Replacement Reunion It Isn't...But A Replacement Documentary It Is

There’s lots of rumbling today about a Replacements “reunion,” of which a covers album featuring Paul and Tommy does not make.

And don’t even think about suggesting that Slim Dunlop was anything more than a hired gun, meant to give Reprise a better return on their investment. It was their last chance at turning Westerberg into the singer/songwriter genius that he was, but didn’t ask for.

God, I miss the Mats. I really do.

But I don’t like the idea of selling me something that isn’t, especially when Paul seemed to be doing quite fine on his own, at least from a creative standpoint.

So the reports that the band is getting back together doesn’t shake me as much as this documentary about one of the Twin Cities trifecta of great bands (Huskers and, yes, Soul Asylum are the others) slated for release in November.

Collective “Aw” please, as you ready the spiel.

Color Me Obsessed, the first documentary about famed 80's indie-rock band The Replacements,will be released in a two-disc DVD set (with 6 hours of extras) on November 20 via MVD Entertainment Group.

Told through the eyes of fans, friends, and contemporaries, Color Me Obsessed breaks from the traditional music documentary format of music and performances. Not looking to make a VH1/where-are-they-now style documentary, director Gorman Bechard took a unique approach, "I decided to present the band in a more iconic way," he explains. "I thought, people believe in God without seeing or hearing him but rather through the passion, faith, and stories of others. After watching Color Me Obsessed, I'm pretty sure music fans will believe in The Replacements in much the same way." Telling the band's story was a project close to the heart for Bechard. Like many who were weaned on punk music he latched onto this brash young Minneapolis band with fervor. Dubbed "the last best band" by Spin Magazine, their live shows could be miraculous or downright disasters. Their fans, unwaveringly faithful. As critic's darlings, their albums were wrought with angry guitars and passionate well-written lyrics that hinted at potential commercial success.

Yet, somehow, the band managed to continually shoot themselves in the foot. Their relative obscurity was a motivating factor in presenting their story on film. "The Replacements should have been the next Rolling Stones," Bechard says, "And to the people who loved them, I think they were." Combining over 140 interviews with rockers (Colin Meloy of The Decemberists, Craig Finn of The Hold Steady, Tommy Ramone, Grant Hart and Greg Norton of Husker Du, all three members of Goo Goo Dolls), journalists (Robert Christgau, Legs McNeil, Ira Robbins, Greg Kot, Jim DeRogatis), and fans both famous (Tom Arnold, Dave Foley, George Wendt) and not, Bechard delivers the obsessive tale of the most influential band you've never heard of, The Replacements. And though containing not one note of their music, Color Me Obsessed is a documentary that really rocks.

The Nils - The Nils

Life ain’t fair, but the thorns of injustice hit Montreal’s The Nils particularly hard. Blessed with an impeccable sense of melody and bursting at the seams with post-punk energy, The Nils left behind a small catalog of evidence and an endless amount of unrealized potential.

The Nils debut full-length was released in 1987. Part of the funding the band received leading up to their debut came from the guy from Men Without Hats. Even people back then thought it was an odd pairing, too.

It’s because The Nils sound nothing like Men Without Hats, but they do sound a lot like The Replacements. In some weird moment of synchronicity, a pair of brothers from Canada created noise out of boredom. After a few days of tinkering with a new guitar, Carlos Soria noticed that his brother Alex was getting good with his instrument.

They formed a band with a few more young locals, and before too long The Nils were getting noticed. And for a bunch of teenagers, they sounded pretty good.

Particularly Alex Soria, who began to write some emotionally vulnerable stuff under the racket that he and his brother were bashing through their amplifiers.

Aside from a few e.p.’s on Canadian labels that made Twin/Tone look like a major, the band waited on the sidelines for their moment.

And when it came, it became their undoing.

When the band was finally extended an offer, they were in desperation mode. They signed the first offer presented to them and on the surface, it looked promising. Rock Hotel Records started life as a rock subsidiary for Profile Records, who were enjoying tremendous success with rap artists like Run-D.M.C.

The Nils collects a dozen tunes of sloppy, up-tempo punk/pop that displayed just as many signs of “maturity” while avoiding the tiredness sound that plagued the ‘Mats own forays into adulthood (Don’t Tell A Soul).

Instead, the vast majority of the songs on their debut feature galloping rhythms and three-chorded brashness. You’ll find no trouble name checking the bands that followed The Nils tradition and you’ll be able to find several that made a decent living doing it. But you won’t be able to find a suitable explanation as to why The Nils weren’t able to create similar favor.

The opener “River Of Sadness” builds from an acoustic twelve-string into rollicking bit of melancholia. Westerberg himself-particularly with his association to the Mississippi-would have enjoyed penning Soria’s plaintive musing “By the river of sadness/My heart unfolds.”

The Nils is filled with emotional depth, hidden under arrangements that most undoubtedly rocked the cigarette smoke off of more than a few dives in its day.

And just at the moment when the band began to play to larger audiences, their upstart label lost the financial backing of their parent company. The Nils suddenly found themselves in a quiet van ride back to Canada, and when they arrived home, they faced a myriad of legal wrangling just to get back to the same point as when they began.

All of this, of course, also kept The Nils out of print and out of record stores. By the time it was over, we had unceremoniously forgotten about the band, right around the same time a bunch of younger bands had figured out how to present a similar approach directly into the mainstream.

While lesser bands rode to their own 120 minutes of success, The Nils floundered at home-the wind completely out of their sails and their bitterness leading them into addiction. Alex decided to walk by the railroad tracks one day a few years ago after another setback fell on him and instead of turning back to go home and start over, he walked directly into the path of an oncoming train.

What a shame, mainly because Alex used to conduct one of rock music’s most formidable locomotives himself and The Nils is the best example of that power before everything derailed too soon.

This review originally appeared in Glorious Noise.