Tommy Stinson resurrects Bash & Pop, finally captures original Replacements fire
Originally Published on OrlandoWeekly.com
By Bao Le-Huu
It’s hard to capture lightning – or, in Tommy Stinson’s case, the party – in a bottle. The Replacements were that party. Boy, were they. But truly great parties like this are magical things. They just happen, and there’s only so much you can do to force it. And poor Stinson has been chasing it for a long time.
He tried exactly that immediately after the Replacements disbanded with Bash & Pop. The band released an album in 1993 and then it was over with little but a small cult footprint. Other music concerns eventually took over him, including playing bass in Guns N’ Roses. And then, in the ultimate tease, the Replacements actually reunited in 2012, only to buckle under their own baggage again in 2015.
Now, Stinson’s finally resurrected Bash & Pop and just released a follow-up sophomore album after 24 years this January on esteemed indie label Fat Possum. If the party chemistry was already elusive even before the dust of the original Replacements’ 1991 implosion settled, you’d think that it would be sheer fantasy at this point. And then you press play on the new album, Anything Can Happen.
