PW/Mats sound in 20 words or fewer

[torethatbridgeout]

As good as the recent stuff is, some key elements of the PW sound are missing, and not just drums. Backing vocals for one.

There's an interview where Paul rattles off a few elements of the 'Mats sound. All I remember is "busy bassline" but there was more.

Anybody know the rest ... or wanna make it up yerself?

[elgoodo]

busy bass line, octave guitars, and a slightly off-key vocal...


(how's it going TTBO?...)

[gravy]

Alcohol Induced, Heart on your sleeve, lump in your throat, spit in your eye, makes you weak in knees
Rock n Roll!

(i'm sayinr rock n roll is 1 word!)

[ClamsCasino]

torethatbridgeout said:

There's an interview where Paul rattles off a few elements of the 'Mats sound. All I remember is "busy bassline" but there was more.

Anybody know the rest ... or wanna make it up yerself?

You're probably thinking of that vinyl-only interview disc that came out after PTMM. When asked to describe the Replacements sound, Paul mentions that Tommy is a frustrated guitarist so he plays alot of busy and melodic basslines. I think he takes a cheap shot at Chris' drumming abilities and then mentions that he always likes to have his vocals down in the mix because it makes his screaming sound more powerful. I don't know if it's in the same interview, but I've also heard him talk about how much of the Mats' unique sound came from his tendency to throw in complex chords and difficult chord changes.

All of that is pretty interesting to look back on in these one-man-band days. The solo Paul seems to be the antithesis of the Replacements if you break it down like that.
A) The only bassline that Paul's every played that sounds remotely like something Tommy would do is on the alt. version of Crackle and Drag.
B) Those cheap shots at Chris' drumming abilities seem pretty silly now that Paul's banging the beats out himself. You can hear Chris saying, "Oh yeah, Paul, that's so much better than what I was doing."
C) He still puts the vocals way down in the mix, but he's apparently done screaming, so it doesn't have the same effect as it used to.
D) Those complex "Beatles chords" went out the window with 14 Songs, when Paul came up with that new mission statement about writing as simply as possible.

It makes you wonder if he's doing everything he can to make sure that his solo stuff doesn't sound like the Replacements.

[torethatbridgeout]

Wow. Thanks CC, that's what I was looking for. (Hey goodie)

I had that interview on a casette (copy) in fact, I had two copies of it and seem to have lost them both. Is that where they play songs off of PTMM one at a time and he talks about em and a female voice asks a few questions? Wait .... seems like that was a King Biscuit Flour Hour show: was that on LP?

[claypigeon]

ClamsCasino said:

It makes you wonder if he's doing everything he can to make sure that his solo stuff doesn't sound like the Replacements.

Although it's always a Catch-22 for some people anyway. When he makes an album like Suicaine Gratifaction the critics call it wimpy and pretentious. When he makes an album like Mono they say he's just retreading old ground.

[ClamsCasino]

But, for all the reasons listed, Mono isn't just treading old ground. Did many reviewers really criticize it on those grounds anyway? I thought the nearly unanimous verdict was that Mono was a blast of fresh air after the somewhat stale and overcalculated Suicaine and Eventually (which is not necessarily my opinion of those albums, by the way). I think a recent review of CFMT said it best when the writer mentioned that it was the Westerberg album that sounded most like the Replacements without actually sounding like the Replacements at all.

Torethatbridgeout, I don't think it was a King Biscuit show, but that does describe the promo LP that I have. The cover shows the band at their frizziest (hair-wise), wearing a retina-scrambling array of plaids.

[grandpaboysfriend]

torethatbridgeout said:

There's an interview where Paul rattles off a few elements of the 'Mats sound. All I remember is "busy bassline" but there was more.

Anybody know the rest ... or wanna make it up yerself?

paul's being interviewed by julie panebianco and when she say's to paul that the mats' sound has been described as beatlesque he agrees but then clarifies that moving from a 7th chord to a minor is more tin pan alley and it's been incorrectly appropriated as beatlesque. at least that's what he says at the start of segment 4. i'll have to listen to the whole record.