The Replacements on Fallon tonight (9/9/14)

ok, I've defended Tommy Stimson for joining G'n'R. Now I have to say that the Fallon performance left me a bit flat. Without new songs, I don't really see the point, from a fan's perspective. It sounded pretty much like Westerberg's solo act, which was good but had lost the reason for being that was the band. (A typical problem, imo.)

I guess it's good to see Paul out and around, seeing as his solo albums were so depressive. But the divorce news may explain his interest in making the Replacements a thing again.

it didn't help that the camera crew wasn't informed that they should focus on the bass player, not the "lead" guitarist, who was on screen more than Tommy. Granted, Tommy looked a little slow afoot, to me.

 

I watched it a couple of times last night. What a rush...Paul and Tommy looked and sounded great. This band certainly seemed to embody "The Replacements" more than the "Paul + sidemen" feel of the All Shook Down era.

I watched and listened to a good majority of the reunion gigs, and hope to actually make it to one. Despite all of the "replacement Replacements" chatter, it's good to have the best American rock & roll band of the past 35 years back in action. I would love for an album to come to fruition.

 

The "guitar sounded wrong" is especially strange to say. What exactly sounded "wrong" about it? I am guessing because Paul or the other guitar player did not play the exact same inversions or hit the exact same top voice in the chord as he did on PTMM. I realize this happened on the Tonight show performance but what band always plays chords exactly like they do on the studio version in a live setting? The poster that said that must have never played the guitar in a live setting where you are bouncing around and not really thinking exactly about hitting every note to the studio version.

PS- I realize you did not post any of the criticisms. I think the performance was great.

 

It was done in a different key than the original. Maybe that has something to do with it sounding "wrong"?

I dunno.

I thought it sounded great.

 

The camera work was badly ill-informed but I thought the performance was pretty great. As for it being like Paul solo, it's been ten years since he played with a band, and that wasn't even anything like a tour. Also, his solo albums aren't all depressive. The Grandpaboy Mono is one of the best old school rock records of the last ten or however how many years and Come See Me Tremble rocked pretty well too. See, we don't always agree!

 

Generally, but he's no James Mercer or Matt Berninger in terms of clarity - I know the song pretty well but without knowing it, many of the lines sounded pretty random or nonsensical, so, more difficult for an audience to connect with. So yes, it was a return to rock n roll, but I have doubts that there's an audience for straight up rock n roll like that. No matter. They don't have to become famous. Just would be nice if they did.

 

Yeah, they all get 'royalties" for Replacements stuff. Stinson also gets royalties for Bash & Pop, Soul Asylum and GNR (Chinese Democracy) stuff, along with studio work and the touring money for both GNR, SA, & now the Mats. Chris Mars is an accomplished artist, and his earnings from that are good- just two of his works sold for over $25k last year. Slim Dunlop is the one Mat in financial trouble, solely due to his medical issues, which are many. I don't think any of them live an excessive lifestyle, and want for money- one can assume that if they did need cash, one of the many, many multi-million dollar offers for a reunion tour would have been taken previously. Granted, none of them are swimming in Springsteen-type wealth, but none of them live in a mansion in New Jersey either...

 

The majority of any Replacements money from record sales or licensing would go to Paul, and Tommy appears on one SA album on which he has no writing credits . And I'd be willing to bet he never saw a penny from Bash & Pop.

 

What's your point? MY point was that the poster made Stinson et al sound like they were destitute with no sources of income, which isn't true. Neither of us know the exact extent of the royalties for ANYTHING, so we really can't definitively comment on that, can we?

 

Paul probably just felt like kicking it up with Tommy again.

I imagine he might have college tuition on his mind as well.

 

We can guess based on general knowledge of how the music industry works, though. Most likely, Stinson sees no performance royalties for the Sire Mats albums, because they likely didn't recoup their advances and therefore haven't yet become profitable in record company accountancy terms. The Bash & Pop album is not in print, so he most certainly sees no royalties from that, either. And I don't think there are many people covering his compositions, so I doubt he's seeing much in terms of songwriting royalties. My guess is that his income from non-GNR recordings is at best a few dollars a year. The point being, it's completely understandable why he chose to work for Axl.

 

About 15,000 fans saw "the point" tonight at their gig in St. Paul. These guys are having fun, playing many songs they haven't played together for nearly 30 years (many of which Paul never played in his solo shows). If they want to take a victory lap and enjoy their legacy...and earn a few dollars in the process...I don't see a problem with it.

 

They are doing it for the right reasons, and for all who didn't see the Rolling Stone article, Paul mentioned that the payday for these gigs isn't a huge windfall for them because of old financial obligations - "We owe the mob," he says. "Dead rats in the mail." So it seems they may be settling old advances, to free up future royalties? Anyone's guess.

 

Sorry, but I prefer to deal in facts, not guesses. If you can't find a source to back up your assertion, then you shouldn't post it as fact.

 

Which is why I didn't post any of my guesses as fact, but used words like "most likely", "I doubt", and "my guess is that" to make it clear I was just speculating. Clear to everybody except you, I guess.

By contrast, you said: "Yeah, they all get 'royalties" for Replacements stuff. Stinson also gets royalties for Bash & Pop, Soul Asylum and GNR (Chinese Democracy) stuff, along with studio work and the touring money for both GNR, SA, & now the Mats." What's your source for that assertion? Or are you an exception to the "you shouldn't post guesses as fact" rule?

 

The Fallon performance was very solid and, I almost hate to use this word--professional. The only time I saw the Replacements is when they opened for Elvis Costello on his Mighty Like A Rose tour. They were a lot of fun but seemed like they would fall apart and leave the stage at any moment. I remember Westerberg exhorting the audience to get up and dance "... because it's your world", and later threatening to play "Hootenany" for the remainder of the show unless people got up and danced. I'd never seen a performer give an audience so much sh-t, but he was funny.

 

Sorry, but I disagree- By adding the words "most likely" to any sentence, it gives it a sense of fact, meaning it is more than likely true. As in "Most likely, czeskleba is sitting naked eating cheetos while surfing the net." I have no knowledge of whether that is true or not, but reading the line, a person will assume it is, just based on the fact that it is posted publicly. Now if I had a source to back it up, then that's totally different, isn't it? Saying "my guess is " followed by a statement doesn't leave it open-ended, it gives it a sort of closure, as in "My guess is that his income from non-GNR recordings is at best a few dollars a year." I don't know what you consider a few dollars, but I bought stuff off of Tommy's website this year, including vinyl, a CD (and a t-shirt), which added up to more than a few dollars, lol. Reading your sentence, a reader is likely to come to the conclusion that Tommy makes little money..might be true, might not be, but once it is perceived as fact by a reader, it lives forever on the net, to be regurgitated over & over..

And you are correct, I applied the same exact logic as you did in making your assertions, and I am wrong for doing so, violating what is good sense and responsible action when posting things publicly. I apologize.

 

yeah, to be clear, I don't see a problem with it, either -- I'm just not that excited about it, not legislating against it. But I'm that way about most r'n'r reunions... now, HD is one reunion I'd like to see, mostly because those guys seem to have bygones to let go. And because I never saw the original band. And they're all still alive.

interesting -- or just a joke? Not sure how touring receipts could be counted toward record expenses.

 

I'm no expert, but perhaps using the name "The Replacements" opened up legal obligations they had left behind years ago. Might explain the reluctance to reunite previously.

 

what shirt did you get it? I have the red One Man Mutiny shirt. I also have the limited edition signed 7" and shot glass as well

 

I was intending my "few dollars" comment to pertain to his performance royalty income only, but upon rereading it, I see that I didn't make that clear. Sorry. I still don't think that what I wrote previously would give anyone the impression I was claiming my speculations to be facts, so I guess we'll have to agree to disagree about that.

By way of comparison, here's a piece by Tim Quirk of Too Much Joy where he discusses major label accounting practices, recouping, and the miniscule royalties he's received for the band's major label work. I don't think the Mats sold substantially better than TMJ, so I WOULD GUESS (though I could possibly be wrong, and I'm not saying any of this is a fact, readers) that the Mats are in a similar situation.

 

Yeah, I'd lean towards that just being a joke. I agree that it doesn't seem likely that touring profits could somehow be confiscated by a record company to recoup recording costs. And I'm skeptical the guys would be doing these shows if they weren't seeing a reasonable amount of profits. Or perhaps Westerberg has just racked up some debt in recent years that he needs to pay off, since he hasn't been very active with recording or performing. Who knows?

 

Does anyone know if Chris Mars was asked to do the tour, or are they just not speaking to him at this point?

 

Chris and the other guys get along fine. He simply is not interested in participating. Music is not his focus anymore, and (aside from occasional one-man-band recordings in his home studio) he hasn't picked up a drumstick in about 15 years. He apparently doesn't feel his drum skills are up to playing with other musicians, which is why he only sang background vocals on the 2006 reunion tracks and didn't participate in the Mats reunion recordings for Songs for Slim. I've also read that he was never particularly fond of touring once he stopped drinking in 1988. I remember that when he released his second solo album, the label hired another band to go out and promote it on the road (performing with a cardboard cutout of Mars onstage) because he didn't want to tour.

 

Here's a picture of Paul and Chris signing Songs for Slim EPs last year, btw: