Nowhere #35: a sacriligious stroker move
One last gasp on the covers discussion. The Boys are wrestling with something I still see a lot of, to my puzzlement and amusement: the Replacements still cast a long, long shadow up here. When I was a music writer a couple of years ago, every local band I interviewed, without fail, would mention the Replacements, even if it was just to say that they see part of their mission as getting the Twin Cities music scene out of the Replacements rut. If one band says something like that, it doesn’t mean much, but when everybody does, it gets kind of interesting. Anyway, the vast majority of Minnesota bands do seem to go through at least a very short phase where they see themselves as the heirs to the ‘Mats, either in sound or in work ethic (IE, “we’re so talented that we don’t need to practice, so let’s get FUCKED UP”).
To be honest, I like the Replacements a lot, but I always kind of preferred Husker Du. And yet nobody compares themselves to them. Weird.
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A friend of a friend is in a ‘mats cover band.
Finding that out was like finding out he was a professional semen collector.
Wow. I’ve always thought that the whole Van Halen or AC/DC cover band thing might be kind of fun in a brainless way, but a full-on ‘Mats cover band just sounds like you’re asking for existential despair. It kind of blows my mind to know that a Replacements cover band exists. Some of my academic friends will go nuts with that.
Also: I actually knew a guy who was a professional semen collector for a summer, at a hog fertility center in western Minnesota. The experience made him really optimistic; he knew his life couldn’t help but get better than it was…
Who calls them the ‘Mats? I’ve never heard that.
Not sure when that started, but I’ve heard it used a lot. Especially in the Twin Cities, and especially especially in Twin Cities people over 30, so it might be some combo of age and regionalism…