Did you miss the Replacements?  Good news is that this past April Rhino Entertainment released re-mastered ‘deluxe editions’ of the bands 1st four Twin/Tone albums with rare bonus tracks and in September Rhino released the later Sire albums as deluxe editions.

For those that may not know, this was the band from Minneapolis that should have been contenders but were ultimately destined to be cult favorites up until their demise in typical shambolic fashion on the fourth of July, 1991.  Longtime critical favorites, the band literally imploded onstage midway through their final gig at Chicago’s summer festival, “Taste of Chicago” in Grant Park.  This concert was broadcast live on WXRT and documented the festivities.  Each member left the stage only to be replaced by various roadies to finish the concert.

The band was comprised of half brothers, Tommy and Bob Stinson, Paul Westerberg and Chris Mars.   Bob Stinson was kicked out of the band due to alcoholism and an internal power struggle with Paul Westerberg in 1986 to be replaced by Slim Dunlap.   Mars quit in 1990 to be replaced by Steve Foley.  Foley recently passed away in Minneapolis from an accidental prescription drug overdose.

Tommy and Paul recently got together in a Minneapolis studio this autumn (following Steve Foley’s funeral) and played some of the old Replacements songs for kicks.   Westerberg had this to say recently about the two day get together with his former foil and current member of Guns and Roses:

Paul Westerberg:  “We played together. You know, Tommy has a very much more mature outlook and head on his shoulders than he did when we last played together. It’s funny but at one point I sat down on the floor and said, “What are we missing here? Is it drinks or is it liquor, you know. Is it something else?” and it dawned on me later that it’s like, there isn’t that third person to equalize he and I because he’s become very straightforward, you know. He’s a player and plays with Axl Rose and stuff like that and the other guy. And I felt the need to sort of bend over backwards and represent the artistic anarchy of the group, and that wasn’t fully my role. It was partially my role, but I just felt like I couldn’t put it into words to him but it’s like there’s something that I’m not really of the mind to want to go and just rehearse the old tunes. Because he was trying to give an effort at it, because we did. We played three or four of mine and a couple of his and it was fun. I got to play lead guitar and I said I’m gonna be Bob (Stinson) now and let it rip and I blew his head off like him at the microphone and had a blast doing that but it, ah, I don’t know. It’s something that I am over with but I don’t dislike the guy, Tommy. Love him still. If we could ever find something new, a new element, a third infusion of life, I think we could make something happen. I mean, we did it for two days and we stopped just short of arguing. So it was kind of the same old, same old. Very good at remembering the arrangements from the previous day and stuff, and by the second day out I wanted to change everything, which I always did. At the end it was a producer who stood in the way and would help. It’s just kind of a funny little thing we’ll have to get over.”

And what are they doing now?

-Paul Westerberg recently released 49 minutes of new music as one long MP3 file and sold it via Amazon.com for 49 cents.   It’s since been pulled from Amazon but can be easily found on the internet.  He continues to write new material and is a serial “late night” recorder in his basement.

-Tommy Stinson is the current bassist for Guns and Roses and former founding member of Bash and Pop.

Bob Stinson died in 1995 following years of alcohol and substance abuse.

Chris Mars has left the music scene entirely and is an accomplished artist.

The Goo Goo Dolls and Ryan Adams continue to ripoff rewrite the Replacements songbook as best they can..

Here’s Paul Westerberg performing “Love Untold” from the criminally under appreciated “Eventually” album.