The Replacements: Boink!! (Glass Records/1986)

Minneapolis' The Replacements are one of few bands on a personal shortlist of a half-dozen or so bands that changed me as a preteen. They informally introduced to American post-punk rock, American alternative rock, and boozy proto-alt country. They are what The Smiths from the United Kingdom, were to American teens in the 1980's in that they were a beacon for disaffected, alienated youth looking for a spokesman to speak for them. And they found on in Paul Westerberg. Or so I've always believed in any case.

Boink!! was an eight-song compilation album released in 1986 for the UK market on Glass Records.

In consists of three songs from Hootenanny - “Color Me Impressed”, “Within Your Reach” (which had it's widest exposure in the Cameron Crowe film Say Anything... and “Take Me Down To The Hospital”. Three songs from The Replacements Stink (the should've-been-a-single “Kids Don't Follow”, the bluesy rave-up “White And Lazy” and the mini-epic “Go”) albums. Plus the B-Side to their debut single “I'm In Trouble” (the fantastic, would-be-Merle Haggard song “If Only Your Were Lonely”) and the previously-unreleased Alex Chilton - produced “Nowhere Is My Home”. Alex Chilton was almost the producer for the band's Tim album, however Sire Records wanted someone with more name-recognition so they in-turn went with Tommy Ramone. Who did a fantastic job. “Nowhere Is My Home” is a fantastic song and also appears on the 2008 reissue of Tim.

Boink!! is a wonderful, if seemingly random selection of tracks and the album is pretty rare. In fact I've only ever seen it in record stores maybe five times tops.

Here's the video review:

The Replacements: Festival Pier, Penn's Landing, Philadelphia, PA Saturday 5/9/15

The surprising and wonderful reunion of The Replacements came to Philly this past Saturday Night. The location was the outdoor venue of Festival Pier at Penn's Landing right off of the Delaware River. The weather was humid, but certainly more than bearable given the occasion. The band took the stage with authority and purpose and blasted through "Takin' A Ride", "Favorite Thing" a medley of "I Don't Know/Buck Hill" and "Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out" before catching their breath with the latter-day B-Side "Kissin' In Action". Original members, rhythm guitarist/vocalist Paul Westerberg and bassist Tommy Stinson were in excellent form as were new members lead guitarist Dave Minehan (ex-Neighborhoods) and drummer Josh Freese (ex-Vandals, currently in Devo).

                                             (Objects in photo are closer than they appear)

I'd seen the band four times from 1989-1991, all before the age of 15. Since then I have a new-found respect for the band and their legacy. From the bands' performance, it seems that they too have learned to respect their own legacy and they delivered a seriously great performance with very little shtick from Westerberg (he's finally learned to hide behind his songs and nothing more).

The twenty-five song set contained a few fan-favorite surprises ("Hold My Life", "Little Mascara", "Never Mind" and "Valentine"), and a lone random cover (Sham 69's "Borstal Breakout") in favor of originals the band had been performing regularly on their Back By Unpopular Demand Tour (their nearly mainstream hit "I'll Be You", "Color Me Impressed", "Skyway", "Waitress In The Sky" and "Merry Go Round"). Plus songs that were singles and should have been massively big songs (i.e."I Will Dare", "Can't Hardly Wait", "I'm In Trouble", "Alex Chilton" and "Bastards Of Young"). I was happy to hear them perform "Within Your Reach", "Nobody"and "Seen Your Video" (which they hadn't performed when I saw them last September at their amazing Forest Hills Tennis Stadium performance). 

I sincerely hope they continue playing thus making this a regular once-in-a-lifetime event for their fans.

Special Thanks: Scott Scherquist. 

Embarrassingly distant photo by the author.