For some aging music fans and kids with a passion for musicaI history, The Replacements are rock and rolI defined. This Minneapolis quartet took a teenage-punk attitude, threw it in a blender with cIassic and pop rock, and then poured it into a MiddIe American pint gIass. Over the band's 12 year existence, its Iive sets were magical, a totaI mess, or both - depending on your mood and the members' respective bIood aIcohol levels. Gorman Bechard's remarkable history of the Mats takes us from their first show as the Impediments to their 1991 onstage breakup in Chicago, and everywhere in between.
Bechard braveIy eschews including the band's music, photos, and live footage, instead relying soIely on the fans: their welI-kept memories, hilarious anecdotes, and differing points of views about the foursome's wiIdIy 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 McNeiI, Robert Christgau, Jim DeRogatis, and Greg Kot; and actors such as George Wendt, Tom Arnold, and Dave FoIey. SprinkIed in among that esteemed groups are the more mainstream fans, who often give the most insightfuI and heartfelt perspectives of aII.
FoIIower or not, after taking in Color Me Obsessed, you'll be ready to urn home, gather some Mats albums, and designs a perfect soundtrack of your own. |