Westerberg

Very nice interview with Paul Westerberg up at Pitchfork. You can find it here. I'll be free in two weeks time, at long last. Interesting interview anyhow, mostly talking about the greatest band that never was. Enjoy.

The Replacements: All Over But The Shouting

If you're a Replacements enthusiast like myself, you may well be interested in this book, which came out in November. I did mean to write about it then, but I've been lazy and inactive.

In all honesty, I've been getting mixed reviews about this book, and I'm yet to get round to purchasing it, or even having the time on my hands to read it. The unread pile of books I currently have is getting a bit stupid.

As I would expect, the book contains quotes from Green Day's Billie Joe and REM's Peter Buck, I think it'll probably also feature quotes from Soul Asylum's Dave Pirner, the likes of Bob Mould, and maybe even a bit from top writer Gina Arnold.

It's getting a tad bit boring of me to keep on typing "favourite band" and crap like that practically every time I mention anyone, but The Replacements still remain one of the few bands who have genuinely "changed my life". Without sounding too twattish, they really hold a massive place in my heart.

So, Amazon.com readers gave it an average of 4/5, the UK version gave it 3/5, including one review of 1/5 which seemed to be from a fan who knew his onions to my eyes.

The book is by Jim Walsh, I suppose I should reserve my judgement until I get round to buying it and giving it a good once over. You can read a few reviews and soundbites here.

Meanwhile, if you're interested in reading a bit more about The Replacements and all associated with that era and their influence, you could do a lot worse than checking out the following:

Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 by Michael Azerrad

and

Route 666: On the Road to Nirvana by Gina Arnold.

Both books offer lots of information and look at "the scene" and the bands from different angles. Gina Arnold's book features one of my favourite quotes ever from Paul Westerberg:

"Ha is the first word in happiness, and the last word in lonesome is me"

To some that doesn't mean much, but it's genius to me.

I'll get round to reading this in the summer and do a proper review then.

Bone Idle

Paul Westerberg of The Replacements once wrote, "a person can work up a mean mean thirst after a hard day of nothing much at all". And that more or less sums up the past 4-5 months for me. I've basically done fuck all apart from yawn and drink.

However, things will hopefully now change. My days of sitting round the house in shorts, drinking Budweiser and getting all tearful as Dog The Bounty Hunter gives his speech to some Hawaiian crack head, are numbered. As of today, I'm back at the big school, which means that sooner or later I will need to get my finger out. Which also means that I should get a bit more stuff up on here, which is the most important thing after all.

Over the past few months, I've pretty much just wrote stuff for NARC. and neglected this place a bit. So within the next few weeks, I'll hopefully be totally recharged and I'll have kicked the drink a bit, and so I'll be able to post more shite on here that all four of you readers may be interested in.

Right now, I'm off to get pissed.

The Replacements - All Shook Down

For personal reasons, this is probably my favourite Replacements album. Most fans of The ‘Mats (Replacements – Place Mats, get it?) would shudder at the thought of this, but it was the first album I heard and the album that made me fall in love with them.

For month’s I’d read and watched interviews with American rock stars citing the Replacements as an influence. Whether they were doing it for credibility or because they were being honest, it didn’t make any difference, I knew I had to hunt them down and digest them.

It was at that time when I used to spend most of my days in the old Steel Wheels at "the Green" just off Monument. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t doing skateboard stunts or trying to cop a feel of some pale Goth’s tits, I was literally milling around the basement of Steel Wheels looking for hidden treasures and bargains, before fucking off for a half warm pastie from Greggs.

At the time I thought I was a punk. I had women’s purple Wella hair dye in my shitty haircut, tartan trousers, a chain hanging off my belt and a T-shirt saying “Fuck the Future”, I looked like a right bell-end.

Anyhow, I sought out the Replacements and grabbed a hold of “All Shook Down” for £6. I picked up Husker Du’s “New Day Rising” the same day for the same price.

I felt a way I’ve never felt for a long time when I first played the album. You know that feeling you have when you’re younger, where finding new music is so exciting and you have a huge hunger to fill yourself up with new ingredients? I wondered why I’d only just discovered this band and why I hadn’t been listening to them for ages.

Unfortunately for me, it was the last studio album recorded by the band. I use the term “the band” loosely. By the time it was recorded, the band had all but disintegrated. Most of the songs are just Westerberg and session players.

Most see the album as a pre-cursor to Paul Westerberg’s solo career, in fact it was originally intended to be his first solo album. To me, Westerberg hasn’t really come close enough to the songs on “All Shook Down” with his solo stuff. It’s easily the most commercial album that the band made. However, this is only because of its production, it definitely doesn’t have songs as strong and anthemic as the earlier stuff. Nothing on the album comes anywhere near “Achin’ To Be”, “Unsatisfied”, “I’ll Be You”, “Kiss Me On The Bus”, or “I Will Dare”.

It always makes me think how massive they would’ve been had those songs been on a later album with the glossy production that “All Shook Down” benefits from. But even then, just as they always did, they probably would’ve found some way of fucking things up when they were on the crest of greatness.

Westerberg is still on top form though. That's probably the thing everyone loves most about the band, Westerberg's talent with his lyrics.

Despite the songs themselves not being as strong as earlier songs, and half the band missing, I still love the way the album makes me feel every single time I listen to it and the little smile I get from some of Westerberg's one-liners.

Sometimes the tunes don’t have to be the best tunes ever, sometimes the melodies don’t have to infect your brain, and sometimes the musicianship doesn’t have to be cock on. Sometimes you can just hear something, fall in love with it and feel 16 all over again.

To finish off with, here's a fat, bald man covering the album's title track.........