![[Live/Bootleg] The Replacements - Grant Park, Chicago 7/2/91](http://cache.elbo.ws/posts/2314837_lg.jpg)
Here's the very last show The Replacements ever played - July 4th, 1991 in Chicago's Grant Park. Besides the obvious historical/sentimental value that fact brings, the show is notable for a few other reasons as well. There's Tommy's "Wanna see my Axl Rose impersonation?" quip, which draws some laughs from the band and crowd (and later became quite ironic). Paul comically drops the F-bomb about a half dozen times in "Bent Out Of Shape", knowing full well the show was being broadcast live on the radio. But, more than anything else, it's the tongue-in-cheek way the show stumbles across the [...]
A few years ago a friend of mine gave me a bunch of MP3s and said, "You have to check out this guy. He's the next Paul Westerberg ." Of course, this immediately made me extremely skeptical. Especially after I realized that my jackass friend had given me dozens of MP3s tagged as "unknown artist" and "track 8" and so on. I had to do a mess of MP3 archeology until I finally discovered that I now had a wide range of tracks by Matthew Ryan spanning eight albums from 1997 to 2004. [...]
![[Live/Bootleg] The Replacements @ Maxwells - Hobokon, N.J. 2/4/86](http://cache.elbo.ws/posts/2303570_lg.jpg)
With all do respect to Wilco, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Pavement, The Stones, & Spoon, I've come to the realization over the past few days that The Replacements are my "Desert Island" band. If you told me that I could listen to only one artist for the rest of my life, it would be The Mats. There, I said it. I've been on such a bender the past week or so that I have little interest in listening to anything else right now, so, needless to say, a lot of my bootlegs have been dusted off and gotten some loud [...]
Thelonious Monster is playing this Thursday, February 4, at the Echo in Los Angeles (click link for info and tickets). This stunning fact gives me the opportunity to wax philosophical about my love for the Monster, especially singer/songwriter, Bob Forrest . First off, as mentioned in the sidebar, "The Adios Lounge" is a song from Thelonious' 1992 album, Beautiful Mess , and features Bob duetting with Tom Freakin Waits . And my choosing a Thelonious Monster song was no accident. They're my favorite band of all-time, taking [...]
got an email yesterday regarding reposting this mats show from dekalb on 4.5.85, and since it was handy, here ya go.... 1. i'm in trouble 2. takin a ride 3. color me impressed 4. favorite thing 5. heyday 6. all my rowdy friends 7. i will dare 8. kiss me on the bus 9. unsatisfied 10. lookin for ya [...]
Photograph: Alex Chilton and Paul Westerberg, Maxwell's, Hoboken, NJ, 1987. © Ted Barron, 2008. http://rockin-pneumonia.blogsp ot.com/
Whatever that last decade was called it was a great one for music. There are dozens of bands and albums worthy of best something. Best bloody-face album cover: Andrew W.K. Best band with an unprintable name: F****d Up. It's a challenge to narrow a list to only 10 when you're considering so many excellent releases but here goes. 10. Okkervil River - The Stage Names : This was a real breakthrough album for these guys. Initially lumped in with the hordes of alt-country bands that dotted the landscape (a label the band loathed), these guys [...]
2009: The Year In Rejects Part 4 DJ STV SLV - Alex Chilton, Down And Out (Kanye Westerberg) Download: direct via Raptorhideout | drop.io | Soundcloud I've had this comment ready since this track came together (or didn't, rather): Sorry Paul, Forgot To Take Out The Trash. NEW YEARS EVE: On Thursday we'll be closing out [...]
I didn't know much about The Waterboys until somebody at The CD Store I managed in 1986 started playing them from time to time. I can remember, one of my favorite DJs from all my time in Boston, Morning Guy Tai at WFNX playing The Waterboys fairly often during his stint as the Morning Drive guy from 1985-1997. No offense to all who have come and gone since, the morning show hasn't been the same since. Just my two cents. Anyway, Tai was a fan of The Waterboys and played several of their tracks fairly often including "The Whole of The [...]
Our 30 to 32 list features a rock and rock supergroup, the unlikely comeback of some rave warriors, the return to form of a mid-'90s guitar spillers, the world's most bombastic rock band, an album inspired by UFOs, a group of Scotch heros, Sheffield's finest candlelight troubadour and Bradford Cox. Albums of 2009: 75-51 | 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-1 30. Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures Dave Grohl has described his friendship with [...]
"I never thought being obnoxious would get me where I am today." - Billie Joe Amstrong. Green Day hardly met any challenges 'til the 00s. From the get-go, Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt witnessed success. In 1988, after only a year on the circuit, Larry Livermore of Lookout! Records signed their band, then called Sweet Children, to record a handful of EPs, which would more or less become the basis for their initial 1990 debut, 39/Smooth . Things hardly slowed down, either. They wrote, they toured, they snagged drummer Tré Cool, and they [...]
Roman Candle announces January dates with Alejandro Escovedo; Oh Tall Tree in the Ear in stores Roman Candle have announced new January tour dates in support of Alejandro Escovedo . The tour will take the Nashville by way of Chapel Hill band throughout the southeast, beginning January 15, 2010 at The Orange Peel in Asheville, NC, and wrapping up January 23rd at Headliners in Louisville, KY. Roman Candle's third album [...]
Today's Rock Clip of the Week is a great clip of The Replacements doing "Talent Show" on ABC's shortlived Rock Awards network TV awards show, which the Mats management somehow got them onto the show. "The band caused some controversy at the ABC Rock Awards show when they performed a version of their track "Talent Show" where Paul (in response to the network censoring the line "feeling good from the pills we took") inserted a line later into the song that went "It's too late to take pills, here we go." [...]
Polvo Alright, here's my annual attempt at ranking my favorite tracks of the year. I'm sure the list will be completely different in a month after I've had a chance to read all the different lists the interweb provides. Enjoy. Honorable Mention: Screaming Females – "Bell"; Flight Of The Conchords – " Sugalumps "; Morrissey – "It's Not Your Birthday Anymore"; Phoenix – "1901"; Sonic Youth – " Sacred Trickster "; Black Moth Super Rainbow – "Born On A Day The Sun Didn't Shine" 20. [...]
This weeks Dogcast is fueled by hangover and Totino's Party Pizza!(totino's is not really a sponsor, but it's all I have to eat:(...) This weeks Dogcast! has 17 songs totaling 59 minutes of music! Subscribe: ITunes RSS Tracklisting: Lou Barlow - Gravitate Paul Westerberg - Good as the Cat David Bazan - Bearing Witness David Dondero - The Real Tina Turner Jim McCray [...]
Snatches of wholesome rock 'n roll goodness from around the inter-connected world: - Largehearted Boy lists its "favorite eleven albums of 2009"... , including words and Mp3s on The Japandroids, Rhett Miller, Mountain Goats and others. - Glide Magazine lists its 50 best albums of the decade . The mag also has a good review on a new Velvet Underground book called " White Light White Heat ". - Phoenix New Times ' Up on the Sun ' blog wrote about its love for the 30 Seconds [...]
by Ben Greenman Marc Bolan, of course, was the front man and principal songwriter for T. Rex, both in the band's early hippie incarnation (Tyrannosaurus Rex, which evolved out of the psychedelic folk ensemble John's Children) and in its later, more successful glam-rock version. You know T. Rex, of course, from "Bang a Gong (Get It On)," which went top ten in 1972 and the band's only American hit. In Britain, though, Bolan and T. Rex were a rock-and-roll phenomenon who repeatedly rose into the top five with songs like "Hot Love," "Jeepster," "Metal Guru," [...]
It's a hard life for us Paul Westerberg fans. The former Replacements frontman hardly ever updates his fanbase on anything and for the past two years he's surfaced maybe twice. To make matters worse, he hasn't released a proper studio album since 2006's Open Season soundtrack, which admittedly featured some remarkable work ("Love You in the Fall" is a long lost 'Mats single, in some respects), and while he's thrown out a few digital efforts (including last year's 49:00 "album") it only teases the fanbase, who's hungry for much, much [...]
This summer I came across this video by a band called Kindness, so uncomplicated, so short yet plain awesome. Next thing I know the track is stuck in my head and so it has been up until now. It's actually the b-side to another great song, Swinging Party; a cover originally by Paul Westerberg . Prepare yourself to get these stuck in your head. Kindness - Gee Up (ALT) Kindness - Swinging Party (ALT)
NME 50 MIA - Arula 49 Muse - Absolution 48 The Walkmen - Bows and Arrows 47 Brendan Benson - Lapalco 46 The Delgados - The Great Eastern 45 Avalanches - Since I Left You 44 Outkast - Speakerboxxx/The Love Below 43 Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot 42 Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend 41 Wild Beasts - Two Dancers 40 Ryan Adams - Gold 39 [...]
New Releases V2.9
2010 Bonnaroo Artists Unveiled
New Nas & Armand Van Helden
