the // skyway \\ issue #78 (april 23, 2002) web page at www.theskyway.com send your submissions to skyway@novia.net list guy (say hi to) matt@novia.net subscription info: send in the body of a message to majordomo@novia.net to subscribe: 'subscribe skyway' to unsubscribe: 'unsubscribe skyway' always thanks to bob fulkerson __________________________________________________________________________ 0. White and Lazy (m@) I. News! II. Mono/Stereo reviews (m@) III. Aloha! (Brendan Fischer, Chad Werner, Kurt, Bill Grace, Justin Myers, Alan Zoll, Scott Murray, Peter Harrington, Seth Forster, Duncan DeGraffenreid, Nick Kenney) IV. Covers, Questions, Bootlegs - Superdrag (Danny) - "Walkin' A Little Closer" (Chad Werner) - Tommy Wommack (Dave Schulps) - bootleg city (Grady Hicks) V. You gotta read this Tommy Stinson interview from 1988. __________________________________________________________________________ 0. WHITE AND LAZY oh wow, 90 degree spring weather kicks so much ass! i feel so half-asleep during so much of the winter, even now living in the often-temperate north carolina. maybe i have seasonal affective disorder, not bad enough to be clinical, just enough to walk around feeling not quite here on and off during the witner. then again, sometimes that happens in the summer too. maybe that's sleep deprivation, or just a side-effect of modern employment. spring fever hits and everything seems so different after daylight savings time lets up and it starts getting dark at 8 p.m. everybody smiles more. even going to the grocery store gets more interesting. i hate these two things: going to the grocery store and doing laundry. (i love the end results, but the mundanity is depressing. i know, 6,000 years of recorded history and technological progress...people have busted their ass to get to the point where food and sparkling whites are as accessible as a trip down the street. i'm not really complaining, but the sunday night routine has probably sucked since the bronze age.) it's easy to be busy but it doesn't mean that you're necessarily getting anything done. some of my more (relatively) productive things: i've been reading alot about cyprus. one band i'm (sorry about dresden) is leaving for tour tomorrow and the other (the scaries) are touring japan next month. i've been subbing at the local college radio (wxdu - duke) sometimes. i could download stuff off audiogalaxy all day. thanks to my neighbor's dsl, i've been watching greek tv. you can spend hours having a conversation that would only take 5 minutes by phone with instant messanger, but for some reason it's more fun (aimname: yaymatt). it's almost may. it seems like most of my friends either married, getting married, having anniversaries. some are already divorced. weddings and funerals are kinda similar in the sense that you sit through them and wonder what yours is going to be like. with seven months to go, in my 20's i circumnavigated the whole marriage thing. i'm married to two bands for the moment. occassionally i wonder if i'm missing out. then again, if i was married, i'd wonder if i was missing out. in the tour van, i've been making unintellectual lists recently, alternately with and in counterpoint to reading stuff like "from dawn to decadence, 500 years of western cultural life": ** foods that you're stoked about when you're hungry for them but afterwards you feel like "ughhhhh...": * pancakes * cookie dough * cheesecake * tequila ** ways that videogames are indistinguishable from drugs: * both make you lose track of time * both make you incapable of responding coherently to social conversation * both are far more fun to the participant than the observers * afterwards, regular social intercourse is difficult and confusing (i've never done drugs, but you see it, you know how it goes.) (i've never drank either. but likewise.) this whole 'mats story is getting crazier by the day. but i'm blowing all my vacation days on rock tours. so please write in and say how paul's shows are. john romanoff is almost done with a brand new version of the site and it looks kick ass. we'll probably get it finished and put it up when i get back from japan after may. media recommendation for this issue: if you're sitting in on saturday or sunday night, watch "adult swim" on the cartoon network. if you don't think it's funny at first, just keep watching. you'll get hooked! just shut up and kiss her, m@ __________________________________________________________________________ I. NEWS! from rollingstone.com Replacements Mull Reunion After eleven years apart, indie rock heroes may return Another hootenanny? Eleven years after the Replacements called it quits, the group is eyeing an reunion. "We'll get together again one day," says former frontman Paul Westerberg. "It will take a while, or it might take a few legal swipes of the pen, but we ain't over."A partial reunion nearly happened last month when bassist Tommy Stinson planned to join Westerberg on a tour of the Midwest. "He and I and [drummer] Michael Bland were going to retrace Buddy Holly's steps on the Winter Carnival [which promoters continued despite Holly, the Big Bopper and Richie Valens losing their lives in a plane crash. "We figured we would avenge their deaths," Westerberg says -- but Stinson had to back out because of duties with his current band, Guns n' Roses.Stinson and Westerberg did regroup in the studio, however, as Stinson supplies backing vocals on a handful of tracks on Westerberg's new solo albums, Mono (released under the alias Granpaboy) and Stereo. "I called him in February to say, 'Let's do this,'" Westerberg says. "He was the only guy in the world I knew who could play the bass and sing that part, without even having to listen to it."Westerberg has also bounced the idea of a reunion off the Replacements' other surviving founding member, drummer Chris Mars, after a chance meeting in Westerberg's driveway. (Guitarist Bob Stinson -- Tommy's older brother -- left the group in 1986 and was replaced by Slim Dunlap. Bob died from a drug overdose in 1995). "[Mars] was riding by with his wife in a convertible and I didn't recognize him," Westerberg says. "He pulled up in front of my house, and I thought, 'Who is this asshole?' Because he'd gained a little weight, but he looked really happy and was happy as a clam. I said, 'So what do you say? Should we put it together?' And he kind of laughed and said, 'Maybe for a week.' I read him instantly that he had moved on from this. He would do it for a week, but he wouldn't want to rehearse and stuff -- but he would be up for a few laughs."In the event of a new Replacements album, Westerberg doubts that he and Stinson -- who, since leaving the Replacements, has fronted bands of his own, first Bash and Pop, then Perfect -- would collaborate on new material. "The closest we ever came to collaborating was on [1990 b-side] 'Satellite,'" he says. "That was all his song and I sort of suggested the 'la la la' part and changed one other part, but it was his song and he had done that for me a few times. We would do that again, but we would never sit down toe to toe and write a song because we're both songwriters. It's like Van Morrison couldn't sit down and write a song with Bob Dylan."As for his own music, Westerberg declined to tour after the release of his last album Suicaine Gratifaction and he's still weighing his options this time out. "I have to create something to make it exciting for me again," he says, "because I'm no closer to wanting to get up and play my entire catalog for my fans as I was three or four years ago. I think we're getting close to the notion of me doing in-stores." COLIN DEVENISH From CDNOW, April 15, 2002, 10:15 am PT: Paul Westerberg's Replacements Reunion Tour Gets Squashed By Axl Rose? If there's one thing Axl Rose has proven, it's his willingness to find replacements for bandmates who slight him in the slightest way. That fear is apparently behind Paul Westerberg's sudden silence regarding who plays on his new double album, Stereo/Mono, due April 23 through indie Vagrant Records. (The CD lists only a bevy of obvious pseudonyms.) After Westerberg admitted to Rolling Stone last month that the musicians included Tommy Stinson, his former partner in seminal '80s alt-rockers the Replacements, a note appeared on an industry gossip site claiming to be from Stinson. It said he hadn't seen Westerberg in four years. Stinson, as Guns N' Roses fans know, has played bass for Axl since replacing Duff McKagan in 1998. "No comment" is Westerberg's new response to questions about any recent Stinson collaborations. However, he does hint that some very influential someone kiboshed the surprise Replacements reunion he tried assembling in February, a just-for-kicks tour that would have retraced Buddy Holly's unfinished steps on the ill-fated Winter Dance Party jaunt of 1959. "I think Tommy was advised not to do it, if you can make sense of that," Westerberg tells us. "When I called him, he was anxious and interested in a wild idea like that, and then suddenly had a change of heart. So go figure." For now, Westerberg has his own tour to focus on, a string of 10 national in-store performances representing his first all-acoustic sets. It launches April 22 at Seattle's Easy Street Records (allstar, April 1). "I figure it's been too long for me to ask people to buy the record and to come pay money to see me play," Westerberg says. "So, it's like, if you're willing to buy the record, I'll come and play in the store for free. What kind of deal is that? You can't beat it!" Westerberg says that if the shows whet his appetite, a proper tour could follow as early as this summer. Easy, Axl, Tommy won't be on it. __________________________________________________________________________ II. REVIEW OF PAUL WESTERBERG'S NEW ALBUM "MONO/STEREO": From: matt@novia.net Date: 22 April 2002 10:59 p.m. EST I think this new stuff kicks ass. __________________________________________________________________________ III. ALOHA From: "Brendan Fischer" Subject: Brendan's rant Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2002 10:49:53 +0000 Hey Mats people or whatever (I suck at intros), So it's been what? An issue since I wrote in this thing, so I'll write again. Just a hello, letcha know I'm still out there. I just relocated from Jersey (Yay!) to the tropical paradise that is North Dakota!! Hey, it's close enough to Minnesota. Anyways, my guitarist, after a threat of being kicked out of his house by his dear mama and papa decided that he had to join the United States Air Force. So with that fateful decision he fled the East Coast and my band (him being the only one with real talent, I just fake it well) fizzled. My drummer joined some other Matchbox 20 wanna be thing. Woo woo! (sic) And my Bassist just got so stoned, and moved somewhere into the middle of Pennsylvania. He looked kinda like Jesus, so the Amish will love him. How did I wind up in North Dakota? Glad you asked. Have you ever felt like every day you wake up and you just wonder "Why?". Not in a depressive suicidal way, but mostly in a "God this is boring" kinda way. So I would play with a few local bands, they were always happy to have me play, cuz I brought girls (mostly ex-girlfriends that still want to kill me) and I have a big amp (Not a euphemism). That and some old high school chums were going around saying how I became crazy and that I lost it, I think people came to see if I'd do something "Rawkous!" Wow, tangent, anyway, I wound up here because my so beloved guitarist got stationed up here, in Minot North Dakota. So fed up with life back east, and a good, but overall unsatisfying job, I loaded my electric guitar, half my amp, three duffle bags, and my computer into the back of a friends Jeep Wrangler and hit the open road. 1800 miles later, I was in Minot North Dakota. So, I know there's a million people out there who are trying to do something musically, and get their bands off the ground, that are probably a million times better than any schlop I'll be able to spit out of my mouth, or pound G-C-D progressions out of my guitar, but I'm trying to make this little dream fly. (Yay run on sentences!) If anyone ever wants to hear something of mine, email me. And if anyone knows a way to kick a newly lethargic guitarist in the ass to get him to play music and not make excuses of why he doesn't want to, I'd be much obliged. Also, I'm still looking for anything cool by the Mats, like some bootlegs, or live shows (I'm too young to have ever seen them live), please help me out. I don't have much for trade, but I have a nice smile, and I promise to be your best friend. So please someone take pity on me, and gimmie a hand, you know, if you wanna work out an arrangement. Oh yeah, I'm single again. I never want to hear "it's not you, it's me" again. Forever wishing my name was really Jack Maverik!, Brendan Joseph Fischer From: "Chad Werner" Subject: brushes with former mats stories Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 13:27:20 -0600 1. around xmas '92, i went with a bud to see the magnolias at the entry in mpls. good show. i would assume that most of you know who the magnolias are. kind of like the mats; perpetual losers who made/make good rock & roll. john freeman is the singer, guitarist, & leader of the magnolias. the rest of band (i think that they are still around for god's sake) is a revolving door of drummers, bassists, and lead guitarists... [including caleb palmiter, who played in an incarnation of bash n' pop.] anyway, bob stinson (rip) was wondering through the crowd throughout the set, and i remember him being a pretty big, almost hulking figure. the entry is not a big room, so by the end of the set everyone has pretty much been up close & personal with mr. stinson (rip). well, for the last song of the mags set, they called up our wayward bob (rip) to the stage. after tinkering with a guitar a bit, he & the magnolias launched headlong into a sloppy, but scorching version of "taking a ride" (with freeman on vox). it blew everyone away. the paint peeled off of the walls. that one song with the magnolias was the only time i have ever heard bob (rip) play. 2. fast forward to july 4, 1995. again at the entry with some other friends, i caught bash & pop. show was pretty tame. i think that they played all of the songs off of "friday night...", and that is about it. someone lit firecrackers off, and that was about as exciting as the show got. steve foley was on drums, some dude who looked a lot like chris cornell (soundgarden) was on lead guitar, and an asian woman was the bass player. well, i took a poster off the wall that had a picture of tommy playing matches & a can of hairspray (fire! fire!) with the band that recorded the album. i asked the bartender if he would take the poster back to have it signed after the show, and he told me to stick around the bar & he would take me "backstage" (it's the entry after all). long story short, i met tommy & his paid companions, the bass player put ice down my shirt, a beer was consumed, and an all-around jolly time was had by all. they all signed my poster; which is kind of funny because two of them aren't even on it. tommy was nice. side note - the backstage area in the entry is a freaky shithole basement room. 3. my continuing adventures with tommy stinson...around 1996, i saw perfect at the unicorn in milwaukee (great room that no longer exists). they rocked the small crowd's collective ass off. the band played past closing time (closing time? in wisconsin??), and the staff at the unicorn tried to stop perfect from playing by shutting off the lights. perfect played "crocodile rock" for about twenty minutes (much of that time in total darkness). 4. perfect at lee's liquor lounge in mpls., '97 or '98. awesome show in which they played "have a drink on me" by ac/dc. john freeman (magnolias) is there, and he & I talk about starting a new band. this is the last time i have ever spoken to freeman. tommy announces that lee's is his favorite place in america to play. this is the last time i have seen him play there. 5. tommy solo acoustic at the uptown in mpls., '98. he holds up surprisingly well on his own. plays a lot of songs from the doomed, greatest album that never came to be, "7 days a week". i take notes on what is played in order to report the show to the website, www.yapyap.com (what the hell ever happened to that site?), and the people in the crowd think i write for some major rock rag. i got terribly drunk with my sister, and by the time tommy is done I can barely see straight. as he is gathering up his equipment, i stumble up to him, hold my notebook & pen up, and slur something like, "do you have any comments for yapyap.com?". he laughed in my face, and continued walking. i don't think he remembered me from the previous time we chatted. being too drunk to talk didn't help either. so, that's it, folks. re-reading these stories, i think that #1 is pretty cool, and #2 - #5 are pretty funny. i've seen paul once, but nothing of note ever happened. From: KASCHLICHT@aol.com Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2002 01:41:11 EST I got a couple choices here. I can do work or write about the Replacements. That's not a tough choice. Wish I had a beer. Hey, "Takin' a Ride" and "Careless" just ended. Now "Customer" ... oh, wait...it's over. Flash to December 1984, the Oakland Airport. I'm driving for Dollar-Rent-A-Car, making a few bucks on Xmas break from UC San Diego. Musically, I'm in the fever swamps of 70's dino-rock. Pink Floyd is providing meaning in my life. This post-punk thing frightens me, and yet I listen to the late, lamented San Francisco new wave station 105.3 "The Wave." What the hell is that? Is that a...mandolin? And who is this lunatic singing that he'll dare? I bought the 12" single. It was like three bucks. "I Will Dare"...pretty cool. Grew on me (I've almost never liked a Replacement song the first time--it usually took about five or six.) Never heard anything like it. And the B-sides -- "Hey, Good Lookin'," sounding like Paul was scarfing glass. And "20th Century Boy" -- hell, I had no freaking idea what to make of that. Was a lawnmower going mad in an echo chamber? "Kick Your Door Down" is playing now. It's as if these guys play textbook rock...every note sounds exactly right... My musical life -- hell, my whole life -- is changing. "Dare", along with "How Soon Is Now" by the Smiths, are like life preservers tossed to me to get me out of the sludge I was wallowing in. Floyd went into the closet with that stupid Springsteen album. I go back to school and hook up with my buddy Matt. I play him my single. He goes and buys "Let It Be." I'd never heard anything like "Answering Machine" - it was like some guy, with a guitar, singing his heart out. Which is exactly what it was. "Unsatisfied" made my skull expand and contract - cranked it about 100 times in a row. (When the Wave went over to a Top 40 format years later, that was the last song they played.) So many Replacements memories: We used to crank "Fuck School" at groups of prospective students and their parents as they passed our apartments on campus. Saw the Replacements live at San Diego State and watched Bob take over for Paul, who was lurking behind a speaker, and sing a song entitled "Yeah." It went, "Yeah!" -- for about ten minutes. I have a chunk of the guitar case the boys shredded and tossed to me. Greatest concert of my life. A girlfriend warned a potential roommate my senior year, "You better like the Replacements." He did -- all my roommates that year did -- what are the odds? Got "Hootenanny," then "Please To Meet Me." "Left Of The Dial" is perhaps the perfect rock song. Graduated, went into the Army, went to Germany. One of my old roommates shipped me, "Don't Tell a Soul." The other guys in the officers' quarters just didn't get it when I cranked tunes at 3 a.m. Now I'm on "Don't Ask Why" -- why wasn't "Sorry Ma" a hit? By the way, Rolling Stone reviewed "Sorry Ma," gave it three stars (of five) and asked "Will these rock-and-roll kids make another record? Who knows, and who cares?" A couple years later they were on the suck-up wagon... Went to the Gulf. Half my guys loved rap, half country. I played the Replacements the whole time. My guys "liberated" an FM radio set, which we converted into a broadcast unit. We set up our own radio station in the Saudi desert and I had a show at noon (Hey, I was the officer and it was my butt, so I got the prime time slot) blasting post-punk hits (drawn heavily from my Replacement tapes) to troops eager for "unofficial" music as well as bewildered Bedouins. A general wandered by, saw what we were doing, and, instead of throwing my ass in the slam, gave one of my guys a medal! I have the radio station as a positive item on my wartime evaluation report. Went to law school. Only Replacement fan in sight. There's a shock. Most lawyers dig Kenny G. Dated a girl in the TV industry based largely on a shared love of Westerberg's music and sex. She really liked Westerberg. My favorites ... who knows? "Answering Machine" maybe. "Unsatisfied." "Can't Hardly Wait." "I'll Be You," or maybe "Shiftless When Idle." "Within Your Reach." Too many to count. Screw it. I'm going to play them all. Right now. Hope the neighbors don't mind. Actually, I don't give a damn. Kurt Date: Fri, 22 Feb 2002 10:36:56 -0800 (PST) From: Bill Grace I was about to become a senior in high school. The record store I worked at in summer '87 played Pleased to Meet Me constantly, just as I did at home. I had been turned on to the 'Mats around Tim and bought PTMM the day it came out. (You guys know the story, " . . . changed my life . . . " blah, blah). My home was in Winston-Salem, NC and when the PTMM tour was announced, what I feared most was going to come true - there were no shows in my area. As was often the case in those days, most of the bands I liked came nowhere near us when they were on tour. I would have to figure out how to get to Raleigh if I wanted to see the Replacements. Of course, I'm 17 and the parents were telling me "no dice" to driving 2 hours to Raleigh and back, returning sometime around 5am. None of my friends were into the Replacements enough to go through the hassle. Well, as teenagers do, we find a way to get things done and when I heard a co-worker at the record store was going (I barely knew him), I casually asked him a few days before if I could come along. "PLEASE TAKE ME" I was screaming inside. A little misdirection to the parents ("Mom, I'm sleeping at Rob's," I casually told her), and we're off. For a kid of 17, I had actually seen a few good rock shows by then. I saw REM in '85 and Bruce Springsteen that same year. Had seen local heroes the dB's and Let's Active several times and been to other all ages shows around town. None of these would prepare me for the show I saw that night. I guess it was technically an all ages show. They stamp your hand or something and you can't buy booze. I didn't care. I was ready to rock. The show was at a place called The Pier (not sure if it's still there) and we got there pretty early. Somehow we had gotten a hold of advance tickets (I think my co-worker had them) so we avoided the long line of hopefuls waiting outside. We slid inside and the first person I saw was Slim wearing a checkered suit. He was tall alright, he might as well have been 10 feet tall, because I was awestruck. I felt like a little kid in there amid all the old people (like 26 or 26 years old!). Anyway, it was about 40 degrees in the practically empty club on a hot/humid July night, they had the AC blowing full blast. "Weird," I thought. Some suck-ass local band opened up and played what seemed like forever. By the time the Replacements took the stage the place was packed. I was still standing pretty close to the stage, maybe 6-7 people deep and all hell broke loose as they tore into "Hold My Life." I found myself in the middle of a huge throng, covered in beer and sweat (by the time the band got on it was about 100 degrees inside, "Now I get it," I thought). This is what rock n' roll was supposed to be. They rocked harder and louder than anyone I'd seen or even dreamed about. Chris came out in clown make-up. Paul wore lots of eyeliner. Tommy kept messing with his amp between every song (turning the volume up, I think). When Chris missed a cue about mid-show, Paul turned around and not sure what to do, threw down his guitar and dove over the drums to tackle Chris. The boys had consumed a few beverages before taking the stage, I presume. They played for a long time and included every great song they needed to and made you glad to be alive. For the encore, Dan Baird (of the Georgia Satellites) came out to play with them on "Route 66," "Gimmie Shelter" and the Satellites' "Battleship Chains." I'd go on to see the 'Mats two more times in the years following and Paul solo once, but that first show became the measuring stick to which all other concerts would be held. None of the couple of hundred rock shows I've seen since then have ever even approached it. Live, love, levitate, mc From: "Justin Myers" Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2002 16:43:11 -0600 Hey, I'm Justin. Um, this is my introduction. I'm 16 and from Madison but I live in some shitty little hick town some 30 miles north of the Mad City. I guess I'm kind of a second generation 'Mats fan. Believe it or not, my dad kinda introduced me to them. He actually has memories of going to 'Mats shows with my mom. (He liked 'em, she hated 'em.) I could relate to you all his 'Mats-related experiences, second hand, but that would take quite a while. I wanted to know why everybody always argues about which 'Mats album is the best. Why? They're all good. From "Sorry Ma" to "Shook Down" they all have good tunes. When you look at it, something that's always consistent in great artists is CHANGE. Bowie, The Beatles, the Stones, Miles Davis... the ones that don't just fade away. Consistent progression is a hallmark of genius. Whether they played raucous punk or singable country-tinged pop-rock, the 'Mats were still one of the best bands on the planet, ever. Hey, I saw on VH1 last night the premiere of the episode of "Ultimate Albums" that featured Green Day's "Dookie". The reason I mention is because they had on-camera interview snippets with not only Paul Westerberg but Bob Mould as well. If you see it coming up on re-reuns you should probably check it out. Which was that 'Mats video with Tommy in the lipstick? Anyway, that's enough for now, later... oh, and my favorite song is...um... well, put it this way, I DON'T like Lay It Down Clown I Bought A Headache and White and Lazy Other than those, everything else is good. I also listen to Husker Du, R.E.M., the Ramones, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Strokes, Bob Dylan, the Velvet Underground, Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Oasis, the Stranglers, Nick Drake, the Doors, the Clash, Slade, Big Star, the Pixies, the Who, Led Zeppelin, Gabriel-era Genesis, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, and Charlie Parker. Take It Easy, Justin Myers From: "Alan E. Zoll" Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2002 10:53:22 -0500 I just became a Replacements fan last year when I picked up Pleased To Meet Me after reading a RS magazine review. It fast became one of my all-time favorite albums (especially when I'm driving in the car, which for some reason makes it mean more), and I love Paul Westerberg's soulful, struggling lyrics, so from the heart (something desperately missing in much of today's corporate-driven music scene). I've since picked up Tim and will probably pick up Let It Be (today actually, as I just remembered I have a gift certificate from XMas...Word, indeed). Awesome site, you turned a new fan like me onto a whole new realm of info about the band. Thanks. Date: Sat, 13 Apr 2002 07:30:08 -0400 From: Scott Murray My name is Scott Murray and I guess I got into the Mats in about 87. Now, I've been in Montreal all my life, and at that time I was just starting college. I hero-worshipped two local bands at the time called the Nils and the Asexuals. The latter put out their third LP that year and I loved the new directiion they'd taken from hardcore to what I called Melodycore. I remember one of my friends scoffing: "Yeah well, they sound just like the Replacements; it's not too original." Now, we don't have much in the way of good radio in this town (and never have). Even the college stations are pretty pathetic compared to most. Thank God for my older sister's ex-boyfriend. He had forgotten a tape at my place. It said Replacements on it. I played it. IOU was the first Mats song I ever heard. I said to myself: "Yeah well, they sound just like the Nils". But it was excellent, all the same. While the Nils went on to become a big-time heroine self-destruction club, the Mats kept putting out kick-ass stuff. So now I have a band of my own: "Big Red Canoe", and one of our songs is Sentimental Institution, my tribute to the Mats. Gotta get that baby recorded. once again, nice site. But I always thought the line at the end of Red Red Wine's chorus was: "Said I'd stop doin it", and the line in The Ledge I always took to be: "I smell coffee, I smell doughnuts over the pass", as if to say he knows the cops are on the way. Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2002 18:22:54 -0700 (PDT) From: peter harrington Been wanting to write about Replacements' songs for a while now, maybe this'll spur me on. I got a friend in Baton Rouge(I now live in PortlandOR) I can talk to about the mats, he got me started actually around 93-94, and I've been coming back to them over & over. It sounds right, and knew it was a matter of the spirit when on the bus one day, I'm listening to this tape BR pal made me called Replacement Parts, thinking of my brother(dead at 35) thinking of the kids he left behind, and Sadly Beautiful on my headset(yeah i know they're not really related, but it was a mix of strong feelings, next thing I know I got welled up and tears on my cheeks. Anyhoo, I'll try to work something up for Skyway if I can, and thanks a lot. Pete Date: Sun, 7 Apr 2002 14:59:54 -0500 (EST) From: Seth Alan Forster What's new? I really dig the webpage! Since I'm horrible with computers I'd figure it would be easier to subscribe like this. Got a few quick questions then some junk about me if it helps put it in perspective. I heard Paul was doing a sort of solo tour of record stores. Is ther any more info on any other dates or anything closer to middle Indiana other tahn Chicago? I really want to go, but I don't think I could go to Chicago just for that (not to say it's not cool to see Paul live and maybe get an autograph, but I'll still be taking finals then). Second, I was hoping to get a poster or a shirt but I can't find one anywhere, including cool catalogs and Internet sites that specialize in that sort of thing. OK, I'm also a writer for the Indiana Daily Student, so when the double album comes out I plan on writing a review (Grandpaboy). If you're interested I can try to send it in. My writing is actually beter than this, i'm just in a hurry. It would be cool really because my first cd review ever was of "Let it Be", probably my all-time favorite album if there actually is one. But I'm a big Springsteen and Stevie Ray Vaughan fan too, so it kind of alternates. sort of a 3-way tie for favorite band in case you're wondering... I'm a guitarist (study music here at IU and a little journalism). I grew up on rock and started playing about 7 years ago. when I first got here I started playing classical guitar and delving into jazz, still playing blues every now and then cuz i went to high school which is enough to make anyone want to play the blues, even a middle class white boy. Got my own band "Sideburn Mike and the Lawsuits" We do classic rock covers, blues, jazz, soul, funk, folk, and of course a Replacements tune now and then (usually Can't Hardly Wait or Beer for Breakfast, though I don't drink much either). I'm one of those sort of normal looking guys who still goes to chruch on Sunday, sort of intelligent, especially with music, but stays up til 4 playing guitar and writing about rejection and not fitting in with the successful people, the geeks, the jocks or even the average guy. I'm sort of unpredictable because I don't stand out from the way I look, but I thik the way I live is sort of unique. You know, a lot of promise, but I'm gonna be a poor musician instead and I won't even have a girlfriend becuase there just aren't that many girls I know who have style and I never get over being rejected by the ones who seem to perfect. Geez, I'm usually not such a wuss. That's about it for the basic stuff, which i'm sure is enough. I'm really better at playing guitar than anything else. Don't have any cool Storeis about the band that I can recall, but I've gotten about 5 people really into them in the past year, which is when I started listening to them. I do remember breaking a string on "Can't Hardly Wait" at one of our shows and the crowd went nuts because I'm Mr. Technical and I never break strings. then the drummer cut his hand on the snare and kept playing becuase it was just an awesome sound that night. Nobody realized he'd cut his hand until we asked him why it sounded so good. then he stood up with blood on his leg that had dripped down from hand and he said someting about how he just had to keep playing harder and harder. OK, so I'm finally done later seth Subject: An update from an old fart Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2002 17:11:05 -0500 From: "DeGraffenreid, Duncan S, ALBAS" Greetings (again) Skywageans. I figured it was time to write again and update you on my little life. I began subscribing to the Skyway back in 1994 or 1995, after stumbling on it at work while surfing. I explained in my intro message back then how much the Mats had meant to me: they ("Unsatisfied") focused my anguish in my last year of chemical dependence; they helped me discover I could enjoy life sober (I still loved the Mats even sober); they helped me "land" the lady with whom I'd later marry and start a family (thanks to a Xmas present to her of "Tim"). Since then I've kept up with all your stories and Mats news, which has helped nourish my interest in all things Mats. Through the Skyway I learned there was a bunch of Mats boots I'd never heard, leading to a visit to a record convention where I snagged 4 or 5 tapes ... a week later I split my Fibia and landed in the hospital for a week, beginning 6 month rehab. Listening to those boot tapes kept my spirits up so many times, and helped push me in the rehab work I needed to get my leg back. Through the generosity of early subscriber KathyMS, I got my first taste of tape trading and yet more early Mats rarities. Trading Mats boot tapes lead to similar pursuit of rarities from Uncle Tupelo/Coffee Creek/Wilco/Son Volt, Tommy Keene, and Whiskeytown. And finally in the last year or two, as the company I worked for slowly came apart, I discovered the wonderful peer-to-peer world of Napster/Gnutella/WinMX, where I could build an MP3 collection of staggering proportions thanks to that telco's T3 link to the world, discovering new artists (to me) galore, many thanks to suggestions in the Skyway. My wife and I got to see Matt play a couple of times with two of his bands, once at a packed kegger party in Northern Virginia -- outstanding performance, and seeing Matt in his high energy pogo mode was an unforgettable experience. We could only chat a little as he was busy and the party was loud, but it was a blast to meet Matt after eTalking to him over the years. A couple years later my wife and I saw another of his bands (sorry Matt, can't remember which) at a club in Morgantown, West Virginia. This was not quite as happy an occasion: only a handful of folks were at the bar, leading to a rather odd performance by the lead guitarist who felt compelled in his inebriation to display his flaccid personal gear; Matt had a cold and I'm sure just wanted to sleep; and I stupidly interrupted him in his wooing of a Mountaneer flower (sorry, Matt). Also through the Skyway I joined a large party to see Paul (with Tommy Keene on lead) play the 9:30 club in DC in 1996 on his Eventually tour. Outstanding show, lots of Mats tunes, and the most wonderful experience of hearing song after song vocalized by most of the couple hundred attendees. A couple years later I got a tape of the show - not the greatest sound, but you can very clearly hear everyone singing along. After the show another gent and I (I forget his name, darnit) had to walk out of the neighborhood to flag a cab, since no taxi would venture to the area - not the most intelligent thing I've done, trying to wear "We Bad" in hostile territory. And now I anxiously await the next Paul output (with hopefully a show) ... its strange though, I don't find myself listening to much of Paul's solo work. It's OK the first couple times I hear it but I soon tire of it, unlike the Mats early stuff. Maybe it reminds me too much of my own aging (51) lifestyle. But I still love following what's going on with the members of the group that has become one of my half-dozen favorite musical artists of my thiry-plus listening years, and remain hopeful that I'll yet hear something from them that'll blow my socks off. Matt - thanks for the herculean effort of staying with the Skyway all these years. Such dedication is rare. And thanks for sharing your personal experiences and insights with us. I find its my favorite part of each issue, because I seem to always relate to what you have to say despite our radically different lives. Also my thanks for the Azure Ray recommendation - I love the first album, and am now giving the newest one a listen. I'd like to make my own recommendation for Mary Prankster (the group and the solo artist, see http://www.maryprankster.com/main.html). Mary is an astounding entertainer and an ... interesting lyricist, presenting energetic songs about relationships (you can hear her stuff thru her website). Mary is touring the South east and the West over April and May. (And thanks Matt for helping me finally hear Seven Days A Week!) Later.... Duncan deGraffenreid AT&T Labs (703) 691-6847 [Duncan - Don't worry about it, she was just a friend... - m@] Date: Fri, 19 Apr 2002 10:29:56 -0700 From: Nicholson Kenney Hey. My name is Nicholson Kenney. I am a subscriber to Spin magazine. I recently had one of my letters published in the May 2002 issue with Pink on the cover. I was hoping to see the Mats in Spin's top 50 bands of all time. When I didn't see them, I wrote in. Its a huge shout out to the most perfectly flawed band in history. I felt it was necessary to point out where Cobain got his "neverminds" and "easily amused" lines. The similarities are endless. I am considering recording a collection of Pual's lines followed by Kurt's lifted lines. I have found 20 or so. Does anyone else notice this stuff? Can't wait to hear "Stereo." Is it worth it to drive to Chicago to try and get into the Virgin record store to see Paul? Let me know. -Nick __________________________________________________________________________ IV. COVERS, QUESTIONS, BOOTLEGS From: Nido1@aol.com Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2002 18:37:12 EST Subject: Bastards of Young covered by Superdrag To: matt@novia.net I just wanted to let you know (if you didn't know already) that "Superdrag" (the best rock and roll band around today) did a brilliant cover of "Bastards of Young" on their Japanese EP "Greetings from Tennessee". All the members of Superdrag are huge Replacements fans. If you haven't heard this cover, you need to. -Danny From: "Chad Werner" Subject: Walkin' A Little Closer? Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 11:57:11 -0600 hey cats: i have a question about the song "walkin' a little closer"... i downloaded it from napster (rip) a long time ago, under the impression that it is a "let it be" outtake. i always knew that it wasn't paul on vocals, and thought it sounded it like pirner from soul asylum. i never thought too much about it. it's a minute or so in length, and it's cool. now, i'm not a big soul asylum fan, but i just now (duh!) realized that there is a song on the first soul asylum album called "walking" which is pretty close (but indeed different) to the song that i downloaded from napster (rip); albeit twice as long. "walkin' a little closer" is downloadable as a mats song from other sources like audiogalaxy.com. so, is the minute or so long version that i have always accepted as a mats song, indeed a mats recording (maybe with pirner as a guest vocalist)? or, have i been the victim of a mpls band mix up? anyone who can clear this up gets well wishes. thanks. From: ARFHOUND@aol.com Date: Fri, 1 Mar 2002 12:00:46 EST Have you heard the unbelievably effin' brilliant 8 minute opus on the 'Mats on the brand new Tommy Wommack album on Sideburn Records? If not, run don't walk to the nearest disc emporium and buy. It'll bring tears to your eyes, even as it makes you laugh hysterically. It's a song, a history, a memoir, a love letter and some of the best rock criticism I've ever heard all rolled into one (and I'm not even on the payroll). Please mention it on the site: all 'Mats fans should know about this. Enjoy. Dave Schulps Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 17:13:57 -0500 From: "Grady Hicks" hi, i just joined the skyway last week, and have really enjoyed it! for the last week, i've been going back and reading some of the past issues. i'm 40 years old, and have been a mats fan since 1984, when i first heard let it be. i never got the chance to see them as a group, but i did see paul on a solo tour. also, if anyone is interested in trading any mats bootlegs, i have the following: sorry ma' outtakes and alternate takes - 1 cassette pleased to meet me sessions - 2 cds maxwell's - hoboken, nj - 02/04/86 - 2 cds roxy theatre - los angeles, ca - 12/17/85 - 2 cds simply unacceptable - 7th street entry - 07/01/85 - 1 cd putting on the ritz - new york - 07/27/87 - 1 disc inconcertated - 1 disc everbody loves an ego-maniac - 1 disc live in dixie - orlando, fl - 04/18/89 - 1 disc dingwall's - london, en - 05/16/86 - 1 cassette saints roller rink - duluth, mn - 1982 - 1 cassette merlyn's - madison, wi - 10/31/82 - 1 cassette 7th street entry - minneapolis, mn - 01/30/81 - 1 cassette paul westerberg - lucky's revenge - los angele, ca - 07/21/93 hope to here from some of you....really would like to increase my collection. thanks again for putting together such a great forum !! thanks ! keith midnight619@cs.com __________________________________________________________________________ V. TOMMY STINSON INTERVIEW FROM 1988 THAT I TYPED IN INBETWEEN BOSTON AND PENNSYLVANIA Ink Disease Issue #12 Winter 88 Plush and furry, without even so much as a stink of beer made up the locale. A clean well lighted place with shaved morning faces and lots of telephones and big video screens become the backdrop. Suddenly it's 1987, punk is dead, and we're standing in line, sandwiched between Tiger Beat and Creem. If there are any illusions left, they were blanked away by the smog, sinking even heavier upon beautiful downtown Burbank. As our 11 a.m. slot at Warner Brothers came and went, the competition grew a little less ominous, as did our chances of actually getting an interview with the Replacements. "I'm sure the boys left their hotel. In the mean time, want to see the new Sammy Hagar video we're screening in the music library?" Welcome to the real world of rock and roll. Receptionists, PR Men, Waiting Rooms, Water Coolers, Various Departments (with their own cubicles), Gold Record Lined Walls, and plenty of "Ink What?" occupied our time. Looking as bright eyed as one would expect, the Replacements arrived on schedule, with an hour or two tacked on. PR Person: OK, you guys are from Ink Spot. You have twenty minutes with Tommy. ID: What about getting Paul over here as well? PR Person: Sorry, he's with RIP till 2 and Spin until 2:3i. (So what we have got here is an interview conducted by Thomas and Steve, and Tommy "Big Bass" Stinson supplying the fodder for you children of the wasteland, and all the outlying communities.) Tommy: OK, what do you want to know? ID: How did you get the new guitar player? Tommy: Slim has been a friend of ours for quite a while. He's just a Minneapolis guy who's been in a lot of bands. ID: Did he know every Rep tune before he joined the band? Tommy: No not really. It was me, pretty much, that asked him to join. One day I saw him at the place where my Ma works and I says to him, "What's up?" He said, "Not a whole bunch." I told him we fired Bob, and he'd worked with Bob for a while. I asked how he'd feel about trying out? He just smiled at me and said, "Sure." Then he came, and the next day he was in. The reason why I picked him was I had to replace my brother. I had to find someone that I liked that could replace Bob. That was more important than getting a flashy guitar player that would be really great, because it was so strained in the first place. ID: I read an interview, where you said, "What's more important than being good musicians is that you get along with one another." So, what happened to Bob? How did he get fired? Tommy: Well, he has kind of a drug and alcohol problem. It has progressed over the years. The last couple of years he hasn't really been in the band. ID: didn't he also get married last year? Tommy: That was another part of the problem. We would go on the road and he would get drunk and do some drugs, then he would get paranoid that his wife was with someone else. You don't need to write so much of that, because it's irrelevant at this point. It's just that he has problems at home and he's much happier now. Bob's got another band that he's in now and he's much happier with that, because he has some kind of artistic input. Where with us, the last couple of years he just got stifled. ID: One thing about the Replacements is that you guys couldn't do anything else, other than be in a band? Tommy: Well, we couldn't. That's for sure. ID: Is it still true that none of you have driver's licensees? Tommy: None of us ever did except Chris. ID: What about high school diplomas? Tommy: None of us really graduated. I guess Paul came the closest. I dropped out in the 10th grade so I could go on tour. Id: if you weren't a replacement what would you be doing? Tommy: I'd probably be stealing scars. The band was the thing that kind of got me out of being a hoodlum. My brother taught me how to play bass right around the time I was stealing bicycles, (and) doing a bunch of petty theft. If I hadn't gotten involved with the band I would have easily become a bigger criminal. I had it in me. ID: Are you on a nation wide tour right now? Tommy: We only tour for two weeks at a time, then take a week off. Not nation wide. Six or seven months on, we can't do that, shit (will) drive you nuts. ID: Have you done the grand European tour? Tommy: Twice now. ID: Do they love you in Europe? Tommy: Like a rock. ID: There is something about American bands that the English press likes. Tommy: Well, it ain't us. The English press smeared us. One particular paper did. She wrote everything that was said off the record. It was in the N.M.E. Each interviewer took a hundred pictures and they picked the worst fucking one out of every goddamn shot. I couldn't believe it. We'd been up for two days, because the flight was so screwed up. We had three layovers before we even left the United States. So it's already six hours on the plane and another eight hours to London. We're really frazzled. We thought we could trust her. She sounded real sincere and nice and shit. We were on the roof of the W.E.A. building and the bathrooms are three floors down, we said don't write this "but we got to go pee and we're not gonna go down stairs, we're too tired." The first fucking sentence she wrote is "Please do not write this..." ID: Now you're labeled rowdy and obnoxious. Tommy: (Sarcastically) Something we live up to greatly. Critics in the first place write for each other, to (prove who's) more clever than the next guy, but over there I think they really got a problem with it. Their writing is shit besides. we gave her the real story. That would be more interesting than us pissing on the roof of W.E.A. What the fuck is the big deal about that? ID: It's sensational and rock 'n' roll. Tommy: She's just a bitch. ID: Has your live performance toned down at all since Bob's out of the band? No nude playing? Tommy: "No nude playing. we're still the same band essentially. I thought when we went out for the first part of the trip we were going to be a lot different. We got out there and nobody noticed that he wasn't there. It fit so well, just came right together. ID: Slim has that Replacements look; thin, with scraggly hair. Tommy: Tall, dresses nice. ID: Is that what it takes to be a Replacement? Tommy: You have to dress nice. ID: Where do you buy your clothes? Tommy: We can't give out that information. Actually, we have our own private tailors. ID: Is there any plans in the works for a Replacements line of clothing, like the Clash did? Tommy: Maybe underwear and stinky socks. No we're not into advertising t-shirts or anything like that. ID: What has been the big difference since you left Twin Tone for Warner? Do you have 2i people promoting your band, all day long, every day? Tommy: No comment. There is a difference. The big difference is stuff we can't see. I would never know t if we had a hit on the radio, because I don't listen to the radio and I don't follow that kind of shit. I think if we had stayed on Twin tone we'd still be playing to the same sized crowd, because we had already been building up. The big difference is we get to come here (Warner Bros'. main HQ in beautiful downtown Burbank) rather than shit in a bathroom or some crappy club. ID: What about recording, do they say take as long as you want and here's a hundred grand? Tommy: They say, "Here's a certain amount of money to record your record, go ahead and make it." ID: Do you still have complete artistic freedom? Tommy: Yeah, we hold the ball. ID: How come you decided to go to Memphis to record? Tommy: We wanted to go somewhere different, because we had done it for so many years in Minneapolis. Warner was willing to send us down south. It turned out (to be) more fun. There were no distractions, whereas in Minneapolis, you can go and record, then you can go across the street to a bar, then you go to a club and see a band and then you go hang out with you friends. In Memphis we didn't have any friends, there was no place to go. ID: How long did it take to record? Tommy: About three months for the whole deal. ID: I read an interview where you said, there was maybe like different song titles on your album, but there is in actuality only 3 songs. Do you feel that your music is really just different titles with the same themes? Tommy: No: No. The lyric content is always different. A lot of our songs generally lie on the B note. Paul's key is mainly B. ?He's not an F sharp man. We're not original by any means. We steal from everything else. ID: Who's your favorite group to steal from? Tommy: No one and everything. ID: From Johnny Winters to... Tommy: No, that was Bob's thing. It's "Johnny Winter." Years ago I saw on Johnny Carson, "Ladies and gentlemen, Jonathan Winters," I said aaaarrrright! Then this fat old man comes walking out. ID: Were there any favorable reactions after your appearance on Saturday Night Live? Did you get offers to play Japan? Tommy: No. The whole thing was an uncomfortable as hell. We did loosen up in our dressing room with Harry Dean Stanton. He had a few cocktails with us. (That) kind of loosened up the mood of the whole show a bit. I guess Loren Michaels wasn't appreciative of how much we loosened up. Not booze wise. After a day of rehearsals we just said fuck it. We're not here to be someone else, we're here to be us. Let them bite the bullet, and we'll do what we want. We turned up our amps and did it. They should put Saturday Night Live in the bag. It's not even funny. Why keep dragging it on. ID: Is Will Power fanzine still going strong (A magazine dedicated entirely to the Replacements)? Tommy: Last I heard. [Bill Callahan, now of Smog:] He is the strangest guy you will ever meet. Every time we ever see him, he'll walk in the room and just say two words. He won't talk to you at all. After being in the dressing room for 10 minutes, the fuckers got a novel full of shit on us. ID: He has got great dirt on you guys. Tommy: Most of it he makes up. He has been with us once. He came with us to D.C. when we flopped big time. That was the only show he has ever seen I think. I don't know if he is really bright or just a creep. ID: His life seems to be an obsession with you guys. Tommy: I got the idea that he didn't like us. I think he likes the scoop of it; "Replacements, drunks," or what ever they've made up about us. ID: Here is today's issue of the Reader (a local paper) with a write up saying how the Replacements are one of America's few great bands. Do you agree with that statement? Tommy: "They have never played a bad show in Los Angeles."? This person hasn't been there. ID: Would you of thought five years ago that you would be sitting in a Warner Bros. office doing an interview talking about your world tour? Tommy: No. I never thought we'd be around, even a while. ID: Do you think 5 years from now you will be doing this? Tommy: It's hard to say. We have always been on the rope. We have always been close to hanging it up, seeing what the other side looks like. I know Me, Paul and Slim will always be in music, in one form or another. I don't know about Chris, he's an artist. ?He draws and is more of (a) quiet, shy person. I know I'll be in it till the ending day. ID: So this is a pretty good life for you right now? Tommy: No. It's what I know. ID: Can you be satisfied? Tommy: No. If I thought I could be satisfied, I probably would never be satisfied. I probably would never be successful at anything. People who write songs are never satisfied. Writing a song can be frustrating but that's the spice of it. That's what makes (it) interesting enough to keep going, cause you always think "that one didn't work so great, let me try this." ID: Do you think that is part of the reason why you shy away from doing many of your songs live, especially the quiet songs? Tommy: We do a lot of the quiet songs now. The reason why we do covers most of the time is because, yeah, we are sick o four own songs. Sometimes I feel, "not that one again." ID: Do you feel some of the songs are too personal? Tommy: Paul might. He writes the words. I would tend to think there are a few songs that are touchy that aren't appropriate live. Even some of the lighter ones are about touchy subjects. ID: Have there been any great disasters on this tour? Tommy: It has only been two days. No catastrophes yet, but it's always creeping up on us. ID: What is one of the worst catastrophes that has happened to you on a tour? Tommy: They left me in New York once. WE had to get up to Boston, and one of the guys in Del Fuegos played bass in my place. This was 5 years ago. ID: Do you think that was it, they just left you? Tommy: The band had to go to Boston. We needed the money so we could keep the tour going, so they went on without me. About 10 hours later I finally got a hold of them. It was really scary. I just sat in Central Park . ID: Did you feel lost and all alone? Tommy: Completely. I was a ragged mess after a long time. I was sitting there, with no money and this gay painter who was selling his paintings on the street offered to buy me something to eat. I sat and talked to him for about 1i hours. ID: How old were you at the time? Tommy: 1i. ID: How did your Mom feel about you being 15 years old and touring? Tommy: She said, "It's your decision. I can't really stand by the fact that you're going to drop out of school, but if you want to do it it's your choice." Now she's PROUD of us. She has seen us play quite a few times - when we were bad and when we were good. She has given me her criticism about the band. ID: What is the concept behind the "Pleased to Meet Me" album cover? Tommy: See it for yourself. It was my arrogant statement that caused that whole record cover. You shake all these peoples' hands and you can't remember their name the next day, let along the next hour even. It is such a) schmoozing thing. You shake the president of the company's hand and he doesn't remember your name in 10 minutes. It's like, "Please to meet me." ID: Have you actually met anyone that you really liked? Tommy: There are a few friends here and there in the company and they say to the next guy, "You guys are alright." I think, for us, that is the only way they're ever going to do any work for us, because a lot of these people in this company don't want to have anything to do with us, because we're not of hit quality. Someone who's not really interested in your music, but thinks you're a really swell person and likes your attitude, will work for you. ID: Do they push you, saying, "You've got to be here to do an interview with Rolling Stone at 1 o'clock and an interview with Ink Disease at two?" Tommy: They know that we don't mind doing interviews really. They don't say, "You've got to." They say, "Would you guys like to come do some interviews at Warner Brothers?" I'd rather be sitting here talking to you guys than sitting at the hotel getting nervous about playing tonight. ID: Do you still get nervous? Tommy: We all get nervous, every night. It never goes away. Warner PR Dude: Are you ready to start your wrap-up? (Sure, we've been here 10 minutes already. - Ed.) Tommy: Do you have more interviews for me to do? Warner PR Dude: Oh yeah. Tiger Beat are out in the hall. Tommy: Can we do them in here? I want to play this Prince tape on the stereo. ID: We have never done an interview like this before (arrange it before hand with the record company.) Tommy: It gets a little more official at this level when you're dealing with a record label. They certainly don't want you to come pester us when we're in a bad mood at something like a club, because more often than not you'll get bad answers or a mean response. We can be really fucking cruel. We're generally nice guys, but if we're in a bad mood and somebody gets under our skin, we tear into them. Generally get pretty mean. ID: Do The Replacements have a no video policy, or are you anti-video? Tommy: Anti cars, chicks and graphics. ID: Graphics? What do you mean by that? Tommy: Peter Gabriel shit. Little things floating around. ID: Did the record company say, "We need a video. You have to do one." Tommy: No. They didn't say, "We need one." They asked us if we'd do one. We said, "We'd rather not." They said, "Okay, but if you do a video what would you like to do?" Off the top of our heads we say, "Live T.V." Two weeks later they called us up and say, "You're going to be on Saturday Night Live." Then after that, they said, "You guys are coming out here for a trip, why don't you make a video?" We said, "Well maybe, if we're not in it." We talked a few ideas out and decided if we weren't in it then we'd make one. Our statement was just that. Have you seen it? Doesn't it give you a headache, just watching that speaker going up and down (That is essence is all the lovely video consists of. Three minutes of staring at a coverless speaker whilst "Bastards of Young" pumps on and on.) It was perfect, because no one is going to want to watch this. It even gave us headaches. ID: Are you going to do another video for the new record? Tommy: We did one for "The Ledge." MTV doesn't want to play it, because of the content of the song. They think it sounds pro-suicide. When in actuality, as you and I know, it's not. It's a personal song about Paul, and he's still around, so how could it be pro-suicide. They're afraid that some kid is going to kill himself, and they're going to get sued. [Does this mean that the "Alex Chilton" video is just a spliced-together edit of the footage for The Ledge? -m@] ID: Maybe you need to have a disclaimer with it. Tommy: We don't really care if they play it or not. We just don't want to not get played for reasons like we're supporting suicide, because we're not. The song was written before the suicide in New Jersey [the Judas Priest case? -m@] Now that that's happened they think we've hopped on the bandwagon, and we're making some big statement for suicide. They just don't understand us. We're not a hit band on the radio, and they figure, "Fuck, we don't need to play this, why bother with it." ID: I heard you did an interview with KROQ that got pretty out of hand. What is the story behind that? Tommy: We came out to California for a record release party. We did three of them. The first one we did was in Memphis, and after we did that Warner Brothers wanted us to do more. So we did one in New York, Chicago and L.A.. We did the one in L.A., and after schmoozing with people, having drinks, by midnight, you're bombed. d Then they asked if we wanted to go over to KROQ and do an interview. We said "no." They kept after us to go over there, "just drop in and say 'hi'." We got over there and they're all ready for us to do an interview. Our theme at the time was "we are gay." Apparently a lot of people at the station were offended by that, for reasons we don't need to talk about. Apparently there had been some sort of gang killing of gay people that made the newspaper. I felt if we had known that we probably wouldn't have been on and done that. The next day I called up the radio station and apologized. The day after the interview they broke our album on the air. ID: You want to say anything about Alex Chilton? Tommy: He's a great guy. (Though he got credit) He didn't actually play on our record. He just played one legendary Alex Chilton riff. The song is just a story about experiences with Alex Chilton. That's all it is. We have had a few experiences with Alex Chilton and a couple of them have been memorable. ?He's an interesting guy, he's strange. You'll be talking to him, and all of a sudden he'll just break into this grin that throws you, because you don't know if he thinks you're an idiot or what. We get along well with him. I actually got a chance to play with him one night, because his bass player had a seizure and had to be rushed to the hospital. He played wild that night. After drinking a little wine and getting over being self-conscious about playing with Alex Chilton, I got into it. He was ripping out leads, singing at the top of his lungs, it was fun, really good time. ID: Do you have any solo projects in the works? Tommy: I've been flirting with song writing for quite a while, a couple years. I don't think my place is doing it with The Replacements. I think my time will come when The Replacements are done. I know that sounds creepy. ID: So, you're already looking ahead. Tommy: I'm not thinking about how I'm going to be when I am done. I just know that I'm writing songs now and keeping them to myself. Last couple of records I've thrown in a song or two, just to record it, hear what it sounds like, and learn from it. ID: Do you think The Replacements could survive without you? Tommy: Probably wouldn't do it. I know it sounds arrogant, but without Paul or myself I don't think it would go on. With Chris, the three of us are essentially the band. Though the band started without Paul, we grew into The Replacements, where Bo stayed out there somewhere. I don't think it would go on without any of the three of us. I do hold a big card. (As Tommy begins to introspect about his station in the universe and why the Prince tape that is playing in the background doesn't rock like "Under the Cherry Moon", Thomas, head chef for Ink Disease, presents young Tommy with a batch of homemade semi-sweet-bitter chocolate chip-chunk cookies.) ID: Cookie? Tommy: Oh sure, fuck yeah (we knew we'd get him eating out of the palm of our hand.) Hey, these are good. Did you make the batter and everything yourself? Jesus, these are good cookies. ID: Is Prince a friend of yours? Tommy: In our starting days, he crept in to the club that we played at a few times, in the back observing. ID: So how are you traveling these days? By plane, bus, van, or car? Tommy: By plane and van and car. We have a mini van that is so small that Slim can't even sit in it. We're going to get a Cadillac when we get to San Francisco so Slim can have some legroom. ID: Do The Replacements practice safe sex? Tommy: We've all got girlfriends. Slims' married. We don't really do that shit on the road anymore, like we did the first tour. ID: Is the band maturing or changing? Tommy: We're men, but we're also pussies. We're sweethearts, yet we're assholes, figure that one out. ID: Do you get lots of fan mail? Tommy: I was just mentioning that to my girlfriend that other day. When we were on Twin Tone, I would get loads of it. I haven't seen a letter in a year and a half. ID: I guess you have your staff answering your mail personally for you. Tommy: If that's going on, I'm going to raise hell, because I don't like that. I don't want someone answering a letter saying they're me, for Christ sake. (As Tommy began to breathe fire our tape machine turned into a molten blob of oozing thoughts and charbroiled ideas, thus ending another successful sojourn into the life and times of the ever dynamic world of Ink Disease on the march, shalom.) fin. ______________________________________________________________________________ The //Skyway\\: The Replacements Mailing List http://www.theskyway.com ______________________________________________________________________________ "It is of interest to note that while some dolphins are reported to have learned English -- up to fifty words used in correct context -- no human being has been reported to have learned dolphinese." - Carl Sagan