Just for the record, in the post-
Replacements sweepstakes let it be known that
Tommy Stinson's Bash & Pop debut
Friday Night is Killing Me beat
Paul Westerberg's premiere solo juncture
14 Songs to the clock by a good half a year in 1993. I suppose if you want to get
really technical, Paul had his two songs on the
Singles soundtrack a year prior, and of course their was original Mats drummer
Chris Mars who released his first solo disk,
Horseshoes and Hand Grenades in 1992, but I digress. All competitiveness aside, The newly reissued and vastly expanded
Friday Night.. floored virtually anyone who encountered it. Thing is, this record had a lot going against it at the time - veritably overshadowed in an era of high-stakes grunge, metal and the emerging Brit-pop movement. Secondly, despite his reputation as founding member of the Replacements, he was after all the bassist and a minimally contributing songwriter.
In essence, the prospect of a Tommy Stinson spinoff project didn't quite garner or match the anticipation of Westerberg's
14 Songs. Luckily, Tommy had connections to ex-Mats fill-in drummer
Steve Foley and Wire Train's
Jeff Trott who not only helped flesh out the ranks, but infused
Friday Night with a ferociousness that could rival the latter-era Mats' live setup. Comparisons to his former meal ticket are inevitable (and I'll even broach one of my own in a minute), but to my ears it sounds like Tommy had profoundly studied Keith Richards 1988 solo outing
Talk is Cheap. In terms of further inspiration antecedents, Stephen Thomas Erlewine's
All Music critique of Bash & Pop entails multiple references to the Faces. A more than valid argument, but much akin to Richards/Stones and the Faces, B&P plays their hand rambunctiously as-all-get-out yet never quite careens off the rails. It takes a certain acumen to balance rough hewn with roughshod, and Stinson and Co. possess just the right skill set to put this kind of magic off.
Friday Night is chockablock with rollicking, seemingly tossed-off wonders like "Hang Ups" and "Fast and Hard," the latter with Paul Westerberg on backing vox. Elsewhere, "One More Time" might have slotted in on the Mat's
Pleased to Meet Me, and the boys
strike a more consoling tone on the tamer "Nothing" and "First Steps."
Between Tommy's next endeavor,
Perfect, a decade-plus stint with a reconstituted Guns N' Roses, and even a Replacements reunion, it would be another 24 years for Bash & Pop to belly up to the bar with a follow-up (check out this year's
Anything Could Happen). Regardless of the prolonged layover,
Friday Night stood as a testament to Stinson's capabilities as a frontman and song scribe, and remarkably stands up over twenty years later. Omnivore Record's reissue of the album in question is duly remastered, but the gravy is an 18-song bonus disc that commences with a quartet of solo home demos. These lead into a handful of studio outtakes, some only appearing on hard to find
promotional 45s. The majority of the remaining tracks are a bevy of alternate takes, many none-too-discernible from the album versions, though an extra-strummy spin of "Tiny Pieces" stands out. You can buy the whole enchalada straight from
Omnivore,
Amazon, and hopefully a local brick and mortar record dive near you.
Recently had a request for this one. It was originally hosted on another blog, but my understanding is that the link is long dead. At any rate, this isn't the first Pop Art product I've shared before. I'm still hosting the records that sandwich this one, namely a self-titled ep and their second full length, Long Walk to Nowhere. A Perfect Metal Picture might be their best, filled with wall to wall Anglophile pop homage - only Pop Art hailed from L.A....and had fake Brit accents. This will be pleasant surprise for those of you who are craving the second coming of Aztec Camera, or Postcard Records type bands. Enjoy (or not)
