The Replacements - New Old Music

(Pitchfork) "There's never been a shortage of thirty and fortysomethings reminiscing about the 'Mats," Mark Richardson observes in his review of the first four Replacements albums' Rhino reissues. Much to my eternal non-cred, I'm not a part of that indiest of generations. That means I heard "Can't Hardly Wait" over the credits of a movie starring Ethan Embry (who?) and Jennifer Love Hewitt (who?), got obsessed with "Alex Chilton" thanks to streaming internet radio, and fell in love with "Kiss Me on the Bus" after the same profanity demon hellride to Des Moines that prompted me to download "Hell Greyhound Bus Ride" by Wesley Willis. It also means I knew the underachieving, beer-soaked Minnesota band's legend from books like Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life before I'd heard big chunks of their discography.

Doesn't matter. If these demos from Rhino's next set of Replacements reissues tell us anything about this band, it's that their songs were sharp and tuneful enough to withstand not just the indignities of studio production, but also their own underdog mystique.

Tim's "Kiss Me on the Bus" is considerably faster and rougher on this demo, cut in the summer of 1985 to see how well the band got along with ex-Ramone (and eventual Tim producer) Tommy Erdelyi, but the bittersweet modern kicks that made the song great were already there.

"Photo" could be familiar to some diehards as "P.O. Box (Empty as Your Heart)"; this work in progress comes from the band's first demo session without guitarist Bob Stinson, in summer 1986 ahead of Pleased to Meet Me, and despite thematic similarities to Let It Be's "Answering Machine" it sounds like it should've been on an album.

"Talent Show", stripped of the overproduction and ringing acoustic guitars of Don't Tell a Soul, takes on a renewed vitality. All of which makes even a person of my non-McCain age wonder whether that's just indigestion, or if the music is making me actually feel something. Better buy some beer just in case.


[the deluxe reissues of Tim, Pleased to Meet Me, Don't Tell a Soul, and All Shook Down are due 09/23/08 from Rhino]

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