New Book: Trouble Boys: The True Story of The Replacements by Bob Mehr

A few weeks ago, I finished up I Am Brian Wilson: A Memoir by Brian Wilson with Ben Greenman, which, as you may have been able to surmise from the title, is Brian Wilson's autobiography.  All in all, it was pretty good.  For as long as I can remember, I've been a Beach Boys fan, and Wilson was, of course, the driving force and main songwriter for the band.  In the book, Wilson explains some of his inner demons that stopped him from touring with the group in 1964, and then eventually led to him becoming somewhat of a recluse, controlled by a psychiatrist (Dr. Landy) for nearly a decade.  It's not all depressing, though, as Wilson has overcome most of his demons and seems to be in a really good place right now.  

I have since started reading Trouble Boys:  The True Story of The Replacements by Bob Mehr.  I honestly could not tell you when or how I got into The Replacements.  I certainly didn't know anything about them when I was growing up, and as far as I know, none of my friends in high school or college listened to them.  At some point after college, I heard of them -- whether it was during a rock doc, in Rolling Stone, or elsewhere -- and I eventually decided to check them out.  I bought their Let It Be album, and I thought it was awesome, so I bought a few more albums, and I thought those were awesome too.  They are one of those bands that should have been huge, but for whatever reason, was more of an underground band, starting out as kind of a punk/hardcore-ish band in the early '80s, moving to an alternative "college rock" sound in the mid to late '80s before breaking up in 1991.  Regardless of the phase, the music is good.  I didn't know too much about the band's history, though, other than that lead singer Paul Westerberg is a great songwriter, bassist Tommy Stinson was still in high school (or high school age, anyway) when the band recorded their first couple albums and later played in Guns N' Roses, his older brother, guitarist Bob Stinson, died from drug-related health issues in the '90s, and their drummer shares a last name with the fourth planet from the sun.  So far, it's a pretty entertaining read.

Books read in 2017:
-X-Ray: The Unauthorized Autobiography by Ray Davies
-Phil Lynott: The Rocker by Mark Putterford
-I Am Brian Wilson: A Memoir by Brian Wilson with Ben Greenman