the // skyway \\
issue #77
(february 13, 2002)


web page at www.theskyway.com
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always thanks to bob fulkerson

__________________________________________________________________________

0.    Gimmie Noise (m@.)

I.    The big Paul Westerberg news that you've been waiting for.
(Josh Neas, Csuccio, Jeff Leven, John Anderson, sjk0108@earthlink.net)

II.    Hello
(Chris King, Frank Bruno, Matt Cashner, Shelly Johnson, Chad Werner, Mark,
Jon Rinaldi)

III.   Looking For...
(Ben Pierce, Peter Kosciewicz)

IV.    In print
(Janet Scott, John Davidson, Ralph Bryant)

__________________________________________________________________________

0.  GIMMIE NOISE

i'm in a van again.  it seems like i'm spending more and more of my time
in a van, driving to or from playing rock music.  but this has been the
plan, whether i admitted it to myself or not, since i moved to north
carolina, six years ago now.  i'm on tour this week, back for four days,
then on tour with the other band next week.  and then get back and go on
tour for another week.  etc.  etc.

it's another anniversary of the skyway.  i never really knew what i was
doing when i was starting this thing except staving off midwestern
boredom.  going to school in the middle of nowhere and loving this defunct
band called the replacements and having exhausted every referenced
microfische in the library and having endlessly run over the fog of memory
of the only replacements show i ever saw, the one at peony park ballroom
in omaha, two weeks after high school graduation, in the summer of 1991.
luckily that one night of all nights they played a roaring version of
answering machine, and they played here comes a regular with more despair
than the album, because i'd never get a chance to witness them do that
ever again.  a bookmark in my memory, before and after:  before and after
high school graduation, before and after living in nebraska, before just
listening to the replacements and afterwards loving them.  you grow to
love the people that understand you.  you instantly love bands that
understand you.

so anyways, as i was saying, i started this because i wanted to hear
everybody else's stories about the replacements because i had so few.  or
stories about them and the replacements.  and because of it, i've met so
many friends and gotten so many mix tapes and found out about so many new
bands, just because of this thing i just had the gall to start one boring
winter day.  and next year it will have been ten years.  hey, ten years.
if i'm not in a van or another country next year, maybe we'll throw a
party.  i hope it won't be some geeky convention like thingie.  no, just a
bunch of people sitting around drinking (or not) playing songs from other
bands and feeling like it's some sort of holiday.

so yes, the skyway doesn't come out as often as i wish.  it's a
mind-bender that my doctor, my bandmates, and the girl that picks up my
mail, and i all have the same 1,440 minutes in a day.  i go to work five
days a week, go to band practice four nights a week, go swimming three
mornings or nights, and go to modern greek lessons for one (because if all
this work and band and life stuff falls apart tomorrow, i'll be comforted
that i have a backup plan.)  and then more weekends than not, i'm in some
other town waiting in some smoke-filled basement or club for the other
bands to begin or end so we can do our thing on full-blast for 28 minutes
and make that week's practice and that five hour drive all worth it.
anyway, my point is, there's so few hours to do this.  i love it, but this
isn't a mail-bouncing listserve, this isn't a daily newspaper, and i hope
that's okay.  and somebody came up with a neat redesign of the web page,
which is good, because i can't draw.

i like this girl, and have for almost more than a season, and we've been
hanging out a lot but nothing's really happened yet.  but it made me
realize that there's so many shades of liking someone, from attraction to
actually getting off your ass and doing something about it.  and it's been
a while since i actually was like "wow" and did something about it.  so
that makes everything, even the most randomly tangential things that are
seemingly in no way connected, seem slightly different than they would be
otherwise.  beginnings are fragile times and all this could be so past
tense by the next issue, but right now i think about it (to no actual
consequence) a lot these days.

so hey, yeah, finally, paul westerberg's new stuff is finally coming out!
i can't even begin to collect all the rumors that i've heard here.
there's going to be a tour, but who's playing in the touring band and
where they're playing and all that have been all possible combinations of
the wildest fantasies.  tommy stinson?  slim dunlap?  dave pirner (of soul
asylum)?  regardless, i've played shows with many of the bands on his new
label (vagrant) and it's a great deal for paul.  the label is active,
strong, well-funded, and they care obsessively about their bands.  i hope
it makes even a sorta-cynic like paul feel amazed what can happen.

oh yeah, so if i hadn't heard this band, i wish somebody would've told me
about them, so i'm telling you in case you haven't already heard them:
azure ray.  check out their albums.  they are gorgeous, they are amazing,
they are the shit.  they are on tour and it's 100 times better than
anything on a tv or a chat room or in most movie theaters.  all bands are
temporary things, go see them while you can.

maybe see yah soon if you go to rock shows

m@.


p.s.  tour dates at www.thescaries.com + www.sorryaboutdresden.com

__________________________________________________________________________

I.  PAUL WESTERBERG NEWS

From: "Josh Neas" <sprockettoad@hotmail.com>
Subject: Fwd: PW news
Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2002 10:45:53 -0500

Exclusive: Paul Westerberg Returns On Vagrant

Paul Westerberg has signed a multi-album deal with Los Angeles-based
independent label Vagrant and will release a two-CD set April 23,
Billboard exclusively reveals this week. The package will contain a
single-disc Westerberg solo album, "Stereo," featuring a collection of
acoustic-leaning songs, plus an entire new album from the former
Replacements leader's punk-veering side project, Grandpaboy, titled
"Mono." Appropriately, the Westerberg album was recorded in stereo; the
Grandpaboy effort in mono.

Westerberg tells Billboard that the albums together will "instantly sound
like the first Replacements record, and it'll sound a lot like my last
solo record." The artist dropped out of sight shortly after Capitol issued
his coldly received 1999 set "Suicaine Gratification," which was produced
by Don Was.

"The fact that I wasn't on a label, didn't have a deal, [and] didn't have
the responsibility to produce anything that sounded like anything else, I
was able to amass so many songs that I found myself with one big pile of
quiet songs and one big pile of rock'n'roll songs," Westerberg says.

Westerberg is also considering a return to the road. "I'm gonna have to
come out of my hole and rear my ugly head?  How actually and [with] what
configuration, I'm not sure yet," he admits.  The artist can currently be
heard covering the Beatles' "Nowhere Man" on the V2 soundtrack to "I Am
Sam," which was released this week in North America.

"There is just one way to save yourself, and that's to get together and
work and fight for everybody." - Woody Guthrie



from Vagrant's web site:

01.14.02 January News...  The news is out and it's true. We are lucky
enough to have signed one of the greatest American song writers in
history....Paul Westerberg. The Replacements ,one of the finest bands of
all time from ANY country (you blew it BIG time Spin with your stupid list
)and the inspiration for starting this label 11 years ago ,so needless to
say ,this still feels like a dream. The new album will be out April 23rd
and is titled "Stereo".  It will also include an album from a band calling
themselves "Grandpaboy".  Now ,we can neither confirm nor deny that this
band may or may not include some or all of a certain Midwest based ,highly
influential 80's post punk band. Nor can we confirm rumors of a tour that
would start in 3 weeks....stay tuned.....



Track Listing for Mono:
(from http://members.aol.com/paulspage/main.htm)

High Time
I'll Do Anything
Let's Not Belong
Silent Film Star
Knock It Right Out
2 Days 'Til Tomorrow
Eyes Like Sparks
Footsteps
Kickin' The Stall
Between Love & Like
AAA (Anything, Anyone, Anymore)



From: Csuccio@aol.com
Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2002 12:34:12 EST
Subject: Paul Westerberg's new label

Westerberg to return with two albums in the spring
Chris Riemenschneider
Star Tribune

Published Jan 15 2002

Former Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg has resurfaced with a new
record deal and plans to release two albums simultaneously April 23. The
Minneapolis rock legend will put out the acoustic-oriented "Stereo" CD and
rock-based "Mono" album as one collection with Southern Californian punk
label Vagrant Records, the label announced Monday.

Westerberg has not released an album since 1999's "Suicaine Gratification"
or toured since 1996. His short-lived deal with Capitol Records ended
following the poor sales of "Suicaine," and he has spent the past two
years focused on songwriting -- hence, the abundance of material.

Outside of an EP and single with his playful alter ego Grandpaboy (which
the "Mono" CD is credited to), this will be his first release with an
independent record label since his days on the local Twin/Tone label in
the early '80s.  Vagrant enjoyed Billboard chart success last year with
the punk band Saves the Day.

The two new CDs together will "instantly sound like the first Replacements
record, and it'll sound a lot like my last solo record," Westerberg told
Billboard magazine. He also said he plans to tour this year.



Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2002 01:02:01 -0500
From: Jeff Leven <jleven@law.harvard.edu>
Subject: Paul News

from Billboard.com
(http://www.billboard.com/billboard/daily/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1256243)

Jonathan Cohen / January 14, 2002, 11:00 AM

Paul Westerberg Returns In 'Stereo' & 'Mono'

After a three-year absence from the music biz, Paul Westerberg is to
return April 23 with a two-CD set on Los Angeles independent label Vagrant
that spans both sides of his musical personality. The package is to be set
up as a single-disc Westerberg solo album, featuring first and foremost a
collection of acoustic-leaning songs titled "Stereo." Inside will be an
entire new album from the former Replacement's punk-veering side project,
Grandpaboy, titled "Mono."

Whereas the 42-year-old's past solo efforts have mixed quiet and loud,
there's a wedge between the two styles on "Stereo"/"Mono." "It will
instantly sound like the first Replacements record, and it'll sound a lot
like my last solo record," Westerberg tells Billboard in an exclusive
interview, his first in roughly three years.

"One [style] always inspires the other," he continues. "As soon as I play
with an acoustic guitar and sing a song where there's lyrics where I want
you to hear the words, I get that out of my system. And my next instinct
is to strap on one of my old, noisy guitars and pound out one that makes
me sweat. So it's kind of a yin and yang thing."

Westerberg says his song surplus is partially a result of being a free
agent for much of the past three years. He parted ways with Capitol not
long after the release of his coldly received, Don Was-produced 1999 set,
"Suicaine Gratification." "The fact that I wasn't on a label, didn't have
a deal, [and] didn't have the responsibility to produce anything that
sounded like anything else, I was able to amass so many songs that I found
myself with one big pile of quiet songs and one big pile of rock'n'roll
songs."

Hence the titles, the Westerberg album was recorded in stereo and the
Grandpaboy effort in mono. Of the latter, he says, "I ran it all through
an old Fender amp. And that's, like, the most ass-backwards thing in the
world you would do right now with the technology that's available. But I
love it."

Westerberg has spent the better part of the past few years at home in
suburban Minneapolis, where in his basement he wrote and recorded the bulk
of "Stereo"/"Mono" and "Suicaine." Shortly after the release of the
latter, his son, Johnny, was born, helping to affirm his decision not to
tour in support of "Suicaine." Well before his son's birth, though, the
singer says he had already decided to take a break from the
album-tour-album cycle.

"It wasn't like I wanted to stop and become a dad -- I just wanted to
stop, and I became a dad at the same time. And, oddly enough, my
rock'n'roll education certainly helped being a father in the beginning, so
that staying up all night and not sleeping was no big deal for me. It
wasn't like I was used to having to look good in the morning."

"I imagine he'll come bursting in here any minute, like he always does,
and interrupt. That's the reason it's probably taken three years for me to
get the record going. On, like, every f***ing take, I had to, like, start
over because he would come bursting in the room. I left him on one."

Now, however, Westerberg is considering a return to the road. "I'm gonna
have to come out of my hole and rear my ugly head ... How actually and
[with] what configuration, I'm not sure yet."

For Vagrant president Rich Egan, working with Westerberg is a dream come
true: "I started the label based on the inspiration of the Replacements
and the impact they had on my life. And, now, to be working with him -- it
defies words. I said to somebody, 'Imagine if you started a basketball
team based on watching Michael Jordan play, and then Jordan told you he
wanted to join your team, your sandlot team.' That's pretty much the
equivalent of where I'm at right now."

Having first met Westerberg during a meeting with managers Gary Borman and
Steve Moir several years ago -- Egan was an associate manager for Borman
and Moir, and Westerberg was seeking new management -- Egan, now 32,
remembers being starstruck, gushingly telling the singer that the revered
Replacements album "Tim" "changed my life." As it turns out, recounting
that meeting helped Egan secure the deal.

"That sealed it for me, just the fact that things have come full-circle,"
says Westerberg, who was also in discussions with Epitaph and is
admittedly unfamiliar with such new labelmates as Dashboard Confessional
and the Get-Up Kids. "It's like the guys who used to make the coffee are
now the guys who are making the decisions. And the guys who used to be
listening to the records are now the guys who are producing the records
... I think it's an opportunity for me to maybe align myself with a fan
who is definitely bright and on the way up."

Below are excerpts from the interview with Paul Westerberg, exclusive to
Billboard.com:

Q: The release of "Suicaine Gratification" on Capitol seemed like a
debacle of sorts. Tell me about it.

PW: I think it was a good record, and it was sort of the classic case
scenario of people can't miss ya if you don't go away -- and I knew that.
And, ya know, I made a great record, or a really good record, and a lot of
people didn't even know it was released. I mean the guy who signed me
[then-Capitol chief Gary Gersh] was fired from the company the day the
record was pressed. So it hindered the whole promotional aspect of the
thing. But that was cool, cuz I think I was hip to that before, and I
wasn't planning on taking those songs on the road anyway.

Q: What was Capitol's reaction to your decision not to tour?

PW: They didn't really care, once the president sort of gets -- ya know, I
dunno if he claims he left or was booted, anyway he's out of there -- I,
being his pet project, essentially got the same treatment. It's not like
the next man in is gonna come in and embrace what the previous president
was touting as the greatest thing on the label.

I mean, I got along with [Gersh's successor] Roy Lott, but, ya know, while
making the record with Gersh, he was certainly pushing me toward a more
eclectic style, ya know. And then it was the final week when he called and
told me there was no single, it was like, 'Why didn't you tell me two
months ago.' It's like, 'I thought that was the point.'

The best thing is that [producer] Don Was and I had a lot of fun. I mean,
we didn't do a lot of producing of music [Westerberg had completed much of
the album on his own, prior to convening with Was], but we had a lot of
fun hanging out with one another. So, I mean, that was worth the
experience in itself. I think, in the long, long haul, [the album] will
stand the test of time, like 'Born for Me,' and 'Self Defense,' I think,
are two of my best songs. There's some crap on there, just like every
record.

Q: Was there a defining moment when you realized that you weren't going to
tour on the record?

PW: I went to Europe, and I played 'It's a Wonderful Lie' over there on
television in England and in France -- I don't know if footage ever
survived of that. I certainly -- as I was playing that -- was thinking
that this is it. I'm done, this is the last thing I'm going to play. The
song sort of spoke of the whole genre of, ya know -- it's a wonderful lie,
it's a farce, it's a sham, ya know, it's phony, it's rock'n'roll. And, ya
know, that's how I felt at the time I wrote it and as I was singing it, as
well. So that... ya know, it took a while, ya gotta sort of get away from
it for the feeling to come back a little bit.

Q: Is that feeling back?

PW: No. (Laughs) Well, ya know, it is more than it was. I'm more prepared
to go and actually play music now than I was four years ago, when I was
supposed to last time. And, even a year ago, the thought of performing in
public would have made me physically ill, but I've finally come around to
it.

I've been playing the guitar. That's always like the first sign -- first
you put your pants on. And I have been playing the guitar, and that's my
first love, to go back to strumming the damn thing. And, I'm sort of back
to that.

So this isn't a piano record. The last record was written a lot on the
piano, and then transposed over to the guitar. I think that was part of
the reason I didn't want to take it out [on the road]. So, this is all
guitar-based stuff that I'm more comfortable with, I guess. But I'm gonna
have to come out of my whole and rear my ugly head. I mean, I've made a
deal, so it's kind of like, I know the bargain, the bargain is I have to
go out and play. And how actually and what configuration, I'm not sure,
yet, if it's gonna be me alone a couple of places, or me with a band, or
me with a particular band. It's like, I'm always waiting around for
lightening to strike.

Q: The thought of you performing alone with a guitar is intriguing.

PW: For a few songs, maybe. But there's no one in the world I would want
to hear by themselves for an hour. No one, not Elvis Presley himself. It's
like, I like drums, I guess that's why I, in the end, made a record that
was sort of both sides of my brain, because I can only go so long and
listen to so much music that's considered -- ya know, whatever term we
wanted to use -- folk, or whatever. If I'm gonna stand in front of people,
I do like simply to be up there with other musicians, and preferably a
drummer. I mean, if I had my one choice of an instrument, I would chose
drums and no bass.

Q: Are there any surprises on this record?

PW: No. (Laughs) And I say that with pride. (More laughter). There's
nothing new and there's nothing fresh because new things get old and fresh
things get stale. It's as new as Hank Williams and as fresh as Chuck
Berry. It's the real s***. It's not gonna change, ever. It might be a
slightly shade of green, but it's still green.

It's not like I tried to do what U2 tried a few years ago when they tried
to make an electronic dance record, because they felt like they had to
move on. I don't have that Bowie-esque, chameleon thing. I'm not an actor.
I sort of stick with what I do. Just like Dylan. They claim all this and
that. It's like, it all sounds like Dylan to me. Ya know, [despite] the
help that plays behind him, it always sounds like Bob.

Q: Recording in mono -- that's certainly different.

PW: I love it. I mean, I heard "La Bamba" in the car the other day, and
it's like, 'Why in the hell does that still sound great?' And it's because
they used one f***in' mic. And the older I get, I am more and more a fan
of that old, like Jimmy Reed, mono style sound rock'n'roll.

Q: How old are these songs?

PW: I think one or two came right at the tail end of the last record. I
think "High Time," the one that opens the Grandpaboy record, was the very
first one I wrote after sort of throwing up the last record. I look at it
as a term of sickness, like, making a record. Now, that I finally shat the
last one out. (Laughs).

It's a never ending phase. I've gotten to the point where it's like I
write a song and it's like, 'F***, did I write this one two records ago?
Probably.' I don't listen to my old records, but I'm probably using, ya
know, cuplets, certainly melodies I've used before. But, hey, I've got my
stock.

Q: Tell me about the track on which your three-year-old son makes a
surprise appearance.

PW: I was playing the keyboard and then he comes in and starts playing, ya
know, takes over for me. So, suddenly you hear my playing get suspiciously
outside and minor keyed. (Laughter) But, I edited him out of most of it.

Q: You named your son John Paul Westerbeg. Why that name?

PW: It was just an easy, classic, normal name. I didn't want his name to
arrive before he does. It might be psyche with either Johnny Thunders or
the Pope. But It was not the Beatles, which everyone thinks. It didn't
even cross my mind.

Q: You play several instruments, including drums, right?

PW: I can stab at everything now. It's sort of self-indulgent fun...It's
amazing what you can do by yourself if you don't try too hard.

Q: Who plays on the Grandpaboy record?

PW: Well, I can't be answering that question there for ya -- we haven't
come up with the publicity/lie campaign yet...I think [after] one listen
to this thing and it's pretty obvious who's on it and who ain't.

Q: I've heard different things about a Replacements boxed set, possibly
being compiled by [Twin/Tone co-founder] Peter Jesperson. Have you been
involved with that, is that something you're working on?

PW: I haven't planned on anything with Peter. I mean, not anything
recently. I don't know. The status of the Replacements is technically
Tommy [Stinson] and I, whatever we decide to do about it.

Q: You said you talk to Tommy occasionally. What do you think about his
new gig playing bass in Guns'n'Roses?

PW: I'm envious, he's getting paid for doing nothing. What have they
played, like one gig, or something?

Q: Living in Minneapolis, I bet you run into a good number of gushing
Replacements fans.

PW: I sort of consciously made an effort to avoid going places where that
might happen. I don't go anywhere. I don't talk to anyone who might gush.
(Laughter). I'll go to a mall or something. But I do avoid record stores,
and the ones I go to -- I haven't, like, gone to the hip record store, ya
know, in 20 years. I'll, like, go to Target or something and be befuddled
that I can't get the greatest hits of Foghat or something. (more
laughter).

Q: Do you listen to much new music?

PW: No. (Laughter) No. I don't seek it out and I don't look for it. I'm
having more fun playing the handful of records I have for my
three-year-old son to see what he likes, and let him choose the things
that he likes. And it's really funny to see the stuff that catches his
ear. I mean, he went through a fixation where he loved the Sweet for a
while. And, now, he loves the Yardbirds. It's like, where the hell that
comes from? I dunno.  And he likes Jimmy Reed. So I'm more interested in
that. Ya know, I am what I am.



From: JohnFA2@aol.com
Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2002 13:21:02 EST
Subject: Fwd: PW Tour In 3 Weeks?

The following information was supposed to have been given directly to
someone I work with from Rich Egan at Vagrant:
A tour has been booked. Westerberg is supposed to do a short tour of
about 15 dates at small clubs starting in Ohio and the dates may indeed
be happening before the new cd comes out.

No mention of Slim Dunlap or Chris Mars, but Tommy Stinson and Dave
Pirner are supposed to be involved with the touring band along with some
other musicians.



Subject: westerberg covers beatles on i am sam sountrack
From: "sjk0108@earthlink.net" <sjk0108@earthlink.net>
Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2001 14:25:35 -0500

I have heard it (the Westerberg song).  Thought it was excellent.
Also love Rufus doing Across the Universe

Steve


Vedder, Crowes Cover Beatles For 'I Am Sam'

Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, the Black Crowes, Sarah McLachlan, the
Wallflowers, Ben Harper, and Nick Cave are among the artists who have
recorded Beatles covers for the V2 soundtrack to "I Am Sam," starring SEAN
PENN and Michelle Pfeiffer. The album, due Jan. 8, also features Beatles
covers by Aimee Mann and Michael Penn, Ben Folds, Paul Westerberg,
Grandaddy, Stereophonics, Heather Nova, the Vines, Howie Day, Chocolate
Genius, and, as first reported here, Rufus Wainwright and Sean Lennon.

The film, which hits U.S. theaters on Dec. 28, centers around the
struggles of the mentally challenged Sam Diamond (Penn), who is trying to
retain custody of his young daughter just as her burgeoning mental
capacity threatens to overshadow his own. Penn's character is obsessed
with Beatles minutiae, from the John Lennon posters that adorn his
apartment to the naming of his daughter Lucy as an homage to the song
"Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," covered on the soundtrack by the Black
Crowes.

"I Am Sam" was co-written, produced, and directed by Jessie Nelson, who
co-wrote and produced the 1999 Pfeiffer vehicle "The Story of Us." And
while listeners have gotten used to soundtracks loaded with songs that
have no bearing on the movie itself, "I Am Sam" producer Rick Solomon of
Bedford Falls Company tells Billboard.com, "these songs and these usages
have existed in every single draft" of the five-year-old script. Solomon
adds that Yoko Ono and Paul McCartney each gave their blessing to the
project.

McLachlan's interpretation of "Blackbird" is her first new recording since
the 1999 Arista live album "Mirrorball," while Westerberg's take on
"Nowhere Man" is his first release since 1999's "Suicane Gratification"
set on Capitol. The Wallflowers' cover of "I'm Looking Through You"
features guest vocals by Jackson Browne, at whose studio the song was
recorded.

"I Am Sam" also features appearances by mentally disabled actors Brad
Silverman and Joe Rosenberg, whom filmmakers met while doing research at
L.A.  Goal, a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting
developmentally disabled adults. "When V2 got familiar with the
organization, they committed to donating some of the proceeds [from the
soundtrack] back to L.A. Goal,"  Solomon says. "When that happened, it
engendered all of this good will.  People cut songs for very small amounts
of money."

Here is the tracklist for the "I Am Sam" soundtrack:

"Blackbird," Sarah McLachlan
"Two of Us," Aimee Mann and Michael Penn
"I'm Looking Through You," the Wallflowers
"Across the Universe," Rufus Wainwright and Sean Lennon
"Strawberry Fields Forever," Ben Harper
"You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," Eddie Vedder
"Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," the Black Crowes
"Golden Slumbers," Ben Folds
"Nowhere Man," Paul Westerberg
"Let It Be," Nick Cave
"Don't Let Me Down," the Stereophonics
"We Can Work It Out," Heather Nova
"I'm Only Sleeping," the Vines
"Help!," Howie Day
"Revolution," Grandaddy
"Julia," Chocolate Genius

-- Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.


__________________________________________________________________________

II.  HELLO

From: "Chris King" <brodog@hotmail.com>
Subject: back in the day
Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 11:56:16

Skyway has succeeded again at bringing some friendly voices into my e-mail
box, and thanks for that. Replacements fans seem just as no-bullshit and
wry as the band we love.

I wanted to share a few anecdotes. The Mats and I had a thing for shirts.
I first saw them at St. Louis in this abandoned armory at the end of Bob's
tenure. During the opening band, a dazed and drunk Tommy Stinson offered
to trade shirts with me. For those of you looking for Replacements
t-shirts I can say that I literally had one in my possession (it was a
dirty, blank white t-shirt) until it went into the dirty clothes and came
out mixed in with my other t-shirts.

Their next time through town, I interviewed Paul for the local college
paper. He was swirling and swizzing down Jack and Cokes and unnerved by my
geeky, lit-crit approach. I mean, I had a long list of lyrical questions
in hand and meant to go through every one with him! I wore him out. At the
end I gave him a beer distributor shirt with the name Paul on it, but he
then traded that to the extremely cute girl from the radio station, taking
her (clean) white t-shirt in the trade.

My first band later bought an old blue van from Uncle Tupelo, who we knew
and gigged with, that had a dent in it that had been left by the
Replacements van. We always thought that was cool.

As a final touch to my brushes with power-pop fame, we opened for Alex
Chilton and had a little acoustic moment after the show when he played
"13" on our guitarist's acoustic guitar and sang it with us. (He wouldn't
do it from the stage because the song "lays an egg" for him now, he said.)
Then we surprised Alex on the back steps receiving fellatio. I guess that
was a good gig for him.

I've always meant to e-mail these stories to Skyway, so pardon me if I am
repeating myself. Also, anyone should let me know -- brodog@hotmail.com --
if they want to trade tapes or CDs. I've never dipped into MP3s but would
like to hear some of these rarities, and have lots of great, obscure music
to share in trade. I hear lots of Uncle Tupelo references on this list.
There were lots of bands in that early St. Louis scene with them (and us),
and they made some good records that nobody heard outside of St. Louis. I
even produced a record for Pops Farrar, Jay Farrar's father and a very
good friend of mine. You can check out Pops at www.skuntry.com.

Take care!
Chris King, now holed up in the Village of South Floral Park, N.Y.



Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 22:24:35 -0500
From: Frank Bruno <fbruno@wnm.net>
Subject: superdrag

My name is Frank and I live in Memphis Tennessee and I love The
Replacements and Paul's solo and Tommy's solo records too.  AMAZING NOISE.
I just wanted to say that I enjoy the Skyway and like that people talk
back and forth about the Replacements and other bands that they may like.
I would like to add a band to that if i could I hope that you have heard
of them because I love them.  It is Superdrag.  Their new album is so good
I can't stop listening to it.  I saw them in Nashville a month or so ago
opening for Big Star.  They have a new limited release I got from there
record label called greetings from Tennessee, and they do a great cover of
Bastards of Young on it.  It is hard to brag about the band over an email,
so if you haven't heard the new album IN THE VALLEY OF DYING STARS, please
check it out.

Also I have a lot of mats material that I have collected over the years
that at least impresses me but not other people I know.  A lot of it was a
bit hard to get to.  So if there is anybody else who has a lot but is
still looking maybe we could help each other out.

One more thing before I bore you to death.  When VH1 had the small clip of
Mats material on the 100 greatest records.  What was the video material
they were showing cause I thought I had seen it all but I guess not. . .

thanks
frank



Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 18:49:20 -0400
From: Matt Cashner <eek@eekeek.org>
Subject: introductions and entrances

ok. so i guess i'm kind of the lame cousin of most of you on this list. i
never say the mats live and i've never seen paul live either. i'm kind of
depressed about both actually. and to make me weirder, i discovered the
mats through nirvana.

i came of age to nevermind. my parents regretted their lapse of oversight
as it quickly gave rise to loud music permeating our house every second i
was awake.  sometime around 1994, a copy of _route 666:  on the road to
nirvana_ found its way into my hands. in case you're not familiar, its a
documentary of sorts of the punk movement up to and including the grunge
explosion of 91-92 from the perspective of one of you all, someone having
lived through it all. the author spent all this time talking about a band
called the replacements. how they camped out at her house in the early
days. etc etc.  well one day i was in the local used cd store, and there
was this cd "don't tell a soul" by the replacements. it was only a few
buck so i grabbed it.

7 years later, i'm quite a different person from who i was going to be
then.  a lot of that is the shitfest the 90s turned out to be. but the
fact that i survived is due largely to the mats. by '96 i was finally in
possession of every mats album in print (barely sometimes :). songs like
"achin' to be", "unsatisfied", "bastards of young", and "never mind" gave
me a hold on the world when it was spinning so badly.  hell, "answering
machine" was a damn breakup song for me at one point.

things have changed a bit. these days, i keep a replacements/westerberg
mp3 collection on cd near me always.  i'm sad i never got to see them live
but i'm glad to at least have the cds. but you know, no matter how much my
life changes, there's still a mats song playing in my head. and i guess
that's all that matters.

a little autobio info for you all: name is matt cashner. i'm a 23 year old
computer programmer living near lexington, ky. originally from richmond,
IN, home of tom raper rvs and lots of corn. musical influences include
hum, fugazi, the mats (DUH), nin, and a host of other miscellaneous bands.

so that's me. am i really this young? i feel fucking 40. oh well :)

-- 
Matt Cashner
Web Applications Developer
The Creative Group (http://www.cre8tivegroup.com)
eek@eekeek.org | Codito, ergo sum



Date: 10 Nov 2001 16:52:36 EST
From: SHELLY JOHNSON <battgrrrl@usa.net>
Subject: newcomer story

I never really envisioned myself being 36 years old and subscribing to
something like this, but what the hell.  The truth is that I'm not
obsessed with the past or even with The Replacements themselves.
However, I LOVE their music!  I still listen to it and have found little
that grabs me the way their stuff did - and does.  Plus, I've found Mats
fans to be a rare breed of people.  It's an instant connection, and if I
can meet others who dig them like I do, all the better.

Of course, I have a story to tell.  I met the Mats in the fall of 1983
when they played an on-campus radio station sponsored Halloween party at
Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.  I had never heard of them
before.  I think the crowd was expecting a traditional cover song dance
band.  Guess again!  A friend from the station introduced me to the guys
before the show started.  They all were extremely nice and polite.  I
couldn't believe how they sounded once they hit the stage.  They were
positively awful!  They sucked big time!  One by one, the crowd diminished
to about 20 people who stuck around for the entire gig.  One image I have
indelibly branded on my brain was when someone dressed as Dorothy from the
Wizard of Oz stomped out during "Take Me To The Hospital", obviously
disgusted.  I, too, wanted to leave but couldn't.  For one thing, I didn't
think it would be too cool to walk out after having met the band.  For
another, I was oddly intrigued by their stuff (even though I couldn't
stand it!).

Chris spent time talking with me during the set break.  After the show
came a major turning point in my life.  I got autographs from ALL 4 of the
guys on one of the radio promo posters.  At the time, I did it to be nice.
I had no idea how much it would be worth someday, particularly to me.  As
I was heading out of the building, Tommy stopped me.  He said, "Here - we
want you to have this".  It was a vinyl copy of "Hootenanny".  Wow.  I
couldn't help thinking, "What great guys - too bad they're never going to
make it".  That, of course, was before I listened to the record.  I was
instantly hooked and have been ever since.  I guess their performance that
night was just one of those famous drunken brawls we have all come to know
and love.

I saw them play several times over the years and usually spent a little
time chatting with them after.  I really miss seeing them LIVE!  Oh well,
all good things must come to an end, right?

Anyway, thanks for putting this list together.  I'm looking forward to
reading it in the days to come.

Shelly
battgrrrl@usa.net



From: "CHAD WERNER" <baileywerner@email.msn.com>
Subject: Paid With Beer
Date: Sat, 2 Feb 2002 09:38:53 -0600

I signed up to receive the Skyway newsletter many moons ago, but after
many email changes I fell out of the loop.  I can't remember if I ever
sent in one of the "introduction" emails, but here is one.

Grew up in MN (south of Mpls).  Always fascinated by the tee shirts that
the "skaters" would wear.  They would say things like "The Replacements",
"Husker Du", "Soul Asylum".  Who were these guys?  I didn't get interested
enough to find out until my junior or senior year in high school when I
bought "Don't Tell A Soul" & "Pleased To Meet Me".  The rest, as they say,
is history.

Never saw the 'Mats, but I have seen Tommy, B&P, Perfect, and Paul on
numerous occasions (Bobby Mould, too).  The news about Paul signing with
Vagrant, releasing new music, and probably touring is too much to bear.
I can't hardly wait!

Now to take care of a little business...  I have been painstakingly
scouring the web for 'Mats gems, and I think that I have come pretty close
(I have over 40 demos, outtakes, etc.) to finding everything anyone not
named Peter Jesperson can find.  HOWEVER, there are 3 songs that I need
help with, and would appreciate any help from you folks. 20

The songs:  "Going Out Of My Head", "Shape Up", and "Don't Turn Me Down"
"Going Out Of My Head" I believe is an outtake from Tim or PTMM.  "Shape
Up" & "Don't Turn Me Down" are pre-Sorry Ma...

Whoever helps me is entitled to the collection in CD format.  And, yes,
it is called Paid With Beer.

Thanks a million, cats.



From: "Mark Jon Rinaldi" <m_jon_rinaldi@hotmail.com>
Subject: Replacements Cover Band??
Date: Tue, 08 Jan 2002 15:52:25 -0500

Hello fellow Replacements fans!

I have been a 'Mats fan since about 1987. I had just flunked out of
college and was living in my grandmother's basement at the time. A few
years earlier, I bought "Let It Be", but was into metal at the time and
was unable to understand the emotional, spiritual and musical importance
of that album, let alone realize that it did indeed ROCK. Fast forward
about 3 years (and several mind expanding experiences) to 1987 and my
first listening of "Please To Meet Me"/my first transcendent Replacement's
experience. The 'Mats basically sang what seemed like every feeling I'd
ever had in my own life up to that point. I was thankful that I had given
them a second chance. Plus PTMM just rocked harder and more intelligently
than any metal band I was listening to at the time. Sometimes I think the
'Mats saved me in a way. It sounds corny, but knowing that someone else
felt the same as me gave me the courage to really be myself.  It didn't
take long before I had gone back into their catalog and bought or taped
"Tim", "Let It Be", "Hootenanny", "Stink" and all the rest.

I was lucky enough to see them three times in the late 80's and early
90's. My first show (Colby College in Waterville, ME 1988 or 89) was and
still is my favorite show. Paul actually fell on me towards the end of
that show. I also saw them open for Elvis Costello (who stunk) and then at
the Orpheum Theater in Boston where we actually ran into Tommy in a pizza
joint after the show. A female friend of ours who was very drunk actually
asked Tommy if he was "Mike Stripe of REM". It was really funny, even
though we felt like idiots in front of one of our rock idols!

The 'Mats are, to this day, my favorite band, which leads me to the reason
for writing all this. I live in Portland, ME (yeah, the OTHER Portland)
and, just recently, my band broke up. We were an eclectic mix of Blues,
Rock, R&B and Soul and at times it was great, but there were just too many
different influences for us to really gel. So we always ended up in the
middle of the road. We had some great musicians, but I just wanted to rock
like the 'Mats did. (And sometimes, but not nearly enough, we did.) Now,
I'd like to find some like minded people in the area. I'd love to be in a
'Mats cover band or write originals in the same vein with the same
attitude and balls that they had. Or just play with people who loved them
like I did. In my previous band I played guitar (rhythm/lead) and sang
backup vocals. I could probably sing like Paul more or less.

If interested you can email me at: m_jon_rinaldi@hotmail.com

I know it may be a long time before anyone from Maine even reads this, but
hey, you never know and it's always good to hear from another Replacements
fan anyway. Hell if anyone just wants to shoot the shit about the 'Mats,
feel free to write.

Yer pal,
Jon

__________________________________________________________________________

III.  LOOKING FOR YOU

Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2001 14:29:45 -0800 (PST)
From: Ben Pierce <benjaminthomaspierce@yahoo.com>
Subject: possible Replacements-related favor...

i'm looking for a particular photo of Paul. yes I know this is a LONG
shot. + the details are fuzzy. here's all the info I can come up with:

i saw the picture about 10 (!) years ago, in a record store in ames, iowa.
looked to be taken sometime mid-Replacements-career. photo consisted of a
close-up of Paul onstage, moving toward the photographer. paul was holding
his guitar like a baseball bat, and looking like he was about to smack the
photographer. wild look in his eyes, etc.

any line on an original print, good re-print, etc. would be great.

info can be sent to me via email:
benjaminthomaspierce@yahoo.com

thanks



From: "Peter Kosciewicz" <peter_kosciewicz@hotmail.com>
Subject: Looking for Live Recording
Date: Thu, 06 Dec 2001 15:02:57 -0500

I'm hoping someone can help me find a live recording of the 'Mats show on
7/29/87 at the Bayou in Washington, DC. I was at the show and would love
to hear it again all these years later. (By the way, I wrote an account of
my experience that night for Skyway Issue #61. It would have been
memorable if not for all the bourbon).

Any help would be greatly appreciated. E-mail me at
peter_kosciewicz@hotmail.com

Thanks,
Peter K.

__________________________________________________________________________

IV.  IN PRINT

From: "Janet Scott" <jls0113@earthlink.net>
Subject: Fw: mats
Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2001 08:48:02 -0400

because I know you care....
j

PICKING A DIGITAL NIT
>From the discussion: This is Hardcore

Hey, we're fans of Peter S. Scholtes's writing, not to mention all the
other cool stuff he's done in the Twin Cities music scene but his research
in regard to a portion of the story "This Is Hardcore" (September 5) was a
little lacking. Peter, when you claim that the Replacements "grabbed their
master tapes--all four indie albums, including Let It Be--and tossed them
in the Mississippi," what's your source? You didn't attempt to call either
Paul Stark or myself and we're the owners of the label! Then you appear to
refute author Michael Azerrad's comment, "The tapes were only safety
masters," by saying, "Greg Calbi, who remastered the albums for Restless
Records, confirms that he worked from digital copies, not the original
masters (which apparently couldn't be found)."

Glad you took the time to get in touch with Greg, but the parenthetical
part of the sentence was purely your assumption. The truth is, once and
for all, that the Replacements did indeed throw some of their tapes in the
river. (The reason they did it is almost funnier than the action itself,
but that's another story.) While we can't account for exactly what they
did throw in the river (some rough mixes, possibly the multi-track of the
song "Within Your Reach," a safety master or two), we can say that it
wasn't the masters of all four of the Twin/Tone albums. We still have
them.

The reason the remastered versions weren't done from the original masters
was because the 17- to 20-year-old analog tapes weren't in the best
condition (it's common knowledge that tape deteriorates over time). Both
Greg Calbi and Paul Stark agreed it was best to do them from the digital
masters. It's not really a big deal, but we were surprised when we read
Peter's authoritative comments and corrections when he didn't even bother
to call the only people that really knew what happened.

And for what it's worth, we think tossing their tapes into the Mississippi
River was hilarious and a perfectly Replacementsesque thing to do!

Peter Jesperson and Paul Stark
co-owners, Twin/Tone Records
Minneapolis



Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 22:02:11 -0400
Subject: The Replacements Bible
From: John Davidson <the_wiseacre@bigfoot.com>

I have spent years collecting articles on the Replacements and have
finally gotten around to compiling everything.  Yeah, for some of you this
doesn't mean anything but I hope for anyone interested that you're
excited.

There is a virtual treasure trove of information in this document -- it's
hundreds of pages long, starting with the legendary Goldmine article and
ending with every picture I could find on the Internet over the past few
years.

I hocked stuff from the web and I reprinted stuff without permission. If I
bummed content from your web page, relax.  If I bummed content from your
magazine, the chances are that the article was long out of print and
basically unavailable anyway.  Sue me.  Or demand that you are recognized
and I will update this document.

The project is intended for my use, but I'm sharing it.  It's not for
commerical distribution so don't sell it.  Not that you would anyway; the
number of 'Mats fans dims as years go by.

So here it is, the Replacements Bible. If you have any content that I
don't, please let me know so I can make this thing better.

Send any comments my way as well.

You can download this for free right here:

http://homepage.mac.com/WebObjects/FileSharing.woa/wa/default?user=matsf
ans&templatefn=FileSharing.html&aff=consumer&cty=US&lang=en

and it's in PDF form.  That means if you have Adobe Acrobat Reader, you
are all set.  Despite my spending a lot of money getting things
transcribed, it's FREE for your taking.

Yes, the file is huge (almost 10MB) but I promise it's worth it.

Send helpful hints and criticism to:
the_wiseacre@bigfoot.com

JD
in
ATL



From: "Ralph Bryant" <pwig@revealed.net>
Newsgroups: alt.music.replacements
Subject: new years replacements fantasy
Date: Fri, 14 Dec 2001 18:07:58 -0600

http://www.twincities.com/entertainment/music/2001stories/dec/1213walsh.htm

------------------------------------------------------------------------
JIM WALSH PIONEER PRESS
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The New Year's fantasy news story goes something like this:

ST. PAUL (AP, Jan. 1, 2002)

The Replacements are back.

The Minneapolis-based band, whose legendary live shows and records defined
a generation in the '80s and provided building blocks to the college and
alternative-rock movements of the '90s, have decided to reform after a
12-year hiatus.

The news came just weeks after the dedication of a park bench to the
memory of late Replacements guitarist Bob Stinson. The ceremony, which
took place Dec. 15 at St. Paul's Turf Club, featured performances from
several local bands and a toast to the bench, which sits in a garden at
Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis.

"The bench is real nice," Replacements singer/guitarist Paul Westerberg
told Kurt Loder of "MTV News." "I walked over there the other night, sat
on it, and asked, 'What would Bob do?' The answer: Get his band back up
onstage as a bunch of old (expletives) and flop."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

What: The Bob Stinson Birthday and Bench Celebration with Slim Dunlap,
Rank Strangers, Bleeding Hearts, Kruddler, the Mammy Nuns, Jake Wisti,
the Beatifics, Vena Cava, Mike Suade, Lotus Eaters, Andy Crowley, Chris
Dorn and B.O.B.

When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Where: Turf Club, 1601 University Ave., St. Paul
Tickets: $5
Call: (651) 647-0486

------------------------------------------------------------------------

News of the reformation spread quickly within ecstatic Replacements
circles. Asked to comment, New York-based critic Ira Robbins said, "I
guess I'll just reiterate what I wrote in 'The Trouser Press Record
Guide': 'For a time the (Replacements were the) world's best rock 'n' roll
band - proof that those who missed the '60s could still build something
great on the crass and hollow corpse of '70s music."'

Music historians have long championed the Replacements as a band that
wasn't for everybody. But with a new trend toward rawness and feeling over
all else, and bands such as the Strokes, the Hives, the Midnight Evils,
Wilco, Marah, the Now Explosion, Slobberbone and Ed Tinley and His Hired
Guns gaining a new audience, the time might be right for a full-fledged
Replacements revival.

"It's about time," said Tom Cook, a.k.a. "Drummer Guy," the
musician/talk-radio host who has often lobbied the band to reform on his
weekly KFAN-AM show, "Rock Talk With Drummer Guy." "Those songs deserve to
be out there, being played in front of large gatherings of people, now
more than ever."

Said singer/songwriter Ryan Adams, "I am a complete fraud - especially
compared to those guys, whom I obviously love. But I couldn't carry their
guitar straps."

After a tumultuous 11 years together, the Replacements (often referred to
by fans as "the 'Mats") finally split up in 1990. Since then, all four
band members have put out solo albums and all but drummer Chris Mars have
played live. (Bassist Tommy Stinson lives in Los Angeles and plays with
the on-again-off-again Guns 'N' Roses.) The foundation for the reunion was
laid when Westerberg ran into Mars recently at a Minneapolis bookstore
near the home of Replacements guitarist Bob "Slim" Dunlap.

"We started talking about old times, George Harrison, Joey Ramone, Ground
Zero (a Minneapolis punk band) and what a crappy year it had been," said
Mars, a Minnesota Twins season-ticket holder.

"The next thing you know, we're in Slim's basement, playing 'When It
Began,' 'Bastards of Young,' 'Kids Don't Follow' and 'Darlin' One'," said
Westerberg, who lives within walking distance of Dunlap and Mars. "Then we
remembered that Tommy was in town, visiting his mom and daughter. We
called him up, he came over, we gave him (expletive) about Axl and Slash,
and did 'Sixteen Blue.' From there, it was like riding a trike."

Westerberg has written and recorded more than 25 new songs for a solo
record, including "Let the Bad Times Roll," which should see the light of
day this year. He said he was considering putting together a touring band
when the fated meeting with Mars took place. After two days of rehearsals
("or male-bonding-goofing-off-therapy," cracked Mars), Westerberg called
his old friend and former 'Mats road manager Bill Sullivan, owner of the
400 Bar in Minneapolis.

"He goes, 'Can I bring my band down?' " said Sullivan. "I said, 'Sure,'
but he hung up before I could ask what band. He shows up a couple hours
later, and it's the 'Mats. They played for 90 minutes. Old songs. New
songs. Paul songs. Chris songs. Slim songs. Tommy songs. A Shania Twain
song. It was a Monday night. Ten people were here."

The next night, the word was out. A line of amped-up 'Mats fans snaked its
way down Cedar Avenue to the Metrodome, so the band high-tailed it across
the river and set up at the Turf. By the time they finished a two-hour set
that included "I Will Dare," "I.O.U.," "Nowhere Man" and "Put a Little
Love in It (According to John)," the club was a madhouse.

Another ardent Replacements reunion advocate has been Minnesota Daily
critic Brianna Riplinger, who recently wrote in her syndicated column,
"Riplinger's Riffs," "I'm 20 years old, and I never got to see them live.
To me and a lot of my friends, the Replacements have this mystery that no
other band does. I don't care that they're not wild or drunk or crazy. I
just want to hear the songs."

As it stands, the band plans to do a short six-city club tour to gauge
interest and "see how it feels," said Westerberg. If all goes well, a full
tour could happen later this year. Opening acts have yet to be named, but
interested parties are already throwing their hats in the ring.

"Back in the day we used to open for the Replacements and vice versa,"
said the former singer for a local band who asked not to be identified. "I
like to think they had some of their best shows when we opened for them.
We were all competitive little (expletives) back then.

"We'd inspire each other. We'd go after each other. We'd play what was for
us a great set, then they'd come out like prizefighters, level the room
and make laughingstocks out of us. They were always up for a challenge."

Pop music critic Jim Walsh can be reached at jwalsh@pioneer press.com or
(651) 228-5553.



From: "Janet Scott" <jls0113@earthlink.net>
Subject: Fw: Minneapolis 70's & 80's
Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2001 20:39:15 -0400

A History lesson ... and how I spent my, uh, early years!

****

The Second Wave
Twin Cities Geezers
Still Rockin'
By Tom Hallett

Geezer: "(Slang) an eccentric man or, rarely, woman; usually preceded by
'old.'"-Webster's New World Dictionary

Geezer: Butler, bassist for heavy metal grandfathers Black Sabbath.

"Geezer? I thought you said GIZA!" -Curtiss A

Gather round, children, and you shall hear a small snippet of the sweat,
blood and beer-stained history of your own local music scene. Not the
post-Nirvana, faux-punk major label rush scene of the mid-to-late '90s.
Not the bibulous post-punk bum rush of the early-to-mid '80s. And not even
the proto-everything, hyper-eclectic pre-First Wave scene that began in
the late '30s with big band, country, swing, and polka mutating into bobby
soxers, crooners, jazz, blues, folk and finally rock 'n' roll. Although
musicians in each of these eras helped set the stage and served as a
beacon to many of the characters who'd eventually populate the scene later
on, the first artists to breakdown the barriers and lay the groundwork for
"The Minneapolis Sound" as it's perceived by the world at large today, did
so in the period between 1974 and 1980.

Despite the regional (and sometimes national) success of local acts like
The Andrews Sisters in the '40s, Bobby Vee in the '50s, The Trashmen and
Koerner, Ray & Glover in the '60s, and Crow in the '70s, Minneapolis
remained a chaotic, genre-confounding whirlwind of styles,
flash-in-the-pan scenes and one-hit wonders. Bobby Vee went on to national
success after Soma Records, one of Minneapolis' earliest and most
successful local labels, and sold his contract to Liberty Records.
Keyboard whiz Mark Naftalin lit out and did a stint with the Paul
Butterfield Blues Band. Dylan gleaned what he could from the scene and
headed for New York. Most of the rest scored one or two regional or
national hits before either splitting or settling into a working band
groove. Koerner, Ray & Glover, of course, became international
inspirations for everyone from Dylan to The Beatles, and continue to play
to this day.

Though the crucial personnel were slowly gravitating towards the scene,
with the groundwork solidly in place by 1973, the question "Is There a
Minneapolis Sound?" was still pertinent enough that local writer Dave Hill
wrote an exhaustive, 13-page inquiry/expose on the subject in Twin Cities'
music mag "Insider." Hill (affectionately referred to as "Doc Rock" around
town), who's now nearly 65 years old and long retired from rock writing,
watched first-hand from the trenches as Minneapolis played its
hit-and-miss musical game over three decades. "The [period of the]
mid-to-late '70s was The Second Wave," he explains, "the First Wave
[being] back in the early '60s-and some of these guys are still playing.
Jimmy Johnson played the Hexagon Bar last Saturday night, and he was the
original guitar player in The Underbeats in 1964."

Hill's article revealed just how deep and far-reaching our roots are, but
even then, local artists seemed scattered. "Something always seemed to be
lacking in Minneapolis," Hill wrote. "And that is ... a local recording
scene, a record label ... with real balls." Hill, who was already tossing
about the term "punk rock" with wanton abandon in 1973, making liars of
several other, more celebrated rock writers who would later claim they
coined it themselves, would have to wait a few more years for that kind of
scene to come together.

"There was always a music scene of some sort in Minneapolis," qualifies
the gruff, well-spoken geezer. "There was the Sunset Valley Barn Dance on
KSTP radio, and national country acts in the late '40s. And there was a
big scene here in the '30s-guys like Lester Young. There was a huge
Dixieland scene, a big jazz scene.

"In the '60s, because this was an affluent town, every kid in high school
got into a band so he could get laid," he laughs. "But remember, The
Trashmen were in the Top 10 the week the Beatles hit. Of course, [they]
pretty much killed the scene. Soma just signed every band in sight, and
then peddled them. They got lucky with Bobby Vee, but they weren't
interested in long-term development. So what happened was that Minneapolis
turned into a hotbed of white R&B bands-The Underbeats, The Gestures ..
And they got so good that bands like Michael's Mystics could produce guys
like Bill Lourden, a white kid from Minneapolis who ended up playing drums
for Sly Stone. Not many white kids got jobs like that! Willie Weeks went
on to play bass for George Harrison, [in essence] taking Paul McCartney's
place."

Two themes wind through Hill's recollection of those short-lived
Minneapolis scenes. First, our best and brightest were consistently
plucked from our midst, their talents shining so brightly (with dim local
opportunities) that they, as a rule, didn't stick around long enough to
gel into the kind of scene that began germinating near the end of the
'70s. Second, despite the hometown/regional focus of local labels like
Soma, Kay-Bank and North Star (as well as legendary recording studios like
Sound 80 and Micside), independent, self-released records were few and far
between. Hill's article placed a fair share of the blame for a spastic
local scene squarely on the shoulders of those early labels: "Sun,
Specialty, and other tiny labels took over the [national] charts because
the people demanded their music" while Soma was "a label owned by the man
[Amos Heilicher] who almost single-handedly invented rack-jobbing." Back
then, artists either went the pro route, going along with the payola
racket and getting financially shafted by unscrupulous suits, or reverted
to bar band (read: mainly covers) status and that old stand-by, the day
job-a far cry from the nurturing, self-sufficient recording and gigging
scene we know today.

"The modern scene as we know it started in the '70s," recounts Hill.
"There was a scene at Oarfolk Records. In 1973 or so, a guy named Vern
Sanden bought North Country Records at 26th and Lyndale. He rarely worked
in his own store. The first manager, Barry Margolis, was really
aggressive, [and] into that kind of English glam-rock. Half the Slade
albums in America were sold at Oarfolk!" he laughs. "After that, Pete
Jesperson [who went on to form Twin/Tone Records, and recalls being the
cat who introduced Margolis to all that English rawk] took over. Then he
hired a kid [as a clerk] named Andy Schwartz [who later bought "The New
York Rocker," an early punk zine]. And finally, he brought in Mark Trehus,
who just bought the store and renamed it Treehouse Records [and, over the
years, founded his own label, the now-defunct Treehouse Records, and
helped nurture scads of great later bands like The Cows, Babes in Toyland,
TVBC and The Bastards]. But you can't do a story about the development of
the scene in Minneapolis without mentioning that store. That's why
everything that happened in Minneapolis happened."

Jesperson, now VP of New West Records in L.A., credits his tenure at
Oarfolk and the scene that began growing around it with the creation of
Twin/Tone Records (whose excellent compilations, Big Hits of Mid-America
Volumes 3&4, were not only modeled on the original, '60s Soma releases,
but did a spiffy job of collecting and preserving on vinyl the cream of
the Second Wave crop) and his switch from retail sales to record company
exec. "I probably never would've gotten into the business had I not walked
in on Curtiss A [aka Curt Almstead] and his band Thumbs Up playing a cover
of "I Wanna Meet You" by The Cryan' Shames at the C.C. Tap," he muses. The
wily fan of British and new wave rock took advantage of that position at
Oarfolk, as well as a regular DJ gig at The Longhorn Bar, to suss out
local talent and eventually create the label many modern scenesters
mistakenly view as the grandfather of them all. Hill's earlier testaments
prove that there were plenty of predecessors, but few that took the
personal interest and financial chances that Twin/Tone did. "Until I saw
Curt," says Jesperson, "I never took local music seriously. I never
thought there could be any local music that I would care about like I
cared about the music I loved on record - The Beatles, The Stones, Big
Star. And I thought, there's nothing in Minneapolis on that level."

The Longhorn played a major role in nurturing the early Second Wave-the
majority of folks who remember the bar credit it with providing area bands
nearly the only place in town to cut their teeth and display their
talents. By bringing in national and international new wave and punk acts,
owner Jay Berine provided a plethora of local groups with a decent venue
and receptive crowds. The Police, Elvis Costello, The Talking Heads and
The Cramps all played The Longhorn for less than a grand, and sometimes
mingled freely with opening acts and audience members. Berine, who now
works with Technology Force (www.technologyforce.com), a Minneapolis
computer setup/Web site design company, continues to work with musicians
to this day. His company recently designed Web sites for Shannon Curfman,
Bruce Cockburn and promoter Sue McLean, as well as advised Soul Asylum's
Dave Pirner on his Mac/Pro-Tools set-up.

But Berine wasn't always in the hip mix. In a recent interview, he
admitted that he really didn't know what he was getting into when, as a
starstruck 23-year-old in 1977, he bought a jazz/supper club with the
vague idea of presenting live rock 'n' roll. "I didn't even reaalize I was
taking a chance," he laughs. "[Punk/new wave] was music that I wanted to
hear, and that my friends wanted to hear. Peter Jesperson was actually the
first rock 'n' roll DJ in this town. Between or before bands, most places
played tapes. Pete came to me with this idea of spinning records, and I
think that was a Minneapolis first, in a rock club. Peter introduced me to
a lot of bands-there was nothing on the radio."

Berine says he did some of the booking himself, but relied on his
pal/booker/club manager Al Wodtke and fellow music nuts like Jesperson for
hot recommendations. "We were just a couple of kids having a great time.
Then the day I opened the place, my face was all over Sweet Potato and The
Strib and the Pi-Press. Every Thursday, every Sunday."

He remembers fondly the bands that came through. "Actually, the first band
to play The Longhorn was Flamingo [later The Flamin' Oh's], and The
Suburbs were great. I remember the date The Longhorn opened," he chuckles,
"because it was the combination to our safe. It was 6/1/77!" Although he's
aware that he was a part of something special, Berine still insists on
giving his musical mentors their due. "I don't know that The Longhorn
would've been what it was without Al (Wodtke) and Peter Jesperson."

Jesperson recounts the early years of his DJ stint at The Longhorn in the
brightest terms (though he recalls Andy Schwartz scoring the DJ position
first, then wheedling his way in, and credits Roy Freedomas another early
Longhorn spinner), having seen firsthand the Minneapolis debut of such
modern-day luminaries as Elvis Costello and spotting some of the most
promising local acts of the day. Of those bands, many ended up on
Twin/Tone: The Suicide Commandos, Curtiss A, Fingerprints, The Suburbs,
and The Pistons, to name but a few. In a 1995 interview with the St. Paul
Pi-Press, Jesperson enthused: "Without the Commandos, I don't think the
Replacements, Husker Du, or Soul Asylum would have happened. They were the
true catalysts for the whole scene."

Mark Trehus also credits the Commandos and The Longhorn with his
initiation into the scene. "The day I discovered the Longhorn turned out
to be a day that changed my life forever," he says from behind the counter
at Treehouse Records. "It was the day that Elvis died [8/16/77], and a
friend and I had gone to see The Dictators play Kelly's Pub in St. Paul.
The Commandos were opening. Up to that point, I'd been sort of a hippie,
and frankly thought that rock was kind of dead. Country Dick Montana was
there, literally crying about Elvis' death. So here's The Commandos, and
they're doing [covers of] all the songs I loved! I went up to Chris
(Osgood), and he said they played every other weekend at The Longhorn. I
instinctively knew that an important part of rock history had been lost
[with Elvis' death], but at the same time, I was blown away by the
Commandos, who were carrying on that tradition. It was pivotal, and it
changed my life forever."

Terry Katzman, longtime owner/operator of now-defunct Garage D'Or Records
in Minneapolis, was another catalyst in the still-zygotic scene. He
recalls his days as soundman for H=FCsker D=FC and others as the era when
he first formulated his plans for now-legendary Reflex Records. "It all
happened very quickly for me in those years," he says. "Steve Fjelstad [of
Figures/L73] was really the key to my whole entry into the scene. Without
him it probably never would've happened for me. I ended up going to a lot
of shows at The Longhorn, and becoming friends with Peter Jesperson. I
worked at Oarfolk from '78-85 [when the original store burned down] before
I started Garage D'Or with Jim Peterson."

He still gets excited recounting those early days and recording the first
Husker single, circa 1979: "Statues/Amusement was recorded at Blackberry
Way, and I'd recorded the B side from a show at Duffy's, another place
that booked punk rock. That's what started my working relationship with
the band. When Twin/Tone didn't want Husker Du, I started up Reflex
Records, which I still have going, as well as the Garage D'Or label.
There's a whole other side of the scene there-Rifle Sport, Man-Sized
Action, huge bands locally."

Katzman, though retired from the record store biz, is still very active on
the scene. He recently released Howlin' Andy Hound's debut album, and has
retained his ear for loud, three-piece guitar acts. And in a sweet twist,
the guy who once rose up as a worthy competitor for Twin/Tone with Reflex
and Husker Du is now working on a re-issue of that holy grail of Second
Wave rock, Big Hits of Mid-America, Volume 3. He hopes to have the album
out sometime this fall. Fans should watch local shops for that and
possibly some Suicide Commandos rarities.

Commandos co-founder Chris Osgood was at the forefront of the Second Wave,
and along with bassist Steve Almaas and drummer Dave Ahl, he helped bring
about necessary changes in local clubs. As well as being one of the first
bands Twin/Tone co-founder Paul Stark worked with, their Make a Record LP
is generally considered Minneapolis' first real punk record (though Dave
Hill may disagree), and was celebrated as alternative label Blank Records'
second release, after Pere Ubu in 1978. Still hyper-active locally, Osgood
now enjoys a well-deserved position as godfather of local punk, though
he'd probably scoff at the title.

"I hope your readers will realize that stories like this shouldn't be
meant to romanticize the 'good old days,'" he says via e-mail. "I hope
instead the readers will understand that Minnesota was-and is-a place and
a 'scene' that can have an effect on the larger culture."

Osgood currently works with a local music and arts foundation, Resources
and Counseling for the Arts, aiding young hopefuls and providing a steady,
scene-wise guiding hand. "I appreciate being able to 'spank the plank'
from time to time," he says. "And am grateful that my gig as Director of
Artists Services at Resources and Counseling for the Arts keeps me in
touch with creative, fun, funny people. Most of all, I'm glad I'm still
alive! The earth remains a beautiful place."

Osgood can still be caught onstage around town from time to time. Make a
Record has been re-issued, and is available on Mercury Records.

Another hotbed venue for the burgeoning Second Wave was Uncle Sam's, which
had enjoyed a rather schizophrenic run over the years as a rock club, a
scene hangout and a disco bar. Sam's eventually launched the now-famed 7th
Street Entry and morphed into First Avenue. Longtime manager Steve
McClellan is reticent about taking too much credit for exposing bands that
had been slugging it out in places like The Longhorn, MacReady's, and The
Blitz Bar for years, but agrees that First Ave. had its part in the grand
scheme of things: "[At the time] The Entry opened, it was already a
hardened scene," he remembers. "It was mostly, of course, The Longhorn.
The Entry maybe helped the Second Wave in the sense that we opened when
the scene was already happening, but [because we kept supporting it]
people were able to keep identifying with it." McClellan looks back on it
all now with a grin, and steadfastly insists on giving all props to those
who came before: "You're doing an article about geezers? Then tell 'em I
said I'm gettin' too old, I don't remember!" he jokes. "No, but Peter
Jesperson and Bill Batson were the people I looked to for advice when I
opened the Entry. And Chris Osgood. Anything I'd say after you talk to
those guys would be redundant." By 1981, though, Jesperson had quit his DJ
job, The Commandos had broken up, and The Longhorn had closed its doors
forever, leaving The Entry as a worthy successor.

Hypstrz co-founder/original 7th Street Entry soundman (and current Mofos
member, along with his brother Ernie, original King Kustom/Hypstrz bassist
Randy Weiss and drummer Mike Ryder), Bill Batson remembers the day
McClellan brought him into First Avenue's coatroom and asked him what he
thought about putting live music in the tiny space. "You gotta be shittin'
me!" was his emphatic reply. Though Batson initially had to deal with
cheap equipment, space-at-a-premium and bewildered bands and audiences
who'd never seen a setup like The Entry before, he still holds those
memories and his bands' early days dear. "We actually started out as King
Kustom and the Cruisers in 1973, playing '50s rockabilly tunes," he says
via phone, simultaneously tending to a late-summer backyard barbecue.
"There was always some sort of scene, but nothing like those later days.
Then we started hanging around the record stores, and The Longhorn opened
up. We were seeing bands like The Dead Boys, The Ramones, The Dictators
and The Stooges. Every morning I'd wake up, and Ernie would be playing The
Ramones, MC5, The Kinks. That's what influenced us. Jesperson was DJ'ing
down at The Longhorn, and we probably saw every one of those [Second Wave]
bands play down there. NNB, fronted by Mark Freeman, who is just a little
genius, were one of the best."

Ernie's memories are equally lucid. "Back then, here were a half-dozen,
maybe 10 real good bands around," he laughs. "At the time, we had gotten a
hold of the first two Big Hits of Mid-America albums, and we started
incorporating those songs into our sets." But Ernie was to have an even
more profound effect on the scene: "The title [for Twin/Tone's releases]
was actually my idea!" he confides. "Jesperson and Paul Stark were sitting
around talking about putting a local compilation together, and I suggested
Big Hits of Mid-America Volume 3. " Fans and the curious can catch the
Batson brothers onstage on Oct. 4 for the Hard Times Cafe Benefit show in
The Entry. Their albums, The Hypstrz Nation and The Mighty Mofos' EP Old
Friends, are both available in finer record shops around town.

Future Twin/Tone star (and Jesperson inspiration) Curtiss A actually
played The Entry's official grand opening night in March of 1980 (though
Husker Du drummer Grant Hart recalls playing the unofficial launch a few
days earlier opening for Johnny Thunders), but most remember that by then,
the bulk of the Second Wavers had either broken up or were about to break
up. In its incarnation as The Depot/Uncle Sam's/Sam's, First Avenue had
long been one of the few Twin Cities clubs where fans could see acts
ranging from Joe Cocker to Frank Zappa to Iggy and The Stooges alongside
the rag-tag, loyal local acts who stuck out the lean years of the '70s.
Curtiss A was also playing The Entry the night after John Lennon was
murdered, a few months after the venue had opened. That evening's
performance was dedicated to Lennon, and December 2000 saw Curtiss A &
Friends celebrating their 20th All-Star Tribute/Revue (now held in the
Main Room).

"A," a Second Waver who's still active and vital on the current local
scene, was in high school when Koerner, Ray & Glover were first making
their mark in local coffeehouses, and he vividly recalls his earliest
memories of the local scene when his mother worked at a rowdy Minneapolis
country joint called The Flame. "When I was five," he recalls, "I got a
shoe-shine kit. And I would sneak away from the corner my dad set me up on
and go up to the bar and peek through the door while bands played. I saw
Marvin Rainwater, George Hamilton IV and Carl Perkins." He was initially
inspired by local acts like The Gestures and The Rave-ons. "I started
playing in high school. I liked rock before the Beatles. I loved Elvis,
but even before Elvis, there was Little Richard and Carl Perkins. I
remember hearing all that stuff, and I wanted to be Little Richard! I
liked Ray Charles, Nat King Cole, and I really like Dean Martin. I can be
a crooner," he laughs, adding conspiratorially, "I stopped listening to
new popular music when The Raspberries came out."

Though "A" bounced back and forth between Minneapolis, outstate Minnesota
and Oklahoma during the '60s, he eventually settled here in town, down the
street from future Replacements Bob and Tommy Stinson. By the early '70s,
he was heavily involved in the scene, playing with dozens of line-ups
before briefly settling into new-wavey combo Thumbs Up (which morphed into
Spooks), and catching Jesperson's ear.

Curtiss eventually ended up playing The Longhorn, The C.C. Tap, The Tempo
Bar, Duffy's, Goofy's Upper Deck and a few other original-music-friendly
venues, where he found himself smack in the middle of the growing
Oarfolk/pre-Twin/Tone scene. "Before then," he chuckles, "if you were in a
local band, you really had to go way out in the sticks to get a bar to let
you play original music." He ended up producing three other albums for
Twin/Tone in the '80s sans Spooks: his 1980 debut, Courtesy, 1985's The
Damage is Done and 1987's A Scarlet Letter. Personal tragedies and the
destabilization of Twin/Tone as the 'Mats split for Sire and co-founder
Jesperson headed off towards other projects left Curtiss adrift as the
decade wound down, but he never lost his muse. He continues to present his
annual John Lennon Tribute at First Avenue (as well as several
well-received Elvis tributes), play loads of gigs around town, and most
importantly, write new songs. He now has dozens of demos (recorded with
such local luminaries as Slim Dunlap, drummers Steve Theilges and Little
Melvin, bassist Gary Snow, axeman Vick Johnson and brassman Greg
Haugesaug) which he's paring down to album-length for imminent release.
These songs, on a demo titled Blue Music, are as strong and relevant as
many of the urgent, Elvis/Beatles/Raspberries-influenced new wave anthems
he belligerently slung out in the late '70s/early '80s.

Slim Dunlap, who worked with Curtiss before and during those early
Twin/Tone days (and went on to become the "Replacement Replacement,"
taking over lead guitar duties for Bob Stinson when he was fired back in
the mid-'80s), ranks right up there with "A" and Osgood as a Second Waver
who's still an intricate part of the modern scene. He released one of the
best local albums of 1996 with Times Like This, and still commands a
respectable live audience.

But the lanky axeman harbors no illusions about how important those early
days were to what's happening now.  "Back in those days, the other bands
were your competitors," he says during a break from his job at
Minneapolis' Schmitt Music. "But you didn't look at it like that. It was
fun to have enough people in one town all up to something cool, to begin
to be proud of our town. Because up until then, we were kind off
embarrassed about our local scene. It took a long time before audiences
would allow you to do non-cover material. It all happened in a kind of a
'whoosh!' It was a really neat time in our town. There's always forgotten
people in the music business, and a lot of those bands got caught in the
meat grinder. We had a great scene going there. Too bad it's now in the
category of 'geezer rock!'" he laughs."

Slim's recently been working again with Curtiss A, producing a demo called
Over at Slim's, and seems as in awe of his fellow guitarist as Jesperson
and the rest-"He really is a rock star," he enthuses, with nary a hint of
sarcasm. Dunlap and his band can be seen one weekend a month at St. Paul's
Turf Club (Oct. 20 is the next gig), and he continues to write and perform
original material.

In those hazy days before better-remembered Third Wave legends (and while
the "Minneapolis Sound" of Jimmy Jam/Terry Lewis/Prince was still belting
out strange, funk-rock-laden birthing cries) like the Replacements brought
the national spotlight to the Twin Cities, Twin/Tone, Reflex and those
core bands were on the front lines, breaking in club owners who were used
to covers and nothing but covers, club-goers who were torn between those
cover acts and disco, and record stores who had spent most of the '70s
shunning original local music. "I think the Commandos were one of [the
catalysts for the Twin/Tone scene]," says Jesperson. "And Oarfolk, and
Andy Schwartz was definitely one."

Jesperson still feels Twin/Tone's Big Hits of Mid-America Volume 3 is the
best recorded chronicle of those early bands. "There were the Commandos,
Curt in various guises, The Suburbs, and The Pistons," he says. As for
re-issues, "I still think there's other stuff we may do someday, but I've
got my hands full right now [with New West]. To find those albums, you
really do have to dig through the [used record] bins. I'd recommend the
Twin/Tone EPs (Suburbs, Fingerprints, and Spooks), Curt's solo albums, The
Flamingo records, the NNB single "Slack," the Safety Last EP, and The
Hypstrz EP."

Second Wavers like Jesperson are mainly concerned with pursuing what they
always have-fun gigs, happy crowds and quality new recordings. These guys
aren't hiding out for five years at a time and coming out of their caves
for infrequent reunion shows or riding on past glories. Second Wavers are,
plain and simple, rock 'n' roll survivors who continue to write, record
and perform relevant original music. Whether or not today's Wave of
youngsters heed the past mistakes/glories of their forebears remains to be
seen. With roots this deep and veteran artists still vital and active on
our local front, the question Dave Hill posed so long ago is no longer
relevant. Yes, there is a Minneapolis Sound. As a matter of fact, there's
a whole slew of "Minneapolis Sounds." Bands like Howlin' Andy Hound, The
Rakes, The Centurions, Arcana 81, Gricklegrass, Blame, Blume, The Meg and
Betty Drake are on the right track, carrying on honest, blood-n-guts rock
'n' roll traditions of old. But we do have to ask ourselves new questions:
Are we keeping this scene alive? Will a fiery young rock writer in the
year 2025 sit down and write an article as comprehensive as Hill's was on
the First Wave, referring to bands and artists that are populating our
current scene? We already know what The Commandos, The Hypstrz, Curtiss A,
Husker Du, and their spawn, The Replacements, Rifle Sport, Soul Asylum,
Man-Sized Action, Arcwelder and a hundred others contributed-what will our
contributions be?

Each of Second Wave heroes, predecessors and founders of the Minneapolis
sound looked to the past for inspiration and clues on how to handle the
present and the future. Dave Hill had his Gestures and his Trashmen.
Curtiss A had his Rave-ons. Peter Jesperson had his Curtiss A. Steve
McClellan had his Peter Jesperson. Now is the time to hearken to the
ancient, campfire-tale tradition of old. Time to hunker down and glean
some pearls of wisdom, some lessons already learned, and maybe just some
good, old-fashioned story-tellin'. We may find the road that much easier
to travel. The conclusion of Hill's 1973 article still rings true today:
"On the one hand, there is an active, commercial, money-making kind of
recording scene going on here, for musicians who still operate in terms of
hit records and that kind of trip. But there's also the defiantly local,
down-home people's music ... that just doesn't concern itself with hit
records or any of that crap."


fin.

______________________________________________________________________________

        The //Skyway\\:  The Replacements Mailing List (digest only)
                  http://www.novia.net/~matt/sky/skyway.html

                         Matt Tomich | matt@novia.net
______________________________________________________________________________

   "If you ever see me getting beaten by the police, put down the goddamn
                          video camera and come help me."
                             -- Bobcat Goldthwait