All things considered, Tim was an easy transition to the majors for the Replacements, at least as far as the making of the album goes: things went wrong after the release, as the band botched big showcases like its Saturday Night Live spot, leading up to the dismissal of Bob Stinson at the conclusion of the Tim tour. The dust hadn't settled when the 'Mats headed down to Memphis to record Pleased to Meet Me with producer Jim Dickinson at Ardent Studios -- or to phrase it in Alex Chilton-speak, to record with Big Star's 3rd producer at the studio where all three Big Star albums were made. All this fanboy worship perhaps naturally led to a full-blown mash note to Paul Westerberg's idol, who also turned up to play a couple of licks on a finally finished "Can't Hardly Wait," which initially was attempted with Chilton as a producer before Tim, but Pleased to Meet Me didn't resemble either the crystalline pop of #1 Record or the narcissistic black hole of 3rd. Dickinson gave the Replacements a full-blooded, muscular production, cranking up guitars, hauling out an upright bass for Tommy Stinson, and bringing in horns -- even strings -- to flesh out Westerberg's songs. This was the Replacements as professionals and, ever the contrarians, they strained against it -- albeit only sporadically and underneath the surface -- with Westerberg's outsider stance calcifying into the invigorating bitterness of "I.O.U." and "I Don't Know." These two proto-slacker anti-anthems -- quite the inverse of the call to arms of "Bastards of Young" and "Left of the Dial" -- are the only times the group's self-sabotage surfaces here, as the bandmembers pretty much give themselves over to Dickinson's studio savvy, leading to the ominous pulse of "The Ledge" and the brilliant, shining power pop of "Never Mind," "Alex Chilton," and "Valentine," along with such left-field twists as the mock jazz of "Nightclub Jitters."
This kind of colorful, almost cinematic production -- even the greasy rocker "Shooting Dirty Pool" is enhanced by the sound of breaking glass -- was unheard of on a Replacements record and it all came to a head on "Can't Hardly Wait," which was glossed over with swelling strings and the Memphis Horns. All these fancy accoutrements would seem like the antithesis of the Replacements' spirit, but Dickinson's grand production merely blows the 'Mats up to epic scale, leaving their essence intact: Westerberg even gets a lovely fragile acoustic moment in "Skyway" and there are down-and-dirty rockers like "Shooting Dirty Pool" and "Red Red Wine" that feel like throwaways, but are necessary to the spirit of the record. The Replacements never sounded better with a bigger production than they did on Pleased to Meet Me, so it's hard not to see it as the one that got away, the record that should have been the breakthrough, especially in the year when fellow American underground rockers R.E.M. leaped into the Top Ten (but, it's also true that "The Ledge" may not have been the best single choice, as songs about suicides don't often provide entry into the Top 40). Then again, the Replacements don't make sense as a success story, so the failure of the gleaming, glistening Pleased to Meet Me winds up making its polish kind of heart-rending. As it turns out, this was the last time they could still shoot for the stars and seem like their scrappy selves and, in many ways, it was the last true Replacements album.
MP3: The Replacements - Alex ChiltonMP3: The Replacements - Nightclub JittersI'd say we're long overdue for a post, don't you think? With the stress of the holidays, a broken computer and drowning at work, I fell behind and I am sorry. We're beyond looking back at a year that was and totally into looking forward at the year that's yet to be. With 2009 started up, I figured what a time to say he...
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I am a video game junkie. I have been one for quite some time and still remember going to buy Maze Craze for the Atari 2600 with my allowance money back in 1978. Through the years gaming systems have come out, and each time I made the trip to the store in order to get my new fix. Something about losing yourself in your own little world has always appealed to me, and when Guitar Hero came out f...
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1. What's your favorite band?Replacements2. Do you play an instrument?Yes - Guitar and keyboards3. Sing?Yep, I've done some singing. Listen for yourself: http://www.samthebutcher.com/music/music.html4. Write lyrics?Yeah...it's the hardest part of writing a song for me.5. Have you ever slept with a drummer?You mean like "slept" or *slept*? No...I don't think so.6. What's the coolest concert you'...
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1987.Pleased to Meet Me.After the success of Tim and playing on Saturday Night Live, the Mats were poised to go huge. Here was another of the "one of us" bands which came up through the cold winters and hot summers of Minnesota. The Tim album was college radio material and made the Mats critic darlings but the live shows were sometimes sloppy, sometimes brilliant (often in the same song) and cr...
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It turns out The Replacements' classic "Alex Chilton" is part of the new Rock Band 2 video game. The song made it's first appearance on the 1987 album Pleased To Meet Me , which was recently reissued with a plethora of bonus material (my review of it here ).There's an interview with 'Mats singer Paul Westerberg on the video games website. You can check out 18-minutes of Paul here .Paul We...
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I am already failing at my goal to write one blog a week. First I need to stress that brickbat is unbelievable. She is my inspiration.Let’s talk about something that is always in the back of my mind regarding what music becomes popular and what music doesn’t and why.Here is my theory. The Cute Factor. Some of the greatest bands of their time (The Replacements, Urge Overkill) did not become
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I am already failing at my goal to write one blog a week. First I need to stress that brickbat is unbelievable. She is my inspiration.Let’s talk about something that is always in the back of my mind regarding what music becomes popular and what music doesn’t and why.Here is my theory. The Cute Factor. Some of the greatest bands of their time (The Replacements, Urge Overkill) did not become
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the sweetest song for any lovelorn city dweller and all the rest.going back from the further back i'm currently on, this album turned me on to the band i've been listening to lately. can you guess which band?
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From today's Billboard: According to local media reports, Foley died after accidentally overdosing on prescription medication. The 1990 selection of Foley, who played in such Minneapolis bands as Curtiss A, Wheelo and Snaps, as the substitute for original Replacements drummer...~~
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 "Pleased to Meet Me")
