Audacity 1

The current assignment is to create a Podcast using Audacity.  I downloaded Audacity and then LAME so the podcast would work properly.  I chose to create a Podcast on my husband's favorite band of all time, The Replacements.  I have been hearing about them for years (24 to be exact) and we have every album that they have ever made.  I began my project by compiling my research on my topic.  I then ripped all the music that I needed from CD's and saved them in my Real Player library.  The next thing that I needed was to download some cool video footage of the Replacements from You Tube and convert them to MP3 files.  I felt like I was ready to go.  My narrative was written and I had the music and other files that I needed.  Off I go...

I have been working on this assignment for over a week already and I am still running into major problems.  Earlier today, I lost all of the information that had been saved in my project.  The project just disappeared.  I looked in different locations on my computer, but was unable to locate it and had to start over.  However, I now have voice recordings, songs, and pieces of videoes that were saved and converted into MP3 files in my project. I will continue to work hard to complete the assignment by the due date.  The following is the marrative that I wrote for the recorded parts of my project:

 

The Replacements, hereafter referred to as the Mats, first came onto the music scene in 1981.  The band members were Paul Westerburg, singer/guitarist; brothers Tommy Stinson, bass guitarist, and Bob Stinson, lead guitarist, and Chris Mars, drummer. 

Their first album, 1981’s Sorry Ma, I Forgot to Take Out the Trash was your basic hard-core punk thrash - but only on the surface.  Songwriter and lead singer Paul Westerberg was already beginning to show off his musical talent with undertones of irony and intelligence all wrapped up in that masterful noise.

Their next two albums Stink and Hootenany would be released over the next two years, 1982 and 1983.  They were on a roll and beginning to clean up the rawness of their sound.  Without loosing their manic energy, they began their journey of branching out into ballads and pop.

The Mats would finally arrive with their Let It Be album.  Up to this point, the Mats had been releasing albums on the small label called TWIN/TONE, but the success of Let It Be in 1984 would lead to them signing with a major label (SIRE).

After signing with SIRE, The Mats released Tim in 1985.  The band members seemed to be conflicted about whether to turn toward mainstream commercial success or staying with their original ideas.  During a January night in 1986 on Saturday Night Live to promote their album, The Mats showed up intoxicated and behaved obnoxiously.  Lead singer Paul Westerburg used unacceptable language and became criticized by Lorne Michaels, then producer of Saturday Night Live.

After going out on tour for Tim Bob Stinson left the Mats.  His departure from the band left questions for the loyal fans, but the consensus was that he was fired due to drug and alcohol abuse.  Some say he was the scape goat for all The Mats destructiveness and drug and alcohol abuse.  However, it didn’t matter.  Paul Westerburg took up the slack by taking on the guitar chores for the next album, Pleased to Meet Me, which would be released in 1986.  For the tour Slim Dunlap, a guitarist from Minneapolis, was asked to join the group.

It didn’t matter that Tim and Pleased to Meet Me contained some of their best, most critically acclaimed work The Mats had ever produced, The Mats still didn’t break through with the kind of commercial success that they, or their label, had hoped for.  Their next album, Don’t Tell a Soul, which was released in 1989, was possibly the answer to the problem.  The new sound, often referred to as “glossy and over-produced”, won many new converts, but left several longtime fans wondering what was going on and asking what direction The Mats were heading.

Don’t Tell a Soul would be the last album that the entire band played on together as The Mats.  By 1990 lead singer Paul Westerburg had decided to go out on his own.  SIRE had a different plan and All Shook Down was released as a Mats album even though many different musicians were used in the recording studio.  When it came time to hit the road, for the Mat’s final tour, drummer Chris Mars was already gone.

The last performance for that The Mats was on July 4, 1991 at an outdoor festival in Chicago’s Grant Park.

In reality, the Replacements’ sole secret was their glaring lack of one; their agenda wasn’t so much a smokescreen as a blank screen.  Indeed, the Replacements’ story may never be over, judging by all of the current interest in the group. The Replacements were rock ‘n roll’s brats in Babylon, who broke every rule, kicked down every door, and knocked a hole in every fence imaginable.  Their influence far exceeds their actual record sales.

So here’s to the Replacements, individually or collectively; things just wouldn’t have been the same without them.