______________________________________________________________________________ / // The\kyway \\ / skyway@novia.net Issue #37 May 7th, 1996 ______________________________________________________________________________ (c) 1996 Bastards of Young (BOY/BetaOmegaYamma) Productions list manager: Matthew Tomich (matt@novia.net) technical consultant and thanks to: Bob Fulkerson of Novia Networking ______________________________________________________________________________ SKYWAY SUBSCRIPTION/LISTSERVER INFORMATION Send all listserver commands in the body of a letter to "majordomo@novia.net" To subscribe to the //Skyway\\: subscribe skyway To unsubscribe from the //Skyway\\: unsubscribe skyway THE //SKYWAY\\ WEB PAGE Check here for back issues, lyrics, discography, and other files. http://www.novia.net/~matt/sky/skyway.html ______________________________________________________________________________ Send submissions to: skyway@novia.net ______________________________________________________________________________ 0. Man this thing is long! (Matt Tomich) I. New people A. Thomas B. Spehert C. Musuko Nagi D. Jason Randolph E. Dan Gulbrandson (part II) F. James Leftwich G. Ciaran Byrne H. Bryan Duncan I. Jeff Cuyubamba J. Feeney K. Patrick Dolan L. Debi Lucke M. Daniel Holland N. Erik Bergenholtz O. John M. P. John Richen II. "Eventually" A. The critics 1. Entertainment Weekly (Benjamin Lishka) 2. Toronto Star (Brad Casemore), 3. San Francisco Guardian (Richard Esquivil/Troy McClure) 4. Vanity Fair (Jane Farrell, et al.) 5. Mojo (Jane Farrell) 6. Newsweek (Amy Kennebec) 7. Pittsburgh Post Gazette (Dave) 8. Minneapolis Star Tribune (David Cote) 9. Hot Wired (Jennie Yabroff) 10. USA Today (W. Abelson) 11. Boston Phoenix (Eric Bouvier) 12. Vox: The NME Monthly (Robert Winder) 13. LA Times (Michael/Dennis Supanich) 14. Melody Maker (Robert Winder) 15. U. Magazine (Paul Greblo) 16. Toronto Sun (Brad Casemore) 17. Firefly (Chris Boyd) 18. Noise Addict 19. Twin Cities Reader (David Cote) 20. NY Daily News (Kevin) B. The //Skyway\\'s reactions to "Eventually" 1. Kevin 2. Scott Ludtke 3. Annette Fine 4. Timothy Nokken 5. Duncan Young 6. Brian Moore 7. Feeney 8. Bard Lowry 9. Matt Tomich C. And the story of that 'extra track'... (Ken Feinleib) D. A hilarious UK ad for "Eventually" (Patrik Dahlblom) III. Perfect A. Live review (Dan Shargel) B. Stinson interview from the Minneapolis Star Tribune (David Cote) IV. Slim Dunlap A. Another firey Slim story (Dan) B. Another slick Slim interview (Scott Hudson) V. Chris Mars A. An art opening and cartoon movie (Surfer Joe) B. His entry on the 'Mats in the new Rolling Stone book (Charles Ford) VI. Bootlegs, rarities, demos A. New 'Mats CD bootleg news (Dean Roe) B. New 'Mats demos up! (Mike Monello) C. An idea... (Ken Zipeto) D. Wanted 1. Shit Hits the Fans/Boink (Jon Becker) 2. '91 DC 'Mats show (Taejoo Jang Lee) 3. That infamous Village Voice article (Mike Turturro) 4. Inconcerated (Ryan Hayward) VII. Takin' charge! A. Radio request movement (Annette Fine) B. Letter to Sire (Joe) VIII. 'Mats on the tube: The Tonight Show (Mark Geisert) IX. Givin' the boys lip-service A. Buffalo Tom (Dave Armes) B. Guided by Voices (Tyler Anderson) C. Superchunk (Matt Tomich) X. Personals: TO RENEE (AClauderF) _____________________________________________________________________________ 0. "These are the days..." Okay, this is already the longest issue of the Skyway three times over, so I'll make this short. * Thanks to Elizabeth S. n' others, the lyrics for "Eventually" are up on the //Skyway\\ web page at http://www.novia.net/~matt/sky/skyway.html! * If you are a student and your account is going to be deactivated for the summer, you can unsubscribe by dropping a letter that says "unsubscribe skyway" in the body to "majordomo@novia.net". That's it! And when you get back in the fall, drop one that says "subscribe skyway" to the same address and you're back on! * Yes, I'm back in North Carolina! Sorry if I'm a bit behind on personal mail...I'm slowly catching up... * MUST SEE CONCERT: Too Much Joy or Guided by Voices. Don't miss 'em! Enjoy the issue! -- M@ ______________________________________________________________________________ I. NEW FACES (sic) Date: Fri, 03 May 1996 21:09:16 -0700 From: "Thomas J. Spehert" Subject: My story.. So you guys really want to hear how I go into the Replacements? (Just subscribed, and your intro letter said that this is customary, so here goes...) Well, first of all my name is Chris Spehert, and I was born, raised, and still live in Milwaukee, Wi. That's about six hours from Minneapolis. And having been to the Twin City's many many times, I have to say that Minneapolis/St. Paul and Milwaukee seem pretty much the same. So I have always taken a special interest in Minneapolis music. I was into Husker Du way before I really got into the Mats. I am also a big Smiths fan, which while kind of way different than the Replacements, actually led me to them. The Smiths had this b-side called "work is a four letter word" which was on this Sire sampler CD. I of course had to by it, and low and behold it also contained "can't hardly wait". Soon I was actually listening to that more than the Smiths. So right after that I went to a local record store and picked up "Pleased To Meet Me", and after listening to that and deciding it really kicked ass, I proceeded to go and and get their entire back catalog till then. And I am proud to say that I have been a devoted deciple since! Some of the other bands I like are Husker Du, Sugar, the Smiths, the Sex Pistols, the Ramones, Johnny Thunders & the Heartbreakers, the Kinks, and the Beach Boys. Well, that should be a good start, I hope! Thanks for the great site! Keep it up, chris Date: Wed, 24 Apr 1996 01:48:09 +0900 From: piyopiyo@ing.alacarte.co.jp (Mutsuko Nagai) Subject: pleased to meet you. Hello, how do you do? I'm MUTSUKO NAGAI, a Japanese woman. Now I'm writing this from Osaka, Japan. I got my personal computer recently. Then I found Kathy's Paul's page and your page. I'm so happy to found your page and group! I feel pleasure because such many people like MATS & PAUL! I'm big big fan of MATS & PAUL! I must be a NO. 1 fan in Japan. I've collected a lots of MATS & PAUL'S stuff; also bootlegs. But I've never seen their show. They didn't play in Japan and I didn't have enough money to see the show in abroad. But I decided I'm going to this Paul's solo tour in the U.S.A. I'm planning go to N.Y., Boston, and two or three more cities. There is no one to talk about MATS in my country. Mostly people doesn't know MATS. I'm a manager of small record shop. I do super recommend MATS & PAUL to my customer with playing the song "Customer"! Ha!Ha! Of course always playing MATS in my store. Other staff is sick and tired of it. I wrote some articles about MATS for Japanese indie magazine. And I have lots of Japanese MATS & PAUL's stuff. For example...CD's, interviews, articles. Sorry, I don't speak English very well. I can't understand what Paul sings perfectly. But Japanese version CDs have translated lyrics. I love his lyrics. I'm so sad I don't have much time to study English. My English is very bad and it takes lots of time to understand English. If I read a interview of PAUL in English, it takes two hours each page with dictionary. Musuko Nagai piyopiyo@ing.alacarte.co.jp Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 21:39:17 -0500 (CDT) From: Jason Randolph Hey Matt & fellow Mats fans: It is about time that I introduce myself to you all. But first, let me say that I appreciate the opportunity to share my passion for The Replacements with people like yourselves. I consider you all to be friends of mine. First the formalities: My name is Jason Randolph, I'm about to turn 23, I'm stationed in Fort Worth, TX (but by no means am I a cowboy!) with the Marines. Sound odd for me to be a Mats fan? Well, no one thought I would ever survive the Marines, because I am the opposite of what people think of when they hear the title "Marine." But maybe this explains it: I call Duluth, MN my home (yes, THAT Duluth, from "Treatment Bound"). I first heard the Mats around 1991, long after their demise. I had heard OF them before, but I was probably the only Minnesotan who had no idea who they were. I still remember looking in the bargain stack at Best Buy and seeing "All Shook Down" on cassette for $3.99. I was looking for something new to listen to and said to myself "I'll check them out." After all, the price was right. Little did I know that they would become my favorite!! It took a little while to grab me, but with about two close listens, I was hooked. Here was a band that was intelligent, and they had their own sound! This was long before I heard any other material by them, but the music flowed freely, and I could tell they weren't out to sell a million albums. I had known they were from Minneapolis, but that didn't play a part in my liking them. Paul spoke to me on a deeper level. He was expressing the same emotions I was feeling. I was really the only one among my friends who was really "into" them, but I didn't care. This was what I had always been looking for. Soon I was buying everything I could find by them. And not long after that, Paul did "Singles" and I loved it!! (Sorry, but I like his quirky pop as well as early Mats material). What I came to discover was that every album had its own unique sound. No two were the same, except for the outstanding songs. My love for the Mats continued to grow, despite them being ancient history by now. Then Paul released "14 Songs" and I went to boot camp soon after. I really realized how much the music meant to me when I found myself playing Mats songs in my head constantly, and even writing out song lyrics in my free time. I truly believe The Replacements inspired me to hang in there and finish! Once I returned to a somewhat normal existence again, I once again became transfixed by the Mats. There will never be anyone who even comes close to them. Now my goal is to start collecting Mats bootlegs and b-sides to complete my catalog. So if anyone is willing to help, please email me at randolph@startext.net. I am willing to help others, but all I have is the "World Class Fad" import with 3 live tracks, "Cruella de Ville," "Date to Church," and Paul's contributions to "Singles," "Friends," and "Melrose Place." By the way, all Mats albums have been my favorite at one time or another, depending on the mood I'm in at the time. My favorite song has to be "I Will Dare." No one will ever top it. Well, I've babbled for long enough. I look forward to reading everyone's contributions to future issues of The Skyway. Feel free to drop me a line any time! All Shook Down, Jason Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 01:53:27 -0500 (CDT) From: mdgulbra@gsbpop.uchicago.edu (Daniel J. Gulbrandson) If I may, I'd like to expand on what I told you earlier.. As I mentioned, my younger brother was the first person to really turn me on to the 'Mats -- but I was initially not impressed. I can still hear "Sorry Ma..." blaring from his room at 7:00 in the morning. I did like I Hate Music (it's got too many notes), Customer (what's on sale?), Otto, and Rattlesnake, but more because I thought they were funny than anything else (hey, this was about 1985 and I was only 16). He also had copies of Stink and Hootenany that I secretly listened to -- I couldn't let him know I liked one of "his" bands. He was way into Black Flag, Husker Du, and several other what I called "hard core" bands while I was listening to REM, Violent Femmes, Oingo Boingo, etc. It wasn't until 1987 that I gave up listening to just about all other bands. In the fall of that year I was dating a girl who told me she had tickets to go see the 'mats at the Orpheum (I think that's where it was -- help me out if I'm wrong). This was their PTMM tour. I owned a copy of Tim and was already touting it as my favorite album, but I was not yet referring to the 'mats as my fave band. Anyway, I went to this show and was totally blown away -- not because of their magnificent playing, however. (My memory is a little shaky on all the details, so if anyone in Skyway-land was there and can help me out, I'd appreciate any clarification. I would be willing to pay/trade nearly ANYTHING for a bootleg/video of this show. I think this show is somewhat famous among Mpls 'mats fans.) The Goo Goo Dolls opened the show, and I hated them (this I do remember -- my opinion has since changed). When they were done, I don't think there was a curtain or anything - the roadies just came out and started moving equipment around. From my vantage point (not the best seats, obviously) it looked like a keg was placed next to the drum kit, and four scraggly looking guys began wandering around the stage. After a brief pow-wow near the drums, the band began playing - or tried to. Paul did a header off the front of the stage trying to grab the mic and busted his guitar. After that the band was laughing so hard I don't think they completed a song the rest of the night. After several more meetings at the drums, numerous discussions about the set list, and a feeble attempt at an encore, Tommy finally came out and told everyone to "...go home and read a book -- we ain't coming back!" I was shocked. Several people began throwing cups and trash at the stage along with assorted verbal assaults. The (very drunk) guy in front of us stood up on his chair and shouted "Get back out here you drunk bastards", then fell backwards over his chair into ours. Then the house lights came on and that was it. While the girl I was with began apologizing for how terrible everything was, I stared at the stage thinking "Wow. Now that's rock and roll." It was the most "real" thing I have ever seen. I had probably seen only 10 shows or so before this, but they all were pretty much the same. The band came out, played the songs as they sounded on the tape, sometimes the musicians did solos (OK, I'll admit it-- my first concert was Billy Squier). This show was definitely different, regardless of how shitty the music was. Of course, 'mats fans from around the country were pretty familiar to this type of performance, but this was my first time seeing a "real" band play. From that moment on no other band has mattered to me (Buffalo Tom comes reasonably close -- these two bands make up maybe 3% of my CD collection but 90% of my listening pleasure). After that I saw the band every chance I could (and nearly lost my hearing on several occasions -- either from standing to close to the PAs or falling into a drunken slumber with the headphones on listening to their albums on volume level 10!!). I also caught Paul's tour for 14 Songs at First Ave (absolutely brilliant -- I don't care what you may have heard) and saw Tommy's band B&P about 4-5 times. My brush with fame came at the Cabooze when I got to help B&P set up. I also got the chance to talk to Tommy and his then wife/girlfriend. VERY nice, nervous, but nice guy. The only other stories I can tell are of Bob Stinson knocking me over on several occasions at First Ave and numerous unsuccessful attempts to meet Paul at the CC Club. The rest, as they say, is history (trite enough?). I have been bragging since then about how I am the worlds biggest 'mats fan only to be seriously humbled by you and the Skyway crowd. I can't imagine any other band -- especially a defunct band for the most part -- has a following such as this. I look forward to catching up on all the old issues as well as waiting for the new ones (I did get the latest one -- thanks!). One last thing -- How can I go about building my own audio/video collection? Do I just ask other Skyway members? This would be a dream come true for me. The only real "rarity" I have is a copy of the "Inconcerated" CD. I do not even own "Shit Hits the Fans" -- please help me! Once again, I think the work you do is fantastic. I hope you can keep it up! Sincerely, (One of) The Worlds' Biggest 'Mats Fans Dan Gulbrandson Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 12:54:06 -0400 (EDT) From: James Leftwich Subject: 'Mats fan introduction Hello all, I've been lurking in the shadows of the Skyway and thought it was about time I introduced myself. I'm 26 and live in a suburb of New York City. I grew up in the area. The Replacements were the first music I became passionate about. My introduction to the 'Mats came through the radio (WNYU 89.1 FM) where I heard _Gary's Got a Boner_. I was struck by the tounge-in-cheek lyrics and the way they rocked. Not much later I heard _Let it Be_ (WLIR 92.7 FM). A friend had the record and I taped it and listened to it constantly. I was about 13 or 14 at the time. I snapped up Tim the minute it hit the record store and was hooked. Every time the 'Mats came to town (usually playing at the now defunct Ritz Theatre on the Lower East Side) I went to the show and fought my way to the front. If anyone has bootlegs of any of these shows PLEASE e-mail me! For a 14/15 year old these were grand adventures...the best concerts I've ever been to. At the time, I was heavily into REM and the Smiths but neither could approach the wildness and excitement of those Replacements shows. So, I snapped up every record the 'Mats released. As much as I loved the early 'Mats, I still think their later stuff is quite good. I didn't care much for _All Shook Down_ though. A couple years ago I saw Paul play at Roseland in NYC and it was a lot of fun. The playing was much cleaner, but it still rocked. In 1987 when I was at school at the University of Virginia I heard a Muddy Waters record and got hooked on blues. My CD collection is now 95% blues. It's just recently, after discovering Skyway, that I've gotten back into the Mats. Can someone recommend bands with a style like that of the Replacements? Also, would someone be willing to trade blues for 'mats boots? That's my story. Thanks Skyway for my reintroduction to the Replacements! ============================================================================== Jim Leftwich Jim's Blues N' Brews leftwich@cloud9.net http://www.cloud9.net/~leftwich "I'm on cloud9!" :) New CD Giveaway: Jordan Patterson ============================================================================== From: Ciaran Byrne CA Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 18:13:19 +0100 (BST) Here's a little bit of PW trivia from me. He was playing a show with his band 3 years ago here in Dublin, when they finished the set, Paul said it was "too far to walk" to the dressing room so he and the band sat on the stage smoking and chatting about what songs to do as encores. What a card! I have a couple of Replacements points to put forward. * Is the Bastards Of Young video the coolest music video ever made? * Should Tommy Ramone be let into a studio again after the crap production job on Tim? Ciaran Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 18:55:49 -0700 From: byduncan@sirius.com (bryan Duncan) "It don't move at all like a subway." My name is Bryan and I'm currently living in San Francisco. I was introduced to the Replacements in 87'. I read an article about the band in Rolling Stone and bought "Pleased to Meet Me" a few days later. I can still remember hearing "Valentine" on my walkman as I walked home from school. The line "...if tonight belongs to you, tomorrow's mine," said everything I felt at that moment in my life. Funny thing is, the Replacements/Paul have always managed to do that. I bought all the Replacements previous albums and new ones as they were released. I was never disappointed. I was lucky enough to see the Replacements on both the "Don't Tell a Soul" and "All Shook Down" tours. Along the way I've converted many to the Mats, including my musically challenged father. I'm always bummed to find a Replacements disc in the used bin. What were they thinking? I enjoyed Paul's 14 songs, well maybe 6 or 7, anyway. I look forward to hearing "Eventually." I know a lot of people are down on his solo stuff but I figure it took the Mats a couple of albums to really gel so why not cut Paul some slack. A mediocre Westerberg tune is still better than most. I saw one of his solo shows and look forward to the new tour. (I've also enjoyed other 'Mats solo work...ie. Bask & Pop, Chris Mars, Slim Dunlap & Perfect). I'm a heavy Replacement/Westerberg collector. My prize possesions are "The Ledge" with four unreleased, "I'm in Trouble" single, "Bang Zoom Issue #3 (Poster & Tape)" which features "Looking for You," and a 14 Songs vinyl promo which is actually blank. I'm always looking for more Mats stuff so if you interested in a trade just let me know. Date: Sat, 20 Apr 1996 01:02:52 -0400 From: JCuyubamba@aol.com It's good to see there are other Mats fanatics out there. I don't know quite what it is but whenever I meet a Mats fan I can instantly feel as if I've met an old friend. But I guess you must feel the same or else you never would have started this group! The first Mats show I ever saw was at CBGB's around 1984. I remember going to see another band and being surprised that the Mats were playing a couple of nights. Being heavily into 60's garage at the time I was pretty ignorant of the rest of the underground scene. Natch, the club soon filled up and I was totally blown away by the guys. They played a lot of the Let It Be album but still had enough in em to faithfully do songs from "Sorry.." and "Hootenany". Camera in hand, I managed to squeeze off one shot before the crowd got too nutsy. This may sound wierd but I always considered myself lucky that I recorded part of my first Mats show on film. Interestingly enough, the following week The Village Voice reviewed the Let It Be album and printed a great photo from someone else who was there the same evening. Needless to say that began a facination that led me to every Manhattan and a few Hoboken shows. Soon even that wasn't enough, I began travelling to Allentown, PA, Asbury Park, NJ and of course Philly. Along the way I met several other fanatics but my favorite buddies were two girls who had followed the Mats down thru the south and into the westcoast! Janet and Lisa were hilarious and great fun to hang with and always had good stories. One time Lisa said a girl next to them at a show picked up a sheet metal screw and told Tommy "Hey, Tommy, wanna screw?" to which Tommy succinctly replied "No...I wanna bolt!!" The girls used to travel around in a beat up car they nicknamed "Pedro" and even convinced Paul to pose with it! But their strangest Mats shot was of a green tutu-ed Bob literally "hanging" out of his see-thru tights. Not a pretty sight! One time when Lisa and I when to Poughkeepsie, NY to see the Mats during the Pleased to Meet Me tour, we ran into Paul outside the theater he instantly recognized Lisa and was very happy to see her. He asked us if we had seats and of course by that time we did. I remember being pretty floored at how nice Paul but being too awed to say anything more than "Uh...have a nice show". To which Paul smiled and said thank you. I still keep in touch with Lisa every now and then. especially when Alex Chilton comes into town. As for Janet, just before the Mats breakup, she began concentrating more on her music carreer and is now happily working for a major label. Me, I'm pretty happy doing graphic design for a weekly Manhattan paper...catching the odd band every now and then but still never missing a Paul or Tommy show. Incidentally, after beginning to interview for a recent production position, we ran into an interviewee who had a school portfolio filled with fake Paul Westerberg magazine layouts! Upon being asked about it she told my assistant and I how much she loved the Mats. Guess who would've got the job? Unfortunately, by the time we contacted her she had accepted another offer. But not before calling and thanking me profusely for taking the time to see her. Gotta love those Mats fans! Thanks again for letting me rant. If you ever need any Mats shots for your page E-mail me I'd be happy to send you some in whatever format you wish. A downloadable photo gallery would be a nice addition to the page. Thanks Jeff Cuyubamba JCuyubamba@aol.com Date: Mon, 22 Apr 1996 09:34:52 -0400 From: "efeeney" Subject: Feeney's what they call me.... I can't believe I've got a place to finally tell my story and have people actually listen. All my friends have been understanding over the years, but now their tolerance is wearing thin. Though many of them have learned to love the Mats, I think my misty-eyed Mats monologues have begun to wear on them. It's always been fun spreading their wealth, but I really don't think my friends that have learned to love the Mats are really as touched by them as I am. That's okay, though. As long as they listen to the music and appreciate it, that's all that counts. I was a late-comer, but I was lucky it happened at all. Yes, it all began with "I'll Be You", and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Never been much good with machinery, and one night, after taping "The Young Ones", the tape just went on taping until "120 Minutes". And what was the beautiful sight I saw? You guessed it...."I'll Be You". It was like meeting some distant relation with the same deviant gene pool and saying to yourself, "My, God, this explains it all." I was never the same. The review for DTAS turned up a week later in Rolling Stone. I'd had absolutely no idea that DTAS wasn't the first. When I read there were more, I went out and bought the rest of the legit catalogue. I was in love, I was hooked, and I then began to realize, nobody really cared about these guys. Well, I decided I would and fiercely. I had no idea that the Mats had such a faithful following. I have never seen people be as devoted and thoughtful about a band before my friend Strachman turned me on to the Skyway. At first, I couldn't believe it. I thought it was a tiny bit ridiculous. But then I found myself just devouring every little thought and comment and question. And when I started talking back to the screen, I realized I needed to write in. The thing about the Mats that has always meant so much to me was what they inspired in me. I write and paint and do all sorts of artsy fartsy little things. Sometimes I can see one particular image that a song provokes so clearly that down it must go into stories and paintings. It's like having emotions I never thought I had, and sometimes the ones I forgot I had (which I think is even better). No one has ever inspired me like Paul Westerberg and the Replacements. But okay, my story....I'm a 22-year-old college drop out. The only thing I did that I was ever really proud of when I was at Simmons in Boston was a three minute silent film backed by "Little Mascara". Three minutes out of a year isn't a lot. So, I'm just a boring little administrative assistant that all the older gang thinks eccentric and cute because I'm so young. Comic book freak, bad movie buff, and I love my Mats and just about any music that speaks to me somehow and that I find pleasing. And I am so glad that you are all here. I've been starving for someone who felt about the Mats the way I did. Only saw the Mats live twice, and sometimes it breaks my heart thinking about all I missed. Actually, I don't even know if you'd call it twice. Maybe one and a half times. The last time they were on stage for all of twenty minutes when one by one they stormed off stage, leaving Paul standing there alone to finish the song, and then to walk off silently and slowly without anger . Just very dignified and maybe a little sad. I spent half the time screaming at some booing idiot, and after Tommy abandoned the stage, I spent the rest in stunned silence, crying like a big dummy. I knew it had been my last chance, and it had been ruined. I left immediately and went into the parking lot and laid down on the pavement, hoping someone would come put me out of my misery (it's just something wacky I do, my friends think it's cute). Luckily, they coaxed me up just before the Mats' bus came by. Too bad. I wouldn't have minded if it had been them that ran me over. Anyway, Erin is my name, but Feeney is what they call me. Thanks for watching. Date: Mon, 22 Apr 96 22:25:33 EDT From: patrick@psych.NYU.EDU (Patrick Dolan) Ok here goes- Patrick Dolan from Schenectady NY- nope, no reason you should have heard of it. First heard the Replacements my freshman year at Marist College, Fall of '89. My neighbor and soon best pal in school Anthony Frank insisted on blasting Let it Be all damn day (if it seems like I'm dropping names, I am- ya never know who is out there...). I had a hard time getting into the earlier sstuff at first (and it still isn't my favorite) but how could ya not love Tim or Let it Be or Pleased to Meet Me, etc.? All Shook Down came out (yeah I like it a lot, nope, don't like Don't Tell A Soul as much as the rest) and my admiration and disk collection escalated from there. Saw them in Albany circa Spring '90 at the Palace (hey, it was Anthony who was the only dancing during the first song and who Paul pointed out in the crowd, and got the rest of the bums on their feet, including me)- what an awesome show- they were sober as far as I can tell too. During the first band Tommy and Paul would come out smokin a cigarrette on the side of the place and let folks go up to them and the like. I thank John Heller who was my boss at my internship senior year who showed me it's cool to be a non-college student, working and love the Replacements. I saw Paul a couple of times in the Albany region since, and wait with apprehension for the new one; 14 Songs was really good, but not Let It Be either. I've spent the past 3 years living in NYC a poor graduate student checking out local bands and groovin to whatever pleases me that month. If anybody local, drop me a line- I always welcome folk to play some guitar with or see some music. adios Patrick Patrick@psych.NYU.edu Date: Mon, 22 Apr 1996 14:25:48 -0700 From: Debi Lucke I can give you a brief history of myself (not too exciting) and how I came to be a fan of the band. I am married and the proud mother of a 6 month old baby girl. I am from Minneapolis and live and work here. My husband is from Wisconsin. I graduated from high school in 1981 and made my way to the University of Minnesota. It was there that I had my first encounter with the Mats in one of their unbelieveable live shows in the basement of Coffman Union. I don't think I could ever put my finger on one song or experience which turned my musical eye to the band except that in 1985 it was the best sound around and it was right on campus. I love Chris Mars' solo effort but have been somewhat disappointed by Paul's attempts. Maybe the new offering will be the one I'm looking for. My CD collection is 97% alternative, and I enjoy the old Soul Asylum too. After all, I did go to elementary school with Dave Pirner so what do you expect? Thanks for your time and I'll be looking forward to the new newsletter. Let me know what's up sometime - dlucke@visi.com Date: Thu, 25 Apr 96 17:25 PDT From: doogie@hevanet.com (Daniel J. Holland) Well the intro letter to "Skyway" the publication suggested that I send in an interesting story about how I got into the 'Mats. Sorry, but this is all I've got. Around 1984, after a hard day of not learning much at the local Jr. college, I stopped at the local record hole. For the majority of my relatively adult life I've been hooked on reading, what one ex-girlfriend called, "Rock Rags". This one particular day this one particular rag briefly mentioned the record "Let It Be" by a band called The Replacements. I put the magazine down, waled over to the cassette rack and bought right then. I walked out to my mother's '76 Pontiac Ventura and I listened to that tape right there in the record store parking lot. Twice. I liken that experience to the first time I listened to the Ramones. Both bands made me reconsider what kind of impact rock and roll could make on an individual. The middle four Mats records are like remarkable. The material on the those records and the way they were recorded let the band (not just Westerberg) speak directly to you in a voice that is much like that of anyone you'd care to call "friend". Well that's my vastly uninteresting story. May each and every one of you have a nice squeeky clean colon !! DJH Date: Wed, 1 May 1996 12:28:04 -0400 From: ebergenh@pts.mot.com (Erik Bergenholtz) Hello, I guess I should have introduced myself when I joined a few months back. I ama 27 year old Software Engineer living in sunny Boca Raton, Florida. I was first introduced to the place-mats in 85ish when Tim came out. Since, then I have listened to them religiously. I have too many Replacements stories to tell, maybe later. Here's what happened to me yesterday: Yesterday after work I rushed over to the record store (in my very new Acura) to pick up the latest Westerbergian melodies. As I am driving down the road I decide to open and play the almost-impossible-to-open-engineer- child-proof-plastic-wrapped CD. Using my teeth and house key I was finally able to get the CD open. I was stoked (but not for long)! Apparently, during all the excitement of opening/getting my new CD open... the car in front of me decided to stop (at a red light). Of course I didn't realize this until I felt my bumper make contact with his bumper. Smash! - well that's what he told the police. I think that's a harsh word and told the officer it was more of a friendly nudge. I didn't bother explaining about the plastic wrap (although I am thinking a frivolous law suit may be in order). Anyhow, while I was waiting for the law I had a good chance to listen to the new Paul tunes. I like it! Yeah, it is a bummer about my car, but all in all it was a good day. I hope you like it too! I wonder if Paul will help pay for the repairs? // Erik Bergenholtz From: jm@student.vill.edu Date: Wed, 08 May 1996 01:23:40 +0000 Subject: Send it now clown ...allow me to allaborate. I am a senior at Villanova University graduating May 19. I am from Newburgh, NY. I started listening to the 'Mats in 9th grade (1989) at the urging of my first girlfriends's older brother who was a senior in high school. He was a huge fan and it was not long before I was hooked as well. I remember he had this killer poster of the cover of the Pleased to Meet Me album. Since then I have baught almost all th albums (I never have money when I find Stink or Sorry Ma). In any event I saw the Replacements at Madison Square Garden with Elvis [Costello] a few weeks before they quit (what a sad sad day it was) I then saw Paul at the Troccadero in Philadelphia in 1993. I almost cried it was so incredible. Front row, there was my idol, the guy that seemed to craft his lyrics around my life, right in front of me. He seemed like the coolest guy too. So now I keep an ear on the radio desperatley waiting for one of his songs to come on (there is nothing like hearing a Mats/Paul song on the radio). I bought Eventually at 12:00am the other day and have listened to it 100 times already. Alright, enough blabbering...send me the newsletter. Thanks Matt. -JM Name: John Richen Date: Sunday - 21/Apr/96 - 16:30:05 The first time I heard "Unsatisfied," I knew they were something special. The first time I saw them thrashin' in their underpants, I knew they had heart. The last time I saw them, I knew that it was over, the end of a wild-eyed, laughter-filled jaunt through adolescent angst. I wasn't ready for it to end then, nor to this day. Rock and roll is about heart and attitude, and no band exemplified that spirit better than the Replacements. The Skyway brings back memories and emotions I thought had left me long ago. Thanx for keeping the spirit of the 'Mats alive. ______________________________________________________________________________ II. "EVENTUALLY" A. The 'critics' From: lishka@photon.cae.wisc.edu (Benjamin F Lishka) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Subject: EVENTUALLY review in Entertainment Weekly Date: 27 Apr 1996 18:14:56 GMT This just came in the mail, the latest edition of Entertainment Weekly (cover story about Hootie and the Blowfish and the 25 top selling albums of all time). Here is the review of Paul Westerberg's new album: (reprinted without permission) Grungy Old Men Now that indie rock is as mainstream as Velveeta, can three founding fathers - Bob Mould, Paul Westerberg, and J Mascis - find light at the end of the flannel? Life can be cruel and unfair in any number of ways, but forming a college-radio band before the alternative-rock windfall kicked in must be in God's top 10. A decade ago the Replacements, Husker Du, and (more recently) Dinosaur Jr recorder melodic, post-punk blare for small, independent labels, laying the groundwork for everyone from Nirvana to Stone Temple Pilots in the process. But in the pre-Nevermind era, not as many people were listening. Now, years after Husker Du and the Replacements disbanded (Dinosaur Jr plow on), the music they had pioneered is a staple of MTV and soda commercials. And on new solo albums, the thirtysomething leaders ot those bands - Bob Mould, Paul Westerberg, and J Mascis - find themselves competing against younger, more photogenic musicians who learned a thing or three from these old relics. Despite his public pronouncements on the matter, it must have been a little bit painful for Paul Westerberg to flip on the radio and hear a Replacements copycat song like the Goo Goo Dolls' recent hit "Name." With the 'Mats, Westerberg merged beautiful-loser introspection with songs that made you laugh or sob; he may have been the human songwriter of his generation. EVENTUALLY (Reprise) will make you want to cry too, but for altogether different reasons. A few songs. like "These Are the Days," have the chimy wistfulness of old times, but Eventually is a depressing echo of the past. Nearly every song, whether a lounge piano balld like "Hid N Seekin" of a fast-and-loud raver like "You've Had It With You," sounds like a rehash of a Replacements oldie. It's possible to recycle one's own licks with energy and flair -- just ask Chuck Berry or AC/DC. Yet Westerberg's new batch of songs doesn't feel merely secondhand, but dispirited, and the humor in lines like "I'm fadin' faster than a UK pop star" is undercut with an uncomfortable bitterness. Westerberg is still capable of touching insight. On the album's most poignant song, "MamaDaddyDid," he plaintively sings of his lack of interest in raising a family. The song is tinged with melancholy and regret but retains its feistiness. It's unfortunate that the rest of EVENTUALLY didn't take the same route. [The article goes on to give J Macis album about the same review, in the body of criticism for J Mascis' album, David Browne writes:] Despite that sort of occasional surprise, Masics' and Weterberg's recent works have one unfortunate aspect in common: Each shows how inherently consevative these men have become. At one time, theu seemed like the forebears of a new style of rock, but they now seem either terrified of or simply uninterested in experimenting with so much as a different beat or song structure, or anything beyond the time-honored guitar-base-drums format. [The article then goes on to give Bob Mould's a more favorable review saying:] Like Westerberg, Mould is often given to feelings of defeatism, anger, and self-pity. But what distinguishes BOB MOULD, his strongest album in years (with or without a band), is that the music constantly wards off those self destructive feelings. [The reviewer gives the following ratings for the albums:] EVENTUALLY: C+ MARTIN and ME: B (J Mascis' new album) BOB MOULD: A- -------------------------------------------------------------- lishka@cae.wisc.edu Benjamin Lishka Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison Animator - Visuality LLC From: bkc@inforamp.net (Brad Casemore) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements, alt.music.paul-westerberg Date: Sat, 27 Apr 1996 14:11:09 GMT In a relatively lengthy review of 'Eventually" published in today's edition of The Toronto Star, music critic Peter Howell compares Paul Westerberg to the fictional Mary Richards, late of the TV sitcom Mary Tyler Moore Show. As Howell says at the beginning of the review, the only thing Westerberg and Mary Richards used to have in common was the city of Minneapolis. Until now, he writes, the two personalties couldn't be farther apart. Howell writes: "With the release of 'Eventually,' Westerberg's second solo album since the Replacements' demise in 1991, we can see that beneath the rumpled suit, uncombed hair and perpetual sneer, there beats the heart of a man who longs to toss his hat up in the air and really feel life." "With the exception of a couple of songs shot straight from his old band's pistol, especially the rocking "Ain't Got Me," Westerberg is trying on the notion that maybe, at the age of 36, it's time to take a more mature look at life." Later, the critic opines: "Similarly, opening track "These Are The Days," and closing track "Time Flies Tomorrow" are the works of a man who now looks at a clock to check for more than closing time." Later again, he writes: "He presents these new ideas in pop arrangements that are a bit unsettling at first: lots of jangly acoustic guitar, punchy horns, bomp-bomp-bomp-ba-da-da TV sitcom harmonies and singing so clear that Replacements fans might wish he'd taken up smoking again." "One song, "Century," sounds like he's trying to rework an old Monkees song, for crying out loud." Howell describes the songs as the most "radio-ready" of Westerberg's career, and he concludes with the following paragraph: "Eventually takes some getting used to and older fans might resent the change. But Westerberg remains a brilliant songwriter and the pop base of the songs helps balance the heavy subject matter. In fact, it sounds like he's gonna make it, after all." Date: 14 Apr 96 15:45:54 EDT From: richard esquivil <76053.3123@CompuServe.COM> Subject: good review of Eventually Yesterday was a great day: I went to the Castro Valley library and found that the library had just received a few dozen new CDs, including Let It Be. (But how a Replacements album got there, I don't know.) Then I saw a review of Eventually in the San Francisco Guardian. The writer, Neva Chonin, gave the album three and a half stars. Renee Here's the review: "It's impossible to listen to Paul Westerberg's solo efforts without--consciously or otherwise--hoping to hear some sign of the Replacements, particularly since the much-mourned band' front man did little to distinguish himself on his first solo album, 14 Songs, a disc both sonically flat and egotistically inflated. But then, living up to one's own stellar legacy ain't no piece of cake. The 'Mats were more than just a great indie band before the word indie entered the lexicon of marketability; they were, for many, a cathartic life preserver during one of the most lamentabley lame periods in rock history. "Eventually ditches 14 Songs' balladeer pretensions and mid-tempo torpor and manages to whip up a vigor that approaches--I have to say it--vintage Replacements. "These Are the Days" and "MamaDaddyDid" (with a hook that sounds like a reprise of Tim's "Little Mascara") are bittersweet harmonizers with ragged edges and anthemic choruses; "Century" and "You've Had It With You" are fine showcases for Westerberg's wonderfully tinnny guitar style. "Trumpet Clip" (trombone courtesy of Tommy Stinson, bless his heart) is a full-scale hootenanny of horns and percussion; the ambient "Good Day" and "Love Untold" soar with besotted tenderness and flagrant sentimentality. ( And why not? Coming from a man whose boozy excesses are legend, the chorus, "A good day is any day that you're alvie," carries more than a hint of authenticity.) "As Westerberg notes at the close of the album, "Time flies tomorrow/But it ain't made a move yet." Shaking loose a hallowed shadow can be a long and arduous process, but Eventually constitutes a fine sophomore step." Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 11:59:55 +0000 (GMT) From: PEACHES|COME|FROM|A|CAN*THEY|WERE|PUT|THERE|BY|A|MAN Subject: PAUL IN SUIT, IN `VANITY FAIR' (?!) Hi Matt, I'm sure you'll get other submissions regarding this, but I'll tell you anyway: there's a half-page article on Paul on page 72 of the May issue of `Vanity Fair'. It's headlined `Saint Paul' and the text is as follows: `So far this decade Paul Westerberg has broken up his band, ended his marriage, quit drinking, left his manager, and attempted to get out of his recording deal. "I didn't have a master plan", the 36-year- old singer declares. "Each one was a matter of survival". In his 10 years leading the much-loved Replacements, Westerberg stacked up the sorts of accolades associated with the lives of the saints - and the record sales to go with them. But despite ecstatic reviews, his first solo album, 1993's `14 Songs', got lost amid Warner Music's corporate civil war. Westerberg's poetic soul did not crowd out a punk's willingness to pick a fight with the big boys, but the label refused to let him go and promised to make it up to him next time. Well, next time is here. Westerberg has recorded a collection of thoughtful songs called `Eventually', to be released this month. "I've made a folk-pop record. I'm very comfortable with that", he says. "I'm totally aware that people are going to say it isn't as raw as it used to be. Well, I'm not SUPPOSED to be. I would be embarrassed". The length of the stretch limo Warner has provided to ferry the Minneapolis native around New York suggests that this CD must have the sort of promotion budget not seen since Caesar attempted to exercise his option on Cleopatra. "Now that I'm settled down they give me the big car", Westerberg says. "Where was it when I was young and wild and could have filled it with floozies?". - Bill Flanagan There's a picture of the man himself looking very pissed off in elegant suit (clothes/styling credits at the back of the magazine!) and glasses. I hasten to add that I only bought it because of Paul's presence! I'll send the second article, from the British magazine `Mojo' ASAP - apologies for the above not being paragraphed, but my boss is breathing down my neck, and I had to do it FAST! - Jane Farrell Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 13:49:55 +0000 (GMT) From: PEACHES|COME|FROM|A|CAN*THEY|WERE|PUT|THERE|BY|A|MAN Subject: PAUL REVIEW FROM `MOJO' ISSUE #MAY 1996 Matt, as promised: THE GROWN-UP OF GRUNGE (yuk!) A story did the rounds late last year which claimed that Paul Westerberg had dismissed Brendan O'Brien as product of his second solo album by telling the Pearl Jam/Stone Temple Pilots knobsman: "If I wanted to sound like The Replacements I'd hire the fucking Replacements!". O'Brien is named a co- product (with Westerberg) on only three of the 12 tracks heere, so Westerberg's statement might serve as a litmus test as to how you'll receive `Eventually'. Westerberg COULD capitalise on The Replacements sound, if he wanted. After all the Goo Goo Dolls took a lame carbon copy of it to the top of the American charts, and if Westerberg had a dollar for every time his ex-band's name was muttered - both on panels and in the `alternative' clubs - during Austin, Texas' recent South By South-west Music Conference, he'd feel like a lot more than the hundred bucks he sang of in Alex Chilton. But those expecting songs like Alex Chilton or Left Of The Dial from the 1996 solo Paul may be disappointed... Which could account for the advance word on `Eventually' from pundits, aficionados, and even a few close to the legendary band who've called it "terrible" and "banal". One person even said he wished the now longtime clean `n' sober songwriter would start drinking again. In 1996, Westerberg is producing `grown-up' rock (for lack of a better term). Sure, the guy who wrote Bastards Of Young a decade ago was bound to end up somewhat cynical and even bitter, which accounts for the heavy-duty lyrics on Century, a song that merges Subterranean Homesick Blues with the imagery of Sweet Jane, and Trumpet Clip. But there's still traces of romance (Love Untold), plenty of pure pop (Ain't Got Me), and enough of that RAUNCHY, Stones-like rhythm guitar to make any `grown-up' rocker smile with glee. Anyone who can listen to the beautiful Good Day ("is any day that you're alive"), obviously written with recently- deceased 'Mats guitarist Bob Stinson in mind, and suggest that the lyrics are "banal"...well, I don't want to suggest that you can't be moved. But you probably can't. (interview): Is the ghost of The Replacements as much a curse as a blessing? "It's not a curse anymore. I think people who still yearn for the band yearn for something lost in themselves. Maybe they're yearning for a time when they were 15 years younger - and I can't supply that for them. If you want a soundtrack to your life for now, I can maybe fit the bill there. But I can't take you back. But I'm proud of it. I came from a great band". As you get older are you trying to absorb other forms as music? "I don't know that I'm absorbing it. I listen to other kinds and I always have. Generally, I listen to more old-timer song stuff these days. You know? The old fart radio station. Sinatra, Doris Day and shit. And I do like jazz. But I don't think it comes out in my music. I can be listening to Miles Davis, but what comes out still sounds pretty much like T.Rex with a dash of John Fogerty". Any possibility of the remaining 'Mats reuniting? "Tommy and I might get together again someday. When everyone in the world has forgotten us and no-one cares. Then it could be like us starting over, us against the world, and everybody would hate us. And we would thrive on that. It was too easy at the end when people loved us because that's not what we were about. We didn't know how to handle being loved". - Bill Holdship (re-produced totally without permission from `Mojo', May 1996.) I'll keep you posted on British reviews/interviews... - Jane From: c603122@showme.missouri.edu (Kennebec) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Subject: Re: paul in newsweek! Date: 1 May 1996 03:15:25 GMT [Regarding the article on Paul in Newsweek...] > Absolutely wasted opportunity. Of all the songs the scions of journalism at > Newsweek could've mentioned as being representative of the 'Mats canon, > they chose "Take Me To The Hospital" and "Gary's Got A Boner".... > > James Kaihatu > Naval Research Lab > Stennis Space Center, MS They said the new album was an example of the new "wimpiness." They meant this in a postive way tho. In pieces: It's a sign of some kind when the loudest-mouthed, snidest, most aggravating people on MTV are women. ...(yadda yadda yadda)... Luckily, for every movement there's a counter movement, and an antidote to gnarly babes is here: wimpy boys. Bubbling under the surface of alternative rock is a quiet alliance of guys who just want to write gorgeous, old-fashioned, grandly unthreatening pop songs. They don't want you to hate them. Their gentle accoustic guitars promise not to buzz or grate. They wear their unhipness on their sleeves. They're the James Taylors, Neil Diamonds and Jackson Brownes of today. Ten years ago, Paul Westerberg was one of the angriest brats in rock. His former band, the Replacements, played walloping three-chord punk songs like "Take Me Down to the Hospital" and "Gary's Got a Boner" and regularly went on stage too drunk to perform. As Westerberg grew older and more sober, his songwriting grew more tentative; too often he sounded like a watered-down version of his brash young self. But with his new solo album "Eventually," he's finally come to terms with the wimpiness within. Every song is a pretty pop gem, unapologetically bright and sweet, decorated in ooo-oos and whoa-ohs that would sound corny if they didn't come from such a rough, craggy voice. "MamaDaddyDid" puts a bouncy guitar melody against some hard-won sentiments: "Decided not to raise some god-damn kid/Just like my mom and daddy did." "I'm mightily tired of loud guitars posing as rock and roll," Westerberg says. "A loud guitar does not signify rebellion to me at all. The most rebellious thing I can do is turn the guitar down. You can't hide when it's stripped down, and I'm proud of that." yadda yadda yadda Westerberg, Eitzel and Sud Mountain Boys wisely know that shouting isn't always the best way to be heard. "When everyone is doing it," says Westerberg, "no one is listening." At times like that, wimpiness isn't so wimpy after all. (And as far as the song selection not representing the canon of 'Mats stuff, well, it does represent them at their loudest, harshest, and unwimpiest.) AMY From: daved52857@aol.com (DaveD52857) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Date: 3 May 1996 17:03:58 -0400 The following review appears in today's Pittsburgh Post Gazette (5/3/96): Note/Cheap Shot: Not only is there a nice sized article but a cool picture of PW. Next to the PW review there is also a small mention of Hootie and the Blowfish's new album, which is dwarfed by the PW article. This shows there's some justice in the world. Too bad "Eventually", (*** out of 4) Paul Westerberg's second post-Replacements solo release is getting buried under mounds of irrelevant criticism and faint praise. Why anyone would damn a record as well crafted and versatile as this because it doesn't boil over with the same raucous energy displayed more than a decade ago on "Let It Be" and "Sorry, Ma Forgot to Take Out the Trash" is beyond me. At 36, Westerberg is at the peak of his powers as a songwriter, which isn't to say he hasn't rocked harder in his life. After spending much of the Replacements' early years in an alcoholic fog, it's got to be a drag for someone of Westerberg's caliber to finally sober up and record the best music of his career only to have faddish, aging rock critics dis him for having the sense to age gracefully. Fortunately for us, Westerberg will never resort to popping metaphorical zits or dropping his pants for the sake of rock'n'roll's fickle cognoscenti. In an era when cool is narrowly defined by lo-fi bands so unconcerned with communicating beyond the pages of fanzines to bother coming up with names that exceed a single syllable, it's nice to know somebody's dealing with emotional inconviences somewhere. As even a casual perusal of "MamaDaddyDid" and "You've Had It With You" will reveal, Westerberg hasn't backed away from chronicling his bilious sentiments, even when they put him at odds witht he sentimentality of middle-class mall browsers he's accused of pandering to. Though the animus that fueled classic punk AOR like "Gimme Noise" and "Bastards of Young" is missing from the songs on "Eventually", middle age has only refined his biting lyricism, not removed it. But context is everything with some people, so there seems to be little patience for Westerberg now that he's turned down the volume and turned up the emotional content of this music along with the melody. You know we're living in the last days when one of the worst things you can say to an artist is "you're too accessable". Granted, there are folks who hjust can't deal with Westerberg's music because of the limitations of his mid-tempo musical palette and the self-pitying nature of his observations. The fact that he's gone pop isn't of interest to most listeners who are more concerned with whether his grooves are deep enough to hook their ears. The fact that an act like the Goo Goo Dolls, which owes it's very sound to the Replacements, is doing so well ripping off his style, indicates, I think, an appetite for his sound, if not necessarily Westerberg himself. But Westerberg isn't the only former punk from the 80's attempting to redefine himself for a pop scene where categories like "indie" and "mainstream" are nothing more than interchangable niceties in the 90's. (then a review of J Mascis' new record with a referral to PW) ... But unlike Westerberg who merely refined and retooled his vision for a new audience, Mascis stripped his signature songs to the core, leaving them naked and devoid of energy, while exposing his insubstantial voice to unnecessary ridicule. (yeah J bury that voice beneath the feedback, this would probably be the equivalent to adding the rum to take the edge off the coke) (later a review of Richard Thompson's new album, with more mention of PW) ... Thompson is already at the point where Westerberg wants to be in a couple of years. Both strive for an increasingly elusive intimacy with a predominantly youthful audience. Because neither won't pander to it, both are doomed to obscurity. printed without permission, so sue me my view: I admire the direction PW's taken, but the songs don't really measure up, with or without the volume. I agree with an observation made earlier on in this newsgroup, "Eventually" would have made a very good EP. Not worth the $17 I would have paid for it if not for the free CD I had coming to me. But, at least this gives him an excuse to tour. Dave Date: Mon, 06 May 96 00:39:28 0000 From: "David L. Cote" "Eventually" means more than a record title to Westerberg by Jon Bream from Minneapolis Star Tribune, 4/21/96 "I'm a folk singer who writes pop songs and plays rock 'n' roll guitar," said Paul Westerberg, trying to describe his second solo CD, "Eventually," due in stores April 30. He doesn't know where he fits in anymore. Does his new music belong on MTV or VH1 or both? He feels like he's in musical limbo. "It's the impossible years of being 36. Which is, I'm way too old to be a young upstart; I'm too young to be revered like an old veteran like Tom Petty or something," said Westerberg, peering through dark glasses last week over lunch in the back room of the Monte Carlo bar in the Minneapolis Warehouse District. "So if I can hang tough for a few years and make it to 40, it'll actually be easier for me." Rolling Stone magazine asserted in its review of "Eventually" that Westerberg, leaded of the free-wheeling, deeply loved Replacements, belongs in the same category as Elvis Costello -- widely respected for his work and his influence, but never a big seller. "Better Elvis Costello than -- who are we going to rag on now? I would never take a comparison to Elvis Costello lightly; he's a great, great songwriter. He does what he wants and if he sells records, great," Westerberg said. "I do the same thing and I don't work in the avant-garde. What I do is write simple pop songs. "I would like them to sell; I say it every time. If they don't, I continue to do what I love; so maybe there's the comparison." Sales of Westerberg's "14 Songs," his 1993 debut solo, were only 160,000. One of the most acclaimed songwriters of the 1980s, he was disappointed. Just mention the success this year of the Goo Goo Dolls -- 1 million albums sold and counting for a band that sound astoundingly like the Replacements -- and Westerberg cringes. "What good does it do to be bitter? Johnny [Rzeznik, Goo Goo Dolls' lead singer] is a really nice guy. He still calls me routinenly to, like, apologize; he talks about me every day ... I think if everyone knew who came first, I would be happy." Judging by the early signs, Westerberg is confident that "Eventually" will get a better shot than "14 Songs." "Love Untold," his new single, has already been played on more radio stations than "World Class Fad," the principal single from "14 Songs," which stayed on the charts only a month. He said Warner Bros. Records is giving him a promotional push he didn't feel he received last time. Westerberg seemed more relaxed talking about his new album than he was when "14 Songs" was released. He wasn't chain-smoking and sipping coffee after coffee. Instead, he was rolling up and chomping on sticks of gum and sipping a ginger ale. With his black polo shirt, natty sportcoat and black briefcase, Westerberg could have passed for any other businessman on a casual day -- except for his sunglasses, dyed dark hair and loud green pants. The Minneapolis singer-songwriter started making "Eventually" in Atlanta with producer and instrumentalist Brendan O'Brien, who had worked with Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots. After completing three songs, however, Westerberg decided the project wasn't working because he and O'Brien butted heads too often. Westerberg wrote more material and produced the rest of the album himself in Los Angeles and at Paisley Park Studios in Chanhassen, Minnesota. The song that immediately jumps out of "Eventually" is "Good Day," a melancholy reflection that suggests guitarist Bob Stinson, the tormented soul who founded the Replacements and died of heart failure in February 1995. Westerberg said he started writing the song when Stinson was alive but his death made Westerberg "truly unhappy" and prompted him to finish and record it. Westerberg was reluctant to talk about Stinson, whom he considered like a brother. "It's made me realize that life is short. There's no reason to wait one day to do what you want to do today," he said. "I think the songs I was writing were the opposite of his death; when he died, it underlined what I was trying to say and how I felt about myself, and it hurt even more. Then I pulled myself up and away from the life that pulled him down. It hurts." Westerberg began to get teary-eyed and physically tense. He wanted to change the subject. Has he considered collaborating with his girlfriend, Laurie Lindeen of Zuzu's Petals? "I'd like to produce a record for her. I play the piano sometimes and she sings, and we do sort of wacky cabaret songs and stuff like that," said Westerberg, who recorded a duet of a Cole Porter song with Joan Jett two years ago. Westerberg's reputation may have been made in garage rock, but his tastes run to all kinds of music from bluegrass to jazz. He doesn't get out much, especially to see music. There's the occasional weekend trip to a restaurant and a movie, but mostly he sits at home and makes music. "You dress and you breathe and you drink coffee, and my next stop is at an instrument," he said. "I don't do exercised or play scales or work, but I'm always making noise on an instrument and forever scratching down a word. I never take a break. That's the irony of being away for 2 1/2 years: sitting out in the backyard and not doing anything is incredibly difficult if you have to come up with that one line. Going and playing a set two hours long sometimes isn't as hard." Westerberg works at his own pace and he's comfortable with the pace of his career, even if it has been three years between albums. He doesn't pay attention to the competition. "I'm not battling with Offpring," he said. "I'm battling with myself. I want to be better then the last one I did." He occasionally ships a song or two to executives at Warner Bros., which is how he landed songs on the soundtrack CDs to TV's "Friends" and "Melrose Place." Westerberg has one advantage that few if any recording artists have: a sibling in radio who could give him advice about how his work might be perceived. His sister Mary Lucia, with whom he used to sit and discuss music when she was 6 and he was 10, is a prominent DJ on the cutting-edge Twin Cities rock station Rev 105. Although he did play her his album last October in the recording studio, he didn't ask for advice; he doesn't want to mix family and career. The one piece of advice that Westerberg could use right now is where to find a guitar player. He's putting together a band for a possible tour in June. He brought back bassist Darren Hill from his last solo tour, and two weeks ago hired drummer Michael Bland, formerly on Prince's payroll. The first day of rehearsal went well, Westerberg reported. What motivates him? "I'm happy. I'm not content to the point of where I'm lazy and complacent," he said. "I want to do better. I'm hard-working. I want success. I like simple things. I like baseball. "What motivates me? Love, lack of love." With that, he picked up his guitar case, slung it over his shoulder and headed across the street to his rehearsal space for Day 2 with his new band. Date: Mon, 6 May 1996 13:26:07 -0700 From: jennie@hotwired.com (Jennie Yabroff) Subject: your paul westerberg website Dear Paul Westerberg fan, I was just checking out - and enjoying - your Web site and wondered if you might want to include a link to some related coverage on our site - the arts and entertainment section of HotWired called Pop (the section formerly known as Renaissance.) From May 8 until May 21 we'll be running a review of Paul Westerberg's new release "Eventually." Veteran music critic Steve Stolder writes: "Eventually' is hardly the "Let it Be" of the '90s, but it's the best thing the Kurt Cobain of thirtysomethings has recorded since the Mats's "Pleased to Meet Me"... the winsome piano ballad "Good Day" is affecting and "Hide N Seekin'" is haunted by the rock'n'roll ghost Westerberg sang of in 1989. Here, it's hard to tell if the apparition quivering in the shadows is the ghost of late Replacements guitarist Bob Stinson or Westerberg himself." After the Eventually review goes off the live site, it will be easily available in HotWired's permanent archive and in a Pop section called Reruns. If you'd like to link to our site, the URLs will be: Eventually reivew: http://www.hotwired.com/music/96/19/westerberg.html Pop: http://www.pop.com Don't hesitate to email me if you have any questions. You can also get in touch with the producer of Pop, Michael Small (msmall@hotwired.com). Thanks very much for your time. Sincerely, Jennie Yabroff Pop jennie@hotwired.com From: "W. Abelson" Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Date: Tue, 23 Apr 1996 14:02:19 -0700 Yep, in today's 4/23 edition, another 3-star review for the new 'un. It gets 3 stars out of 4. Written by Edna Gundersen: "Westerberg, architect of the Replacements' scrappy, bruising pop, is a modern-rock prototype turned vet. But he's not ready to sink into a rocking chair and dispense wisdome to pop tots. The Minneapolis rocker still delivers the goods, whether it's the rough-and-tumble garage rock of Century, zingy pop of Trumpet Clip or the haunting power of Hide N Seekin.' Though he's sentimental on Good Day, penned for late bandmate Bob Stinson, Westerberg hasn't mellowed. He's just wiser now, dishing a subtler poison than the teen venom spewed on Replacements albums." There is also a color photo of PW leaning against a wall (wearing a lite blue suit and red-n-white collared shirt, and the blue Lennony shades seen in the video), with the caption "Rock veteran proves he's still got it on Eventually." ******************************************************************** Q: What do you think of newsgroups such as alt.fan.conan-obrien? CONAN: I think it's wrong, and everyone involved should be punished. Date: Thu, 25 Apr 1996 22:13:08 -0400 (EDT) From: Eric Bouvier Here is a copy of a article on Paul that appeared in the Boston Phoenix this week. Enjoy! No replacement Paul Westerberg is living his own life now by Charles Taylor Eventually (Reprise, in stores April 30) is a lovely contradiction: a "No Trespassing" sign put out by a man who wears his heart on his sleeve. In mood, Paul Westerberg's second solo album is the bastard stepchild of "Waterloo Sunset" and "Lookin' Out My Back Door." It's the work of an acute observer who doesn't have it in him to be detached. Even if you didn't know the hard knocks Westerberg has taken in the past few years -- getting sober, the bust-up of his marriage, the demise of the Replacements, the commercial flame-out of his first solo album -- it would be hard to hear the man singing these songs as anything other than someone who's been through the wringer and chosen a more subdued life. Although Eventually's sense of self-imposed isolation precludes neither empathy nor hard-won contentment. The empathy Westerberg feels for the thwarted lovers of "Love Untold" lends a poignancy to the compromises settled for on "Once Around the Weekend." Eventually doesn't have the brash variety of his last album, 14 Songs, which busted out all over the place. It's a one-day-at-a-time sort of album with slower songs (and perhaps the best singing Westerberg has ever done) predominating, and piano lines that wouldn't be out of place on adult contemporary radio. It's almost a folk-rock album. There are rockers -- all of them with Westerberg's characteristic sloppy bonhomie and smartass jokes ("Let's pin the tail on Demi Moore"; "I'm fadin' faster than a UK pop star") -- but they feel tossed off, terrific B-sides. Eventually might have been a tight EP without them, but it would also be less the spiky, shaggy charmer it is. It's hard to think of another album as emotionally open and affecting that insists we travel to it instead of waiting for it to come to us. Yes, it's radio friendly (and "Love Untold," which will probably be the best-crafted single not by Oasis this year, deserves to be a monster hit), but it's also defiantly stubborn. On Eventually, Westerberg is doing what he wants, without apology, not giving a damn about people's expectations. Line after line refers, either explicitly or obliquely, to his having opted out of the rock-and-roll lifestyle. It's a look back in both anger and acceptance. Westerberg kisses off the sycophants ("I'm tired of the friend who uses me/To open doors like I was a skeleton key") and delivers a pained, withering assessment of his own excesses ("Hide 'n' seekin' behind a drink that's gone flat, Hide 'n' seekin's for children, baby"). The simple declaration of "Good Day" ("A good day is any day that you're alive") escapes sentimentality by the way Westerberg sings the line as if he knew that being able to sing it at all is merely the luck of the draw. He knows that fellow Replacement Bob Stinson, who finally died of drink last year, isn't here to say it. How easy it is to screw up is the subtext of the heartbreaking "MamaDaddyDid." The song, Westerberg's explanation of why he won't have children, is done in a repetitive, almost nursery-rhyme style, reminiscent of Buddy Holly. But where Holly was singing about the boundlessness of true love's ways, Westerberg is singing about love's limits. "Decided not to have no mixed-up kid just like/My ma-ma-mom and daddy did/They did okay/At least they tried," he sings, neither giving into self-pity nor shortchanging compassion -- simply acknowledging that, having finally gotten a handle on his own identity, he doesn't feel up to shepherding someone else's. Which may also be why he refuses the mantle of elder rock statesman. Eventually is suffused with Westerberg's awareness that he's been around long enough to see a slew of bands for whom the Replacements are the touchstone. He refers to himself as an "old man," and there's bitterness in the way he sings, "These are the days no one sees/I am the day no one needs." More than any other rocker, Paul Westerberg has been judged a sellout, a has-been, a traitor for having the temerity to grow up. That attitude reached its nadir a few years ago when a critic wrote that if Westerberg wanted to go off the wagon, he was buying. I'm convinced, from years of listening to the same thing from fans and rock writers, that this writer was speaking for plenty of other fans and critics who would have been happy to see Westerberg drink himself to death if only they could have another Let It Be. But it's not hard to hear the humor and irony and empathy that mark the adolescent yearning of that album's "Sixteen Blue" echoed, from an older perspective, in the "I've been there" ache of "Love Untold." It misses the point to complain, as Terri Sutton did coyly in her Spin review, that Eventually is missing "um, some replacement of an adolescent image of excitement." What Westerberg is saying on Eventually, an album of modest pleasures and an immodest, generous heart, is that now, for him, life is about whatever comes. He's not interested in the replacements. Eric Bouvier "My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular." - Adlai E. Stevenson From: Dr Robert J Winder Date: Fri, 26 Apr 96 8:37:40 BST Here is the review of Eventually form Vox - the NME Monthly magazine. later rob Paul Westerberg Eventually Reprise If Paul Westerberg was a bitter man you couldn't blame him. One of the greatest (and most prolific) US songwriters of the 80's, he has thrived in relative obscurity while lesser lights have reaped the plaudits. By an irony too cruel to comprehend, his greatest commercial success came with his contribution to the post-grunge 'Singles' soundtrack. But Westerberg doesn't dwell on fickle fame, he just gets on with what he does - and gets better and better. 'Eventually', his second solo LP since breaking up God's very own bar band The Replacements, is a career-embracing, hell for leather classic. Where its predecessor '14 Songs' made a wholly accomplished claim to support his status as a mature songwriter, 'Eventually' sees no contradiction in mixing it all up - the knockabout bitching of 'Ain't Got Me' sits comfortably beside the raw throated beauty of 'Love Untold'. Downbeat experience is transformed into exuberant release on 'These Are The Days'; 'Hide n Seeking', nominally about dead Replacement Bob Stinson, could be a deeply felt portrayal of any addict; and 'Century' is an all-out apocalyptic blitzkreig. Westerberg has rerely been this good, this perceptive and this on the money. He's a rare, precious talent, as everyone will realise... eventually. 9/10 Review by Gavin Martin Date: Sun, 28 Apr 1996 13:36:42 -0700 From: Dennis Supanich [and] From: MyclARC@aol.com Date: Mon, 29 Apr 1996 19:19:40 -0400 Here is an interveiw that appeared in the April 28th calender section of the L.A. Times. Coming From Left Of The Dial by Richard Cromelin Paul Westerberg's out-of-step tales of angst inspired a wave of new rockers. Is there a place for an optimistic balladeer in the grungey milieu he created? The Replacements are long gone, but their sound is bigger than it was during the group's 1980-1990 life span. The revered and unruly role model for much of todays rock music and attitude combined melodic hooks, punk- derived aggression and youthful vulnerability in a formula that has fueled many of the bands at the creative center of the 90's rock. So six years after the minneapolis band ended its exhilarating, tension-riddled, colorfully futile run, former leader Paul Westerberg finds himself in the odd position of looking for a piece of the action he created. Westerberg, 36, is an equisite chronicle of his of his generations restlessness, confusion and yearning, and his first solo album, 1993's "14 Songs," was eagerly received by the cultists who regard him as one of the great songwriters in American rock. But it sold a meager 160,000 despite the support of his post-Replacements concert tour. Westerberg is back for another round, with a new Reprise album, "Eventually," and another tour on the horizon. On the eve of the albums release Tuesday, the musician struck a relaxed and confident tone as he assessed his prospects and reflected on his craft. Question: what were your goals going into this album? Answers: I think I eased up and I relaxed in many ways. I felt that I had nothing to prove this time. I went out of my way last time to herald myself as a songwriter - I was no longer a frontman, or a bandleader, and so I felt like I had to make the most out of the songwriting thing. After the tour I felt more comfortable just being a musician. I think you can even hear it in my singing on this record. It's more relaxed; nothing is really forced. What I concentrated on mainly was writing simpler than I had.I wanted the songs to be as simple and concise as possible. I hadn't realized how truely difficult it is to write simply. Q: Is there a theme to the album? A: I think so. I have had a hard time pinning it down. There's is a thread. I would think there's an optimism and a sense of survival, mabye? Q: What's been going on in your life that generated these themes? A: When I was done touring, I was certainly ready to go home and recupperate physically and mentally. I did sort of normal people things. I bought a house and I moved, and I got a new manager and stuff like that. Had some meetings with the record company and did some publishing things. The same stuff. I haven't come up with a new hobby or a new thing that I'm drawing from. I'm just more comfortable...I wasn't in a hurry to make a record. I mean, no sense in striking when the iron's cold. Q: Meaning that your last record didn't sell too well. What was your reaction to that? A: I was disappointed ... I told [Reprise Records] I wanted off [the label], and they said no, and we found a compromise. I don't want to talk about it too much because were on good terms now. But no, I let them know it was unacceptable. I think it was a really good record .... I think a lot of it had to do with the change there with all the [executive turnover], and I think I kinda got lost in the shuffle. Q: Are you tired of being a cult hero? A: No, I mean I would prefer that to not being anything. But I'd rather be a national failure than a local hero. I will never go back to the corner bar. But I'm not worried about that. I have a good feeling. Q: Part of your appeal during the Replacements days was the defiant attitude, which included a resistance to things like interveiws. Are you more accommodating to the music business machinery now? A: Probably, yeah. I understand that there's mabye three phases. One is when I'm writing the tune or when the song is being born, and that belongs to me. And then recording, I have to go beyond that. I have to think, "Well, am I gonna make something that just I like and no one else does?" And if that's the case, then there's no reason to record it, so I will take other people's advice - producers, other musicians. And then the last is doing this kind of stuff. This is business. Time Warner is a company and they're gonna move unit, and are they gonna move mine or Nick Caves? . . . No, I don't have any qualms about that. I mean alot of that [resistance] was a pose back when you're growing up and you make a record a you think it's gonna be like the Beatles. And it isn't. You gotta work really hard if you want to sell records. Q: Do you listen to much current music? A: No, I'm afraid I don't . . . I listen to classical and jazz. I also listen to bluegrass on the weekends. And I still listen to my old records. The Rolling Stones , Marvin Gaye and stuff like that that I've always listened to. I tend to go back to my very first favorites, like early Rod Stewart records and stuff. I think you have to ask yourself, "Why do you listen to music?" And I think I listen to music for a different reason when I was 10 and 20 and now. I think when I was young I listened to music to dream-you know, "One day I'll do that and I'll become that." And I sort of did in a way. And it was an escape when I was in my 20's. You would listen to something and try to escape-from what, I 'm not sure. But now I listen simply for the joy of a style that mabye I'm not familar with . . . Something that soothes me rather than makes me think, "Oh, do I have to write one of those now?" Q: Do you find that the issues you deal with as a writer change as you reach different stages of your life? A: I find the same topics creeping up . . . I feel some of the same adolescent angst feeling, only I'm 36 now and don't naturally feel it towards mom and dad, although it comes across like that. I think my general feeling is that I don't quite fit in to society and am out of step, and am comfortable with that. I'm not the perfect model citizen, and I don't want to be. I guess, if anything, that's what you hear in the music now, where I know my place and I follow my own drummer, and, hell, I'm sort of a kook. Q: Do you worry about giving the appearance of mellowing out ? A: No, not in the least. Worrying about that would be the most dangerous thing I could do. I mean I even [wimped ] out by actually putting electric guitars on the [album]. The worst thing I could have done was make a big, loud rock record. I've done that; I don't need to prove that to anyone anymore. And if it's doubts like "Well, can I still make loud music?" it's, like, beleive, me I can. Take my word for it, I still can shout, and still can probably be mad at someone. Obviously you need spirit in the music. But these songs are coming from a guy who wrote them by himself. I don't have a band anymore, I don't have that three or four guys to bounce them off and go down and jam. I sort of grew out of that. So the music you write on piano mainly now or by yourself is different than the tunes you might write with a band waiting in the next room for you. Q: Do you ever wish you could have stabilized the Replacements and taken it to a breakthrough? A: No, I don't, honestly. Because I think the band is held in a high regard today because we did break up. Had we run it through the muck those last few years, we may have spoiled it. No, it was time to quit. The other guys wanted to move on in a major way. They all wanted to write and sing, and I just simply wasn't about to play bass. Q: How do you feel about all those bands that sound like you making it big now? A: I like when I get credit. I like when a bad says that I was an influence on them, and dislike when I'm not mentioned. But maybe that's not even their fault. I've said this, but maybe they learned how to play like the Replacements via someone else. I think that if someone were to think that I was copying the Goo Goo Dolls, that would probably hurt my feelings, yes. But that's gonna happen, and I can only laugh and figure everyone else in the know knows, so, what can you do? Sunday, April 28, 1996 PAUL WESTERBERG By Elysa Gardner "Eventually" (Reprise) The most damning praise that you could give Paul Westerberg's second solo album is that it's tasteful. Those who fondly remember the Replacements as the ultimate garage-rock band may be a little put off by the relative lack of sloppy, boozy irreverence here. But what ultimately made the Replacements a great group is that Westerberg wrote great four-minute pop songs--and in that respect, little has changed. "MamaDaddyDid" is a classic post-Byrds gem, with a lovely, wistful melody and shimmering guitar riffs. "Time Flies Tomorrow" is equally poignant, with bittersweet piano chords reflecting the lyrics' subtle ambivalence. Even if Westerberg isn't the hard-drinking enfant terrible he used to be, he hasn't lost his edge. "Century" combines bouncy, Beatle-esque hooks with smirking guitar chords and a perceptible sense of punk ennui. Likewise, "Ain't Got Me" and "Trumpet Clip" peal forth with a sly, bracing vitality worthy of his old band. Apparently, Westerberg has rejected the polar rock cliches of burning out or fading away in favor of a less celebrated option: aging gracefully. New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). Copyright Los Angeles Times From: Dr Robert J Winder Date: Wed, 1 May 96 8:54:26 BST Melody Maker review Paul Westerberg: Eventually Sire - 12 tracks 43 mins Paul Westerberg has made a record that Paul Westerberg would listen to. This means that you get R&B raunch that would make Keith Richards blush (Aint Got Me), dumb Alex Chilton bubblegum (Trumpet Clip), thirtysomething ennui folkpop (Once Around The Weekend) and reflective ballads that sound like 'Double Fantasy'-era John Lennon (Good Day). A decade ago, Westerberg was drunk all the time and singing songs like 'Hold My Life' - "If I want, I could die, but hold my life till I'm ready to use it". He's been sober for six years now and in response to former Replacements guitarist Bob Stinson's death he has written 'Good Day', a mournful piano lament. Play the two songs back to back and hear someone grow up. Westerberg signs off with 'Time Flies Tomorrow', which steals the melody from Tom Waits' 'Ol' 55' and offers a battered affirmation that nothing really matters except love. The instant classic is 'Angels Walk', which is as harrowing as it is beautiful and contains the key part of Westerberg's new outlook - "Giant Steps take two". Westerberg has survived it all - the break-up of The Replacements, divorce, alcoholism, lifelong problems with depression - and still he keeps getting up and picking up his guitar. This record will put a lump in your throat...it's clumsy, heartbroken, at times brilliant. Review by Nick Johnstone -- The HONEYCRACK Homepage http://www.chem.surrey.ac.uk/~chs1rw/honeycrack/ From: pgreblo@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Paul Greblo) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Date: 26 Apr 1996 20:46:12 GMT Since others have been kind enough to share reviews of PW's new one, I'll forward this from U. Magazine (a nat'l campus rag): "If Bruce Springsteen is the Boss, then Paul Westerberg is the Bard - a dusty, road-weary troubadour with a knapsack full of stories and songs for your consideration. Westerberg writes the kind of music you take personally - these are the songs you'll be singing into your beer after your 19th nervous breakdown. Eventually opens with "These are the Days", a sterling example of Westerberg's post-Replacements pop sensibilities. In the vein of his work for the Singles soundtrack, this and a handful of other power-pop gems on Eventually are Westerberg's trump cards. The man can still put a lump in your throat, though - check "Hide and Seekin'," a sadly beautiful [I've heard this phrase B4!] ballad about growing old alone, and the oceanic closing track, "Time Flies Tomorrow". Westerberg is less successful with the conspicuously harder rock songs - "You've Had it with You" comes across a bit forced and pretty much recycles the "Down Love" guitar riff from his last album. Even if he's lost a step on the rockers, Westerberg's voice is only getting better with age, and his wry word play has never been stronger". They give it 4 out of 5 stars. Yet another review to throw out into the confusing mass of pos & neg reviews. Me, I must wait til Tuesday... Paul G. From: bkc@inforamp.net (Brad Casemore) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Subject: 'Eventually' Reviewed in Toronto Sun Date: Sat, 27 Apr 1996 21:06:05 GMT What follows is a review of 'Eventually' that appears in this weekend's Toronto Sun. (It's available on the Web, too, but I forgot to save the URL.) Interestingly, the reviewer, John Sakamoto, was equally critical of Bob Mould's latest effort. I'll take a chance and post the 'Eventually' review without the express written permission of the Toronto Sun. If you don't hear from me again, you'll know what happened. _________________________________________________________ RATING (out of five): ** 1/2 In an odd way, the career of this ex-Replacement is beginning to bear an unsettling resemblance to that of Bruce Springsteen: a maturing performer blessed with a stubbornly loyal audience that continues to stand by their man even though they long for the raucous, larger-than-life persona that turned them into converts in the first place. The pitfall is especially insidious: both performers have become painfully self-conscious about alternately avoiding and re-creating their past. Either way, self-consciousness is anathema to Westerberg's brand of innocent pop. You can hear it early on in a number like Century, an unassuming and completely representative example of the funk (emotional, not musical) that pervades Eventually. It virtually cries out for a jolt of energy that Westerberg seems unable, or unwilling, to muster. Only the heartbreaking Good Day -- a sombre ode to The Replacements' hell-raising guitarist, Bob Stinson, who finally succumbed to his excesses last year -- truly benefits from that restraint. Maturity is one thing. But too often on Eventually, Westerberg just sounds old. From: Chris Boyd Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Subject: Another Eventually Review Date: Mon, 29 Apr 1996 15:29:52 -0600 I won't hear Eventually until tommorrow so I can't tell if there is any merit to this or not...It's from an online service called Firefly. [http://www.ffly.com, I think. - M@] Sometimes good enough is not enough. Perhaps it's unfair, but we come to expect more from those who've shown us they're capable of delivering more. It's a setup for disappointment, of course. I think it was J. Mascis who, after making the first Dinosaur record, said something to the effect of,"Well, that's it. I said what I needed to say. I needed to say it, but that's all I've got. Thanks a lot; see you later." Of course J. didn't stop making records, and I don't think he's the only artist to continue writing long after exhausting his musical vocabulary. I don't know if Paul Westerberg would admit it, but he gave us what he had in his Replacements days. While I can't go so far as to say that Eventually is without merit, it's not the comeback that diehard Westerberg faithfuls keep waiting for. Let's just get one thing out of the way before proceeding: Among Eventually's twelve songs are some truly catchy and non-abrasive pop songs. You can't call this record annoying, unless perhaps you listen repeatedly to "Trumpet Clip", some sort of Steven Tyler raps-over-ska-horns mess. You'll even find a few lyrical ideas that harken back to Westerberg's younger, sharper days ("These are the days no one sees/ They run together for company" from Eventually's "These Are The Days" has that kind of sad personification we found in Tim's "Hold My Life") Unfortunately, you'll also find a lot of bland, hopefl, coming to terms. This is not Westerberg's home turf. The best stuff has only been hopeful when it was an outright fantasy about some girl ("Kiss Me On The Bus") or how cool his heroes were ("Alex Chilton"). I can't indict a songwriter for trying to break into new ground by singing about people pulling their lives together or taking emotional inventory ("Once Around The Weekend", "Love Untold", "MamaDaddyDid") but Westerberg just can't convince me that everything's really going to be okay with "Good Day"'s "A good day/doesn't have to be a Friday/doesn't have to be your birthday/.../A good day/is any day that you're alive". C'mon Paul, are you trying to convince me or you? Some have gone so far as to call for Westerberg to go back to drinking. I'm willing to be more patient. Eventually retains Westerberg's sense of rhythm, the occasional beautiful chord turnaround, and the trademark scratched throat that now evokes something of Grant Lee Philips' aching drawl. He's still got plenty to work with. Perhaps someday in the future we'll be able to look back on this record as a transitional work in the Westerberg repertoire, one that brings us to a more sophisticated and complete look at life through the eyes of a man some of us want to see back on top. Date: Thu, 2 May 1996 00:10:32 -0500 (CDT) From: Matthew Tomich X-within-URL: http://www.addict.com/issues/2.05/Cover_Story/Paul_Westerberg/ HIDE 'N' SEEK WITH PAUL WESTERBERG By Seth Mnookin The onetime leader of the legendary Replacements remains an enigma after all these years. Despite what people who live there may say, Minneapolis not a big city. The downtown area is punctuated by a handful of modern skyscrapers and is situated within a couple of square blocks. One can get a decent sense of downtown Minneapolis in an afternoon; indeed, Minneapolis' most striking attribute is the proximity of all the major locations to one another. The Timberwolves' new stadium and the Twins' Metrodome are just blocks away. Downtown hotels, office buildings, strip bars, comic-book stores, and clubs huddle around each other. With good reason: it gets so cold in the winters here that most of the buildings are connected by above-ground passageways, called skyways, so people won't need to walk outside. Paul Westerberg grew up in downtown Minneapolis, playing at clubs like First Avenue (across the street from the basketball arena and up the block from the baseball stadium) with his band the Replacements. In the Replacements' song "Skyway," he talks about falling in love with an anonymous girl walking gracefully through the above-ground tunnels. It's an apt image for Westerberg and his relationship to his hometown: although he's considered moving to L.A. ("Rock stars don't live there because they want to be isolated," he explains. "They live there so they can feel normal..."), he's chosen to stay in Minneapolis, even if he doesn't feel particularly attached to the city. "It's where I grew up. I like it here. But I'd move if I had to." Westerberg doesn't especially enjoy going downtown; one gets the sense that his attitude is, the less he goes out, the better. And he's not real big on opening up his world to outsiders-despite the fact that I flew down to Minneapolis specifically so I could talk to Westerberg in his native stomping grounds, it was clear that we weren't going to be spending any quality time in the city, per se: requests to interview him in his home were consistently ignored, and efforts to even meet up with him someplace he liked to hang out were unsuccessful. The interview was going to take place in my hotel, in the restaurant. Period. [Westerberg, Paul: TV image for Love Untold] THE SINGLES GUY I like to think that I traffic in fairly musically-sophisticated circles. So I was somewhat surprised, not to mention disappointed, when a common reaction to the news that I was going out to Minneapolis to interview Paul Westerberg was: "Oh yeah. He wrote the soundtrack to Singles didn't he?" With some prompting, Westerberg's involvement in the seminal '80s pop-punk band the Replacements generally rang a bell, and to be fair, for every person who associated Westerberg with Singles there was someone else who was ecstatic at the thought of my meeting a genuine indie/pop/punk hero. But the more I think about it, the more this perverse dichotomy makes a certain amount of sense. The Replacements never became the world-conquering band many believed they had the potential for, and Westerberg, in his solo career, hasn't done much to bank on whatever star-potential he had when the Mats imploded in 1991 after the resoundingly unsatisfying All Shook Down. I'm thinking these contradictions over when suddenly I realize that it's 1:28--two minutes before the scheduled interview time--huddled in the hotel lobby trying desperately to fix my assortment of broken appliances: the battery on my laptop has stopped working, the mic on my tape-recorder is stubbornly unresponsive, even my new portable CD player seems to have a grudge against me. I start to sweat. This hotel is too nice for me, the hotel staff are staring at me, and I'm going to fuck up the interview. Westerberg's a rock-star, even if he is a contradictory one...my only hope is that he'll be late. At exactly 1:30, a bellhop opens the door to the hotel and Westerberg walks hurriedly in. Wearing baggy purple pants (this is, after all, Prince's hometown), a blazer, and shades, his dark hair hanging loosely above his shoulders, his eyes scan the lobby as he heads for the elevator. Shoving my useless appliances into my bag, I take out a notepad and stand up. "Seth? Heh, how you doing. Well, let's do it." [cool blue stare+-dk] Trying to hide something, or just shy? Photo by Dennis Keeley Westerberg keeps his sunglasses on throughout the interview. His infamous restlessness seems to have abated some; instead of biting his nails, he chews on chocolate candies. And he doesn't even reach for a cigarette until after lunch. Every now and then, he squints a little through his sunglasses at me, as if he's trying to size me up. But for the most part, Westerberg acts like he's just doing his job, being a good boy and doing what he's told. There are a couple of moments of genuine surprise: when he sees I'm taking notes instead of taping. "You know, that's how they do it in Europe," he says. "It's more direct that way. I hate it when people just transcribe an interview and then print it. A lot of what's in there is just bullshit." Another time when Westerberg seems genuinely concerned, if only for a moment, is towards the end of the meal. I had only ordered an appetizer, and as the waitress is clearing the dishes, Westerberg looks up: "Is that enough food for lunch?" Quickly, though, he disengages: "I guess you can have some dessert or something." He gets up. "Let's go over there where we can smoke." [Westerberg-curtain] For the most part, Westerberg doesn't express much emotion in interviews. Not that he's affectless. It's just that interviews aren't a place where Westerberg chooses to emote. His feeling seems to be that there's nothing really important that's going to come out of an interview. And so we sit in a hotel restaurant, resolutely neutral territory in the middle of the city that Westerberg has spent most of his life in. And so there are to be no discussion of subjects that are touchy: Bob Stinson's death, I'm told in no uncertain terms by a record company exec before the interview starts, is off limits. Paul Westerberg is a songwriter. That's his job, and that's how he chooses to express himself. Interviews are something that go along with the territory, but they aren't a place for soul-searching or grand revelations. When Bob Stinson was thrown out of the Replacements in 1990, article after article cited the reasons for his dismissal as being murky. They weren't murky. They were just none of your fucking business. By now, the Replacements are, for many people, a part of rock 'n' roll lore. Which is fine with Westerberg. He waited three years after the Mats called it quits before putting out the mildly schizophrenic 14 Songs;. Another three years lie between 14 Songs and the just released Eventually (which reached record stores on April 30). "I can tell you one thing for sure," Westerberg says over chicken and Cokes. "The next album is either gonna come real soon or it's gonna be in five years or something. That's for sure." ALL SHOOK DOWN When the Replacements broke up in 1991, the band that produced some of the '80s best albums was on the verge of becoming a self-parody. While the Mats often had to be helped to the stage in the '80s, their hedonistic tendencies were becoming slightly grotesque by the time of their breakup. A magazine article at the time shows the band gleefully drinking "beer for breakfast" at 8:30 in the morning. The brother team of Bob and Tommy Stinson, the founders of the Replacements, had fallen apart: by the time of All Shook Down; Bob had been thrown out of the band because of his persistent heroin abuse. (The Stinson brothers were estranged from the time of Bob's departure from the band until his death last year as a result of a drug overdose. While Bob was known to place his continuing deterioration at the feet of the Replacements, by whom he reportedly felt abandoned, Westerberg, at the time of Stinson's death, retorted: "The same people who say that fail to mention that the band paid for Bob to go into rehab and that he was shooting up on the day he got out.") All Shook Down was outrageous only in its mediocrity, another first for the Replacements. When they sucked, they did so spectacularly, and when they were great, they were truly marvelous...but mediocre? It seemed to be everything the Replacements had ranted against. "That was a bad period," Westerberg says. "Everything was falling apart-the band, my marriage, my own life." So Westerberg killed the Mats, got a divorce, and stopped drinking. That's always been Westerberg's way. He's not big on fucking around. Nor does he have much interest in false sentimentality. He doesn't have much contact with former Mats members. "Tommy and I talk maybe once a month or so," Westerberg says, as if that explains it all. Westerberg has little to no interest in the music scene, either in his native Minneapolis, where the Replacements and Hüsker Dü defined '80s midwestern punk sensibility (along with Prince--but that's a whole other story) or nationally. The night before my interview with Westerberg, Slim Dunlap and Stinson were playing at a benefit at First Avenue, a local club that Westerberg has played at more times than he can remember. It goes without saying that Westerberg didn't show up-the thought never even crossed his mind. "If they take that as disinterest in what they're doing, well, what can I do? I played with them for years. I know what they sound like. [the vest look-fo] Resigned to life as a rock star. *sigh* Photo by Frank Ockenfels "What do you do when you go out? Drink and pick up chicks. It's not that much of a thrill for me to go out and listen to rock bands. If you think about it, I went out every night for like ten straight years of my life. Even if I never go out again that's still a pretty good average." No fucking around. Westerberg's honesty was the mark of the Replacements-countless numbers of kids growing up in the '80s have Replacements lyrics indelibly burned into their memories-and Westerberg seems constitutionally incapable of bullshitting. He knows that interviews and videos can do nothing but help his solo career, and makes no effort to hide his general dislike of both. In discussing the video for "Love Untold," Eventually's first single (which, Westerberg grants, isn't a bad video), he says, "When people see that and then say, 'Oh, now I get the song,' it makes me feel like I've fucking failed as a writer. What do they mean, they get the song. Didn't they get it when they listened to it? Didn't they have some sort of reaction then? "One of the reasons I don't put lyrics in any of my albums is that rock is supposed to have a visceral affect on people. I don't want people to get my songs once they've read the lyrics or seen the video. I want them to react to it when they hear it. That's what rock 'n' roll is about." Westerberg pokes around in his pocket and fishes out a chocolate candy. (Pieces of candy seem to have taken the place of nail-biting for Westerberg.) "Fuck," he mutters. "Now I'm gonna get in trouble with my record company again. They've already gotten mad at me once, for being myself. For telling the truth." NOT THE PRODIGAL SON A couple of years ago, right after Westerberg released 14 Songs, Spin threw him on their cover and declared him the embodiment of the soul of rock 'n' roll, a notion Westerberg snorts at. But in a perverse way, Spin, not known for being particularly on the mark, may have been right that time. Westerberg, despite years of attempts by various rock hacks to pigeon-hole him, is not the child prodigy nor the prodigal son, not the All-American guy nor the rebellious high-school drop-out, not the kick-ass and take-names-later drinker nor the quiet homebody. He's a little bit of all of these, and a lot of none of them: more than anything, Westerberg is his own person. He lives his life the way he wants to, and hopes the rest falls into place. If it does, great. If not, no regrets. These days, living his life the way he wants to means spending most of his time when he's not on the road in a new house he just bought in St. Paul. Westerberg doesn't socialize all that much. "If I didn't tour, I'd probably develop another social life out of necessity. But as it is, I think of my time not touring as time off, time to be with myself." (As for touring, Westerberg doesn't mind a couple of weeks of it; he'll even do a couple of months if things are going well. But the six month tour of 14 Songs was a little much. But yes, Westerberg is going to tour for Eventually: "Once in every city in America, and probably in Europe too. After that, we'll see.") Westerberg is unlikely to get invited to any block parties in the near future; he's wary of neighbors, because it seems that it always turns out that someone "has some cousin or something who wants my autograph." For the time being, the relative smallness of the Twin Cities suits him perfectly; if it ever came to the point where he was being recognized on the street, he'd probably move to an even smaller town. And so he reads some, and writes music when he feels like it, and generally enjoys living a life that in many ways seems to be the polar opposite of the out-all-night, party-all-the-time, in-your-face punk image that's been built up around Westerberg and the Replacements. An image which, by the way, Westerberg thinks is primarily a crock of shit. "You know, if we hadn't quit, if we had kept on going, no-one would be saying that we were the great pop band of the '80s. I mean, at the time what we were doing was so antithetical to the whole seriousness of the punk movement. It's only because we broke up that we avoided becoming a parody of ourselves and now have this whole folklore following us around." And indeed, the Replacements, due in large part to their underground mystique, have a much more potent mythology following them around then, say, R.E.M. or U2. And so, in retrospect, Spin may have been more on the mark than they suspected. Westerberg doesn't have matinee idol good looks or a great voice. (He feels about the same way about both: "I don't love how I look, and I don't love how I sound, but I've come to accept it. I know it's mine.") He doesn't have grand pretensions about rock music being the art form for a new generation, or saving people's lives. But at the same time, he takes a unmistakable pride in being able to sing as well as he does- "I think I've become a much better singer, in that these days I think my singing voice is much closer to my speaking voice." Westerberg snorts. "Of course using that formula, Lou Reed would be the world's best singer..." [four in heaven-pch] That wacky Westerberg and those nutty Replacements. Photo by Peter Cunningham Westerberg doesn't take too much stock in those who claim he's a great rock poet; he likens writing songs more to writing stand-up than verse. "I collect one-liners," he says. "It's more like writing jokes. If I find a line that works I'll throw a couple of chords in and then try to write a melody around it. I usually write the chorus first, because that's easiest." And yet he obviously yearns for his music to be taken seriously. When he writes, he uses the "goose-bump method" to tell if what he's doing is good or not, and hopes that his songs produce the same effect in listeners. He takes stock in his craft--when he talks about Ray Davies still being a good singer at his age, it's obvious that this is a very real issue to him. He hopes people will like his new album, but doesn't pretend to know if they will. "I'd like to think it'll appeal to anyone who likes rock music. I'd sort of hope it would appeal to anyone who really listens but I know that won't be true. I really never think about who it'll appeal to." Paul Westerberg, mid-thirties, rock musician, doing his job, which is to write good, honest songs, songs that are real and move people. And doing the bullshit that goes along with it: interviews like this one, video shoots, publicity tours. But doing it honestly. The soul of rock 'n' roll. "IT'S PRETTY FUCKING EGOTISTICAL" [from album shot] Eventually didn't start out exactly as planned. Westerberg had made it clear that he didn't feel like he got the support he deserved when promoting 14 Songs, and, he says, Reprise agreed. So Pearl Jam producer Brendan O'Brien was brought in to do the new album, and Westerberg went down to Memphis to record. And guess what? It didn't work. "I was being asked to do things I didn't really want to do. Brendan wanted things one way, and I wanted them another. So I said, 'Fuck it, I'll do it on my own.' " Westerberg claims this is one of the problems of 14 Songs --that he and Matt Wallace co-produced it. "It's schizophrenic. Also, who the fuck wants to hear 14 songs by the same guy? I sure don't. It's pretty fucking egotistical to think anyone does." Eventually's 12 songs are a mixture of rockers, ballads, and pop ditties that sound, appropriately enough, like more grown-up Replacements' songs. "Love Untold," a delicate ballad, is obviously a song Westerberg is proud of; when he talks about it, a flicker of doubt flashes across his sunglass-covered eyes: he knows it's a good song, and yes, he hopes other people appreciate it. "Honestly, I have no idea who this record is going to appeal to. I mean, I just go in there and try to make an honest rock 'n' roll record. And I did that. I mean, I know this rocks harder than the Dave Matthews Band, but who knows what'll happen? "Working on Eventually was a lot like collecting pebbles, which I guess is how all my records are: I pick up this bit here, and then this bit there, and soon I have a whole bunch of stuff. But the time right before the album comes out is always a little scary. There's this fear of, 'Oh my god, what if what I'm saying is crap?' But usually I'm a pretty good judge." A large part of why the O'Brien/Westerberg collaboration was doomed to failure was that when it comes down to it, Westerberg doesn't believe in setting up a song to sound a certain way. "Usually you have one chance to capture something at it's purest and that's the first time. That's why so many of the songs on the album are first takes." And even the songs that weren't tended to be the first take on a new day, or a fresh take on a song after leaving it alone for awhile. The more Westerberg gets to talking about Eventually, the more he invests himself in the conversation...which still amounts to little more than a slight raising of the intensity in his voice, a slight shift in his posture. (While Westerberg was never rude and sat patiently through questions he's surely heard more times than he'd like, he isn't a great liar; I have no illusions that this interview was as fun for him as it was for me.) "I think a lot of the album is perfect in its imperfection. Like the breakdown at the end of 'Love Untold,' it could have been redone to make it more dramatic or something, but that's really how it was. We just all sort of stopped playing. It was real. It was passionate. "You know, you write music, you string together notes and sounds, and you're trying to capture a spirit, the essence of rock 'n' roll," he tells me. "And I think I did that pretty well on this album." JUST AN OLD FASHIONED GUY The more one talks with Westerberg, the more contradictions come out. He likes reading biographies about famous people-"It helps me understand what their work was all about. I like art made by people that I think I would like to go have a cup of coffee with." And yet he sees no need for people to interview him. "I take an old fashioned slant on things: just the act of talking about what I do makes it less interesting. It exists for what it is. Let's not put a bright light on it and dissect it. Fans don't even want to know what the words mean...that's why I never include the lyrics." [golden room guit-ke] Just do it. Photo by Kevin Estrada Of course, this could be because Westerberg doesn't like to think about his own songs once he's written and recorded them. For all the dark humor, for all the morbid, sarcastic intensity that pours out of his songs, Westerberg doesn't go back and think about what he meant when he wrote a certain song. "[My lyrics] are something everyone analyzes but me. I guess it must be cathartic to admit things out loud, but I never go, 'Oh, now I need to express my fear.' I guess I don't really think about it all that much." And the future? Westerberg would like to write more songs for other people. "I'd like to write an entire record for someone. I think it would be fun. It frees you, you can say things that you wouldn't normally have the courage to say." Westerberg's written a couple of songs with other people in mind: "I wrote 'Sadly Beautiful' with Marianne Faithful in mind. And I wrote 'Star is Bored' for Nanci Griffith." When asked what happened to those tunes, Westerberg smiles ruefully. "I don't know. I just write the songs and give them to the record company." Then he pauses and chuckles under his breath. "I think they ended up on a "Melrose Place" compilation or something." COFFEE, CIGARETTES, AND THE END OF THE INTERVIEW [waving] At 3:15, Westerberg and I are having coffee and cigarettes off in a corner of the hotel restaurant. We've begun talking about books and movies, subjects that no longer have to do with Westerberg and his music per se, but more to do with him as a person. I begin taking slightly less copious notes. "I gotta go take a piss," Westerberg says. He comes back and sits back down, but it's clear that the interview is over. He looks around distractedly for a moment, and then says, "Well, I guess that does it. Nice meeting you." By the time I put my notebook and pen away and get up and walk to the elevator, he's gone. 14 FUN FACTS ABOUT MINNEAPOLIS, PAUL WESTERBERG, AND ME By Seth Mnookin 1) Some of Paul Westerberg's favorite Replacements' songs: "Nobody" "Color Me Impressed" "Little Mascara" 2) Albums likely to be heard in the Westerberg abode: Osmond Brothers Marvin Gaye Rolling Stones 3) Westerberg Husker Du story: "It was always like the battle of the bands when we played, we always knew we were the two best bands around [in Minneapolis]. There was an old saying: Husker Du played with such intensity that you had to push them off the stage, and we played so drunk you had to push us on the stage." 4) Current Westerberg reading material: How to Write, by Brenda Euland. "This woman who cut my hair recommended it to me. It was printed in 1938 and then reprinted in '83. It's really amazing; it's so incredibly straightforward." 5) Westerberg words to live by: "I don't have a very regimented schedule. I need to be alone. I spend most of my time alone." 6) Westerberg Replacements' story: "We never truly were part of the scene, even when we were at the pinnacle of the scene we were outsiders. We didn't rehearse, we didn't care, we made a mockery of bands that considered themselves important. We were famous for not caring, which didn't always make us popular. Nothing burns a musician more than a guy that comes into a room and falls over the amp." 7) Musician on Eventually that Westerberg conspicuously fails to mention when discussing the album: Tommy Stinson 8) Most conspicuous aspect of Minneapolis's landscape: Skyways. Skyways are above-ground, enclosed passageways that connect the downtown business buildings so people don't need to go outside in the winter. At first I thought it was so business people didn't need to risk rubbing shoulders with the ruffians in the street. 9) Most conspicuous face in Minneapolis's downtown: Kevin McHale's. The former Celtic forward and Minnesota Timberwolves' VP's face is staring out of seemingly every corner of downtown. 10) Best Minneapolis record store: Let It Be 11) Worst day to plan on going to the world-famous Walker Art Center: Monday. It's closed. Duh! 12) Do people really talk like those funny characters in "Fargo": You betcha. But no, Paul Westerberg is not one of them. And yes, it's rude to laugh at the locals. 13) Story Whitney hotel staff likes to share with their younger, 'hipper' guests: When the Stones were in town and Mick and Keith had two adjoining penthouse suites (replete with grand pianos and whirlpools) Mick went to another hotel across town because Keith was entertaining a bit loudly. 14) Misc. Prince's former club, Glam Slam, has closed down. And Kirby Puckett's baseball career is over. Date: Tue, 07 May 96 00:46:15 0000 From: "David L. Cote" Subject: Uncles of Punk "Grown-ups Westerberg and Mould have new solo albums that wrestle with warehoused songs and glories" by Brett Anderson from Twin Cities Reader 4/24-30/96 You say we play too fast Music's not gonna last Well, I think you're wrong -"Obnoxious" from Husker Du's "Everything Falls Apart" I hate music It's got too many notes -"I Hate Music" from the Replacements' "Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out the Trash" It would be interesting to compare a young Bob Mould and Paul Westerberg's impressions of the same inkblot. For two men who stumbled onto their gifts in such a similar fashion (both, while living in Minneapolis, gave songs to punks who didn't realize that songs were what they wanted), Mould and Westerberg couldn't have been less similar. For starters, Mould was serious, the kind of guy you'd invite to a play but not to a party. The Huskers, who began as staunch hardcore aesthetes and exploded into the pop-punk model to which most "modern-rock" now aspires, were artists who played the part: In their brilliant and incredibly fruitful run, Husker Du produced not one, but two concept albums (1984's "Zen Arcade" and the '87 swan song, "Warehouse: Songs and Stories"). Never mind the band's taste for gnarly guitar noise and one-take recording sessions; the implicit suggestion in concerts, where the Huskers would play songs in the same order as on their albums (a practice Mould has continued as a solo artist and with Sugar), was that they were loathe to fuck with perfection. Westerberg was wired differently, the kind of guy who might laugh at an invitation to the theater and piss in the plants at a party. Like any decent bar band worth its weight in empties, the Replacements were ordinary chumps who played in a band because they could drink on the job and it beat the hell out of picking cotton. The drunken anarchy that partly defined the Mats' myth was tragic, because the lifestyle contributed to the death of one of its members and obscured Westerberg's budding genius. But then again, alcohol was crucial to the Mats because it was their buffer, the tool that took the edge off all the loneliness that connected them to their fans. Tragedy was why Westerberg wrote. "Lonely," he sang. "I guess that's where I'm from." But opposing personalities never kept Westerberg and Mould from sharing a perspective -- they played to the same underground and both believed that punk rock could border on the spiritual. With the release of their respective solo albums (Mould's self-titled release and Westerberg's "Eventually" will both hit record stores April 30), perspective is what's expected of the now-elder statesmen. Only diehards really care that the Mats and Huskers did most of the legwork that enabled Nirvana and Green Day to hit pay dirt. And few know better than Westerberg and Mould that diehards don't pay the bills. Fair or not and no matter how hip it sounds, Mould and Westerberg can't rehash old glories without coming off like has-beens. Clean, sober and presumably wiser, they're supposed to sound like adults. Age has been particularly tough on Westerberg because his life force as a Mat had everything to do with youth. In retrospect, it was unfair for critics (including me) to fuss over Westerberg's seemingly callous dismantling of the Replacements. Westerberg was the consummate team player until the time came to move on. But "14 Songs," Westerberg's dissapointing solo coming out, didn't kiss the past goodbye as much as it put a shine on two of the Mats' primary annoyances -- the fear of going it alone and discomfort with writing songs that matter. What plagues "Eventually" is considerably less complicated: What once was craft, now is work. On the disc's opening track, "These Are the Days," Westerberg makes the point that his labors aren't any easier than they used to be. "These are the days no one sees," he croons, alienated by the solitary task of writing. "I am the day no one needs." On "Century," a rockabilly tinged dis of those who wouldn't know a meaningful song if it tugged on their nose ring, the professor gets his licks in on listeners who've abandoned him: "The only ones standing after your speech are the one's with the brooms and the mops and the keys." Westerberg has been frank about his desire to gain the sort of audience that his talent arguably deserves. And save for the album's lone standouts -- "Good Day," a respectful celebration of Bob Stinson's life, and "Love Untold," perhaps the breakthrough single that "I Will Dare" should have been -- "Eventually" finds Westerberg ditching his gift for soul-searching to find that elusive hit. The compromise isn't in "Eventually's" stuffy production; "Don't Tell a Soul" has even more of a sessiony groove, but still contained a handful of the Replacements better songs. Presumably to capture the attention he craves, Westerberg stoops to what he thinks is the level of his potential audience. That he manages to get his hired guns to kick garage-rock ass on "You've Had It With You" doesn't make up for the fact that the song addresses a teenager's desire for a better wardrobe and cooler hair. Given the ache in his vocal on "MamaDaddyDid," you can't deny that Westerberg might genuinely feel like a "mixed-up kid." While one might expect to hear a thirtysomething from "Melrose Place" blame his parents for an identity crisis, coming from Westerberg, it's hard not to think he's forcing his own arrested development. With the release of the 14th full-length album that travels deep into Bob Mould's psyche, the guy's identity is pretty much set in stone -- he's dark. Couple that with some well-documented egomaniacal behavior, and it's no surprise that Mould has put his days as a leader of power trios to rest in order to transmit his vision as a one-man band. Mould's much too rigid a stylist for any new release by him ever to signal a great departure. But as his career has evolved, Mould has grown increasingly impatient with his own limitations. Sugar was sort of a vacation that provided him a brief sigh of relief, a chance to exercise the old melodic muscle that made Mould's first band the greatest of its time. That he's returned to the spot he left when the siesta began is hardly a grave failure on his part. With cuts like "I Hate Alternative Rock" and "Art Crisis" from the new album, Mould proves he can still approximate the sonic oomph of a tractor pull in melodies that would make the guys in Squeeze proud. But never before has Mould let his recurring bouts with personal and professional failure hold his confidence hostage. In the chorus for "Egoverride" Mould howls, "this is genius, this is genuine, this is bullshit." And judging from the battle he tries in vain to settle between the significance of his art and his own sense of self-worth on the rest of the album, I'd guess Mould believes a little of each. But unlike Westerberg, Mould can still recognize spiritual funks as the place where the human spirit instinctively exacerbates the terrors of uncertainty and disappointment to create the energy necessary for uplift. That Westerberg steers clear of those deep karma canyons might suggest that he's achieved the serenity younger people generally assume will come with adulthood. Either that, or he's lost the nerve to confront the kind of damage that inspires stories worth telling. Date: Tue, 07 May 96 11:47:32 EDT From: FA09000 Here's the interview with Paul that appeared in the May 6th edition of the New York Daily News. "Former Angry Young Man Now a Bit Amused: Paul Westerberg wears the crown of pop punk king very reluctantly" by Amy Linden Paul Westerberg-poster boy for rock n roll debauchery (Midwest division) when he led one of the great bands of the 80's, the Replacements-is a legend at the age of 36. Not just that, but he's considered influential. Westerberg and the Mats created the heart on the sleeve, beer in the hand pop punk that now rules MTV. Nirvana, the Goo Goo Dolls, Everclear. You name 'em and the rowdy, chaotic strains of Westerberg's band can be heard. Sober for several years now and very content, Westerberg remains a reluctant cult idol and is wary of all the young dudes upon who he has had such a profound impact. "It was daring for us to do what we did, but it was also natural," he says. "Is it daring for bands to do that now? Is it even natural? I don't know. I hear a lot of good songs, but I smell a lot of phonies in the ranks." He smiles knowingly. These days, Westerberg has "matured", moving beyond the rage and passion he articulated with the Mats. Those same emotions are evident, but in more modulated forms, on "Eventually", Westerberg's second solo effort, which has just come out. "It's always songs about pop and love," he says, "but your idea of love at 19 is usually a little different." Then he adds, with a wry chuckle, "I'm doing the same thing, he laughs. You'd think I'd wise up." Despite good reviews, some die hard fans and critics grumble that "Eventually's" musings about life, love, and the small things that make up the big picture aren't edgy enough. That the album doesn't have the guitar (and alcohol) fueled bash and bang that was the foundation of the Mats sound. That, heaven forbid, the guy has gone all mushy. Westerberg has a very blunt response. "Fuck them. You know what? I feel like I don't have to respond to that. I feel liberated." When asked about how he's grown beyond his punk years, Westerberg begs to differ with the question. "I don't think the Replacements were ever punks, and I'm not saying that to save my ass at the 11th hour." "I wrote pop songs and we wanted to be a pop band...," he laughs. "We just weren't any good." Fans would disagree with that judgment, as would some of today's alterna-rockers. At this late date, Westerberg deals with the epic reputation of the Replacements in a straighforward way. "Look, I'm glad I was in the band that I was in at the time," he says, "as opposed to selling 9 million records and having my career being over in three years. I'm happy to be in my mid-30's and still making records." That's it. I hope you enjoy it. Kevin FA09@Iona.Bitnet B. The //Skyway\\ Date: Thu, 02 May 96 15:38:24 EDT From: FA09000 Subject: Eventually When I last received mail from Matt, he asked me to send in any comments that I might have about Paul's new record. Well, I think that the record is pretty good. While I might be a little disappointed after waiting almost three years for it and finding out that its not the great record that I hoped for, I still think that Paul did a good job. I was more than a little scared, as I told Matt, after hearing Love Untold that this was going to be a very slow, sappy record. Well, it's slow but I was wrong on the other count. And yes Matt, I did overreact a little in my initial reaction to Love Untold. It's better than I first thought but still far from my favorite song on the record. Well the only way that I can really give other comments is to go song by song. I'll keep it as brief as possible. These Are The Days: good song, I like the lyrics especially the line "I am the day that no one needs." If Paul wanted a catchy first single he should have chose this instead of Love Untold. Century: Not bad but it hasn't really grabbed me yet. Love Untold: I think I've said enough on this one. Ain't Got Me: Fun song. Good to hear Paul plugging in that electric guitar. You've Had It With You: Another fun one, love the line "I'm fading faster than a UK pop star." MamaDaddyDid: Very good, great lyrics and vocals Hide N Seekin: I like this one an awful lot too although the big pause in the middle throws me. Once Around The Weekend: Pretty good, even though I'm not sure Paul can call himself an old man just yet. Trumpet Clip: It sounds like a throwaway or a b-side; however I like it because its always fun to hear Tommy and Paul together. Angels Walk: OK. Good Day: I like it quite a bit. It's a nice tribute to Bob although I think he'd a probably kicked Paul in the ass and asked him why he didn't write a song that rocked. Time Flies Tomorrow: Another pretty good one. I'd have to say that my favorites are These Are The Days and MamaDaddyDid. I won't complain about it being a toned down record because if I wanted to hear faster stuff, I'd throw on the Mats. Can't wait for the tour! Kevin Date: Thu, 2 May 1996 03:03:01 -0500 From: FL23%nemomus@nemostate.edu (Scott C. Ludtke) Paul's album is perfect. No, seriously. All of this bullshit about it being just more of the same old crap is vastly off the mark. This is an smart, funny, album by a rockinroll guy dealing with a desire for maturity. He fucking wins. Ain't Got Me is the best song of the 80's. I tutor a kid who bought the album at the same time I did who wisely says, "No other post-punk or punk rock song writer has grown old this nicely." (Shit. Paul's old?!?) I'm inclined to agree with him. I can't think of any other band/person who's grown, changed and evolved as well as Paul has. _14 Songs_ is an inconsistent, self-conscious album, but it gets him to this one. This one works. Date: Sat, 4 May 1996 13:50:45 -0400 (EDT) From: ira fine Paul did NOT sell out. Maybe if Tim was a billion seller and now he was trying to cash in on this new group of alterna fans, then maybe I could understand the wrath of his fans regarding Eventually. But COME ON! I've been waiting ten years for Paul to get the credit and fame and fortune he DESERVES! He needs the support of his 'core group' of fans. I am "satisfied" with Eventually. I am confident that once Paul sees who his audience is after Eventually, he will continue to make some great music. Why is everyone so hard on him? ...I can't believe that some of the people who criticize the record are the same people that will spend a ridiculous amount of money on Lallapalooza this year, go figure. -- Annette Fine Date: Sat, 4 May 1996 23:22:05 -0500 (CDT) From: Timothy Nokken Just a note to document a few thoughts I've had surrounding the release of "Eventually." Went to pick it up at 12 am Tuesday at a local record store in Champaign. There was quite a bustle around, but very few people buying Paul's latest offering. The worst thing is they weren't there to buy Bob Mould's album either. Seems like Dave Matthews and The Cranberries were the big draw. Made my selection in about 10 seconds much to the satisfaction of 2 high school kids (evident from their lettermen jackets emblazoned with '96 on them) Kind of weird to have a 12 yr 'Mats veteran (and I was late to the scene then!) telling me I made a good choice. I felt like plyaing nasty old man and telling them I was buying "Tim" on vinyl when they were only in 2nd grade! That was the wrong attitude to have. Just wish there would have been more excitement -- i.e. an album release party in town. The other thing is my perpetual disappointment with alt.music.alternative. Only 2 posts about the album and one of them was mine!!! I can't get alt.music.replacements or the Westerberg group here at Illinois so I have to settle on alt.music.alternative. You would think one of the genre's pioneers would get more than two posts with the much anticipated release of a new album. I guess Allanis Morrisette's (sp) breasts are more important to members of that group than Westerberg. A long testimonial of the disatisfaction felt by a lot of 'Mats/Westerberg fans I know. I figured it would be ok to post this to The //Skyway\\ because I'd be preaching to the converted. Hopefully Paul will make his way down this way again on the "Eventually" tour. If anyone has dates, send them along. Off for a little Hide 'n' Seekin'... Tim (like the album) Tim Nokken tnokken@students.uiuc.edu Dept. of Political Science 217/244-5340 (office) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 217/244-4817 (fax) Date: Sun, 5 May 1996 23:20:57 -1000 (HST) From: Ensign Duncan Young Subject: Eventually I guess I have to put in my 2 cents worth on the album also. My first attempts to try to get a copy of the album here in Hawaii were met with replies of, "Uh, who?" Anyhow, I really like the album. Westerberg seems to have found his latest "sound." Eventually is a lot more consistent musically than 14 Songs- the sound's a lot smoother. There are a couple of dogs though- You've Had It With You is pretty horrible- it's like the stupid younger brother of "Down Love"- same guitar and everything. Hide n Seekin is pretty unremarkable, and so is Angels Walk. But that's it- I think the rest of the album's great. Ain't Got Me got me hooked. I didn't really like the album after the first listen, but when Ain't Got Me came on for the second time, I kind of pumped my fist, realizing the fifteen bucks was well spent. Once Around the Weekend is gorgeous, and Love Untold should make Westerberg famous- it's a quintessential pop song. Trumpet Clip's another one of my favorites- how bout the psychadelic break at the end- Paul pulls the "Within Your Reach" era flanged guitar out of the closet. If nothing else, this album should make PW more accessible to a greater number of people. It seems like, albeit unwillingly, he's really playing the promotional "game"- videos, interviews, tours, etc. If the label gives him the backing, he should get a hit out of this. And for everyone bitching about the album and how it's not Let it Be, just listen to a line like "YOur voice is like the last day of Catholic school" and realize that it alone makes this album better than 99% of the crap played on "alternative" radio these days. Well, I gotta flight to catch in 3 hours. Mainland here I come. -Duncan Young Date: Mon, 6 May 1996 15:18:39 -0400 (EDT) From: Brian Thomas Moore Subject: Eventually Release Fellow Mats Fans, As I sat in class last Tuesday, waiting for 5:00, and in turn my release from an exceedingly boring lecture on the 1930's, I could barely restrain myself from standing straight up and emitting a loud scream. "I have to get to School Kid's (a local record store)," I was thinking as loud as I could. Finally, when I was free to go, I stood up and made my way to the store as fast as I could without looking like I was running. I entered the store and made my way to the new release section. Nothing. I executed a 180 and began flipping through the "W's." Again nothing. Exasperated I crawled up to the counter and inquired about the new Paul Westerberg release. "Stabbing Westward," the human pin cushion replied. "NO," I answered, almost screaming as my patience dwindled, "Paul Westerberg." "Oh yeah," he said, "That was released, but we sold out already." I slumped over the counter and muttered, "Thanks." I exited the store and headed for my house. This time I was running and I didn't care what people were thinking. I hopped in the car and made my way toward the poor excuse for a mall the sat on the edge of town. I figured perhaps the Blockbuster music store still had a few copies. Normally I don't like to frequent chain record stores, but this was a desperate situation. I parked the car, ran in, and flipped through the "W's" as fast as I could. There it was in the back--one copy. I paid four extra dollars for it than I would have at the locally owned store, but at this point I couldn't have cared less. I sped home conciously telling myself that I still had to obey the traffic laws. I pulled into the driveway and ran to the nearest CD player and lit a cigarette. For the next hour I sat listening feeling a barrage of emotions. I went from heightened euphoria to sobering disappointment and back again so many times that I felt spent after the first listening. Now, almost a week later, I think I can give my honest opinion. Although this effort is a disheartingly mainstream collection of songs, it is, without a doubt, a Paul Westerberg alblum. I had already heard "Love Untold" on the radio and perhaps as a result it is still my favorite track. The two songs following (Ain't Got Me, You've Had it With You) are also great. Granted they are two of the more rocking songs on the alblum. "MamaDaddyDid" is next. This is sort of a bubblegum cliche song and it began to wear on me quickly. "Hide N Seekin'" is nice, but I find the pauses to be unnerving. "Trumpet Clip" is a fun rollick than sounds a bit like Chicago on amphetimines. "Good Day" is a lovely tribute to Bob, and is a more refined song than say "Black-Eyed Susan." But I'm not sure if I like using the word refined to describe Westerberg or any of his songs. This is definately an alblum that people will have to decide for themselves. Overall I think it will have a long life in my CD player, but I don't think it's something I'll pull out when I want to rock. There are certainly high points that any fan can associate with, but some songs will probably be skipped time and time again. I am just happy that Westerberg is still a prolific musician and as long as he continues to release alblums I'll be happy. Hopefully, this release will also mean a tour. And I can remember thinking how there was no way he would be able to rock the 14 Songs alblum, but I say him twice on that tour and oh did he rock. So there is hope. Bottom line: it's Westerberg love it or hate it, but dammit you have to buy it. Brian Moore Ohio University Athens, Ohio P.S. Check out: Bob Mould-Bob Mould and J. Mascis-Martin and Me Date: Mon, 22 Apr 1996 10:23:57 -0400 From: "efeeney" Subject: Pure Paul Just wanted to share some of my good fortune. A friend of mine got her hands on a promo of _Eventually_, and of course, delivered it right into my hot little hands. I must say that, as always, Paul has done himself proud. Without getting too rowdy or loud, he has captured rock and roll at its finest: lots of solid drums, sweet piano, and spinning guitar, sweetening up the bittersweetness of the songs themselves. I've found myself just tapping and singing along all ready. He has created something easy to listen to and easy to love. And therefore, _Eventually_ has found Paul at his best: rasping and strumming right along, telling us how it is. I wouldn't say that Paul has grown up, really. He's just being Paul. From: Bard Date: 19 Apr 1996 02:57:16 GMT Until I started cluttering up this newsgroup, I knew exactly two women who liked The Replacements. (And they were both too tall for me) I was walking around all these years thinking the whole Westerberg phenomenon was a guy thing. You can imagine my relief when I discovered the underground swooners society posting here...I've reassured my mother that someday, I'll meet a nice Replacements girl, not have children, and never leave the house. She's happy for me, but completely misses all the references. Now, concerning "Trumpet Clip"........(please brace yourself for a cringe).... I really kind of liked it from the beginning and now its firmly in the "really like" category. In no way is this a Westerberg classic, but it doesn't sound much like anything he's done in the past (points for mixing things up), it doesn't blatantly rip off anything from the past (points for contrast, i.e., it's NOT "You've Had It With You"), and I'm lyrically curious about it, meaning I don't know what the hell the lyrics are talking about. Anyone else out there got any ideas? Anyway, of all the songs I'm looking forward to getting studio/stereo quality versions of on April 30th, this is the one I'm guessing really needs the production work to be fully appreciated. (Ok.....breathe...breathe.....) The fact that Paul is aware of Demi Moore's overexposure was enough to convince me he's still among the living. Paul, PLEASE.....PLEASE slag more Hollywood celebrities!! It's your God-given gift, man. By the way, does Paul know Wynona Ryder's "available" again? But of course. I'm glad to see some of the other regulars in the group bravely posting their more positive reviews. I'm noticing this annoying effect of * Eventually *...I seem to be liking individual songs well enough... it's the RECORD I can't seem to embrace yet. Does that make any sense at all? Anyone else noticing this strange quality about the thing? If I start listing songs that I "like"...it ends up being...embarassingly quite a few for someone who still has a disgusted attitude about the whole product. Spock...explain. (I'm guessing the reason is that there are three or four songs on here that really spoil the very subdued party, and that there is no "killer" song on the whole record. God, that Paul had only substituted a couple of gems for a few of these turkeys. Could've been a very different story.) Actually, after reading that article in The London Times I feel positively miserable about taking shots at Paul. Hate to say it, but it doesn't sound like he's really in very good shape. I came away thinking that my hero is still on pretty shaky ground, even after all these years away from the Mats. I'm beginning to think that * Eventually * is not so much a result of lack of effort...it's honest to goodness all he had in him. By the way, I'm sure many of us saw the "Love Untold" video the other night on 120 Minutes...what's the verdict? I thought the video (God help me) packed more of a punch than the song. Especially those nice old people. (sniff...sniff) Reaching for my prozac, Bard ************************************************* "....love is deaf.....love is deaf...." ************************************************* Date: 7 May 96 - 21:55 EST From: matt@novia.net (Matt Tomich) After digesting this album, it's easy to accept for how it struck me from the first Byrds-ish Rickenbacker guitar strum of "These Are The Days": Paul Westerberg, 1996, made a lighthearted pop album. This album has been getting the most flack from fans since "Don't Tell a Soul". And long time 'Mats fans hoping for the 'Mats have lots of room for disapointment. There's no take-no-prisoners tear-down-the-barn rockers ala Pleased To Meet Me. There's no incredible wandering around at 3 a.m. blasted and red-eyed relevations like "Here Comes a Regular" or "Answering Machine" or "Unsatisfied". Instead, as 'bout as heavy as it gets is the Stinson-related track that everybody's already mentioned... and that's not tellin' you anything that you didn't assume already. But this isn't the 'Mats. For almost half a decade the world has been without the 'Mats (even though you'd never know it from the radio). To pop this into the player hoping to launch your speakers in fifteen seconds with something akin to I.O.U. would be a fatal mistake. You'll be droppin' this baby into the used bin faster than you can say "content thirtysomething". This album is best summed up by Westerberg's response to an audience request to "Unsatisfied" during an L.A. date of his last tour: "I'm fully satisfied and I'm not going back." "Eventually" paints the picture of a guy who is satisfied to bum around the house, watch the rabbits in the yard, and be happy that he made it through almost fourty years in one piece, despite odds to the contrary. It's full of pop, from the 70's "Time Flies Tomorrow", to the 80's "Ain't Got Me", to the 90's "Love Untold". And there's some catchy tunes on it alright. The night after I heard it I woke up at 3 a.m. with "Love Untold" buzzing in my head. "Once Around The Weekend" and "Angels Walk" are worthy of the rewind button too. It's almost a 'Mats trademark for there to be a clunker or two abound. (People either love or hate "Trumpet Clip"...but I just don't get it!) And lyrically I'd be reachin' for some clever quote from this one to write on my folder back in high school. And something here does sound a *little* close to "Down Love"... But who would've ever expected Paul to be in such a state ten years after Tim, when he was screamin' for somebody to hold on tight to his life cause he sure as hell wasn't sure he could keep a hold on it. No one can claim that this album isn't confident, unlike the spotty spotlight-aware 14 Songs. The man knows what he likes, goshdarnit. "And I'll be making records until they cart me away." I wonder how this album will age in ten years. Then again, the more poignant question is how the listeners will age in ten years. I'll be 33...maybe I'll be sick of bustin' my eardrums out down at the rock club with the Marshalls. Paul will look like a genius. He just should've called it "Satisfied". sixpointeight kiwis out of nine. -- Matt C. And that extra bonus track on the UK version? Date: Mon, 29 Apr 1996 13:47:59 -0400 From: kfeinlei@sun115.ny.wgl.com (Ken Feinleib) Just read that the bonus track on the European version of "Eventually" is "Stain Yer Blood," so save yer cash. The reportedly non-LP b-sides of the Euro CD single of "Love Untold," which is scheduled for release today (4/29), are "Make Your Own Kind of Music" and "Hide 'n' Seek." Best, Ken Feinleib kfeinlei@ny.wgl.com [However, Musuko Nagai just reported that there's a bonus track on the Japanese version of "Eventually" is "Make Your Own Kind of Music." - M@] D. Check out this hilarious UK Tower Records ad... Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 21:48:12 -0400 From: patrikd@aalnet.aland.fi (Patrik Dahlblom) Subject: Mats trivia in UK ads This piece of Mats trivia might not be news to you, but it certainly made my day: Tower records in the UK have taken out a full page ad in the April issue of the classy British rock magazine Mojo. There's a picture of a cool looking woman leaning against a brick wall, and her "story" - it goes like this : "......so he told me he'd never ever heard of them, let alone got their second album. Okay, it's a few years old now, but still seminal stuff! I remember when I first heard the Replacements it was just so exciting. But this geezer looking down at me thought I was having him on, didn't even know Paul Westerberg was in the band. Anyway, in the end he sort of shrugged and said "Well, I suppose you could try Tower". It was gone six by then but I legged it down to Tower anyway. When I got there, not only were they still open, but they had it in stock. Sorted! Turns out the bloke on the till was a Replacements fan too, said he doesn't meet many these days.... I think that's weird". OK, it's just a clever move by marketing people to get indie types to shop at Tower, but what the hell - they had the good taste to use the Mats as bait, and not just any '90s Goatees-R-Us band. Now all we have to do is travel to the Tower shops in London, Glasgow or Dublin to see if the salespersons REALLY know their 14 songs from their hootenannies...... _____________________________________________________________________________ III. PERFECT Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 22:52:30 -0400 Subject: Tommy's new band From: dshargel@usa.pipeline.com (Dan Shargel) This may be a tired subject already but Tommy's got a new band called Perfect. I saw them play back in October down here in San Diego and they kicked ass. He left most of his Stones/Faces influences with Bash and Pop and it sounds like he's moving to a louder, faster, more frenetic sound. But then that was live so who knows. I only met him once but he seemed like a real down-to-earth, friendly, humble kind of guy. Hardly what I expected. At the time he said he was no longer with Warner/Sire ("I high-tailed it out of there") and he was looking for a new label. Apparently he's found a home at Medium Cool Records and is slated to work on two projects (solo & band) for Spring. Peter Jesperson of Twin Tone fame founded Medium Cool. If you want to read this info for youself, check out the webside at: http://www.restless.com/restless-artists.html Here's some more news from the recent (4/6) issue of the Music News Of the World: "We know there is no replacement for the Replacements, but bassist Tommy Stinson has started another band that he calls Perfect. They will be playing every Friday night through the month of April at a small club in Santa Monica, California called DragonFly*. We don't know whether Tommy will be wearing a skirt, as he and his late brother Bob did during the Replacements' halcyon days, but we do understand he has switched from bass and is playing guitar in the band." * I don't know how accurate this info is. I phoned a club in HOLLYWOOD called the DragonFly and the girl answering the phone said she didn't know yet when Perfect was playing this month and to call back on Friday for an update. If you want to see the web page try: http://atn.evolve.com/ATN/issues/1.01/Up_Front/Music_News_Of_The_World/95-04-06. --Dan Date: Mon, 06 May 96 01:04:12 0000 From: "David L. Cote" Stinson is closer to Perfect as his life comes full circle by Jon Bream from Minneapolis Star Tribune 4/21/96 Tommy Stinson swears he isn't a brat anymore. It's just that some people won't let him grow up. They still think he's the teenage enfant terrible of the Replacements, the wild and crazy rocker with the spiky hair and spiked drinks who screamed expletives into the microphone just because he thought it was cool. At age 29, Stinson claims that the brattiest thing he'd done in the past year was telling his new guitarist that a Warner Bros. Records executive who'd been gung-ho about Stinson's new group suddenly didn't like the sidemen. "He thought I was serious," Stinson said. "I'd pulled the April Fool's thing on him. He was still sort of getting used to me. It was sort of mean. "I don't do bad things anymore. I'm a lot nicer now than I was five years ago, and I'm defintely nicer now than I was 10 years ago." As it turned out, Stinson's band, Perfect, didn't end up working for the Warners, the company that signed the Replacements and his next group, Bash & Pop. Insted, he's back with his mentor, the Replacements' original manager, Peter Jesperson, who now runs Medium Cool Records. Jesperson, like Stinson, moved from Minneapolis to Los Angeles a few years ago. He snuck into Perfect's first gig at an L.A. club in December 1994, expecting to duck out without saying 'hello' if he didn't like the music. He liked it so much that in July he's releasing a Perfect EP, "When Squirrels Play Chicken" (with a cover painting by Georgia singer-songwriter Jack Logan), and possibly a Stinson solo EP next year as well. "That was frightening to see him," Stinson recalled. "I had no idea he was there. When he came up and said he really liked it a lot, it was sort of a homecoming in a way. After that and then with my brother passing (two months later), I got to a point where I wanted him back in my life." There had been tension between the Replacements and Jesperson since they parted years ago. But the bad blood seemed to disappear at the funeral for 'Mats guitarist Bob Stinson last year. Now, Tommy Stinson is elated to be working with Jesperson, who was his official guardian when he went on tour with the Replacements at age 13. "I've sort of gone full circle to where I was when I was 13," said Stinson. "I've got my musical mentor back and I'm sort of in the same situation I was in back then -- I'm having fun playing in a band; I've got my guys, and we're really close friends." Stinson also crept back into the life of Paul Westerberg, the Replacements' lead singer and songwriter. He played bass and trombone on one song on Westerberg's new album. "He just called me up and said he was going to be in town [L.A.] working on some stuff and 'Come play on it, if you want,' " said Stinson, who talks to Westerberg about once a month. "We played horns on 'Trumpet Clip.' It was this wacky little horn thing we made racket with. It was a lot of fun. It was sort of like doing what him and I do best together -- which is have fun playing instruments." Stinson and Westerberg had a heart-to-heart about Bob Stinson when he died in February 1995, but they haven't really talked about it since. Stinson wishes his older brother were here to see Perfect. The death "was an emotional thing at first," he said. "The strangest thing for me is I feel a lot better about our relationship now than I did before. I think about him a lot more, about the great times I had and the brother that I had, as opposed to before, when I would think about him, I'd wonder what trouble he might be in. "Since he's been gone -- maybe it sounds bad to someone -- I see him more, I talk to him more." Stinson thinkgs he may have unconsciously written Bob into a few of his recent songs, but he has not "written the ode to my bro." He hasn't avoided it but he hadn't been inspired to do it. Another thing Stinson is not inspired to do is a Replacements reunion. "I have too much dignity for my past. In light of the Sex Pistols getting back together and trying to relive their past, I think it's bogus. "I'd love to do something with Paul again, but I'd never want to do it as the Replacements. I think it would be totally lame. And I think the whole idea of recapturing that would be stupid. I don't think you can ever do it better the second time." Stinson feels he is doing better the second time around as a band leader. With Bash & Pop, he was self-conscious about what he was doing and always worried about whether the other musicians were doing what he wanted them to do. During performances you could almost see him thinking to himself. After getting its start in Minneapolis in 1993 and making one album for Warners, the band soon moved to Los Angeles and changed personnel. Last year, Stinson finally bagged Bash & Pop and created Perfect, using some of the Bash personnel. Perfect is more pop than Bash & Pop, he said. It's like the difference between the Kinks and the Rolling Stones. He also writes some softer stuff, which he performs as a soloist from time to time, though he says he's not seeking a solo career. Stinson felt he grew up in public. He needed to move to L.A., he said, because he was "a wreck. With drinking and drugs and the whole dysfunctional family thing, I was an emotional mess when I left. I've had a lot of time to reflect and think and forgive myself in a lot of ways, and enjoy life and enjoy people again." He has been able to find himself and forge an identity in Los Angeles, shedding that "lingering Replacements garbage and star-trip crap." His "only pain," he said is not being able to see his 6-year-old daughter, who lives in Minneapolis with his ex-wife. "My life is very simple," he said from his apartment. "I have fairly simple needs. I play music and do what I want to do." _____________________________________________________________________________ IV. SLIM INTERVIEW Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 02:56:15 -0500 (CDT) From: Waylon Smithers I would just like to add to the story that Elizabeth brushed on when she talked about Slim Dunlap having his car start on fire, and them making it to the next gig on borrowed equipment. I was at the next gig. It was in Fargo, North Dakota. I came out of the bathroom and he was walking down the hall and I got him to sign my cd. It was pretty cool. He was pretty fun to watch. He did a great combination song, combining the breeder's cannonball and an old country song - Earl Scruggs perhaps. Just this past weekend I was down in Mpls. at First Ave. to see Frank Black and Johnny Polansky. I was sitting waiting for the show to start and I noticed Slim standing by the stairs talking with somebody. I looked back a few minutes later and he was now talking to Johnny Polansky. It was pretty cool to see. I think I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff. Later when the show was approaching I moved up towards the stage and somebody bumped my arm and said excuse me. It was Johnny Polansky. My big brush with greatness I guess. Anyway... you should all buy Slim's album "The New Old Me". It's pretty good Stonesish rock. Paul plays on it as well. bye, dan. Date: Sun, 14 Apr 1996 20:53:18 -0500 (CDT) From: Scott Hudson Alumni Here's an article I wrote on Slim for Tempest Magazine a month or so ago. This show I was previewing was the show the day after his fire, so he had to rent equipment. He was good natured about it, however, even joking about the request list he had for songs like "Burning Down the House" and other fire-oriented songs. Thanks, Scott Slim Dunlap has a motto. Support your local eccentric. Slim is also the first to admit he's a bit of a strange bird. A person that's not for everyone. To anyone who loves rock and roll, however, Slim's a natural performer; a man that lives for the stage and for his music. And if he feels his music isn't up to snuff, he doesn't intend to share it with others. It's because of this perfectionist mentality that he still hasn't released the record that was supposed to come out well over a year ago. In fact, last time Slim was in town the disc was supposed to be released just a few days after his Sioux Falls appearance. But that was not meant to be, as months went by with no release date in sight. Slim refuses to apologize. "My records take eternity. I don't really write the way others write." He also ran out of money for his project, and decided to ditch the basement studio he had installed a couple of years ago. "I didn't really like having the studio in my basement. Having a studio in your house means you record a lot. It got to be that you'd hear it calling you. I perform better in the studio setting where there's people there. I don't respond well to an empty room, although I've played in plenty of them." While he claims he performs better in a studio setting, he admits he's one of those people you have to drag into the studio. "I've never enjoyed it." Despite these contradicting statements, Slim says his project is almost complete and that it's going to surprise fans of his first record. "I think it's a bizarre record. I'm so non-commercial. You get to my age and you're just doing it for the sheer hell of it. What appeals to me is not going to appeal to most people. It's very strange, but I'm a strange person." By remaining true to himself, Slim feels he has included something lacking on most current discs-personality. "So many people are trying to make music that everyone will like, and that's a wonderful thing. I'm all for people getting filthy rich. The business is so geared to that, though, that it's gotten boring. Song after song gets played on the radio, and an hour later I couldn't tell you anything about it. Nobody dares to put what used to be called personality on a record. Putting personality on your stuff makes it less anonymous, like here's me and I'm not like anybody else." This quote leads us once again to Slim's motto of the day. "I say support your local eccentric because they have a role to play. There are so many legendary eccentric performers that are kind of famous in their own little niche in the world, and have had effects on other artists. Somebody can have an eight trillion selling record, and contribute nothing artistically. Nobody gives a damn about it. Then there's others who never even sold a record and they have an influence on people. All though history, very often the great artists aren't known during their time. Dunlap feels that the Internet will be instrumental in spreading the word on these type of acts. "I think it helps obscure artists. People are actually more open to it than the market thinks they are." Okay, back to the record. When can we expect to see it in the stores? "I've got a local studio that's going to do some work on it, but I have so many gigs this month that I probably won't hand it in until the end of this month. I want to get it out soon, but if it's not in the spring it will be in the fall." There is one obstacle with a spring release, however. "I kind of have to wait until Paul (Westerberg) gets his out because last time we released albums, unintentionally, mine came out on the same day as his. So I got co-reviewed all across the country just because two ex-Replacements put albums out." Which brings us to the obligatory questions about the Replacements. Dunlap chuckles, saying "I knew they were coming." I point out to Slim that when former Replacements guitarist Bob Stinson died last year, many found it quite surprising that Slim, who replaced Bob in 1987, supplied most of the band's quotes concerning his tragic death. Slim says that was partly because Westerberg and Tommy Stinson were coming to terms with his death in their own way, and that Slim is also more accessible to journalists. Dunlap has nothing but good things to say about the troubled guitarist. "I knew Bob before I knew any of those guys. He was a wonderful, wonderful guy. I've never really met anybody like Bob. He was so bold. He would come right out and say something that would hit you hours later." As reported last year in Rolling Stone, Westerberg's upcoming album, Eventually, will include a track that deals with his coming to terms with Stinson's death. Slim says he has heard parts of the album, which has also gone through various misfortunes. Being the true fan of rock and roll, Slim says he doesn't want to hear the whole thing until it's released but will say that people are going to freak out. "Paul's record is really strange. It's a dark record. Most of the darkness is simply because right now he's not a happy person, but there's some humor in the album. That's the sad thing about that guy. He's one of the funniest people I've ever been around, and it just never comes through. He rarely lets that side of him out. But I've got a bunch of Paul songs that are just hilarious." While most artists are reluctant to talk about their previous bands, Slim has no problems answering questions as he's as much a fan as anyone else. He admits he's a bit shocked by the bootleg industry. "I've seen big lists of Replacements shows for sale, and I'm wondering why anybody would buy any of those. These guys would tell me how they've sold 30 or so cassettes of this show from 1990 and I'd go 'what the fuck for?'" After talking about an impressive Dylan bootleg compilation he recently saw, Dunlap admits that he doesn't really let bootlegging bother him. "I'm just amazed that somebody would pay $80 for a real hissy sounding tape recorded in the bathroom." _____________________________________________________________________________ V. CHRIS M**S From: geweke@winternet.com (Surfer Joe) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Date: Sun, 21 Apr 1996 23:04:42 -0600 There was a two page article on the Mats today (4/22/95) in the Minneapolis Star Tribune in the entertainment section telling what they're up to now. Mostly it focuses on Paul and Tommy but there's a blurb in there about Slim and one about Chris Mars, who apparently has taken up some other sort of art that's going on display in the Burning City Gallery in LA this September and is also "in discussion with film director David Lynch about designing characters for an animated feature film." Hm, I wasn't aware of that. Anyone else know anything about this? From: cford@vnet.ibm.com (Charles Ford) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Subject: Alt-Rock-a-Rama Date: Sun, 21 Apr 1996 02:28:23 GMT I finally forked over for the Rolling Stone Alt-Rock-a-Rama book. I'm always a sucker for Replacements stories like the eight told by Chris Mars within. More than most bands, the Mats seemed steeped in tales and legend. So here they are: 1) "Replacements in Odorama:" Chris buys stink bombs before a gig at the Roxy. He and Bob plant them and stink up the joint during their set. Tommy, Paul, and the audience (which includes many record industry VIPs) are mystified and hold their noses while Chris and Bob die laughing. 2) "The Winnebago" The Mats trash a rented Winnebago to the tune of $6,000 worth of damage. They manage to piss off a Canadian border patrol agent in the process. 3) "Electrocution in Kansas" Bob almost fries at a gig at the VFW in Kansas. Chris to the rescue. (this show is on the FAQ) 4) "Bouncer Riot in Boston" The Channel Club erupts in violence, circa 1985. The Mats don't even get to play. 5) "Shaving Eyebrows in Seattle" Chris says this well known incident occured in 1989, but I think he is mistaken. I know for a fact this occured in 1987 because the band showed up on MTV with no eyebrows on the "Cutting Edge" show. Maybe they did it again? 6) "A Running Joke" This story chronicles an incident where a band member (Bob) crapped in a hotel ice bucket and sent it down the elevator. Paul mentioned this in a 1986 Rolling Stone interview as well. 7) "Atomic Drummer" Chris eats Mexican peppers for 40 bucks. 8) "Playing Chicken" This is a story I saw in this newgroup, only Chris's version sounds a little more illegal. A drunken Chris and Paul cruise the streets on a motorbike, causing trouble and resisting arrest. Paul gets off, but Chris spends the night in jail. Did I save you $14.95? Charles _____________________________________________________________________________ VI. BOOTLEGS, DEMOS, STUFF LIKE THAT From: roex0006@gold.tc.umn.edu (Dean T Roe) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Date: 27 Apr 1996 12:04:08 -0500 I saw a new Mats bootleg CD at a record show this weekend. Well, I kinda saw it, to be more accurate. It is called "Beat Girl" and has 17 tracks I think. It is mainly a bunch of Replacements b-sides plus the "Don't Sell or Buy..." outtakes, "Cruella de Ville" and so forth. Here's the catch, though: I asked to buy it and the dealer said it isn't in yet. He was supposed to get it in February and still hasn't gotten it. He asked the source to prove the cd was coming out so they sent him the artwork for the CD. It all looked legit, so hopefully it will be out soon. And hopefully the sound quality is good. So be on the lookout for it and pester your local bootleg dealer. :) I asked if there were any other Mats CD's coming out and he muttered something about another live one sometime in the near future. Hopefully it will be an earlier show...it seems all the CD boots are either from the DTAS or ASD tours. Dean [Except for the "Live at Lingerie" CD bootleg from a show in October '84. -M@] Date: Sat, 4 May 1996 16:29:32 -0400 From: mikem@magicnet.net (Mike Monello) Subject: New Mats Demos Up! Just a note to let you and other Skywayers know that I've posted 5 new demos on the Replacements Demos and Rarities Page (http://www.magicnet.net/~mikem)! They are: Pre-Record Deal Demos: Shut Up (demo) Pleased To Meet Me Demos: Learn How To Fail (demo) Make This Your Home (demo) Nude (demo) Run For The Country (demo) There were over 1,000 visitors to the page in April! Enjoy! Sincerely, Mike M. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Visit The Replacements Demos and Rarities Page! D/L your favorite demos! http://www.magicnet.net/~mikem ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Zipeto, Ken" Date: Wed, 17 Apr 96 02:31:00 PDT On a completely different note, I have a suggestion for some of the Skyway folks. Since I do work at a radio station and I have access to a recordable CD machine, I was thinking of making a CD of the really hard to find 'Mats stuff. Dubs are easy and digital. The down side is that blank discs are anywhere from $12 - $16. It's just a thought. I don't know how we would coordinate the entire thing. Also, let me know if what I wrote makes any sense. I've had a few cocktails and well you know how that can be. Chowder! Ken WANTED Date: Thu, 11 Apr 96 19:55:32 EDT From: jbecke04@colybrand.com (Jonathan D. Becker -- Tax - Boston ) Could you ask the Matheads where I can get a copy of both "Boink" and "Shit Hits the Fans". Either a store in the Boston area or if they can get one in their area and I'll send payment and postage and the such. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Jon Becker "jbecke04@reach.com" Date: Tue, 23 Apr 1996 10:24:21 -0400 (EDT) From: Taejoo Jang Lee Subject: Getting a record. WANTED: A copy of a Replacements D.C. show at Lisner Auditorium in 3/5/91. That was my first and last Mats show, and also my very first concert. I would be unbelievably grateful if I could get a copy of that performance. TJ From: "MIke Turturro" Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 09:41:04 +0000 Subject: villiage voice Does anyone have a copy of the infamous mid-'80's Villiage Voice article that they can post to the Skyway? Many of us would be greatly appreciative. MT Date: Mon, 15 Apr 1996 23:13:07 -0400 (EDT) From: "Ryan C. Hayward" Subject: "Inconcerated" Fellow Skywegians, A good friend of mine has been looking for a copy of "Inconcerated," and she asked me to post to the list and see if anyone has a copy they could be persuaded to part with, or if anyone has any ideas about how to find a copy. If you know anything about it, I would greatly appreciate it if you could reply to me by private e-mail. Thanks! Can't wait for "Eventually" to finally be released. Ryan Hayward rhayward@phoenix.princeton.edu ["Inconcerted"'s six live songs from the 1989 tour can be found on the CD bootleg "Shit, Shower, and Shave". -- M@] _____________________________________________________________________________ VII. KICKIN' ASS AND TAKIN' NAME (FER PAUL) Date: Sat, 20 Apr 1996 20:09:57 -0400 (EDT) From: ira fine Here are some stations who have Love Untold just sitting there waiting for one or a thousand of you devoted Paul heads to call and request it... (Request it dammit, even if it's not your cup of tea, think of how cool you'll be when Paul makes it to the top and you can tell all your friends, "yeah, but *I* knew about him for YEARS!") KEGE - Mpls MN 93.7 FM 612-989-EDGE WBRU - Providence RI 95.5 FM KROC - Rochester MN 106.9 FM WIBF - Philadelphia PA 103.9 FM (WDRE) WFNX - Lynn MA 101.7 FM WRAX - Birmingham AL 105.9 FM KTEG - Albuquerque NM 107.9 FM KTCZ - Mpls MN 97.1 FM 612-724-8437 Thanks, Annette From: LeeAnnJoe@aol.com Date: Sun, 21 Apr 1996 13:25:15 -0400 I am starting a letter writing campaign to Sire Records. The purpose: to implore the record comapny to release a Replacements "Best Of" compilation. It is long overdue and could go a long way in reminding people just how influential and outstanding our Mats are. More information to follow, like the address and contact name. I will contribute that to the SKYWAY, along with a plea to write to the record company corporate fatcats. Also, if any Chicago area Mats fans that taped segment of "Gone but Not Forgotten", I'd love a copy. Thanks, Joe _____________________________________________________________________________ VIII. 'MATS ROCKIN' THE BOX From: admin@xenon.gem.net (Mark Geisert) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Subject: Replacements on The Tonight Show Date: 3 May 1996 00:57:38 -0700 Organization: Maximum R&D, Los Angeles, home of Gem Dot Net Lines: 9 Message-ID: <4mce9i$6c@xenon.gem.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: xenon.gem.net Really! About four seconds of the Mats' "Talent Show" was played as part of the intro for the lame Letterman rip-off "Show Us Your Talent" segment. (Jay & crew go out to the Chicago suburbs in search of talented (?) folks.) Big-time royalties for Paul there!!!! ...SIGH.... Mark Geisert _____________________________________________________________________________ IV. PEOPLE WHO CLAIM THE 'MATS AS INFLUENCES From: "D.S. Armes" Date: Mon, 22 Apr 1996 11:34:35 +0100 (BST) Just a quick thing you might like to stick in the next issue. Myself and a friend interviewed Bill Janovitz from Buffalo Tom at Reading festival last year and we asked him about the Mats and he said something like, "Yeah, I hadn't listened to the Replacements for ages but I went back and listened to Tim and it was amazing. I just thought we should make a record like that, really stripped down (Sleepy Eyed was a raw reaction to their fourth LP, the glossy pop of Big Red Letter Day - Buffalo Tom's Don't Tell...?) Yup, I always loved the Replacements." Great band, Buffalo Tom. Let Me Come Over is their work of genius. My friend reckons if Bill Janovitz makes a solo record, it'll be 1990s equivalent of Big Star's incredible Third album, which apparently our man Paul was trying to evoke with ASD. That true? I heard Paul was obsessed by that record. I've got Eventually by the way. Hated it first listen. Getting to love it now. I'll send you the review I do for my college paper. Thanks again, stay safe, Dave "Livin's easy, dying's easy, must be something in between, number one pure alcohol." 'Number One Pure Alcohol' by 60ft Dolls (great new Welsh band - Du crossed with classic 1960s British pop.) From: sector7g@ix.netcom.com (Tyler Andersen) Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements Date: 2 May 1996 23:12:48 GMT Bob Pollard [of Guided by Voices] (IMO gives Paul quite a run for his money in the songwriting department) stated the following during an interview printed in the Northwest music publication The Rocket. "I've heard it all. I've bought it all. I've studied it closely. Now, I'm actually pretty bored with popular music. There's nothing new going on. There really isn't any movement that excites me. That's the challenge of songwritng; to keep myself entertained even when there's nothing around that's exciting. I think the REM/Husker Du/Replacements-era was the last really exciting phase of rock for me." See ya at the Portland and Seattle GBV gigs. (Seattle? Isn't that just outside of Puyallup?) Ty p.s. Though Eventually probably won't make my desert island disc list, the songs found on it are infinitely more clever and interesting than the ginblossomedcountingcrowsishtoadthewetsprockety movement that's been popular the last couple of years. I think it may even deserve better that 3 out 5 or 6 out of 10. Equal to or better than 14 Songs. [This is from an interview with Superchunk's drummer, Jon Wurster, for the Superchunk mailing list. For more information about the Superchunk mailing list, contact PackageThf@aol.com.] DK: What are your personal, musical influences? JW: Growing up, say ages 10-13, I listened to Aerosmith and stuff like that. Around age 14, I moved into bands like the Clash and the Ramones. In high school and for a few years after, I listened to some hard core stuff like Minor Threat, MDC, Government Issue, etc., but also a lot of pop like 3:00, Tommy Keene, and R.E.M. My favorites were Husker Du and the Replacements. I have to say they're probably still two of my favorite bands. _____________________________________________________________________________ X. PERSONALS SECTION From: AClauderF@aol.com Date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 20:31:43 -0400 I just wanted to drop this quick one to Renee, who's 18th birthday was recently. I went to High School in Castro Valley, and completely understand how you feel. Please, just listen to "Let It Be" as much as possible and stay away from Palomares Hills. I'll be in CV sometime this summer, so maybe we can hang out and listen to some 'Mats records. My e-mail address is aclauderf@aol.com so, if ya want, drop me line. Also, thank you everyone for doing this, the world is seriously wrong for ignoring the greatest band in history. Bob smiles down on you all. fin. --==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==-- Matthew Tomich The //Skyway\\: The Replacements Mailing List 2407 Chapel Hill Road ---------------------------------------------- Durham, NC 27707 To subscribe, send "subscribe skyway" in the (919)-419-0808 body of a letter to "majordomo@novia.net" --==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==--==-- "And life is grand And I will say this at the risk of falling from favor With those of you who have appointed yourselves To expect us to say something darker And love is real And though I realize this is not a deep observation To those of you who find it necessary To conceal love or obscure it, as is the fashion" -- Camper Van Beethoven (thanks to Kathy Everthart fer the quote)