yeah kid it's a-really hip: replacements LET IT BE poll

"favorite thing" for me.

FASCINATING TRUE DETAIL

they are sitting on the roof of stinsons' mom's house

man this album is great.

Unsatisfied

Androgynous is one of the best fey lyrics ever. Up there with Cole Porter. A four syllable word for a hook, yet never sounds strained or pretentious.

i love that song so much. it sorta blew my teenage mind, because there wasn't a lot of gender-identity-drama in most of what i listened to at that point. well aside from "lola." and "i'm a boy." and "my uncle used to love me but she died." ok actually there was a fair amount of gender-identity-drama in what i listened to. but "androgynous" is in the pantheon.

now i wish i had called the poll KEWPIE DOLLS AND URINE STALLS. oh well.

aw I'm glad people like "Androgynous". in the right mood "kewpie dolls and urinal stalls will be laughed at the way you're laughed at now" makes me tear up a little.

i voted "Unsatisfied"

ha xpost!

Favorite Thing

damn i always think i'm sick of the mats, but this album is great.

"we're coming out"

"Across The Universe"

(That Replacements album is OK, but I haven't really listened to it enough to be able to pick a fave there)

i always think i'm sick of the mats

i know i almost never listen to them these days but i finally got around to putting this on my ipod the other week and it made me happy.

Great album. Unsatisfied by a mile.

My favorite album of all time. Going with "Answering Machine" just because its the last, and therefore the only one that wouldn't leave me disappointed if another song from the album didn't follow.

"i Will Dare" (even if it is a complete ripoff to "I'm Only Sleeping")

Didn't Paul Westerberg recently say that politics has no place in music? That's odd to me, since Unsatisfied seems like it could easily be a political song (could be about a failing relationship, too).

hip replacements

ha. i'll pretend that was on purpose.

Very difficult. I voted "I Will Dare" because it means the rest of the album is coming after it.

Honestly it makes me feel good just to look at this tracklist. So many memories w/ this record.

really really tough to choose between "Favorite Thing" and "Answering Machine". I may have to sleep on this decision.

i sort of think this record (and the mats more generally, but this record especially) invented the slacker era. westerberg saw what was going on, or articulated it, 5-6 years before cobain, linklater, whoever. all the self-awareness, self-doubt, the appropriation of fm rawk (nothing ironic about "black diamond"), the refusal to aspire right in the midst of reagan america. that all got more anthemic later with "bastards of young," "i don't know," "we'll inherit the earth," but none of those top "unsatisfied." it took a recession to put this stuff in tune with the mainstream but they were there a lot earlier.

(also when you consider that the week this album came out purple rain was #1 on the album charts, and that zen arcade came out 3 months earlier, it seems like a pretty good year for minneapolis.)

unsatisfied, but i will dare is pretty close

(also when you consider that the week this album came out purple rain was #1 on the album charts, and that zen arcade came out 3 months earlier, it seems like a pretty good year for minneapolis.)

if only walter mondale could have won the presidency, that would have completed a perfect year for minneapolis.

1984 was also the year when Jam/Lewis really started to establish themselves as an ace producer team, with that SOS Band album and all.

"Favorite Thing" — one of the greatest rock and roll songs ever.
Funny, when I first heard the song it sounded like an indecipherable mess — I couldn't make out the melody, chord structure or anything. Now when I listen, I always marvel at the incredible guitar interplay between Stinson and Westerberg.
I used this song in an air band competition in college. We stumbled around drunk and kicked beer cans into the audience. We were booed, but we kicked ass.

"We're Comin' Out" has always been my fave of this disc.

"i Will Dare" (even if it is a complete ripoff to "I'm Only Sleeping")

I don't hear it.

they are sitting on the roof of stinsons' mom's house

Hey, the Beatles recorded their own Let It Be on the roof of Apple Records! (Parts of it, anyway.)

I don't like this album.

"Black Diamond"

xpost - "Meet me anyplace or anywhere or anytime, now I don't care" has a melody that's IDENTICAL to "Please don't wake me, no don't shake me, leave me where I am". It's just (I think) III-II-I-II-III etc., over and over.

"Answering Machine" for me, btw.

My friends just recorded an album in the same studio this was recorded, incidentally (y'know, kinda neat...I guess).

For me it's favorite thing, and also, all of it.

Gah! I hate choosing but picked Androgynous.

No votes for Tommy or Gary?

For a classic album, the filler on this one seems especially weak. Maybe that's a result of the rest of the album being so strong. I picked "Favorite Thing" but I could have gone with five or six other songs.

i don't think of any of the songs as filler, exactly. gary comes closest, but i'd miss it if it weren't there. the album's less than a half-hour long, they didn't need filler.

I like whatever the Nugent rip-off is

I voted for the cover.

Am I the only one who doesn't care for Answering Machine? This is one of those instances where I'm convinced I'm actually wrong, because I can't think of a single reason why it hits my off switch.

Because you can't dance to it, maybe?

I like plenty of things you can't dance to...

"Favorite Thing", just ahead of "Black Diamond".

response to tipsy mothra on "Black Diamond": c'mon, you don't think covering Kiss wasn't just a bit ironic? American indie acts frequently sorta-semi-ironically co-opt trad rock, like, we're punk and ha ha we're playing Kiss but actually, damn, this is a great song, and hell, even though our version isn't better than Kiss', it still rocks and it's fun to play and listen to...and after all that hedging your see that the initial irony was necessary to get you to reflect on the differences between American indie and trad rock, and this reflection is part of the aesthetic. Lots of later American indie bands got this: think of Weezer and their co-opting of the Van Halen and Aerosmith logos circa the Blue Album.

Answering Machine is lame

Killer

i will dare
favorite thing
we're coming out
tommy gets his tonsils out
gary's got a boner

Loved when I was 18-25, totally sick of them now
androgynous
unsatisfied

Filler
black diamond
seen your video
sixteen blue
answering machine

Answering Machine is lame

Y'know, that's probably it.

Loved when I was 18-25, totally sick of them now

The quintessential ILX meme.

people change

I voted for "Favorite Thing" just for the Bob solo.

I love 'em all though. I used "Seen Your Video" as bumper music behind my halftime basketball reports back when I was on the sports radio.

I still think that their recorded cover of "Temptation Eyes" would have been a better choice to end Side One than "Black Diamond".

"Unsatisfied" used to be a pretty personal song for me, but now that I am satisfied, I'm all like okay whatever.

"Answering Machine" is a great song even though it contains the worst effort at rhyming ever.

voted "Answering Machine"

Very very tough - 'Favorite Thing' wins it in the end - I feel like I'm falling down a cliff when listening to that song.

I voted for the cover.

if you mean the album cover as opposed to the kiss cover, i'm totally with you! i wish the album cover was an option.

the other thing i love most about this album is the seemingly haphazard but actually quite smart sequencing, the way "favorite thing" comes crashing out of "i will dare," or the way "tommy gets his tonsils out" hobbles into "androgynous," etc.

and, back to covers, i love the kiss cover too, and don't understand why that song has to be even a tiny bit ironic. ever heard the live album "the shit hits the fans"? that's the sound of a band with questionable chops playing classic rock songs that it genuinely loves, and throwing in a few originals borne from the same tradition. maybe some indie-rock fans back then found it ironic. maybe you find it ironic now. but that doesn't mean it IS ironic.

Glad to see all the love for Favorite Thing. That is one spiffy track.

Any song will do, but "Black Diamond" right now. I love how it seems to sputter and start every 40 seconds, like the band can barely concentrate on finishing the goddamn thing. Stinson sounds great.

xpost yeah maybe it's just that I hear those records as ironic but they really aren't at all; but I'm not convinced. I think irony comes in degrees and that when the Replacements cover Kiss, or for that matter Hank Williams, they know they don't have the chops, and so they play with juuuusttt a little bit of detachment from the song: and that's what I'm calling a little bit of irony.

Well I think they very much had the chops when they had it together. Maybe the detachment of which you speak is also known as alcohol? They were certainly capable of doing piss-takes on songs, but usually I thought they were just showing that they could play the classics that any other bar band could. At the time I didn't hear their sloppy loving covers as ironic, and I think the question only comes up because of a few generations of bands that are all irony all the time.

i think kiss's version of "black diamond" is more ironic than the replacements'. kiss plays it like rock stars, mats play it like rock fans.

Aren't they equally ironic, using your metric? KISS were certainly not rock stars when "Black Diamond" was originally released.

I'm honestly surprised by all the love for "Favorite Thing." I thought I was the only one.
And I just looked up the lyrics — Paul sings "Bar nothing" right before the guitar solo?
I always thought it was "But I'm nothing," a decidedly more Westerberg-like sentiment.

Didn't Paul Westerberg recently say that politics has no place in music?

total morons have been known to make great music

Paul sings "Bar nothing" right before the guitar solo?
I always thought it was "But I'm nothing," a decidedly more Westerberg-like sentiment.
Most misheard lyric after "Bacon and cigarettes a lousy dinner" on the first song.

KISS were certainly not rock stars when "Black Diamond" was originally released.

true enough.

(but they were when it was on alive! which is where i first heard it)

xpost yeah maybe it's just that I hear those records as ironic but they really aren't at all; but I'm not convinced. I think irony comes in degrees and that when the Replacements cover Kiss, or for that matter Hank Williams, they know they don't have the chops, and so they play with juuuusttt a little bit of detachment from the song: and that's what I'm calling a little bit of irony.

-- Euler, Thursday, January 10, 2008 7:22 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

i've read that Yes was very unironically one of bob stinson's favorite bands.

sometimes it seems like if a band sounds like they are having any degree of fun at all playing a cover, people accuse it of being "ironic"...

i've never heard black diamond as ironic, it seems really impassioned to me, like they heard this song and realized there was a way to do it that made it sound like it was one of their own songs.

i've def. had friends that aren't into hard rock or 70s stuff at all not even realize that it was a KISS cover at all.

I'm honestly surprised by all the love for "Favorite Thing." I thought I was the only one.

everything about it is great, the noisy opening, the escalating guitar lines, the mumbly lyrics, the %3@%^BU(&*(&!!! clamor before the chorus repeats, the "think big!" coda.

sometimes it seems like if a band sounds like they are having any degree of fun at all playing a cover, people accuse it of being "ironic"...

Yeah, but this is often what's going on with covers! Think of the Blues Brothers; sure, these guys love the songs, but they're comedians and so while they do their best to sing them, and are clearly having a blast, part of what the song's about is that it's a cover with vocals by two big-name comedians. If you don't hear that, you don't get the song (and like with the Mats lots of people don't realize that the Blues Brothers are doing covers!).

If the Mats had had a habit of including covers on their official releases I wouldn't think there was any irony here. And I'm not saying it's entirely ironic, but that there's some irony (especially in the lead guitar and harmonies, which don't sound like the Mats usually did on record).

the mats had a habit of playing boatloads of covers at their shows, often at the expense of their own songs. they also covered hank williams and t.rex on record around the same time (as b-sides). they actually liked this stuff! but, like most bands, they were more interested in pimping their own stuff on their records instead of someone else's stuff.

the blues brothers were two comedians who were completely serious about their music, no irony at all. unfortunately, they were terrible singers.

hip replacements, let it be

And I just looked up the lyrics — Paul sings "Bar nothing" right before the guitar solo?
I always thought it was "But I'm nothing," a decidedly more Westerberg-like sentiment.

And I thought it was "Bob...NOTHING!" Like he was giving Bob a shout-out just before his gtr solo. And adding the "nothing" just for emphasis or whatever.

this is like some kind of "ILM old dudes clubhouse" thread, isn't it?

(I voted "answering machine")

old dudes r people 2.

(does anyone under 30 know the replacements at all? i have no sense of that. or i guess what i mean is does anyone under 30 like the replacements? they don't have the cross-generational whatsit that sonic youth and the pixies seem to have.)

answering machine is my fave.

so hard to choose. i went for 'sixteen blue' though, because the lyrics slay me... they're just really odd and deft and beautifully sympathetic, totally capturing just how horrible it can be to be sixteen, and just hell of confused about pretty much everything, esp. sexuality.

and, again, Stinson's guitar nails that ambivalence; love that sustained howl at the end.

yeah, definitely.

god, though, i could just as easily have chosen 'androgynous' or 'i will dare' or 'answering machine'.

they don't have the cross-generational whatsit that sonic youth and the pixies seem to have

i.e. getting name-checked by Teh Cobainz

If only the Gin Blossoms had been bigger, the world would be a very different place...

this is like some kind of "ILM old dudes clubhouse" thread, isn't it?

wait, i thought all of ILM was an old dudes clubhouse. was i misinformed?

i am under 30. not by much, though. also a girl.

"Unsatisfied" but it could have been a half-dozen others. What a great album. (And of course Mpls rah rah etc.)

(does anyone under 30 know the replacements at all? i have no sense of that. or i guess what i mean is does anyone under 30 like the replacements? they don't have the cross-generational whatsit that sonic youth and the pixies seem to have.)

-- tipsy mothra, Thursday, January 10, 2008 11:14 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

(although I will admit that it is probably very different coming to the band after their whole narrative has already played out)

well that just warms my rapidly aging heart.

This poll is making me feel a lot about about the 'Mats after having read that book that 'Matos didn't like.

'androgynous'

Colin Meloy was enough to dissuade me from playing the damn thing for months.

There were only so many stories of Bob wee-wee-ing in Peter Buck's mayonnaise that I could take.

Paul Westerberg kept me from playing it for a decade.

paul westerberg keeps me from playing paul westerberg albums, not replacements albums.

There was a little bit of a bleed for me.

altho to be fair i saw the guy on tour about 10 years ago and at that point anyway he sounded great and played lots of mats stuff.

Very difficult. I voted "I Will Dare" because it means the rest of the album is coming after it.

-- Mark Rich@rdson, Wednesday, January 9, 2008 10:15 PM (Yesterday)

I'm fully with Mark on this. "I Will Dare" has that extra kick because it starts the whole ball rolling. Great album all the way through.

In the recent book, Peter Buck says he is always asked about that, more than anything else he ever did. Way more.

http://stephenconnolly.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/charlie-rose-lg1.jpg
Peter Buck, guitarist for R.E.M., and you played on "I Will Dare." What was that like?

I don't hear any filler on this. Every song belongs. It needs a few goofball throwaways. It's not Murmur.

Well said.

I voted for "Answering Machine."

I don't know...there is such a great depth of feeling in Westerberg's vocals. And an ass-kicking guitar sound as well.

It's sad to me that I find this song was the band's swan song...at least on record. I tried to listen to "Tim" a few days ago, after reading Walsh's book. I just can't get past the horrible production on that record. I have a feeling that there are some great songs hiding under all that sheen. Curse you Tommy Ramone.

Yeah, I wouldn't describe it as a sheen, but agreed that Tim sounds awful, tough the songs are good. You take the awful record cover and the awful sound and it's amazing how far the best songs get on their own.

Seems like Bob is already halfway out the door on Tim.

i like tim, but it was the first one i bought (followed by this a few weeks later). the production's annoying, but there are so many great songs on it that it doesn't really hinder my enthusiasm. "little mascara," "hold my life," "left of the dial," etc. and "here comes a regular" which i didn't totally understand until i spent some of my own bar-fly days.

The fact that Tim is lackluster isn't Bob's fault. I saw a few shows when they toured for that record. It's true that Bob seemed pretty much in the bag but his playing was spot on.

The last time I saw him on stage he was wearing a green glitter jump suit.

i like tim, but it was the first one i bought (followed by this a few weeks later). the production's annoying, but there are so many great songs on it that it doesn't really hinder my enthusiasm.

OTM. I didn't buy it until my junior year in college and was amazed by "Hold My Life," "Kiss Me On Bus," and "Here Comes a Regular." "Lay It Down Clown" augurs rote thrashers like "Red Red Wine" but for the most part this is the first and only time that they balanced a little more production dough with songs to match.

Maybe they mixed him out, the way Lou Reed mixed out that other Bob on some of his records?
(xpost)

"Kiss Me On The Bus," of course

xpost

xpost - "Meet me anyplace or anywhere or anytime, now I don't care" has a melody that's IDENTICAL to "Please don't wake me, no don't shake me, leave me where I am". It's just (I think) III-II-I-II-III etc., over and over.

Mmmmmmmmmaybe, but "I'm Only Sleeping" is a bit more rife with minor chords than "I Will Dare," giving the two songs entirely different feels (to these ears, anyway).

I voted for "Gary's Got A Boner" because I knew it wasn't going to get any love.

Tim was the last album I bought by the Replacements. I held off just because it almost has a dull Bad Company tone to it, thanks to the production and not the songwriting.

I listened to it again a few months ago, and the songs have really held up. It's like Westerberg was trying to get serious about writing songs, but wasn't trying to sell out like he was on the later records.

Thread leakage is now making me imagine this entire album being performed by William Shatner.

one more chance ... to get it all wrong

If you will ... dare
I will dare

This thread made me think how I've never even heard the last two Replacements records - the friend who got me into them oh so long ago was so hateful towards them that I never bothered to listen.

Is it worth it from some used bin somewhere? Or will it just make me mad?

Mmmmmmmmmaybe, but "I'm Only Sleeping" is a bit more rife with minor chords than "I Will Dare," giving the two songs entirely different feels (to these ears, anyway).

-- Alex in NYC,

Definitely. But you can hear the resemblance.

I don't know if the last two records will make you mad, but I'll stand up for Don't Tell A Soul until the end.

If I could alter my screenname like in the old days, I would change it to "Gauss" and rep for Pleased To Meet Me.

man I love that one too

instead of Gauss why not go for a true nutt like Galois? if only...

In due time Gary's Got A Boner will be used to sell Viagra to our generation.

Resemblance maybe, but I certainly wouldn't call it a "complete ripoff"

That'd be "Mister Whirley."

If Tommy had played the bass hook from "I'm Only Sleeping" THEN it would have been a ripoff.

Resemblance maybe, but I certainly wouldn't call it a "complete ripoff"

No, that's fine, "complete ripoff" wasn't MY terminology. I'm neutral about the whole thing, didn't even notice the resemblance until Snrub pointed it out.

I listened to the first four songs off this at the gym this week because of this thread, and let me tell you it made me run like hell on that treadmill! I can't figure out if I should choose "Answering Machine" for purely sentimental reasons or if I should try to be more objective. Thank goodness I've still got time before the poll ends.

Also another thing I'll always remember is the splotch of white paint that was on the sleeve of my vinyl copy somewhere around Tommy Stinson's legs in that photo. One of those charming imperfections of pressing you would never see now. (and no, no jokes about him cumming please) Anyone else have a botched pressing of the sleeve of this?

and "here comes a regular" which i didn't totally understand until i spent some of my own bar-fly days.

man i should just not write about the replacements. it makes me stupid.

anyway on the last two albums, it just depends on your level of enthusiasm. don't tell a soul has some great songs. all shook down has a nice vibe, some nice songs, but never really stuck with me. everybody sounds halfway out the door.

I confess I've not ever bothered to hear either of them, a fact I also admitted to my friend on the phone this evening.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

re: Don't Tell a Soul - its mostly crap but there are a couple of GREAT songs on it ("Ill Be You" in particular). "All Shook Down" has some decent stuff on it too but sounds way different (acoustic guitars abound) and is more like a Paul Westerberg solo record.

aw i'm glad everything got at least one vote.

re: Don't Tell a Soul - its mostly crap but there are a couple of GREAT songs on it ("Ill Be You" in particular).

they made the band play to a click-track on this, and it's painfully obvious. the music doesn't bob and weave like it used to.

all shook down was in fact supposed to be a westerberg solo album until the label demanded otherwise, in terms of billing. the only songs all four replacements play on are "attitude" and "when it began." the rest are paul with session people, with the occasional slim dunlap appearance.

Don't Tell a Soul is their most underrated album by far.

Three good songs does not an underrated album make.

same songs + different producers would = something close to pleased to meet me.

it's funny, the production on dtas didn't strike me as particularly bombastic in 1989, but now it sounds fucking ridiculously dated. more gated reverb on the snare! more, i say!

Which three?

"I'll Be You," "I Won't," and, um, "Anywhere's Better Than Here," maybe. God, so many moments of self-pity on this album.

"darling one" was a nice idea for a song, not quite realized though.

kinda interesting that five of the top six voters are mid-tempos or ballads, and the bottom five are all pretty much rock songs.

voters = vote getters

I'm delighted to see Answering Machine did as well as it did.

surprised, actually, that Black Diamond didn't place higher and I Will Dare didn't place lower.

but then again, i kinda like 'Tim' just slightly better, if only for "Bastards of Young"

"seen your video" was fucking robbed.

...hip replacement...

ROBBED i say!

I was only saying that in the thread title, I saw the words "hip replacement."

I just discovered this band a month or so ago! I enjoy this album.

Released on this date 30 years ago.

Not bad, only 12 months between this and Tim, then. Didnt realise it was that close...