#278 (of 365) "Never Mind" The Replacements

The Replacements were the 2nd indie/alternative artist that I bought a record from (a cassette of Don't Tell a Soul, back in the summer of 1989) and I liked them so much I bought a second cassette with my cash from working as a bus boy at Pastarelli's in Washington Township, NJ, the summer before I went away to college. I remember that summer fondly--the excitement of going away to school, ditching my small boring town (which I didn't realize was small and boring until I left it, for good that year), and I remember we would write pithy phrases on the chalkboard in the kitchen at the restaurant on Monday nights, which were mostly slow and dead and we'd play games instead, or do crossword puzzles I think, because we weren't making any money but at least it was fun, and I don't remember the name of the waitress I befriended then, but I think it was just the two of us staffed for Mondays, plus the cook and the dishwasher, whose names I also don't remember, but I remember one Monday night I wrote, appropriately, "If it's just a lull, why am I bored right out of my skull?" the most memorable line from my favorite Replacements song (at the time) and I don't know if anyone knew it but I felt really proud that I knew it, that I was learning this "underground" music (which was also on radio and MTV at the time) and would go away to college and fully invest in alternative music, which became indie rock in the later 90s, and is all I've really listened to--at all--since the summer of '89. Back before I bought The Cure's Disintegration that summer, then the Replacements Don't Tell a Soul, I had never purchased a true "alternative" band's music before. But the crazy thing is after those purchases, I would never buy a mainstream pop or rock band's music ever again. 

The 3rd alternative album I ever bought was in August 1989, right before I went away to college, the Replacements sixth album and second for a "major" label, 1987's Pleased to Meet Me. After Don't Tell a Soul, they'd only release one more record before breaking up, so I really came on at the end. But to me, the summer of '89 was the Replacements summer for me.

Absolution is out of the question
It makes no sense to apologize
The words I thought I brought, I left behind
So never mind

"Never Mind" - The Replacements // Pleased to Meet Me (1987)