some review or maybe because I saw the video for "I'll Be You" on MTV), but I bought the album and thought it was pretty neat. I guess I wasn't thrilled enough at that point to go out and buy all of their albums, but they were always there on my mental list of stuff to get. They remained on that list for about six more years! I went to Swarthmore College (please don't hold it against me!) and did radio shows for a couple of years on the mighty WSRN (91.5 FM for anyone within 100 yards of Parrish!). That would have been the perfect opportunity to get them off the list and into my record collection, but I ended up doing Louisiana music shows (Lagniappe on 'SRN!), and I pretty much tried to focus on cajun & zydeco and New Orleans stuff. So, on the list they stayed... Well, I finished Swarthmore in December of '94 and went to live at my parents' house in Maryland until last fall, when I started grad school in microbiology at UNC. I did very dull work for the state legislature, so with nothing better to do, I brought home a copy of _Pleased to Meet Me_. After hearing "Alex Chilton," what can I say, I was hooked! I think I listened to that song 4 or 5 times in a row. Pretty soon I acquired _Let It Be_ and then _Tim_. And you know the rest of the story. So I don't have any exciting stories about shows I saw, and none of my friends are fans. I'll have to start trying to convert them, but it's going to be tough (I'm going to play a bunch at my birthday party!). A tape of PTMM and LIB plays almost non-stop in my car (whenever "West Side Story isn't), and it drives my roommate (a Blues Traveler devotee) crazy ("WHAT are you listening to?"). She's a great roommate, though, and we do agree on Guy Clark ("...a crumbling picture of a girl and a door / In a dress and Dallas and nothing more") and John Prine ("God damn! / My socks are still hard!"). Which I guess leads into my other musical interests... of course, I'm still a huge cajun and zydeco fan. My favorites in each are probably Steve Riley & Mamou Playboys and Boozoo Chavis. Let's see...I like a whole bunch of the Texas singer-songwriter types: Joe Ely, Guy Clark, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Townes Van Zandt. I can't forget Gram Parsons, Big Star (of course), the Pretenders, Son Volt, the Beach Boys (1963-1967, that is; don't laugh!), some bluegrass and old honky-tonk stuff, pretty much all of Motown and Stax...I should stop or this will be a very long list. I guess that's it. One more little note, though... Before I moved to Chapel Hill, I was anxiously anticipating all the shows I would go to in this supposed music mecca. And how many have I been to since I've been here? One! And it was Boozoo Chavis, fellow Louisianian. Oh well, it's my own fault for not getting up off my butt and convincing one of my less enthusiastic friends to come with me. I'll have to fix that! I'm thrilled that this list exists. I'm looking forward to 'Mats' info and anecdotes. Kristin Boesch ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 01:08:10 -1000 (HST) From: Mike Yasutake Yo Matt, So I've been on-line for about a week when, of course, I had to see if my favorite band was on here. Imagine the overall elation I felt upon finding your web page...it was like stumbling upon the promised land. Life hasn't been the same since the untimely break-up of the band and it got even worst with the even more untimely death of Bob (Stinson). But we all must move on... I guess. As is requested, I guess I should share with you how I stumbled upon the greatness that is "The Replacements." I was a junior transfer at the University of Oregon in the fall of 1986. Suddenly thrust into the rainy and cold atmosphere of the Pacific Northwest and thousands of miles from home, I was forced to take a deep look at who I was and who I wanted to become. An older student....we'll call him Chuck Thompson, came down the hall of my dorm one night in the first week of school, playing guitar and singing a song I did not recognize. I stuck my head out the door and made eye contact with him and my life quickly began to unravel and come back together in an altogether different form. After exchanging pleasentries, he took me to his darkened room, which was filled from one end to the other with albums...yes I did say albums. He spinned vinyl from "The Hoodoo Gurus", "Jesus and the Mary Chain", Coltraine, Otis, "Circle Jerks" and the "Descendents" to name a few. We spent an entire evening going through that collection and several hours into the night he put on _Let It Be_...I was blown away. I had grown up loving and listening to Queen, Boston, Sweet, Quiet Riot, The Sex Pistols, Hat Makes the Man (an early incarnation of what would become Poi Dog Pondering) and many other bands....but what I heard put together everything that I loved about music. Chuck made me a tape of that album and several more in the months to come, but _Let It Be_ is still my absolute favorite and I still have that tape to this day. I listened to it when I was happy, when I was sad and when I was bombed out of my mind, and never grew tired of it. I spent three years in Oregon and brought that tape back with me to Hawaii and made copies of it for everyone I knew. In the next few years I learned to play the guitar and soon formed a band of my own, hoping to create the same type of sound and emotion, but never quite seeming to get there. So I began to sing....or rather scream along with my playing, in the hopes of reaching that goal...but of course it never happened. To this day, I continue to play guitar and sing in a band in Hawaii (which has no alternative scene to be proud of), and I continue to listen to all of my "Replacements" albums...yes I did say albums. I would never say that the band or any of its memebers were ever heroes or role models of mine, but I would say that their music was responsible(along with a lot of alcohol and weed) for unlocking a part of me that otherwise would never have come out, and to this day I think Paul Westerberg would be one of the only human beings, besides the Pope, that would ever put me in awe if I met him face to face. Wow, I guess I spilled my guts.....well you know what they said... "try and free a slave of ignorance....try and teach a whore about romance." Aloha, Michael K. Yasutake ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 20:01:35 -0500 (EST) From: Young Neil W <4nwy@qlink.queensu.ca> Subject: Introducing the _other_ Neil Young Hey folks! I'm 19, in my first year of the school of business at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Over the course of my high school career, I developed from a guy who didn't know the first thing about rock music to a guy who could sing along with any of the songs that happened to be on the "top 10 at 10" to a guy who was sick of the songs on the "top 10 at 10" because he'd already been listening to them for 8 months. And so, I started reading books about music looking for something in the past. On the advice of one book, the Rolling Stone Album Guide (which I now realize is more or less bullocks, but seems to have its basics down), I picked up Husker Du's Warehouse:, and the 'Mats' _Pleased to Meet Me_ last spring. Whoa. Within a week, they were my two favorite albums of all time. Bye bye, Bush. Since then, I've picked up _Let it Be_, _Tim_, and _14 Songs_. Now I would rank Tim as my favorite, followed closely by _Let It Be_, and PTMM trailing behind. As for 14 Songs, while for me "World Class Fad" is still its one redeemer, I think it's one of the few CDs I'd want on a desert island, because it seems like it still has many mysteries left for me to unlock. "Left of the Dial" is, note for note, the greatest Rock and Roll song I have ever known. When I first got to university, I tried out "that there internet thing we hears so much about on teevee". Yahoo introduced me to the Sugar mailing list, and a friend there (David Murrow) introduced me to the Skyway. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Thanks for reading this far. Any kind soul out there who like to help me start my 'Mats tape collection? I haven't got much to trade, but hey, you know I'd do it for any one of you... Later friends, -Neil. \-------------------------------------------------------\ \ Neil Young \ "Reality, it burns" \ \ Queen's University \ -Son Volt \ \-------------------------------------------------------\ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 17 Mar 1996 13:18:34 +0000 From: "thomas, s" Subject: 'Well it's the biggest thing in my life...' Hi all, My name is Susy and I live in Wellington, New Zealand. I'm almost 23 and I'm studying for a Masters in Library and Information Studies. Coming from the other end of the planet I, unfortunately, have no Replacements stories to tell. However I would like to tell you all how I discovered them and just let you know that I love them as much as you do. I fell in love with the Replacements about 7 years ago right about the time they broke up. I think _All Shook Down_ had been released but that wasn't the first album I heard. I think I have Winona Ryder to thank for my discovering them as I recall reading that they were her favourite band. Anyway, one day I was at the public library browsing through the CDs when I came across _Let It Be_ and _Don't Tell a Soul_. This is going to sound really corny but they 'lit a fire in me I can't seem to put out'. You know what I'm getting at though. Since then I have endeavoured to collect all of their albums plus _Shit Hits the Fans_, _Live and Drunk_ and _Don't Buy or Sell, It's Crap_ which I had to go to Sydney, Australia for. I have never seen the 'Mats live or any of their videos (although I understand thay didn't really like doing them). I found out about what they were like by going through back issues of Rolling Stone and Spin. The other downside to living here is that I can't find anyone who feels the same way about the 'Mats as I do. So obligatory thanks to Matt for providing the outlet to make it possible to share my passion and to my ex-boyfriend for discovering the Skyway and telling me about it. Other bands that I like apart from the 'Mats but that don't do it for me in the same way are: Superchunk, Sugar, Husker Du, Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr, Radiohead, Elastica, Pavement, Pixies, Fugazi, Juliana Hatfield, Soul Asylum and the Drop Nineteens (whatever happened to them?). Also I think these New Zealand bands are shit hot!: Straitjacket Fits, Garageland, Bailter Space, King Loser and Second Child to name but a few. Well I've probably gone on long enough now. Feel free to email me anytime especially if you want to know anything about NZ, like, where it is! Bye for now. Susy. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 16 Mar 1996 17:24:17 -0500 From: LeeAnnJoe@aol.com Matt: My name is Joe Colacioppo. I live in Greenville, S.C., am married and work as a corporate trainer in a customer service phone center here. I will be 30 on August 2 and I want in on the Skyway! The Replacements are the best rock and roll band I've ever heard. I know absolutes are dangerous things, but I am convinced that I will never feel the way I do about any band quite the way I did the first time I hear "Bastards of Young." Westerburg's honesty and humor, combined with clean, hook-laden melodies and just the flat out balls they brough to every record, never fail to move or amaze me. Sure, there are other loves of my rock and roll life (The Clash, Pre-Sgt. Pepper Beatles, Husker-Du) But there is only one band whose newsletter I would care about---the Mats. I'm glad I found you. Sign me up ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 20 Mar 1996 16:18:46 -0500 From: Tom Groppe Subject: It's About Frigging Time Hi Matt, I am finally going to write my subsciber bio after a year of enjoying SKYWAY and offering nothing to the electronic Mats community we all colonize. I am 27, working in New York, and playing bass in the soon to be something or other Barry White Boys. I have seen The Replacements about 10 times in all their official line-ups. The first time was I believe one of the last times with Bob Stinson at The old Ritz here in NYC. Green On Red opened. The Mats opened with 3 John Denver songs, Bob wore a dress, and near the end, Paul dove into the crowd and nearly kicked me in the head. I read later that he broke his wrist as a result. My only personal contact came at a record store appearance in Boston in 1987. My friends and I got drunk and were happy to find the band in a similar condition, drinking 12 packs of Old Milwaukee and sniffing the magic markers they were using to distribute autographs. I had them sign THE SHIT HITS THE FANS, which Chris Mars was especially startled to see at the time. We asked Paul to explain the tuning and how he played ALEX CHILTON, and he did earnestly try for a few minutes. Then he said, "Forget it, we'll just play it real slow tonight so you can figure it out,". In general, I like Tommy and Chris's output, haven't heard Slim's and will keep buying Paul's out of respect. I eagerly await their reunion in 10 years and if the rest of them still aren't speaking to Chris, I think you better switch from bass, Matt, and get your chops down on the trap kit. Until that day, SKYWAY will remain as one of the best gifts to Replacements music fans since the band broke up. Thanks for all your work. P.S. - I like the Web site too. When is this thing coming to televison so I can sell my computer? [I read that show where Paul dove off the stage and broke his wrist was Bob's last show with the band! But as of this point, nobody's offered the Skyway a television contract. However, if somebody from CBS is out there reading this, give me a call! I'm ready to go head-to-head with Baywatch and take down Seinfeld!!! And wait until you check out the soundtrack album! - M@] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Thu, 21 Mar 1996 13:12:19 -0500 From: kfeinlei@sun115.ny.wgl.com (Ken Feinleib) Subject: Long-winded introduction Please allow me to introduce myself... I'm a 29-year-old writer/editor from scenic Brooklyn NY. I'm easily spotted because I have a Replacements bumper sticker (which I got from Newbury Comics in Cambridge MA years and years ago) on the back of my leather jacket. If I were a tattoo sort of person, I'd happily get a 'Mats tattoo--probably the great Daniel Corrigan photo of Paul's screaming profile that's on the cover of "Inconcerated." My intro to the band was "I Will Dare," which the dearly departed WLIR-FM played in constant rotation. I liked it, but not quite enough to seek out the record. (At the time, my favorite band was the Alarm, which I'm quite bemused to admit now; I like to think my tastes have matured in the twelve years since.) When _Tim_ came out, a columnist in Tower Records's Pulse raved about it so much for so many months in a row that I finally went and picked it up. Loved "Kiss Me on the Bus" and "Bastards of Young," but only liked the rest of it. Then (dramatic music please) a friend was playing a mix tape and "Unsatisfied" came on. (Jennifer Romero, are you reading this?) I am literally getting chills typing this, remembering hearing that for the very first time. It's like the world just stopped spinning for those three minutes and fifty-nine seconds. Not to be over-analytical or pretentious, but I felt like this was the perfect articulation of all the anger and disappointment I simmered inside, being, of course, a typically alienated, disaffected teen. So I ran out the next day and bought the whole catalog. Wow! What a body of work! Saw them for the first time in 1987, at the notorious first Beacon Theater show. Sure, Paul singing on helium was funny, but the whole thing wasn't quite what I had expected. (Listening to the tape of it now, it really was an entertaining event, but my immediate response was rather...underwhelming. I was also shocked in listening to the tape much later to find that they did "September Gurls" at that show, a good few years before I was initiated into the godlike brilliance of Big Star.) At the end of this drunken, rowdy fiesta, though, they came back out after the roadies had already started moving the equipment and most of the crowd had left and just blasted through "Alex Chilton" and, I think, "Left of the Dial" like they were the Who at their live peak. This showed that they could play better than anyone if they chose to. The next time I saw them, at the same venue later that year, they played the whole show at that level. I eventually saw them almost 20 times, but I think that second Beacon show might have been the best I saw. Astonishing covers including "Happy," "Gimme Shelter," Leslie Gore's "The Look of Love," "Downtown," "Memphis," all actually played really well; the best live version of "Answering Machine" I've ever heard; an early version of "Darlin' One." They had fun, we had fun, a magical night all around. By the time _Don't Tell a Soul_ was released, the 'Mats were already my religion, but that record meant the world to me. It remains my favorite record of theirs, for which I make no apologies. (It's my second favorite record, after Elvis Costello's "King of America.") Where others hear a slick, polished album, I hear a personal, deeply felt album that finally integrated all the disparate elements of their work into a cohesive whole that maintains a mood throughout. Sure, it ain't "Heyday," but they'd already done "Heyday" and done it damn well. _All Shook Down_, on the other hand, left a real bad taste in my mouth, but that didn't stop me from travelling around to see lots of shows on that tour, and on the Elvis Costello opening tour. The Boston headlining shows at the Orpheum were particular favorites of mine, and remain probably my most listened-to tapes. The medley of "Unsatisfied" and "Sadly Beautiful," with a few lines of Tommy Keene's "When Our Vows Break" thrown in, at one of the Boston shows was a highlight of the tour, and so was Paul doing a solo version of a Nanci Griffith song at the Lake Compounce show in Connecticut, one of the opening sets. I came real close to going to the July 4th Grant Park show in Chicago, knowing it was going to be the last one, but I thought it would be too sad. I'm glad I made the choice I did, because it turned out to be a pretty feeble show, and I had a great time hanging out with my then-girlfriend in Prospect Park and dodging bottle rockets. I miss the 'Mats dearly, but they did have their day and leave behind some timeless records. I feel almost irrelevant waving their banner now, because their memory seems to have been sort of left behind. I haven't heard a new band cite them as an influence in a long time and the fact that none of their solo works has done anything hasn't helped. These things do tend to be cyclical, though, and I'm confident that history will remember the 'Mats with the respect they deserve. I loved the Bash & Pop and Slim records--you can never have enough Keith Richards sound-alikes for my tastes--but I think Paul's solo work has been an abomination. Except for "Backlash" w/Joan Jett (which I think is more about the 'Mats than any 'Mats song) and "First Glimmer" (which I think stands with anything else he's done), I'm afraid he's badly tarnished his reputation. If there's anything heartfelt in the work he's been doing, I must be missing it. Sorry this turned into a dissertation. I'm at work and I'd much rather spend my morning pontificating about my favorite band than editing law books. Some of my other faves, BTW, include Patti Smith, Big Star, the Mekons, Wilco, Greenberry Woods, X, the Kinks, Billy Bragg, Velvet Crush, Springsteen, the Figgs, the Loud Family, Sam Phillips, the Buzzcocks, and, perhaps incongruously, Louis Armstrong. Give me the chance and I'll happily blab about any of them--or a hundred thousand other artists--at length, as well. Glad to be on the list. Wake up, I'm done. Ken Feinleib kfeinlei@ny.wgl.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 22 Mar 96 15:25:00 PST From: TODD GRIFFITH-IT-2418 Subject: Subscribing to Skyway It remains a fine line between the guy on Wheel of Fortune asking for "an F as in Pharaoh" and the Billboard top ten. Why is it that? Why are people unable to grasp music that is truly smart. It has caused me to remain, however fortunate, a 'Mats fan. Because as much as I grew up with, saw perform, and have waited longer for his next album than Magic Johnson's return to b-ball, Westerberg and the 'Mats still cause the same rush; and no other band out there is able to recreate that, take it a step forward or rip it off. Okay so I forgot the Goo Goo Dolls. Anyway, the obvious Dennis Miller take not withstanding, thanks for doing what you're doing. It's a good thing. P.S. Know where singles, bootlegs, rarities, etc. can be had? In Toronto, it is very difficult to track down anything like this. Thanks toddg@muchmusic.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 03 Mar 1996 18:23:45 -0600 From: davpril@hilconet.com (*) I am sick of so many wanna-be music critics, (who are supposedly Paul Westerberg fans) talking negatively about his solo work. Granted, I am a Texan and not privileged enough to have followed them for years in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, but I know one thing: Paul Westerberg was the heart, soul, and brains of the Replacements. He, like all the rest of us is human. Humans grow and evolve, and as an artist, he is doing just that. The _14 Songs_ collection, and the overdue new album are works of Paul Westerberg, not the Replacements! Everyone knows that the 'Mats and Pauls' solo work are an aquired taste. I like Joe Walsh's solo work better that his stuff with the Eagles, and his James Gang work better than either of those. But I don't complain and whine and long for the Eagles to sound like Joe Walsh. Paul Westerberg and the 'Mats are 2 separate entities. Get used to it. I will buy Paul's new album sight unseen and unheard. I know that I will like it. He is about my age and I can relate to his evolving. We can't all play Johnny Rotten forever (Green Day is so cliche). The man's work is becoming more refined and polished, but still has the perfect amount of raw-edged garage rock. So-called Dylan fans turned their back on the guy (another MN native) when he wanted to play a Stratocaster instead of a Martin acoustic, what fair-weather fans! Life changes....get over it, accept change! And please have Paul tour more in the Southwest area, we love him here. Thank you for your time, folks. Your compadre, Dave Forbus ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: MRTimmins@aol.com Date: Tue, 5 Mar 1996 23:09:47 -0500 Subject: Eternal Questions pondered In a previous //Skyway\\, jimmiek@aol.com had the following to say: To Westerberg's credit, he managed to keep walking the tightrope in both phases. Not too much pathos, not too many yuks, and not so much hard-fought wisdom that we feel we're getting lectured. These tightropes separate Joy Division from Tears for Fears, Loudon Wainwright III from Joe Walsh, Tom Waits from Harry Chapin. While I can't comment on the second of those three comparisons (not knowing enough about either artist), I think the other splits are right on the money, in terms of the distinction between tragic/comedic and pathetic/silly. But I've never heard it expressed quite so eloquently. It does, however, make me think of the lyric from the Petting Zoo song (featured on _The Fans Hit Back_ <-- shameless plug, that): "There's a fine line between Tom Waits and Jimmy Buffett." But the question, my friends, is who sits on the other side of that line from Paul Westerberg? It has to be someone who is relatively well-respected -- not a complete buffoon -- but who lacks that little extra bit that makes them great. Actually, sitting here thinking about it, The Goo Goo Dolls kinda come to mind, or are they just ripoffs? Or how about Soul Asylum, or would that be Minneapolis heresy? I even like some of Soul Asylum's work, but to put them in the same class as the 'Mats would be an insult to the 'Mats, in my book, anyway. Ditto Husker Du -- I'm so sick of hearing how freakin' great they were -- in between the occassional stellar tracks, much of their stuff was just plain unlistenable crap (IMHO, of course). Granted, I don't ever put on any of the first three 'Mats albums, either.... I recently rescued a CD copy of _Hootenanny_ from the cutout bin (longform package and all), but that's as far back as I'm going! (OK, if I found a copy of _Boink_ on CD, I'd grab it! Does such a thing even exist?) Which brings me to my next topic -- Bob vs. Slim. Only recently have I even formed an opinion on this subject. And it is that Bob was easily the more inspired guitarist of the two. I only wish he had been around for some of the later stuff, and so I could've seen him perform. But I also think that arguing over that is akin to arguing over who's going to come in second in the election -- it's almost irrelevant. Paul Westerberg was the heart and soul of the Replacements; the rest of them were merely his backup band. I know that sounds mean-spirited, and neglects things like band chemistry and all that, but when they replaced Bob with Slim, you still had the Replacements. If you had tried to replace Paul with someone else, it wouldn't have been the same. It'd be like the new Gin Blossoms record -- pretty sounding, but largely devoid of real substance (since their only real songwriter offed himself -- or like New Order, to tie back to Joy Division). Of course, having said all that, I have to admit that Bash & Pop's album was easily the best of the solo projects to date. But I look forward with great anticipation to Paul's new album. P.S. Was it one of you AOL swooners to whom the folks at Columbia House were referring when they put the photo of Paul in last month's catalog along with a note pointing out that they were responding to your request? P.P.S. I was looking through the FAQ that was recently mailed out and one glaring omission jumped out at me. In the section where the movie _Heathers_ is discussed, the fact that Christian Slater's final line was "Color Me Impressed" was not included. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 6 Mar 1996 20:23:35 -1000 (HST) From: Ensign Duncan Young Subject: Trademark riffs OK- I've been wasting away the better part of an evening reading old issues of Skyway. A couple of people mentioned in old posts that they here trademark 'Mats riffs all over today's radio. Survey time - what are the classic 'Mats riffs (I say "Alex Chilton") and what songs do they show up in today. Discuss. -Duncan Young ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: jimmiek@aol.com (JIMMIEK) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Subject: Re: a dumb little story... Date: 27 Feb 1996 23:10:42 -0500 I was jamming with some friends a while ago. They were all Deadheads (no offense to those of you who are also), and I'm not, but I'm always looking for a chance to rip it up on electric guitar. Anyway, after an interminable rendition of "Down By The River", I idly played the opening riff to "Bastards of Young." Everyone turns around, and with mouths wide open in amazement, and START PLAYING THE SONG. We ripped through that, "Red Red Wine" and "The Ledge" in short order. Turns out they were all 'Mats fans for years. All the while I'd known them, I didn't know they were 'Mats fans, and they didn't know I was. It's almost like we should have some secret hand signal or something. JMK ------------------------------------------- James Kaihatu Naval Research Lab Stennis Space Center, MS ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, Feb 24, 1996 2:38 PM PST From: rambo@waste.org To: PBlowfish@aol.com Guided By Voices played here in Minneapolis Thursday night, at First Avenue. Memorable banter: Bob: "Where's Paul Westerberg?" Crowd: (mumble, mumble) Bob: "You guys are all Replacements fans..." Crowd: "yeah" Bob: "Is this the place where Prince did Purple Rain?" Crowd: "yeah" Bob: "Soul Asylum" Crowd: (boos) "fuck no..." Bob: "Where's Paul Fucking Westerberg?" Back for an encore, Mitch can't get any sound out of his guitar. Proceeds to check the connections. While he's doing that, Bob says: "Ladies and gentlemen, Mitch Mitchell. That boy's been rocking since he was 10, and that's no shit...Where's Paul Westerberg. Where's Paul Fucking Westerberg?! You guys don't like Soul Asylum? C'mon, they're hometown boys. How about Rifle Sport?" Crowd: (mumble) "Yeah!" That's about it. They came to town, drank tons of Bud and smoke loads of cigarettes, and rocked. It was good. I'm surprised they don't get electrocuted with all the suds they dump on their amps, heheh...man, that was $6 well-spent. ------------------- RrrrrrrrrrrrrrAmbO ------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 10:22:28 -0800 From: duck5@ix.netcom.com (Duck) Regarding 120 Minutes. -- Paul's gonna be on the show on March 31st. They taped in NYC yesterday at a little diner. Lynda [120 Minutes is on MTV on Sundays at 11 p.m. CST. - M@] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: danie016@mc.duke.edu (danie016) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Subject: Re: a dumb little story... Date: 27 Feb 1996 20:29:45 GMT In article <4gt3vo$pu9@panix3.panix.com>, sp60@panix.com says... >So, I'm sitting with a friend in my favorite hole-in-the-wall East >Village bar (BTW, there's PTMM, Husker, Sugar and other tasty titles in >their jukebox. :D Reason enough to go there!). We strike up a pleasant >conversation with a friendly looking fellow and somehow he uttered the >phrase, "I'm in trouble". That tripped off my internal 'Mats meter and I >automatically blurted out, "Hey, that's a song...'If you're in love, I'm in >trouble.'" He looked at me with a funny look and I expected a polite, "Uh >huh" to just acknowledge that I spoke, but instead he said, "Hey, the >Replacements....my band just covered that song for our 7" about 3 weeks >ago." And I just about fell off of my chair. I have no clue as to what >his band sounds like, but they can't be all that bad in my book. > >I remember reading here a while ago about making a friend over a line >from "Red Red Wine"....anyone else with a similar story? > >-sue The guy you were talking to (unless there's another band which has recorded a cover of "I'm in Trouble" recently) is in a band called Pipe. They're from Chapel Hill and they rock. Most of their material is in the vein of _Sorry Ma_-era 'Mats (though I guess a song like "Bowling For Fuckers" would have fit better on _Stink_). I'm not sure what label the 7-inch is on, but they have an album out on Jesus Christ Records if you're interested - I've probably got an address somewhere. JD [I wrote Sue myself and found out that the band in question wasn't the formidable outfit Pipe...but Pipe still does a blazing cover of "Trouble". You can find this 7" from Amish Records at your local hip record store or mail order it from Merge Records. AMI001: Pipe "You're Soaking In It/Trouble" ($3) Shipping & Handlin': $1.50 for 1-3 items or $2/item outside of North America Merge Records PO Box 1235 Chapel Hill, NC 27514 USA - M@] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: AYalowich@aol.com Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 21:04:27 -0500 Subject: Another Replacements story. Matt: I'm not sure if this story has been mentioned, but back in 1989, the Mats actually played live on one of those music award shows. It wasn't the grammy's or the american music awards, but something similar. In fact, I don't think the event even exists anymore, that's how important it was. I do remember that Keith Richards performed with his band, the X-pensive Winos, and at the end they had one of those 'end of show' jams like they have at the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. I only recall that the replacements and Keith were the only acts worth watching, and the rest of the show was why remote controls were invented. Anyway, when the boys had their big national television moment, it was classic Replacements. When they were introduced, Paul looked square in the camera and said, "What the hell are WE doing here?" It was typical Paul, being self-deprecating and cynical in the same breath. They played 'Talent Show' and when they got to the line, ..'feelin good from the pills we took', ABC bleeped out 'pills'. I remember thinking that was the lamest thing, especially since it was 1989. It was ironic that Keith Richards was on the show, because in 1966, the Ed Sullivan show sensored the Stones (no I didn't see that, I was only 8 at the time) and made them change the words of 'Lets spend the night together' to 'Lets spend some time together'. Just goes to show why people watch cable. Paul must have known they were going to censor him, because as the song came to the end, he substituted the line, 'too late to turn back, here we go' with 'too late to take pills, here we go'. He got away with it and repeated it maybe two or three times for good measure. I was watching the show with my wife and two friends, and they thought I was crazy because I was pumped that Paul had so easily outwitted the ABC 'sensor police'. That one moment came back to me just the other night when I was reading an old article about the group. I remember thinking that 'one foot in the door, the other one in the gutter' was so prophetic. Even though I wish the band had made it big (for their sake), it is probably better that they didn't. I used to love REM the same way I still love the replacements, but now that REM is so big, its not the same. I think that somewhere, I have this performance on tape, but I have never had the time or discipline to label things properly. Someday I'll find it and send it to you. It is three minutes of Mats ecstacy. Adam ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: bruef@waun.tdsnet.com Date: Tue, 12 Mar 96 18:39:46 PST Subject: Little Village Dude Hey Matt and fellow Skywegians, I recently found out a little 'Mats inside joke and wanted to let everyone in on it. If you've ever heard the 7/4/91 final show in Chicago, you might remember that at one point in between songs, either Tommy or Paul says, "Little Village Dude" for no apparent reason. You may have heard them say this on other Chicago boots before also. (On Paul's '93 tour, when he played at the Riv. in Chicago, during "A Few Minutes of Silence" he changes one of the lines to "Little Village Motherfucker Little Village Motherfucker"). When I heard this on more than one recording, I suspected there was some kinda joke going on here that I just wasn't hip enough to get (I thought maybe it had something to do with the not-so-super supergroup of the same name). Well recently I got hold of a copy of an on-air radio interview the band did at WXRT in Chicago before a show a few years back ('87 I think). During these radio interviews they often let the interviewee pick out some songs to spin between the chatting. Well, it seems the 'Mats brought along their own recording they wanted the station to play. It was an old blues artist (Sonny Boy Williamson I think) doing a song called "Little Village" (ah, the plot thickens). So the apparently unwitting DJ cues up the song and hits play, and the first thing the Chicago listeners hear is the sound of a producer saying something like "small village: take one" followed by Sonny shouting "Little Village Mother Fucker!" So apparently trying not to call attention to the curse, the DJ lets the "song" continue! And the recording is nothing but a series of mistarts of the song, followed by all sorts of profanities. This goes on for something like 5 minutes (and at this point, everyone at work where I'm listening to this tape on my walkman is wondering what the hell I'm laughing at). Then when it's finally over, the DJ says something brilliant like, "Uh-huh. I can see where something like that might happen in the studio" So the next time you run into Paul or Tommy, walk up to him and just say, "Little Village Motherfucker!" ------------------------------------- Name: Bill A. Ruef E-mail: bruef@waun.tdsnet.com ------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Peebrane@aol.com Date: Wed, 13 Mar 1996 00:11:43 -0500 Hola Matt-- So, you have heard of Bill's zine [Willpower]? I'm not sure you've missed much, but it did have its moments. Regarding nasty letters, I think we were talking about starting a band and I needed a drummer or something and I sent him a REALLY BAD demo and he signed it "Forever Drumless." I talked to him on the phone and he sounded so zoned I asked him if he was stoned. Then I got this really vicious letter from him like how DARE I accuse him of such a thing. Ever meet really quiet people who write really mad letters? Like they were someone else? I think he's the type. Concerning Westerberg, I don't know where to start. I caught up with the 'Mats between _Let It Be_ and _Tim_. I thought the former album was the coolest fucking shit I'd ever heard. Then I heard _Hootenanny_, _Tim_ and introduced them to my friends on SNL. First they said "fucker" on TV and then they changed into each other's clothes for the 2nd song. I was hooked. I don't know what happened to him. He started losing it on _[Don't Tell a] Soul_. _All Shook Down_ was shit. Chris Mars' 1st album was better than _Sorry Ma_, _Soul_ and _Shook_. Tommy's album was mostly shit. I thought those guys were fucking great. I guess they'll always be my pocket band. "You're the coolest guy I ever have smelled" was my line. I thought "You're the coolest guy I've ever met" was too sappy, ass-kissing, groupie-like. Wanted to be original, I guess. Anyhoo, I miss the 'Mats. Good to see I'm not the only one. P.Brain. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: cford@vnet.ibm.com (Charles Ford) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Subject: Seinfeld Date: Fri, 15 Mar 1996 18:23:08 GMT I was watching an old Seinfeld re-run the other night and I overheard the following dialogue: Kramer (to a squabbling Elaine and Jerry): "Everything you dream of is right ------ in front of you!" Coincidence? Or do we have some Westerberg fans in TV land? Charles ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 13 Mar 96 17:54:40 PST Subject: Tommy Story From: Bill Ruef (bruef@waun.tsdnet.com) Hey Matt, Chris Koehler was good enough to send me a copy of an article that appeared in the St. Paul Pioneer Press in December previewing Perfect's two appearances then. So, here it be.... TOMMY STINSON IS FINISHING HIS HARD-WON EDUCATION When the clock strikes midnight Sunday, it will bring to a close a two-year period that Tommy Stinson calls the most "educational" of his life. The former Replacements' bassist says he learned a lot from his first post-'Mats project, Bash & Pop, which recorded an album (_Friday Night Is Killing Me_), toured and promptly broke up. The chapter ended with Stinson asking for, and receiving, his release from his contract with Warnere Bros. Records. "I've grown up a (boat)load in a lot of respects - personally, as well as professionally," Stinson said Monday from his apartment in Los Angeles. "When I did the Bash & Pop record, I was doing it very naively, and I just went with it. And looking back, I can see that there was some good stuff there, but it's sort of in pieces, chunks of things. And I think that whatever's happened in the last year or two has given me the chance to sit back and get better at it all - and get more involved personally with the material. "I look back at some of the material of the Bash & Pop record, and I just think they're ditties. I mean, I wrote them, they're songs; but they weren't from-the-guts kinds of things. And everything that I do now pretty much is, unfortunately, from the gut. I mean, it's good, and it's bad. You don't want to always throw yourself out like that, but that's just the way I've evolved." The 29-year-old Stinson has a lot of real-life experience behind his evolution. After splitting up with his wife and being estranged from his 5-year-old daughter, he moved from Minneapolis to Los Angeles to live with his girlfriend Kelly and "get a new start." Last February, his older brother and Replacements co-founder, Bob Stinson, was found dead in his Uptown apartment. To this day, it has an effect on how Tommy looks at the world. "I don't take so much for granted," he explains. "I don't really have time to dink around anymore. I'm more motivated to do what it is I want to do. And I guess I can attribute that to Bob passing; you know, just realizing: Hey, you don't have much time to get the (stuff) done that you want to try and get done in life. So you have to get motivated, instead of just being casual about it." As an artist, does he find himself writing about it? "No," he says. "I find myself not writing about it, because I don't want to share that. I don't have any bad feelings. When I think of my brother, I only think of good things. And I think about him frequently. To me, I made peace with him a long time ago. So when I have my thoughts on that, I tend not to want to share them, because they're mine. I get to keep 'em." Stinson's solo appearance at the Uptown Bar in November showcased a seasoned songwriter and performer coming into his own. But that's only half the story. After Bash & Pop split up, Stinson formed the four-piece Perfect, and he was determined not to make the same musical mistakes. "The fundamental difference id that I'm not writing in that 'rock and roll-y thing. That Bash & Pop record was very rootsy, and when I took it on the road, I felt stupid playing it, sort of like a bumpkin. None of the songs really rocked enough to get me going, and the quiet songs were hard to do. "So after getting off the road with that, I started to write what I wanted to play live more, instead of playing in my attic with my acoustic (guitar) and just writing ditties. I wanted to get a bigger picture and a sound. So I would say Perfect is less Stonesy and more Kinks-ish, if I were to venture that far. I think it rocks more, and it's more of a band." In the fall, Stinson approached Warner Bros. with his demos. "They were real supportive," he recalls, "but when it came right down to the actual, 'What are we gonna do?', I felt like they came up short. So I just said, 'I'd like to go,' and they said, 'OK.' It was cool. The dissolution freed Stinson to do two EPs - one of solo material and one a Perfect project - with Medium Cool Records, the Minneapolis-and Los Angeles-based label headed by former Replacements manager Peter Jesperson. Over the years, there has been tension between various members of the 'Mats and their former manager, but Stinson sounds genuinely excited to be reunited with his old producer/mentor. "It's really good, because I had been pretty disheartened by the whole (Bash & Pop) thing," he says. "And the thing with Peter is that he likes it. And when he's enthused about something, he puts his whole heart in it." In a recent interview, former Replacements leader Paul Westerberg said that Bob Stinson's death "made me closer to everyone who loved Bob. It just did. In a lot of ways, the "Good Day" song (from Westerberg's forthcoming album, slated for release in mid-April) is a song for all of us who are still here, who knew Bob. And (capturing) a closeness with Tommy and Peter that was always there, but once again. So if there's any good that ever comes of something like that, it's that." Stinson agrees with his former bandmate's hard-won philosophy. "It has brought me closer to Peter again," he says. "I saw Peter at Bob's services, and I erased whatever things there were that I had about him. And I jumped back into that, without any baggage. And I think that could be an attribute to Bob dying. I've gotten rid of some of the petty things that may have blocked relationships in the past." This is Tommy Stinson, the bratty enfant terrible who used to yell expletives into the microphone because it sounded cool coming over the P.A. speaker? "I don't know why it happened. I just know that I have a lot more friends now than I've ever had in my life. They're real friends. I can feel it. And I value people more. You can only imagine how little we valued other people when we were in the Replacements. We had a pretty bad attitude. "Since that's gone, I'm a much happier guy. I've got friends that I like. I'm not scared to go to clubs to see bands. I'm not afraid of liking bands. It's like a whole new thing. And considering how I felt before, that's great. It's awesome to like new bands. Though I've gotta admit: There's still nothing that could've gotten me through that grunge period." ------------------------------------- Bill A. Ruef bruef@waun.tdsnet.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fri, 8 Mar 1996 21:15:37 -0600 (CST) From: richl@dfw.net (Midnight Rider) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Subject: *Perfect* article/semi-Tommy interview in Dallas Observer Hey all ... here's an article that appeared in this week's edition of the Dallas Observer. **************** Bastards of Young How the Hebrew school bully got the Perfect gig with a Replacement ** by Robert Wilonsky Until I heard from him last week, the name Marc Solomon brought to mind only an ugly, long-dormant childhood memory. 15 or so long years ago, Marc Solomon socked me right in the gut during Hebrew season -- flat-out punched me for no good reason, other than to get a chuckle out of the other kids who were glad it wasn't them who got popped by this punk in a yarmulke. This little bastard balled up his tiny fist and sucker-punched me as we were walking down the hall to Shabbat services, knocking the wind out of me and sending me to my knees. I was a good foot taller than him back then, and the only consolation I ever took from the moment was how the Hebrew-school bully hurt his hand on the giant gold buttons on my Lurch-sized blue sports coat. Marc Solomon -- never did like the boy much, and never knew what happened to him after that. So when he called out of the blue, after 15 years of peace and silence, he could have wanted only one thing. "Hey, man, I'm in a band." This is how most of my phone conversations begin, and how most of them end. Of course -- the schmuck wanted a little free press from his old punching bag. He said he was coming to town March 14 to play at the Rehab Lounge, opening for the critical-fave (read: really fucking dull) singer-songwriter Jack Logan. He said he was playing guitar for a new band. He said he was living in Los Angeles. He said lots of things I didn't give much of a shit about. Then, as he had done 15 years earlier, Marc Solomon threw another sucker punch: "I'm playing guitar in Tommy Stinson's new band, and it's called Perfect. You know Tommy Stinson, from the Replacements?" "Yeah, I know the Replacements," I told him, staring at the poster of a 13-year-old Tommy Stinson hanging in my office. In the picture, an old Replacements Twin/Tone promo shot, Tommy's hair is long and askew; he stands next to an already-weary-looking Paul Westerberg. Behind Paul stands drummer Chris Mars, the only guy kicked out of a band for being too good, and Tommy's brother Bob, who kicked his drug habit the hard way by dying last year. Sure, I know the Replacements, you putz. They're my favorite band -- the last great drunken white-trash four-piece, the bastards of young who were achin' to be the stars they never became. At first, I didn't believe Marc. I had no idea that since the last time I saw him, he had gone to Booker T. Washington High School, joined a band or a dozen (including Zane Grey, best forgotten), moved out to Los Angeles and moved in with former Last Rites-current Goo Goo Dolls drummer Mike Malinin. Another guy lives with them, too, and his name is Robert Cooper, who used to play with Pete Droge but quit because "he wanted to rock a little harder than Pete did," Marc explained. (Cooper also used to play in various local bands, and once filled in for Mike Daane in Last Rites when Daane went on the road with Sara Hickman. Bonus trivia points all around). Fact is, I really didn't believe Marc until Tommy himself called a few hours later; or maybe I didn't buy it until the following day, when Marc sent two demo tapes, on Warner Bros. sleeves, that contained seven terrific songs that sounded like the Replacements did when Tommy was 16 and Paul wasn't Mike Nesmith. The publicity photo, which arrived in the mail the day after that, was the clincher. Underneath the shaggy black hair, behind those shades and that smirk -- there was the same ol' Marc Solomon, looking like the demon seed of Slash and Joey Ramone. Marc explained that he met with Stinson when Tommy moved to Los Angeles around three years ago with his post-Replacements band Bash & Pop; the two would meet in bars, bump into each other and nod hello. At the time, Marc was playing with Malinin in a band called Careless, and Bash & Pop was slowly grinding its way toward a lethargic end. Bash & Pop had released one hit-and-miss album, _Friday Night Is Killing Me_, in 1993, and Tommy had grown increasingly frustrated with being in a band that wasn't really a band -- more like a frontman and studio musicians who just so happened to go out on the road every so often. Marc said he had heard from Brian Baker, now a guitarist for Bad Religion, that Tommy was looking for yet another guitarist to fill the slot in the revolving door that was Bash & Pop. Marc auditioned but didn't get the nod; only after a few other candidates came and went did Tommy call Marc and offer him the gig. Robert Cooper would also receive an invitation to join Stinson's band, even as their other roomie, Malinin, was beginning to enjoy the success that comes from platinum record sales and endless radio and TV exposure. "I realized I made a mistake not hiring Marc," Tommy said when he called. "He's a versatile musician. He can fuckin' play anything. He'll fuckin' try anything, and he plays left of me, which is good. Even in Bash & Pop, the second guitar stuff is unconventional, and he hit on my weakness. I've always like a guitarist who can do something different underneath the song." When Marc joined Bash & Pop, the band was nearly history. Tommy was, by then, hating his own songs -- "I always felt like I was holding back," he shrugs, "'cause you couldn't rock out with those songs" -- and looking to start over. He missed the camaraderie of a true band, the sparks that came from the clashing of four personalities who were willing to give all of themselves to the common good. It's what made the Replacements great during their heyday, and the lack of that spirit made Tommy begin to loathe Bash & Pop. "When I went out to make Bash & Pop, I set out to make that a band, but it never took off," he said. "I never found the people that were bandworthy. It went on and on, and when I moved out here it was a year before I decided to change the name. I tried other people, and at the point of finding Marc and Robert, it seemed stupid to call it Bash & Pop because the songwriting was so different." "Tommy decided he wanted to start fresh," Marc said of the decision to form Perfect. "Tommy's big trip since the 'Mats was he wanted to be in a band again -- with all the camaraderie, the sense of the roving youth gang." The proof can be found in the demos, a spirited batch of songs that only prove the long-held theory that Tommy Stinson was the soul of the Replacements -- the spark that ignited the gasoline, the perennial teenager Paul Westerberg always wanted to be. Perfect sounds more like the Replacements than Bash & Pop, but with the Faces fetish excised and the self-consciousness dismissed. Stinson no longer sounds like a kid trying to step out of an older brother's shadow, but a frontman leading his own confident band. The songs -- with titles like "Alternative Monkey", "Makes Me Happy" and "Don't Need to Know Where" -- are powerful and catchy, bursting at the seams with reckless energy. It's hard to tell which guitar is Marc's, but he'd come out OK either way. "The difference between Bash & Pop and Perfect is this is less blues-based and more pop-based," Stinson said. "There was a lot of that lingering Faces and shit influences on the Bash & Pop record, which is all fine, but I turned in more of a pop direction. It's just the difference between writing songs in the attic and hashing them out with the other guys. You get a more collective and cohesive sound when you're hashing it out with other guys." Yet Stinson said Warner Bros. did not want these songs, and for the first time since 1985's _Tim_, he's no longer signed to the label. Instead, Perfect is signed to the indie, Restless Records, which is planning on releasing a Perfect EP around June or July. Appropriately, Peter Jesperson -- the man who signed the Replacements to Twin/Tone way back when -- is in control of Restless, and he was the reason Perfect has a new home. "It fucking comes completely full circle," Stinson said, laughing. "It's totally laughable and funny and ironic. Peter was my musical mentor from the time I was 12, and it's cool to have him back in my musical world." (Stinson also plays bass and trombone on one track on Westerberg's new record, Eventually, which is due to hit stores April 23 and the cutout bins some time in May). It is the great irony of Stinson's life that even as he approaches the rather young rock-and-roll age of 30 -- young especially considering he was 12 when the Replacements started -- he's now playing in a band filled with 'Mats worshippers. Marc explained to me it's something of a fantasy come true to play with Tommy: "My big joke," he said, "is if you can't *be* the Replacements, join'em." At the very least, Stinson figures playing with guys who used to worship you from afar at least cuts down on the practice time. "It helps because they know where I come from and they can relate to the things I want," Tommy said during our conversation. "It's different than playing with people who aren't familiar with what I've done. I'm not that different from the old records, so it helps that Robert loved the 'Mats and knows the 'Mats because he can integrate his style with mine. Marc knows where I come from, so he can put the two things together and come up with the right thing. That adoration thing went out the first day." Yeah -- with the first argument, the first fight, the first fist in the gut. Marc was the first, and last, guy to sock me, but I never mentioned it to him during our conversation. I was too busy trying to figure out whether I should believe him, and then too busy trying to decide whether or not to be sickened or impressed by his dumb luck. Probably a little of both, and I told this to Tommy -- who then told Marc, who called me back later in the day. "Man, I thought you *forgot*," he said, his grin perceptible through the long-distance line. "Not on your life," I told him, and he laughed that familiar laugh one more time. ___________________________ c. Dallas Observer Volume 679, Mar 7-13, 1996 reprinted without permission Rich richl@dfw.net "everybody knows this is nowhere" ... Neil Young ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: jsflip@aol.com (JSflip) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Subject: Perfect in SF Date: 8 Mar 1996 07:05:11 -0500 Some news for those following Tommy Stinson's band Perfect: Perfect opened for Jack Logan at Slim's in San Francisco tonight (3/7). Tommy and band played about 10 - 12 new songs and much to my disappointment; no Bash n' Pop tunes. The only new song title that I caught was a song called "Me". He introduced it by saying "this one's called Me and it's about someone else." He also closed the set by saying the Perfect album will be out in June. I must say that the band was much "tighter" than the Bash n' Pop incarnation that played at Slim's last year. All the songs where straight- ahead "Rock and Roll", no ballads. As much as I like Bash n' Pop's sound, I would have to say that Tommy's new songs are much better. Maybe tonight's performance has something to due with my opinion, but I can't wait for the album to appear! Jerry ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: cford@vnet.ibm.com (Charles Ford) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Date: Fri, 15 Mar 1996 16:06:22 GMT I found some SXSW coverage in the Austin Chronicle, however, they list Perfect as a "Sleeper" showcase rather than a "Pick." (by "sleeper" I assume they mean one that will surprise you rather than one that will put you to sleep.) Anyway, here's what they say: "Perfect: The name probably sounds unfamiliar, but if we tell you the frontman is ex-Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson, that'll probably be enough to convince many of you to pencil this one into your plans. Also on guitar is a former member of Austin's early-Nineties Replacements-like band the Clowns, while bass duties are handled by a veteran of Pete Droge's band. (Babe's, 1am)." This confirms my suspicion that the guitar player was in the same Clowns that used to play around Austin a few years back. I saw them once or twice. They were pretty much a Mats rip-off act. I guess Tommy found him a kindred spirit. Charles From: cford@vnet.ibm.com (Charles Ford) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Subject: Re: Perfect Rules! Date: Sun, 17 Mar 1996 17:42:53 GMT I, too, finally got see Perfect at SXSW. I got to Babe's early to guarentee my place and sat through two crappy bands, one decent band, and generally passed the time talking to a drunken Minnosotan (not Tommy) who had come all the way down for the conference. At 1 a.m., Perfect hit the stage cracking jokes and clowning around. I like this band better than Bash & Pop. Tommy seems to have found a good cast of characters here. His guitarist (ex-Austinite Marc Solomon) is a great foil for Tommy, and the drummer is a wild man who also assumes the role of "band mother" by performing the task of selling t-shirts out of has drum case. Tommy was more relaxed than his last Austin appearance with B&P, and minor technical difficulties seemed to roll off his back this time. Bash & Pop seemed a little uptight to me, but Perfect is a party band. They did at least three covers including a particularly politically incorrect version of 'Candyman' which I took to be an ode to drug use, but maybe I'm just jaded. Not one tune from "Friday Night is Killing Me" was played during their 55 minute set. Afterward Tommy held court at the bar for anybody who wanted to talk. I shook his hand and told him how much I enjoyed the show. I guess you could call that MY SWSW moment. Charles From: cford@vnet.ibm.com (Charles Ford) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Subject: Re: Perfect Rules!! Date: Tue, 19 Mar 1996 17:51:09 GMT Two days after SXSW, Austin reporter Micheal Corcoran is still gushing about Perfect. In today's paper he lists Perfect as his #5 in his SXSW top ten list. ("Crocodile Rock" blew him away.) In a related article he uses the saga of Tommy's Bash & Pop to illustrate how infatuated Austinites are with music. (Only in Austin do people argue about a band that only sold "10 records," he writes.) Tommy hasn't gotten this much press in years. Too bad it's just the local Austin paper. Charles ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "D. F. Navarrete" Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Subject: Re: Perfect Rules! Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 22:30:34 -0500 Charles, I was there too, and I hope that DAT machine was up to speed, 'cause they were indeed great! Marc Solomon was a literal whirling dervish (his cords were getting all tangled up) and I swear, it seems to me that Tommy was in perfect rock 'n' roll mode: grinning from ear to ear. The fact is that Perfect did TWO shows this past weekend; apparently Perfect did a showcase for industry types at a restaurant in the Austin area which anyone could go to (if they knew about it beforehand). One of The Austin American Statesman music reviewers saw the show and literally gushed over how much fun they were "just playing in a cubbyhole of a restaurant". I've said it before, The South by Southwest music festival is great fun. The Plimsouls show on Friday at the Waterloo Brewing Company was incredible, and earlier, I got to talk awhile with Kathy Valentine from the Go-Gos who was there with her new band, the Delphines. And all this for a $40 wristband. I'll be posting a set list for the Babe's Perfect show (I got Tommy's since I was just to his left) but to all... you've got to listen to Tommy doing "Crocodile Rock"!!! Diego ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1996 21:47:45 -0500 (EST) From: Young Neil W <4nwy@qlink.queensu.ca> Subject: Magnificent Seven article Here's that top college radio albums of all time article someone briefly mentioned in an old Skyway. -Neil. U. Magazine's Magnificent Seven _________________________________________________________________ The Top College Rock Albums Since the Dawn of Time* ________________________________________________________________ By Glenn McDonald ________________________________________________________________ For some reason no one understands, the music business all but shuts down after Thanksgiving. Hardly any albums get released, and the ones that do tend to be of the Boxcar Willie's Yodeling Jubilee variety. So we've turned our gaze to the rosy, hazy past. Popular music wouldn't be where it is today without the influence of college radio, especially in the '80s. While Bon Jovi and Whitesnake were topping the charts, campus stations were quietly talking 'bout a revolution, nursing the bands and style that would conquer the planet in the post-Nirvana era. Below are seven of the most important college rock albums of all time, in no particular order. These are recordings that probably would not have survived outside the fertile confines of left-of-the-dial radio, and whose relevance and influence can still be felt to this day. This list isn't by any means comprehensive, and in anticipation of the impending barrage of righteous criticism, we'd just like to say: Get off our backs, already! You wanna fight? All right, tough guy. Behind metal shop, after school. Be there. _________________________________________________________________ R.E.M. Murmur/1983 I.R.S. The archetype of the little college band that could, R.E.M. have risen from quirky art-rock combo to one of the most popular and important bands in rock history. Their full-length debut album contained the elemental seeds of what would later bloom into R.E.M.'s signature sound -- folksy melodicism tempered by a solidly post-punk ethic. If you can hear the Velvet Underground in Peter Buck's guitar, you can also hear the Beach Boys in Mike Mills' harmonies. One thing you can't hear are the lyrics -- singer Michael Stipe's enigmatic, abstract vocals prompted more than a few DJs to rename the LP Mumble. R.E.M. practically invented "college rock" as we know it with this record, and their success -- depending on your point of view -- either liberated the format or killed its spirit. Probably both. _________________________________________________________________ Public Enemy It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back/1989 Def Jam Although the development of hip-hop has ultimately very little to do with college radio, the two movements have occasionally met with profound synergy. When Long Island college radio DJ Carlton Ridenhour (Chuck D) formed Public Enemy in the late '80s, rap was still very much underground. With Nation of Millions, Chuck D's controversial (and incisive) political stance scared away all but the most courageous radio programmers (Chuck D's confrontational attitude toward black radio didn't help: "Radio/Suckas scared of me/Cuz I'm mad/Cuz I'm the enemy.") And so P.E. found its way to Middle America primarily through word of mouth and support from college radio hip-hop programming. Nation of Millions arguably remains rap's masterpiece, its dense production and lyrical intensity a landmark in music history. _________________________________________________________________ The Replacements Let It Be/1984 Sire The Replacements, when they hit their stride, were the classic American post-punk band. Their combination of sloppiness, heart and balls-out punk bravado is best documented on Let It Be, which moves from delicate confessionals ("Unsatisfied") to crude in-jokes ("Gary's Got a Boner") with the kind of woozy grace you can only find in the hardest-drinking band in show business. The 'Mats (as they came to be known) never fully broke out of their underground status, which somehow makes them all the more legendary. Watch for frontman Paul Westerberg to grow into a dignified elder statesman of rock. _________________________________________________________________ Camper Van Beethoven Key Lime Pie/1990 Virgin Seemingly the band for which the term "college radio darling" was created, Camper Van Beethoven released a series of critically praised, commercially ignored albums in the mid-to-late '80s. Camper best reflect the early spirit of nonformat college radio, gyrating wildly from countrified rave-ups to Middle Eastern music to garage-punk to psychedelia to ska -- often within a single song. Key Lime Pie is the band's final release -- a darker, calmer record that sounds like a bittersweet goodbye to the gilded cage of underground music. Frontman David Lowery would go on to form the significantly more straightforward band Cracker. _________________________________________________________________ Throwing Muses Throwing Muses/1986 4AD Kristin Hersh's fragmented pop sensibilities would have been crushed anywhere outside of college radio (in fact, only the eccentric British label 4AD was initially willing to sign the band). With Throwing Muses, Hersh and stepsister Tanya Donelly (Belly) made some of the most consistently interesting guitar pop of their time. In a sense, this record is somewhat emblematic of a larger scene of East Coast female-driven rock (Blake Babies, Kim Deal) that foreshadowed the early '90s boom of strong women performers (Liz Phair, PJ Harvey). _________________________________________________________________ Husker Du Warehouse: Songs and Stories/1985 Warner Bros. Probably the most musically influential band to never break out of the college rock scene, Husker Du took the primal and direct punk pop of the Buzz-cocks and made it more primal, more direct -- and more honest. Guitarist Bob Mould's jackhammer chording virtually created the sound practiced by the Pixies, Superchunk and even Nirvana. Warehouse is the band at its finest, with crisper production revealing both the austere sonics and graceful melodies the band was capable of. _________________________________________________________________ Sonic Youth Daydream Nation/1988 Geffen Sonic Youth's ground-breaking experimentation with song structure and guitar tonalities are best displayed on this sprawling double album. Generally regarded as the hippest band in the world, they've long fought the lonely battle for mainstream acceptance. But, you know, their hearts were never really in it, and it's probably better that way. Nowadays, it seems you can't trust anything labeled "alternative," but rest assured -- Sonic Youth are your friends. This may be your last chance to hear a state-of-the-art underground rock band in its natural environment. *Well, OK, not really the dawn of time. Just the '80s and '90s. _________________________________________________________________ COPYRIGHT NOTICE Copyright 1995 by U. The National College Magazine. All rights reserved. Articles and photos from U. Magazine may be reproduced provided that the reproduction includes both this copyright statement and the article/photo in its entirety. However, articles, photos and other content on this web site may not be resold, repackaged or redistributed for compensation of any kind without the prior express written consent of U. Magazine and American Collegiate Network, Inc. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 6 Mar 1996 14:07:18 -0500 (EST) From: Richard J Puerzer Last Friday marked the 5 year anniversary of my last 'Mats show. My favorite all-time concert. They were amazing that night. I would love to get a tape of that show and saw it listed on that list o' taped shows. The show was March 1, 1991 at the Metropol in Pittsburgh, PA. If anybody could help I would appreciate it. I really love Small as well. Matt, tell your roommate to play Pittsburgh. Thanks and take care. Rich http://www.pitt.edu/~rjpst3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Sun, 03 Mar 96 17:55:03 CST From: Pixie HI - I am looking for anyone who has a spare copy of Shit Shower and Shave that on disc who would be willing to sell it -- also copies of Boink! and Don't Buy or Sell It's Crap. Please get in touch! AMY KENNEBEC c603122@showme.missouri.edu ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 20 Mar 1996 01:19:28 EST From: UBAQ16A@prodigy.com (MR DAVID J WILSON) Subject: Shit face drunk Here are the chords to Treatment Bound. A great song to play drunk, and easy enough to remember ... off _Hootenanny_. (In C. Intro is just an open C chord.) F C G C We're getting no place, fast as we can F C G C Get a noseful, from our so called friends F C G C Getting nowhere, quick as we know how Am We whirl from town to town F G C Treatment Bound F C First thing we do when we finally pull up G C Get shit face drunk try to sober up F C G C There'll be no pose? tonight, no money in sight G C Label wants a hit, and we don't give a shit F C G C Cause we're getting no place, fast as we can F C G C We get a noseful, from our so called friends F C G C Getting nowhere, quick as we know how Am We whirl from town to town, Duluth to Madison F G C Treatment Bound F C Second thing we do is walk around G C Go to the job or try to hold one down F C G C There's no mass appeal, caught us [Carton's] asleep at the wheel G C Yesterday's trash...too bored to thrash F C G C Cause we're getting nowhere, fast as we can F C G C We got a noseful, of them so called friends F C G C Getting no place, quick as we know how F C G C Getting no where, what will we do now? Take it Scotty! Unknown: "What are the chords to that one part you just fucked up?" Paul: "Fucked 'em up" ***************************************************************************** Request: CHORDS to "Bastards of Young" and "I'll Be You" Question: Who is Scotty that Paul is talking to in Treatment Bound? Also, who is playing the cheesy organ????? Thanx, Jeff Wilson UBAQ16A@prodigy.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- fin. --==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==-- Matthew Tomich The //Skyway\\: The Replacements Mailing List 2407 Chapel Hill Road ---------------------------------------------- Durham, NC 27707 To subscribe, send "subscribe skyway" in the (919)-419-0808 body of a letter to "majordomo@novia.net" --==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==-- "Dan is a fan and he lives for our music It's the only thing that gets him by He's watched us grow and he's seen all our shows He's seen us low and he's seen us high Oh, but you and me keep thinking That the world's just passing us by..." - The Kinks