Color Me Obsessed: A Film About The Replacements

Color Me Obsessed was on my radar in its nascent Kickstarter phase, but sadly flew under the radar for me when it played for one night only last Winter at Bowery Electric. I was far from pleased, so when word came down that the doc would be part of the inaugural CBGB Festival, I stepped lively and got me a ticket. I was a little taken aback to see a less than capacity crowd for the official US release. The director, one Gorman Bechard, was there to introduce the film and do a Q&A that I bailed on afterward. Bechard mentioned in his introduction not to ask why there wasn't any music in the film, which did not bode well for the next two hours or so.

Color Me Obsessed covers the rise and fall of The Mats chronologically by record, courtesy of a gang of talking heads. Much like the recent Husker Du book, the participants are not nearly as conspicuous as those that are absent from the proceedings. None of the ex-Replacements appear in the film. Grant and Greg Husker do appear, yet no Mould. Tom Arnold does, however. No Peter Jesperson either, so it sure is an interesting perspective on the life of America's Best Ever Rock BandTM. I enjoyed the hell out of CMO and will definitely buy it when it becomes available, but those not already under the spell of The Replacements will definitely be wanting for something to latch on to.

Keep track of all things Color Me Obsessed here.

R

R.I.P: Jim Dickinson (1941-2009)

Man, legends are dropping like flies around these parts. Pour out a little liquor for Jim Dickinson, who passed from complications from heart surgery this morning. I didn't even know he was sick.

Like most people my age, I first learned about Dickinson when he recorded Pleased To Meet Me for the mighty Replacements, but he midwifed a million other great records, like Big Star's Third. There were a handful of solo records, as well as a raft of guest turns like the keys he played on Wild Horses. We can also kinda thank him for siring Luther and Cody of North Mississippi All Stars. Whether as an artist, engineer or genetic donor, the world of music would be 1000x worse than it already is without Jim Dickinson.

R

R.I.P Steve Foley: 1960-2008

I'm real late in getting on this, but it's no less of a bummer, even more so that it pretty much nails the coffin lid on any sort of Mats reunion.

Steve Foley came in late in the Replacements game, but I probably saw more Mats shows with him than I did Chris. He chatted briefly with me and Scott Tienken outside the Palace Theatre in Albany back in my college days and seemed like a solid guy then and brief interactions at various Bash and Pop shows after that never really changed that notion. I always felt for him and Slim after the Mats hung it up. It must have been weird to see Tommy in Guns and Roses and have Paul writing songs for Sony cartoons. It was particularly heartbreaking to run into Slim at SXSW after he had resorted to sleeping in his car the night before. The night before I had grinned and taken a photo of his two rack mounted Marshall heads with the logos altered to say 'Mats' and 'Shall'.

Slim came off a total gem in All Over But The Shouting, but there wasn't so much in the way of insight about Foley save for the fact that he was a good guy and I believe actually lived across the street from Chris Mars during his tenure with the Mats. Evidently he had been working as a car salesman in recent years and had been sober for fifteen years. I read in a couple places that he was fighting anxiety issues and that sadly his death by overdose of prescription meds was actually an accident. It's a damn shame.

Even worse is that every fucking photo of the Mats that they have in the memorials is one with Chris in it, and most of the time Bob, too. Come on, assholes! Earn your fucking editorial gigs. The photo above is of the mighty Bash And Pop, the Tommy-led post-Replacements project that Steve also played in. Steve's holding the globe. 

Thanks for the good times, Steve!

R