Replacements return

It’s nice to see the Replacements back in (the very edge of the) spotlight thanks to the reissue of the band’s first four albums. Rhino is giving the discs the deluxe treatment, with remastering and generous bonus tracks. While most of those tracks are familiar to fans that have had 20-plus years to track them down on singles and bootlegs, it’ll be nice to have high-fidelity versions of everything in one place.

Billboard offers a nice, short Q&A with Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson, where they reveal the now widely quoted news that they considered — then rejected — recent offers to reunite for summer festivals. No surprise; I just don’t see Westerberg caring enough to rehash something he has clearly left behind. He alludes to that here with the least-cranky response I’ve seen yet:

“I don’t think I could physically get up there and bellow these 18 songs (from) that first record. That’s just sheer youth there. I can’t find that in a bottle or a pill. I’m just too creaky for that.”

Meanwhile, putting the band’s early magic into perspective, he talks about what drove the two older members: the realization that anything else would suck in comparison.

“Bob (Stinson) and I at least understood that this was the only road up and out. We had no skill — he was a cook, I was a janitor — and it was like, “We make it in rock ‘n’ roll or we die trying.”

Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash; Stink; Hootenanny and Let it Be arrive Tuesday.