The Replacements - Rock and Roll's last good "Dose Of Thunder"

By the time I finally saw The Replacements live, they were the opening act for Elvis Costello around 1989. Original lead guitarist Bob Stinson was kicked out of the group three years earlier, and the band had all but run it’s course. They still put on what I felt at that time was one heck of a show, but 45 minutes from a band known for playing three hour long alcohol fueled marathons was just barely enough to whet my appetite.

The band was touring to support its last album, “All Shook Down”. Originally intended to be lead man Paul Westerberg’s first solo album, the record instead came out under “The Replacements” banner at the insistence of their record company, Warner Brothers. Although the band had essentially broken up by this point, they agreed to do the gigs.

Having missed seeing this band at the height of its powers is one of my top ten rock and roll regrets. Fortunately, there are plenty of live bootlegs proliferating the internet which allow me to at least partially rectify this. One of them, recorded February 4th, 1986 at Max’s in NY, is not only an incendiary moment in the band’s performance history, but also one of the last times Bob Stinson would appear with them.

The show mainly consists of material from their then most recent record “Tim”, and their 1984 Twin Tone release, “Let It Be”. Songs like “Hold My Life”, “I Will Dare” and “Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out” are aggressively delivered, with much more power and energy than the recorded versions. There’s no timing, no tuning, just raw instinct. There is no set list, perhaps a rough outline instead that ultimately gets cast aside as the show progresses. The band just wails.

From their very beginnings, their only intent was to have a good time, get loaded and play songs. Because of this, the live shows could sometimes deteriorate into an inebriated mess. The flip side of this coin though, is with just enough substance abuse, they could deliver a show that was beyond great. Like a tightrope wire act, it could go splat at any moment. This kind of tension only added to the excitement.

Added to this modus operandi is their collective attitudes which would ultimately ruffle the feathers of the people who’d hired them. Bob Stinson said it best when he exclaimed, “we’re not punks, we’re assholes”. One notable instance was during their SNL appearance in New York, when the band used foul language in a live televised setting, and then trashed the hotel room at the Omni Berkshire afterwards. This made the show’s producer Lorne Michaels so livid, that he vowed that if Warner Brothers did not foot the bill for the damages, no act of theirs would ever appear on his show again.

This reputation was just as important to the band’s legacy as their talent. Piece all these factors together , and you realize that The Replacements drew the dotted line from The Beatles to The Faces, and then even more importantly, onwards to the Sex Pistols and The Clash. They lived the life style, and they didn’t have to prove it (or anything else for that matter) to anybody. They didn’t dress the part, and they didn’t write songs that glamorized themselves. They simply got shit faced and played. If you didn’t like it , then they would be more than happy to spit right up the holes of your upturned nostrils.

No Replacement concert would ever be complete without their sometimes hilarious and often thrilling versions of other bands material. Cover versions of songs as diverse as Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” to Sonny And Cher’s “I Got You Babe” could turn up in these sets at any given moment. They might make it all the way through the song, or simply abandon it right in the middle, snarking and giggling as it all breaks down. When I saw them in Connecticut, they played an incredible version of The Dave Clark Five’s “Any Way You Want It”. On that February evening at Max’s it was a walloping triple punch of T -Rex’s “Baby Strange”, The Beatles’ “Nowhere Man” and one hit wonder Vanity Fare’s classic “Hitchin’ A Ride”. In every instance though , they are able to turn these songs into something very much their own while at the same time staying true to the original versions.

We may never see a band like this again. The Replacements were that all too rare combination of attitude , flippancy and spirit. Towards the end of their shelf life, it may have wavered. But at their peak, they were an unbeatable pop combo that produced some of the greatest records and live shows ever.

Fleet Foxes "Helplessness Blues" reviewed.

Any band that uses close harmony singing as part of their approach is going to invite comparisons to what preceded it. But if the songs are good , then that trumps everything else. In the case of Robin Pecknold and his band Fleet Foxes, these comparisons are more of a result of hard work and talent than they are an attempt to ape someone else’s style. Simply because the songs are good. Damn good. The melodic paths are taken so carefully that they often surprise, but nothing seems forced and I enjoy the underplaying that allows these grooves to just breathe.

The first two minutes of the first single and title track is so reminicent of The Everly Brothers in both spirit and execution it's uncanny. Also among the early favorites are "Sim Sala Bim" which I can only describe as Crosby Stills and Nash (or maybe even America) paired up with the bass and drum approach of XTC's "Mummer" LP. In fact, you could make that case for the whole enchilada (when you're not comparing it stylistically to SMiLE-era Beach Boys). "Grown Ocean" and "Battery Kinzie" are among the LP’s heavier moments and these collectively gallop out of the gate with the power and complexities of great early 1970’s progressive rock .

Having said this, to try and connect the music of Fleet Foxes with specific periods in the history of American pop is to ultimately miss the point. Because after you ’re done comparing it to its influences it still comes down to whether it‘s good or not. “Helplessness Blues” is good. Not because of what it sounds like, but because of how it plugs into an emotion. Of a time when people got together and sang songs because that was their only entertainment. From songs of oppression, to creaky front porches in the Appalachian Mountains to crowded holiday living rooms in the suburbs, it’s a feeling that exists in each and every one of us.

These songs reach out and ask you to hum along, or at least tap your toe. Grab a pot from under the sink and bang on it. That’s what exists at the core of this record, but it’s only the spring board. From there these humble folk songs are crafted into aerodynamic gliders of sound that are just as adventurous as they are accessible.