TS: Chris Mars -vs- Grant Hart

While appearing on Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones' Los Angeles radio show earlier this week, Westerberg revealed he recently recorded a song with Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson, which is expected to appear in Cameron Crowe's forthcoming film "Elizabethtown."

And while the likelihood of a Replacements reunion remains slim ("It can't be the Replacements without Chris [Mars] the drummer, and he's moved on into art and doesn't really want to come back," Westerberg told Jones), a host of reissues are in the works.

gee, having already reissued the entire twin/tone catalog (i.e. their entire good catalog) without a single damn bonus track in the lot, what more goodies can we look forward to now?

as to the original question, they were both perfect drummers for the particular bands they were in, but hard did indeed write (and sing) quite a few of the better husker songs ("the girl who lives on heaven hill" for crying out loud!!!) and his "2541" single tops mars' entire solo career, so...

hart.

and as long as i'm back here, can i just say the words "never talking to you again"? damn that dude had a way with a tune.

*except for maybe "World Class Fad"

both of their solo careers had some good tunes, but hart wins this by a wide margin. i think his husker du songs hold up a bit better than bob's.

i just got a copy of Ecce Homo by Hart...this euro acoustic set, good stuff

WTF at this question? GRANT HART.

Chris Mars' "Horseshoes & Handgrenades" is way better than it has any right to be. A real gem.

Hart's last album, Good News For Modern Man, is really great!

^^^^ This times 10,000.

I think Mars was more consistent solo but Hart's best stuff is amazing.

Re the relative merits of their pre- and post-solo careers: you got it exactly right (or, in ILXspeak, OTM).

-- MV, Friday, 25 February 2005 18:29 (3 years ago)

MV otm

grant's been working on a new album for a while i guess...he did some stuff with the godspeed you black emporer dudes or something in montreal, and he's been working at this studio in mpls where my band has been recording.

x-post

Except it should say "pre-solo and solo." MV, you suck.

grant's been working on a new album for a while i guess...he did some stuff with the godspeed you black emporer dudes or something in montreal, and he's been working at this studio in mpls where my band has been recording.

Please tell him to "get moving." This album was supposed to come out last year, if not earlier. His website's been the same for a year. I assumed the album had been shelved, frankly.

(j/k on the "Tell him!" part).

daniel or anyone else that emails me could potentially receive something very INTERESTING and NEW and potentially RARE.

also, a new song "School Buses Are For Children" is on his myspace

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=91592402

daniel...send me another email but include your email address, cuz ilx doesn't forward the replys back....

M@tt, check yr email.

done and done

Grant Hart wrote some of the best Husker Du songs and was a unique drummer. Chris Mars first album was surprisingly pretty good and The Replacements are cool, but it is no contest.

yeah, that's pretty much it

I [h{e}art] Good News For Modern Man - partic. what would have been Side 1. My ideal band would pretty much sound like "Nobody Rides For Free" in a neverending 24/7 loop. Plus "Centre Pompidou" is the best novelty song evah.

Oh, BTW, Hart over Mars in a Landslide.

show was great...every grant show sort of walks that tightrope with him and the crowd, when does sort of o_O stage banter start to go over to The Dark Side? but overall he seemed in good spirits. did some new songs that i thought were really uniformly amazing...also did "never talking to you", "girl who lives on heaven hill", "diane", "chastity prudence and whatever the fuck that warehouse song is called", played for a super long time...

was really happy he did "shoot your way to freedom" the first nova mob 45 and also a great version of '"2541"

M@att, did Hart mention a new disc? It's way overdue.

Word on the street is he's playing SXSW this year, so a new disc seems likely.

xpost Yeah on the stage banter thing. I saw him a few years ago and he did one of the funniest things I've ever seen. The club is totally empty, just a smattering of fans in this big place. Just as he's kicking into a ballad he stops and says, "Hey, if any of you have a cellphone that's turned on..." Everybody starts checking their pockets and getting ready to do the turning-off ritual. He continues, "Could you call a couple friends and tell them to get their asses down here?"

The club is totally empty, just a smattering of fans in this big place.

Hart deserves better than an empty club.

M@tt, how many people were at the Hart show you just attended?

(daniel, long time to reply but i would say about 70ish)

ANYWAY...the new album is done!

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/media/grant_hart.jpg

http://pitchfork.com/news/36392-new-release-grant-hart-ihot-waxi/

A friend of mine has a test pressing of the vinyl and says it sounds great some primo grant songwriting!

super exited...

new song "schoolbuses are for children" on his myspace

http://www.myspace.com/granthart2541

oops i already posted that song upthread

Never heard of the label, tho. Not gonna be on eMusic. I'll have to hunt down the physical disc or finally figure out how to download from Amazon.

But yeah, I'm excited about the disc.

going to Grant's record release party tonight! could literally be a once in a lifetime event!

quote from him on the new album is typically wacked grant:

“The song ‘Narcissus, Narcissus’ is my first attempt at combining ancient Greek mythology and American rockabilly. By merging those influences with an ice cream truck atmosphere I think I have found a style that defines this period of my career. ‘You’re the Reflection of the Moon on the Water’ is one of the most organic rock and roll songs that I have ever written. Its style owes a lot to my devotion for Patti Smith. It was inspired by a comment made by a monk during the selection process to find the next Panchen Lhama, who said of one candidate, ‘He is the reflection of the moon on the water but he is not the moon.’

Very jealous - give a report back - I've very anxious to hear the new record. Any time I've seen Grant live it has been positively transcendent...

in keeping with this thread's theme I give you Chris Mars - ultimate Twins fan:

http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/deadspin/2009/10/twinsfan.jpg

Grant Hart is one of my favorite songwriters of all time, but the new album is not that good, and certainly a far cry from "Good News for Modern Man." The new one's sadly rather slapdash.

hmmm..i've really liked the songs off this live, and i think by now i've heard most of them...

it was recorded over a ton of years at a ton of studios...

I haven't spent enough time with the new disc (I'll get it, tho), but Josh is 100% OTM about this -- Good News for Modern Man is a very, very good album, e.g., Run Run Run; You Don't Have to Tell Me Now; Little Nemo.

letter from anne marie is another jam off modern man.

such an overlooked record.

obv mould is a lot more "together" than grant but i think grant is a bit of a genius pop songwriter.

sometimes though i think i might like something a little more ramshackle than modern man, sometimes that record feels a little claustrophobic to me, so many overdubs...but it's great either way and i think i will love the new one based on the songs if nothing else.

Don't get me wrong, there are some good songs on the new disc. But it sounds terrible.

Grant's gonna be at a little DC club Monday night. May deal with the late start time and snow-packed DC streets and check him out