Cover Them Impressed! I'm in Love with that Song--Australian Replacements Tribute

Lampshade Optional....

 

 

It's hard to believe it but the Replacements are back! It seems like almost everybody comes back, if only for a limited time only. I was looking at Paul Westerberg's website and it looks like he and Tommy are really enjoying this. And if proceeds are going to help Slim Dunlap, who is very ill, it is a
 great cause.





But this post is about a tribute album from 1999. I haven't really done a lot with tribute album's but this is one I really like.

I don't have a lot of buying music stories recently. Unfortunately it involves the click of a mouse more often than not. But when I finally got around to buying I'm in Love with this Song, an all-Australian tribute album of Replacements tunes, it turned out the disc was long out of print and was pretty pricey.

One day after work I noticed someone was selling one for a reasonable price. It was late October a few years ago. The weather had started to go a little haywire here in New York. It was snowing, which is extremely unusual for us. Within a few moments, I noticed that the branches on the trees were hanging down; the snow was so heavy the branches were literally touching the ground within a matter of a half hour. Just as I went to purchase the disc, the power went down. Power came back about 5 days later, so I have mixed associations with this album. But I don't regret the purchase as much as the deferred gratification.

As far as The Replacements go, I probably identify with them more than any other band. They could be me, or people I know. Sometimes if you are in the Burbs, you kind of feel like you're from nowhere, as though you, Paul, Bob, Tim & Chris were all from the same home town. Of course I had the opportunity to see them in their prime at Mabel's in Champaign-Urbana and blew the gig off for schoolwork!

To some degree, I think every tribute is a mixed bag. They can be label showcases, sometimes they are bloated productions with a host of big stars paying tribute to another big star. Some of them seem to be slapped together a little too carelessly. It seems to me that this collection is more of a labor of love, of combination of Australian contemporaries who loved their music, and other bands who bought  their music as teenagers and were thus encouraged to pick up some guitars and raise some hell.



As far as tributes go, this is better than 90% of your typical covers collection. For the most part the songs don't stray too far from the originals--which is unfortunate. Maybe you might have wanted a few different songs represented. I probably know about half the acts on this, if only by name in some cases. Its nice that the roster of bands is not a stag party--there are some women belting out the tunes which I think is great. And I'm pretty certain that all the albums are represented. From the snotty to the sublime.

I knew from the very first song, Brad Shepherd's spirited take on Alex Chilton, that this tribute was a keeper. It's a little faster and punkier than the original--less sentimental but just as powerful. Brad of course is a member of the HooDoo Gurus, an Australian institution, so its no small wonder that he smacks this song out of the park. When I hear the song, it feels a little ironic, like we're celebrating the next generation of underappreciation, like Chilton passing the baton to Westerberg. The powers that be thought they would be America's Rolling Stones, but as it turned out they could only be themselves, brilliant, warts and all. And this tribute shows the reverence that musicians hold for this band (even halfway around the world), but also the unimpeachable quality of the songs, which rings truthfully through these interpretations.

The Celibate Rifles make an appearance here performing a sans-mandolin rough take on I Will Dare from Let it Be. Power poppers IceCream Hands do a nice version of Swinging Party. A band well worth seeking out, Brother Brick, represent well on Color Me Impressed.

Other bands that I recognize are Challenger 7 who smash through Left of the Dial with panache. The Pyramidiacs have their way with On the Bus. Pop aficionado Dom Mariani's DM3 do a nice twangy Rock n Roll Ghost. You Am I cover White & Lazy from the Replacements Stink, and its okay--I'm not sure how much you could do with this. The Finkers have fun Tommy gets his Tonsils out.




As far as groups I'm unfamiliar with go, Blood Sucking Freaks pounds out Taking a Ride with conviction. Really good take on one of the standouts from Sorry, Ma.....Half Miler's hard 90's sounding take on Here Come's a Regular is one of the few covers that strays from the songbook a bit.
And it works. Erbs & Pisces do a mashup of both sides of the Mats first single, I'm in Trouble/If only you were Lonely. Nick Barker, Michael Thomas & Jen Anderson do a nice jangly countrified version of Skyway with lovely three part harmony, a violin solo, and if I'm not hallucinating, a banjo.

I enjoyed The Scruffs doing Can't Hardly Wait--not as good as the original but much better than the movie with the same title. Eva Trout perform Androgynous--female vocals seem very appropriate here. Mandy Pearson and Love Me do a nice version of Sadly Beautiful--it's like listening to the song from an entirely new perspective. Achin' to Be is similar to the Alt-Country sounding original but with piano added to the mix.

If you haven't figured it out, I really liked this Tribute, but not nearly as much as I like the Replacements. Who knows, maybe they've another chapter to write in their songbook.


Here's another interpretation not from Australia, but from another American legend.