The Replacements

Minneapolis

The Replacements started when Bob Stinson gave his 11-year-old brother Tommy a bass. With Chris Mars they played as a trio called Dogbreath, and when Paul Westerberg joined as singer they became the Impediments. Banned from a church-hall venue in June 1980, they renamed themselves the Replacements. Their nickname, the 'Mats, is short for the Placemats, a mispronunciation of the name.

Peter Jesperson managed and produced them for Twin/Tone, which released Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash in 1981, the Stink EP in 1982 and Hootenanny in 1983. The band drew on the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Ramones and the Sex Pistols, wrote heart-on-the-sleeve songs with self-deprecating lyrics, and played live shows that were unreliable and often drunk.

Let It Be and Tim

Westerberg said the songs for Let It Be (1984) were more sincere than the fast, loud Hootenanny material. Made at Blackberry Way Studios, it holds I Will Dare, with a guitar solo by R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, and Unsatisfied, largely improvised in the studio. It came fourth in the 1984 Pazz & Jop poll, and Robert Christgau ranked it with X's Wild Gift as the peak of American indie rock.

Sire signed the band in 1985. Tim, produced by Tommy Erdelyi, the Ramones' Tommy Ramone, came out that September with Bastards of Young and Left of the Dial. It was the last album by the original four, and its mix was widely judged thin. In January 1986 they played Saturday Night Live, turned their amps up against instructions, and were banned from the show. Bob Stinson was fired or left that August, and Jesperson was let go the same year.

Sire years and the split

Pleased to Meet Me (1987) was made as a trio with the producer Jim Dickinson and includes Alex Chilton and Can't Hardly Wait, a song left off Tim. Slim Dunlap joined on guitar afterwards. Don't Tell a Soul (1989) was followed by a tour opening for Tom Petty, and All Shook Down (1990) was made largely by Westerberg with session players, with Steve Foley replacing Mars on drums. On 4 July 1991 they played Taste of Chicago in Grant Park, a show broadcast by WXRT, and did not play again for 22 years.

Westerberg went solo, sometimes recording as Grandpaboy. Tommy Stinson formed Bash & Pop and then Perfect, and played bass in Guns N' Roses from 1998 to 2016. Mars joined Golden Smog and later concentrated on painting. Bob Stinson played in Static Taxi and the Bleeding Hearts, and died in 1995 at 35. Foley died in 2008.

There are no good Replacements live recordings.

Tommy Stinson, 2007

Reunion and legacy

Westerberg and Tommy Stinson recorded two new songs for the 2006 best-of Don't You Know Who I Think I Was? The reunion was announced in October 2012, and the Songs for Slim EP raised money for Dunlap after his stroke. The band played Riot Fest in 2013, Coachella in 2014 and, in September 2014, Midway Stadium in St Paul, their first headlining home-state show in 23 years. The last show was at Primavera Sound in Porto on 5 June 2015. Dunlap died in December 2024.

Rhino has since opened the archive: For Sale: Live at Maxwell's 1986 (2017), Dead Man's Pop (2019), whose notes won Bob Mehr a Grammy, a Tim box with a new Ed Stasium mix (2023) and a Let It Be deluxe edition (2025). Rolling Stone credited Tim with shaping grunge, alt-country and emo. The band were nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame class of 2014 and have a star on the First Avenue mural in Minneapolis. Mehr's Trouble Boys (2016), Jim Walsh's oral history and a chapter of Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life tell the story.