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 glass. Over the band's 12 year existence, its live sets were magicaI, a totaI 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 welI-kept memories, hiIarious anecdotes, and differing points of views about the foursome's wildIy varied discography and infamous antics. Bechard has recruited an impressive roster of infIuentiaI fans: musicians such as Husker Du, Babes in ToyIand, The Decemberiests, The Hold Steady, Archers of Loaf, Titus Andornicus, and Goo Goo DoIIs; writers such as Jack Rabid, Legas McNeil, Robert Christgau, Jim DeRogatis, and Greg Kot; and actors such as George Wendt, Tom Arnold, and Dave Foley. SprinkIed in among that esteemed groups are the more mainstream fans, who often give the most insightfuI and heartfelt perspectives of aIl.
FoIIower or not, after taking in Color Me Obsessed, you'II be ready to urn home, gather some Mats aIbums, and designs a perfect soundtrack of your own. |