The Replacements are the band that I was referring to yesterday. They were the best band of the eighties for several reasons, but at the top of the list is how they kept the spirit of rock and roll alive in a musically desolate decade. (And yes, I know that I wrote yesterday how I'm going to try to write only positive things and so on, but I had to live through it, OK?) Anyway, I recently read a very interesting book about the 'Mats (short for Placemats, a nickname for the band - it sort of sounds the same, I guess) called The Replacements: All Over But the Shouting: An Oral History (2007) by Jim Walsh, that was written in a very compelling way. Walsh allows the band's story to be told from numerous viewpoints - friends, family, fellow musicians, etc. - and their recollections and thoughts combine to give a sense of how important a story it is. They were a great band, but there is always a sense of ironic detachment in their work, and maybe they were even more interesting because of it. For example, often the central message they conveyed was that they shouldn't be taken seriously, but of course the self-knowledge and intellect that was always apparent underneath the nonchalant wildness said the opposite. I'll be writing more on them tomorrow, but in the meantime you might want to check out one of their "anti-videos": Search The Replacements "Bastards of Young" in YouTube or The Replacements "The Ledge" video in Google.