The Replacements - Don't You Know Who They Think they Were?

Before grunge the trend and Nirvana the cultural monolith, there was American underground indie rock. At a time when 'indie' still meant independent label and 'underground' still meant that no-one bought the records, bands such as Minutemen, Big Black, Fugazi, Meat Puppets and Husker Du were trying and failing to make themselves heard over the din of Hair Metal and the hype of Hip Hop. In the purportedly shitty venues and insignificant, ill-equipped studios of early Reagan-era America, a handful of pissed off youngsters distilled and then distorted the recently-defunct sound of punk into something broader, something better.

Epitomising the 'don't give a fuck' attitude and ramshackle melee of styles that marked this underground era were The Replacements. Beginning life as a punk rock outfit, brothers Bob and Tommy Stinson (guitar and bass) were joined by Chris Mars on drums and later, legendarily confrontational front man Paul Westerberg. Although now possibly more famous for being name-dropped by Kurt Cobain, the group were named by Rolling Stone as the Best Band of the 1980s… so why haven't you heard their music?

Between intentionally staging piss-poor performances and indulging in on-stage fights fuelled by alcohol and drug habits, this was a band that determined their own total lack of commercial success; as Westerberg put it, "we just didn't try hard enough."

From the outset, debut album 'Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out The Trash', sealed their obnoxious persona. Although 1983 release 'Hootenanny' displayed a burgeoning diversity of rock styles, the punk attitude remained; invited to play the legendary CBGBs, the band covered Let It Be while Westerberg sang the lyrics to his own Fuck School.

It is far easier to explain The Replacements through this sort of anecdotal evidence rather than attempting an accurate description of the music, which is at best a punk-driven melting pot of styles and influences. Their back catalogue forms a tale of tensions and trials, of a love of music offset by an apparent disgust at everything else.

Moving inexplicably from b-side ballad If Only You Were Lonely to examples of pure out-to-offend noise-mongering - here is a band that the Best Of compilation was designed for. With each phase of their excuse for a career mapped out over 18 tracks, even if this collection fails to convince, it will remain a worthy curio. However if Westerberg and co. do colour you impressed, 'Don't You Know Who I Think I Was?' - The Best of The Replacements should act as the perfect lead-in to any new convert.

The unpredicatable course of their music mirrors the story of the band. They followed nonsensical tricks like performing sets of only terrible covers with a switch to major label Sire, employing Tommy Ramone on production. Finally separating in 1991, The Replacements' biography remains peerless whilst often disastrous, reaching a tragic post-script when Bob Stinson, kicked out ostensibly for his drug habits, died in 1995 following an overdose.

This latest release forms The Replacement's first true Best Of as it includes material from the first four albums on Twin Tone and also contains the first new tracks recorded since the split: the Westerberg-penned Message to the Boys and Pool & Dive - performed by the remaining two thirds of the original line-up, with Josh Freese (A Perfect Circle) on drumming duties.

In 2001, Michael Azzerad produced a dedicated historiography of The Replacements and other bands of their era in Our Band Could Be Your Life. The book carries a back-cover quote from actress Janeane Garofalo that tallys with the feel of this anthology, "I am sorry for anyone who never got the chance to discover indie rock or, worse, chose to ignore it."