 |
| David Menconi, Peter Jesperson, & Tommy Stinson at Schoolkids Records, Raleigh 6/2/24. |
Last month, Peter Jesperson and Tommy Stinson did a few gigs in my area at Schoolkids Records in Chapel Hill and Raleigh, N.C. The events were promoting Jesperson’s bio, Euphoric Recall: A Half Century as a Music Fan, Producer, DJ, Record Executive, and Tastemaker, a book I’ve been enjoying reading lately.
Jesperson is bast known as the former manager of the Replacements, a band he discovered when working at the legendary Oar Folkjokeopus in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1980, but he also road managed R.E.M., c0-founded Twin/Tone Records, and worked A & R at New West Records from the ‘90s to the 2010s, as well as a lot of other side jobs along the way so there’s a lot of fascinating anecdotes in the book.
The events also featured ex-Replacements (also ex Bash and Pop, G N Roses, and Soul Asylum) member, Tommy Stinson, who was plugging his latest record by his outfit, Cowboys In The Campfire, Wronger. Stinson, and his bandmates, Chip Roberts (guitar) and Chops LaConte (bass) played solid sets of tunes off the new album plus a Bash and Pop song or two if I remember correctly.
 |
| Peter Jesperson, Tommy Stinson, & Jon Wurster at Schoolkids, Chapel Hill 6/1/24. |
On Saturday, June 1, in a session that began at 4pm, Jon Wurster (Superchunk drummer/comedy writer) moderated the discussion/Q&A with Jesperson and Stinson, and it largely touched on the Replacements’ rowdy early days including the story of the “Magic Slacks,” a garish pair of pants that road manager Bill Sullivan bought that the Replacements members had to wear to shame them if they “F***-ed up.” They were what Bob Mehr wrote in Trouble Boys: The True Story of the Replacements were a “peculiar touring talisman.”
The Magic Slacks came up again at their Q&A in Raleigh the next day, which I attended because the first was so damn entertaining for this Mats fan. I wanted to share a few moments that I recorded, and transcribed from the Schoolkids stage in Mission Valley Shopping Center (a strip mall complex where the Replacements played back in 1987).
David Menconi, former music critic and arts reporter for the Raleigh N&O, and author of several music tomes including his latest, Step It Up and Go: The Story of North Carolina Popular Music (great read) moderated this time, and I was glad to capture a few fun stories.
Let’s begin with a question I asked them, and was quite amused at the answer:
DANIEL COOK JOHNSON: “We talk about books about the Replacements, I think one of the first books that had significant writing on the Replacements was Michael Azerrad’s Our Band Could Be Your Life from, like, about 20 years ago. Well, something that stuck in that book to me was you were playing, the Replacements were playing Duke, and Peter Holsapple gave you a single of the dB’s, right? And then the story goes that Tommy broke it in half…”
PETER JESPERSON: “And threw it out the window - in the van while we’re were driving.”
DCJ: “Right, so I was wondering if that was true or not – what was your reaction? I mean, did you yell at him? Did he have to wear the magic slacks the next day?”
PJ: “I was not in charge of the magic slacks portion of things, but, you know, I guess, this is what happens if you have something that you care about in the van with the Replacements, you don’t know if it would make it out in one piece.”
TOMMY STINSON: “Shitty little kids.”
PJ: “It was fun you know, I mean there were times where like, you know, where Bob [Stinson] would fall asleep, and they’d tie his shoelaces together, and then we’d pull up at a gas stop and he’d get up, and try to walk out, and he’d fall on his face, and we’d all laugh; or there’d be times where…I remember you guys shredding a whole Sunday newspaper, and lighting it on fire in the van while we were driving.
Or one of my favorites was when I’d be driving, and we’d see a police car and they’d shake up a bunch of beers and then spray me with them so that if we got pulled over, I would reek of alcohol. And usually when I was actually driving, I wasn’t drinking.
Another bit of talk that I’m glad I recorded was Stinson talked about meeting Bob Dylan when the Replacements were recording All Shook Down in Los Angeles in 1990 while Dylan was working on his 27th studio album, Under the Red Sky at the same studio. Tommy also recalls meeting David Bowie so read on:
TOMMY STINSON: “We were recording at Sunset Sound, I guess it was, on Sunset Boulevard, in Hollywood, and I went across the street to the liquor store, and I came back and it’s – it’s so funny, there are a couple of different things that happened to me on that particular record in this way that was funny – another one I’ll leave out, the story about … Walked in the front door, and the whole studio was built around this square. There’s a courtyard in the middle and all the studios were on the outside. And so (motioning) A was here, B was here, C was the big room where Pet Sounds, and all that stuff was recorded. And so I walk in, and the studio doors was open, and there was a couch right there with a guy sitting on it. He goes, ‘Hey, you’re in that band, the Replacements?’ And it was Bob, he was laying on the couch, he said, ‘Hey, come in here.’ And so I walk in, and he sits up, and we sat down, and I chatted with him about like for 45 minutes. And he asked me all kinds of questions, ‘how’s it going,’ and he seemed real interested in what we were doing. And he goes, ‘Would you guys mind, if I, my kids love you guys, do you mind if I bring ‘em down to meet you?’ I said ‘Sure!’
So cut to – I didn’t really get into it with the guys because there was more stuff that was like going on - so cut to Bob comes to the studio with his kids and it’s like announces in the studio ‘Hey, Bob Dylan’s here, he’s got his kids, you wanna meet them?’ Oh sure, you know, we’re in the lounge area room, and I don’t think I told the guys that I hung out with him, or said to bring his kids down, I might have said I saw Bob Dylan all checked out, I wasn’t really a fan yet. It wasn’t until Peter told me to get Blonde on Blonde, and I just like studied it and was like ‘Oh shit.’ And that was later in life obviously.
And he walked in, he left his kids outside so wanna introduce him to the band, and stuff like that, and it was then that he asked if he could have a beer, and I said, ‘Yeah, they’re five bucks,’ and the guys were mortified. And he got a chuckle out of it and was going through his pocket, and was ‘I’m kidding, kidding!’ And they were all like, ‘What the f*** are you doing?’ ‘cause I had already hung out with him, I already knew it was kinda funny, from then we had Jackob and Anna, and it was just one of those funny things, it was, I met David Bowie the same kind of way.
He sat next to me on a couch at the Rock and Roll Awards show, he came and sat down next to me. They put the boys on one side and girls on the other side. And he just came and sat down and said, ‘how are you guys doing, man? Like how are things going,’ he was like real engaging, and unfortunately for me, I had been there real early and we already on drugs and drinking at that point, but, it was, I remember, you know, being sober enough to like sit and have a conversation for him for about half an hour, I got up, and walked away and was like ‘Jesus, I was just talking to f***-in’ David Bowie!’ It was like I was just having coffee with him.”
Good talk, Peter & Tommy, good talk.
