The Battle of Minneapolis: Husker Du / The Replacements / Soul Asylum [OPO]

I am not voting until the system bumps it as I want to see what others say because I am torn between the Replacements and Husker Du and can be swayed either way.

I think Soul Asylum will get the short end here (I am not even considering them), but I think that has at least as much to do with how gracelessly the band fell as it does their relative merits when they were at a creative peak with the other bands, and I don't know if that's fair (but maybe it is).

I think Soul Asylum will get the short end here

understatement of the year

voting 'Mats but the unofficial rule of all ILM polls is that if Husker Du is an option Husker Du will win

I probably like the Replacements more now, but Husker Du on college radio in the mid-eighties inspired me & gave me energy whereas the 'Mats on college radio in the mid-eighties made me feel like "why are you people in such a hurry to get old"

The Replacements for me were like a first real girlfriend, one who would get drunk with you and give you sloppy kisses and awkward backseat fumbling and groping. Husker Du was like a talented kid in art class who seemed smarter than everyone else but still got detention a lot. Soul Asylum was like the stoners out behind the school, who would occasionally give you a toke of mediocre weed.

So, 'Mats.

The early Soul Asylum LP Made To Be Broken kicks ass. Husker will and should win this but SA did start out strong, at least.

pretty damn sure replacements will win this as they definitely get written about more here

I'm voting Mats, but I know to never underestimate the pedestal on which people around here place Husker Du.

This ones a piece of cake for me, because I only like one of these bands. Husker Du it is.

Prince

Overall: I'd go with Hüsker Dü.

Best Minneapolis Band: The Replacements.

I don't know if I can put in words why this is the case, but it just is.

(For starters, HD was from St. Paul, but I digress.)

Voting 'Mats, but my real answer is The Time.

Ha ha, was just thinking they were overlooked.

husker du are st. paul as a mother IMO, they feel like st. paul and the replacements feel like mpls.

my friend went to macalester college and there was a student lounge where ppl said bob mould tried to kill himself, but i think it was an urban legend.

voting Suicide Commandos

I have never liked Soul Asylum or The Replacements so this is a super easy poll for me.

I kind of never need to hear Husker Du ever again their stuff is recorded so harshly/shittily whereas I have more of a sentimental attachment to the 'Mats and their catalog is just funnier

My very first instinct is the 'Mats, just because I've been listening to them for SO long, whereas I came to HD really, really late. I briefly dated a girl in high school who tried to get me into them and it didn't really take at the time. (This would have been around 1986, so . . . yeah.) If I were judging them on what they spawned and what came after, no contest -- Husker Du in a walk. But as it is, it's really kinda hard to decide. I think I have to go with the band that first meant more to me and go with the 'Mats.

I have never liked Soul Asylum or The Replacements so this is a super easy poll for me.

― goth barbershop quartet (DJP), Tuesday, March 8, 2011 5:27 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^Another write-in for Curtiss A

Boiled In Lead / TVBC / Trip Shakespeare OPO

Husker Du, but I'd probably end up voting for the Replacements in 9 out of 10 polls. Just speaking personally here, but seeing Soul Asylum appended to those two is akin to a Beatles/Rolling Stones/Freddie & the Dreamers poll.

husker du are st. paul as a mother IMO, they feel like st. paul and the replacements feel like mpls.

seems weird tho since HD are the modernists and the replacements are the classicists?

or maybe it's seriousness vs sentimentality

Voting Husker, but my real vote is probably Walt Mink.

or maybe it's seriousness vs sentimentality

I'd chime in here but who the fuck knows anything about st paul

feel obligated to say "voting mats but my real allegiance is to balloon guy" or something

Voted suburbs

Also a+ on balloon guy

Husker Du = Spot
Replacements = no Spot

Replacements

Loud Fast Rules 4 eva, though. Who the fuck thought 'Soul Asylum' was a good idea?

husker du are st. paul as a mother IMO, they feel like st. paul and the replacements feel like mpls.

seems weird tho since HD are the modernists and the replacements are the classicists?

i think of st paul as cramped, industrial - more east coast than minneapolis.

I'm not the guy to do it, but I'm sure plenty here can defend pre-breakout Soul Asylum. My understanding was they were a heck of a band, back in the day.

Anyway: Husker Du for the catalog, 'Mats for the songs. Alternatively, Husker Du for energy, 'Mats for ... empathy? Actually, between the two of them, that's a pretty tough choice. Both mean a lot to me, but for totally different reasons. Hmmm ...

Jon Lewis otm about Made to Be Broken: from what I've heard, that album is sweet. Feel bad for Soul Asylum, almost as if they deserve their own poll, against the Goo Goo Dolls and the Christ Punchers or something...

St. Paul was great in The Family.

Feel bad for Soul Asylum, almost as if they deserve their own poll, against the Goo Goo Dolls and the Christ Punchers or something...

That's exactly right. It's not a knock to say that Made to Be Broken was a pretty good album. There were hundreds of pretty good Amerindie (or whatever you want to call it) albums in the mid-'80s. But Soul Asylum was qualitatively different than Husker Du or the Replacements.

My best memory of Soul Asylum is suppyly-teaching ("substitute-teaching" if you're American...an American friend once thought supply teaching meant you went in and looked after supplies) for a grade 5 or 6 class when "Runaway Train" was huge, and having most of the class quietly sing along as it played on the radio while they worked. For better or worse, I don't think you'd encounter the same thing today.

"supply"...

Cue aero coming in all like "I'd rather have monkeys hurl snappers & feces at my ears every day for the rest of my life than have to listen to one more second of Gravedancers' Union!" lol...

i saw soul asylum open for husker du circa flip your wig, they were definitely energetic but their music didn't seem anything special

Replacements were my first boyfriend, but I can barely listen to them now because it's a little too emotional. Somewhere in my piles of nostalgic junk I have a Poloroid of myself with Paul Westerberg and I cherished it so much I hid it. Now I can't find it.

Meanwhile, Husker Du has been with me through SO MANY LIFE EVENTS, and there's a HD song for every mood I have. Have made friends with Husker Du, grown up to Husker Du, and enjoy annual Husker Du binges.

I don't care about Soul Asylum at all, and avoiding bands with Soul _____ is always a good idea imo.

So...let's see. Huskers are probably better, and more multipurpose, but I will always be in love with the Replacements. Voted emotion. Don't care if it's wrong because it feels right. Both are bands that I can't imagine anyone taking lightly because I have loved them so much.

fwiw: HUSKER DU V. Replacements

wow somehow i managed to control myself and not carry on emotionally last time
and look what happened

Thanks for that link PP - I almost posted the EXACT SAME THING (nearly) as I did back in '07!

Anyway, I'm gonna change my mind and vote Replacements this time, just 'cause it's my right to do so. Plus they were funnier.

So...let's see. Huskers are probably better, and more multipurpose, but I will always be in love with the Replacements. Voted emotion. Don't care if it's wrong because it feels right. Both are bands that I can't imagine anyone taking lightly because I have loved them so much.

― Ralpharina (La Lechera), Tuesday, March 8, 2011 11:23 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

^^^ Voted Replacements but feel very similar to LL about both them and HD.

I will also say that I have big soft spot for early Soul Asylum but not enough to consider voting for them against these two.

actually I change my vote to Savage Aural Hotbed

I cherished it so much I hid it. Now I can't find it.

Ha.

but yeah, Soul Asylum is a strange addition to this poll.

Someone should print this thread out when the poll closes, mail it to Dave Pirner and be all like IN YOUR FACE.

HOW'S THAT FOR SOME "MISERY," DAVE????

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

Wound up voting for Husker Du.

― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Friday, March 18, 2011 5:23 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark

divide and conquer

woah!

hurrah

Copper Blue won out over Singles OST

it was almost Indecision Time

Picking up on one thread theme, hilarious to me that the pretty MOR Buffalo Tom were once ragged and noisy enough to be nicknamed Dinosaur Jr. and that the Goo Goo Dolls were once considered the upstate New York answer to the Minnesota sound. And lest one forget, Paul Westerberg wrote the GGD's semi-breakthrough hit "We Are the Normal." The Goo Goo Dolls put in enough years and miles humping it out that when they went huge, for all the wrong reasons, I more or less figured they deserved it.

I love polls where the results are predicted within the first couple of posts

the first couple goo goo dolls records on metal blade are pretty good and mat-sy

SA channeling the Mats here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx26NGh-7B0

Goo Goo Dolls channeling MN:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZKTXc0tk6E

the goo goo dolls adult contempo hits aren't exactly a world away from wussier later 'mats imo

"This one's for Paul:"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6nnJlOf7N8

the junk monkeys were even more mats

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XzwggcczZ0

Who voted Soul Asylum?

I like how Soul Asylum was the Ralph Nader in this vote. Kinda fitting...

recount!

It seems reasonably to me that the 3 Soul Asylum votes would have gone to the Replacements.

but they were known as husker du lite!

We should call this poll "Frustrated Incorporated"

side note:

it's really weird how big the gear daddies are in MN and how unknown they are outside of MN...

GGD opened for Mats on the final tour, no? At least they did in Cleveland.

this is a really nice soul asylum song - "P-9" about the hormel/p9 labor union strike of the mid 80s...like it even more in light of recent events in wisconsin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlDACRwRVz0

To be fair in a recount, I would switch my Replacements vote here for Hüsker Dü, even though I still feel the Mats are more MPLS.

runaway train is better than every husker du and replacements song combined

"runaway train" isn't even better than tom petty's "runaway trains"

i had a gf once who was like... she was a freakin runaway train man... i always get real sad and tragic feelin when i hear that song, because of her... good video too...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRtvqT_wMeY

so sad @ all those freakin kids

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJcoIEWB1C0

Wish I could find the version of the Runaway Train video where instead of kids, they show bicycles.

PP, let me know when you find a new optemetrist.

yikes, pardon the spelling. think i need to find a new one of my own.

hi dads

Ha, sorry Shasta. I didn't click Play.

Hard to believe now, I realize, but had this poll been conducted in, say, 1990, this would have been a three way tie.

I spent yesterday listening to Soul Asylum -- from Made to Be Broken through Let Your Dim Light Shine. Gawd, those early albums are incredible -- up to Hangtime and the Clam Dip EP. YouTube has a ton of evidence of how mind blowing they were live around that time. I feel fortunate to have seen them a couple times then.

It's sad to hear how neutered they became, but even then, the singles really suffer mainly due to overexposure. The rest of the those albums aren't particularly good and the lack of energy -- especially compared to just a few years earlier -- is such a shame.

No youtube video will ever convince anyone of anything, but, man they were good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaxE7IX1KaQ

Lots of Goo Goo Dolls comments upthread, too. I caught them on the Jed tour in 1989 and it was the same sort of thing -- impossible to beleive now, but they were great. Like 20 people in the audience who'd never heard them before, completely rocking out by the end. Couldn't believe how bland they became.

I spent yesterday listening to Soul Asylum -- from Made to Be Broken through Let Your Dim Light Shine. Gawd, those early albums are incredible -- up to Hangtime and the Clam Dip EP.

dunno about no goo goo dolls, but otm re: the early soul asylum. lost interest w hang time, but dug say what you will..., while you were out and especially made to be broken. damn good midwestern beer punk w/ a sadrock chaser. debt to husker du and the replacements was massive, but they had the songs to back it up.

runaway train is better than every husker du and replacements song combined

― ℳℴℯ　❤＼(◕‿◕✿ (Princess TamTam), Tuesday, March 22, 2011 1:10 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark

clicked on the thread to say exactly this

that song is a long drink of hot barf

lol

I spent yesterday listening to Soul Asylum -- from Made to Be Broken through Let Your Dim Light Shine. Gawd, those early albums are incredible -- up to Hangtime and the Clam Dip EP. YouTube has a ton of evidence of how mind blowing they were live around that time. I feel fortunate to have seen them a couple times then.

Totally otm. I mentioned my soft spot upthread but I may have understated it a bit. At one point SA were one of my top fave bands. As a young teenager I was, er, in their fan club and i distinctly remember taping the Christmas card they sent out inside my binder. I had such crush on Dan Murphy. I still love those early albums and even GDU a lot.

Runaway Train = if Jon Bon Jovi sang Unsatisfied

Though maybe that's a good thing

Whatever, SA and GGD, whatever their merits, allowed themselves to become bland anonymous guitar rock, free of annoying things like identity and character. So fuck em.

Even before Sandusky, I thought this dude looked like Joe Paterno.

http://i.imgur.com/FKZMh.png

ONE VOTE?!

fückin Hüskers....

Soul Asylum can't compete here, but this revive made me realize I once played "Cartoon" like seven times in a row while drunk. Fuckin great track.

Babes in Toyland

Bob Mould's new one, "Silver Age," is awesome. It's like a third Sugar album, and much better than the second.

wish i were more fond of babes in toyland overall. loved the "dusk cake boy" 45, but lost interest not long after.

xp just saw a recent photo of Bob and now I get where the album title came from