zom-zom wrote:I wish I could say that I've seen them do a great show. I'm guessing I had seen them at least a dozen times, opened for them twice that I can recall, and all of those shows were either drunken messes or unmemorable.I got to see them twice. The first time is still on my top-10 list. This was a few months before the release of "Let It Be." It was drunken, but far from a mess. Small venue. Show was shut down by the cops because the employees in the convenience store below thought the ceiling was going to collapse. They waited until the cops left and started right back up again, harder than before. The last song of the evening was a cover of Vanity Fare's "Hitchin' a Ride" which I cherish the memory of to this day.The second time I saw them was about a month after the release of "Tim." Bigger venue. Drunken mess, but minus the sweat, energy, guts, good songs, and fun. They clearly didn't want to be there and we all suffered for it. Certainly one of the most disappointing shows I've been to, considering what they were capable of at one point. Hüsker Dü ended up pretty much the same way, but that's a discussion for the Hüsker Dü, thread I guess.

http://www.tinymixtapes.com/news/rhino-records-release-box-set-replacements-twintone-output

Tim has become one of my favorite albums of all time over the last few years, getting near daily play on my iPod at work. Just lucked into a vinyl copy and I'm sure it'll be worn out in no time. Not #1, but top ten without a doubt. Start to finish, a great record.

I'm about two-thirds though Trouble Boys, and holy shit is it great.

Wood Goblin wrote:I'm about two-thirds though Trouble Boys, and holy shit is it great.Me too and I agree. This book is a can't put down read. 'Lay it Down Clown' written about Peter Buck doing speed was funny. Who knew there were so many stories of assholery/thumbing the nose/shooting themselves in foot on purpose. I figured going in the POV of the book was going to be how much of 'we know it' fuckups they were but jeez louise the stories flood in so much you need an ark. 'We're on tour not tourists' is a great line but a horrible way to live.Still bored with most of their songs. 2/3 of Tim sounds like Bad Company.

hellholiday wrote:Wood Goblin wrote:I'm about two-thirds though Trouble Boys, and holy shit is it great.Me too and I agree. This book is a can't put down read. 'Lay it Down Clown' written about Peter Buck doing speed was funny. Who knew there were so many stories of assholery/thumbing the nose/shooting themselves in foot on purpose. I figured going in the POV of the book was going to be how much of 'we know it' fuckups they were but jeez louise the stories flood in so much you need an ark. 'We're on tour not tourists' is a great line but a horrible way to live. Agreed. I read it earlier this year, and whilst it's one of the most compelling rock biographies I've read, it's also painfully grim in places. I saw them in late 85/early 86, and was jealous as hell of Tommy Stinson. What wet-behind-the-ears middle class boy with nascent rock star aspiration wouldn't have been? He was only a few years older than me after all, and he seemed to be leading the lifestyle I would have killed to have lead .. at the time. After reading "Trouble Boys" I can now see that my naïve schoolboy envy was utterly misplaced. I still think that much of their music is great, but if the biog is to be believed, being a Replacement was much more fun to have read about than to have experienced (especially for poor, doomed Bob Stinson). Still, definitely Not Crap. I even like "All Shook Down". IMO the only reason it got such a negative reception at the time was because it was marketed as a Replacements album rather than a Paul Westerberg one, a decision which was apparently forced by the record company.

Just picked up a copy of For Sale: Live at Maxwell's 1986 a few days ago. It's pretty much everything you could want from a live 'Mats record. The band was apparently in top form that night - phenomenal display of energy, and you can actually make out most of the songs. Not as many flubbed notes as you might expect! Has anyone else here purchased this yet?

jtyler wrote:Has anyone else here purchased this yet?Saved in my Spotify albums list just now, thanks for the reminder. The Replacements are not crap. It was Tim that grabbed my attention first, I don't recall why I checked it out from the library. It's one of those rare albums where I like every song on there, nothing gets skipped. 'Hold My Life' is one of my favorite songs of all time. I also really like Let It Be and Pleased to Meet Me, everything before and after is a mixed bag. In 2005, I saw Westerberg and his band play here in town. I thought he would only do like 2 or 3 'Mats songs, he did a bunch - Kiss Me on the Bus, I'll Be You, Skyway, Valentine, IOU, etc. For the encore, his band came back onstage but he sang offstage - they did 'I Will Dare', and then covered 'If I Had A Hammer.' I didn't see any of the Replacements reunion shows b/c they didn't come around my area, seeing Westerberg do Replacements songs at that show years ago was good enough.

Rhino just released a Don t Tell a Soul box set that tries to undo the damage that the mixer did to the original release. I m skeptical of this kind of revisionism ( œHere is the record the way we originally wanted it, because we can still remember exactly how we wanted it 30 years later ), but the new mix of œTalent Show sounds fantastic. It reminds me of All Shook Down ”the only sonically good sounding major-label Mats record.The bonus material looks great too.But because they re The Replacements, and because being The Replacements means screwing things up, the box set consists of four CDs and one LP ”a format guaranteed to make nobody happy. I want to get it, but I m going to hold out for a vinyl + download edition.