V/A - Austin, TX "So What" A tribute to the Replacements (1997, Dis Twin)

Here’s my final Austin spotlight post, at least perhaps until next year’s SXSW. Austin, TX "So What," is to my knowledge the second commercially released Replacements tributes, preceded, by Sorry Ma, Forgot to Let Out the Cat, also a location specific compilation that I happened to post last year.

So What doesn’t suck, but to varying degrees it disappoints, especially when held up to 2006’s thoroughly consistent Mats tribute We’ll Inherit the Earth on 1-2-3-4 Go! Records. There aren’t many recognizable participants here, with the most notable being mid-90s one-hit wonders Fastball, who line-drive their revved-up spin on the Let It Be classic “Androgynous.” Several remakes of Mpls finest are slotted on radically different trajectories here, a prime example being The Asylum Street Spankers bluegrass-ified “Treatment Bound.” Most of So What’s contributors actually “stick to the script,” so to speak, but you’ll be hard pressed to find any that exude one tenth the passion and fervor of Paul Westerberg and Co, as if these bands were striving to be intentionally lackluster if you can believe that. As tributes go, that is if you’re a serious Replacements fan, it’s still worth a listen, though certainly not $75-$171 certain shysters on Amazon are hoping to rake in. BTW, less than 25% of the selections here were picked from the band’s Warner Brothers albums. Is somebody trying to tell us something?

01-Novellas - Kiss Me on the Bus
02-Blind Willie's Johnson - White and Lazy
03-Asylum St. Spankers - Treatment Bound
04-Paul Minor - Left of the Dial
05-Pork with Hammel on Trial - Bastards of Young
06-CHK with the Damnations - Trouble
07-Fastball - Androgynous
08-Beaver Nelson - Can't Hardly Wait
09-Dizzy - Within Your Reach
10-The Gourds - Favorite Thing
11-Smokin' Bozo - If Only You Were Lonely
12-The Chandeliers - Sixteen Blue
13-Clown Meat - Shiftless When Idle
14-Beggar's X-mas - Johnny's Gonna Die
15-Prescott Curlywolf - Stuck in the Middle
16-Buick McKane - I Hate Music
17-Die Twins - Answering Machine

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