The Replacements Hit The Fans...

I was (well, still am...) a rabid fan of the band The Replacements and as I mentioned them a couple of posts ago, I thought it might be of interest to inform other potential 'Mats junkies that there are a lot of cool links to their sounds out on the web, and of course a lot of shaky camera footage of their onstage "reunions" (featuring only the original members Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson, as Bob Stinson died in 1995, Slim Dunlap [the irreplaceable Bob's replacement] suffered a stroke in 2012, and drummer Chris Mars devotes his time to visual art these days) occurring last year. You can find loads of early live Replacements courtesy of an entity known as bobstinsonsghost. Check it out! And there's the effort to archive tapes of the Replacements (notoriously inconsistent) live shows. (Wow a queasy glimpse of the Grateful Dead just floated by...) And below the 1981 attempt to showcase the band for record execs. Also see if you dare the strange doco on the band (well, their fans, really) Color Me Obsessed.

Swinging Party: Lorde/Replacements

It's great that New Zealand's own dear Ms. Ella Maria Lani Yelich-O'Connor (aka Lorde) kicked some serious ass at the US Grammy Awards. She's made some of the best popular pop music (as opposed to unloved but entirely worthy pop music that's always shifted to the side until much later on...Big Star, etc.) in a very long while! And this rather long in the tooth writer was very impressed by her cover of the Replacements' song Swinging Party. Here's a live version of the song by the band I once (along with a lot of other geeky boys) worshipped from 1985, and Lorde's updated take.