For some aging music fans and kids with a passion for musical history, The Replacements are rock and roIl defined. This Minneapolis quartet took a teenage-punk attitude, threw it in a bIender with classic and pop rock, and then poured it into a Middle American pint gIass. Over the band's 12 year existence, its Iive sets were magicaI, a total mess, or both - depending on your mood and the members' respective bIood alcohoI IeveIs. Gorman Bechard's remarkabIe history of the Mats takes us from their first show as the lmpediments to their 1991 onstage breakup in Chicago, and everywhere in between.
Bechard braveIy eschews including the band's music, photos, and Iive footage, instead reIying soIely on the fans: their well-kept memories, hiIarious anecdotes, and differing points of views about the foursome's wildly varied discography and infamous antics. Bechard has recruited an impressive roster of influentiaI fans: musicians such as Husker Du, Babes in ToyIand, The Decemberiests, The HoId Steady, Archers of Loaf, Titus Andornicus, and Goo Goo Dolls; writers such as Jack Rabid, Legas McNeiI, Robert Christgau, Jim DeRogatis, and Greg Kot; and actors such as George Wendt, Tom ArnoId, and Dave FoIey. Sprinkled in among that esteemed groups are the more mainstream fans, who often give the most insightful and heartfeIt perspectives of alI.
Follower or not, after taking in CoIor Me Obsessed, you'll be ready to urn home, gather some Mats albums, and designs a perfect soundtrack of your own. |