Sorry, Replacements fans: Another box set is coming based on their 1981 debut

A four-CD, one-LP version of the Minneapolis antiheroes' 'Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash" is due out Oct. 22.

August 11, 2021 at 9:19PM
The new version of the Replacements’ “Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash” will cost customers $80. (RHINO/WARNER RECORDS/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

After the Replacements' two most commercially viable albums received the deluxe-edition reissue treatment, now comes a box-set version of what was probably always their record least likely to succeed — and thus it's one of their hardcore fans' favorites.

Rhino/Warner Records has announced plans for a four-CD/one-LP version of "Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash," the noisemaking 1981 Twin/Tone Records debut by Minneapolis' legendary ne'er-do-wells. The new collection will be issued Oct. 22 featuring two extra albums' worth of mostly unreleased demos and outtakes, plus an '81 live recording from 7th St. Entry.

Among the juicy details that will have 'Mats customers most excited about the set are its inclusion of dozens of rarities, including: two tracks from Bob and Tommy Stinson's basement on Bryant Avenue ("Lie About Your Age" and "Johnny Fast"); some of the group's first recordings ("Try Me," "She's Firm," "Lookin' For Ya"); studio demos for album tracks ("Shutup," "I Hate Music"); studio outtakes ("Shape Up," "Get On the Stick"), and alternate takes of some of the record's best-known songs ("Takin' a Ride," "Customer," "Johnny's Gonna Die," "Love You Till Friday"). The vinyl LP included in the set is billed as a "Deliberate Noise: The Alternate Sorry Ma...," featuring all alternate versions of the album tracks in their original order.

The live disc will generate plenty of steam heat, too. Bootlegged over the years as "Unsuitable for Airplay," it's the first "real" live recording of the band, captured by Twin/Tone using a mobile recording unit on Jan. 23, 1981, while they were working on "Sorry Ma." It includes songs from the album alongside a spate of covers, including the Heartbreakers' "I Wanna Be Loved," Slade's "My Town," the Kinks' "All Day and All of the Night" and Dave Edmunds' "Trouble Boys."

January 6, 1984 The Replacements, from left: Bob Stinson, Paul Westerberg, Chris Mars and Tommy Stinson. Greg Helgeson ORG XMIT: MIN2014081315302351 ORG XMIT: MIN1409081636540783
The Replacements in the early-’80s, from left: Bob Stinson, Paul Westerberg, Chris Mars and Tommy Stinson. (GREG HELGESON, TWIN/TONE RECORDS/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Original Replacements manager and Twin/Tone co-founder Peter Jesperson served as co-producer on the "Sorry Ma" box set alongside biographer Bob Mehr and Rhino producer Jason Jones. Mehr won a Grammy Award earlier this year for his liner notes on the 2019 box set "Dead Man's Pop," a reworking of the band's 1989 album "Don't Tell a Soul."

Like that set and last year's expanded edition of the 1987 album "Pleased to Meet Me," the "Sorry Ma" box will include a booklet with new liner notes and lots of rare photos.

Pre-orders are available now via rhino.com at $80 for the standard version or $100 for a limited "bundle" edition, which includes a replicated flyer for that Entry gig, a pin and a 7-inch version of the single "I'm in Trouble" b/w "If Only You Were Lonely."

Chris Riemenschneider • 612-673-4658

@ChrisRstrib

about the writer

about the writer

Chris Riemenschneider

Critic / Reporter

Chris Riemenschneider has been covering the Twin Cities music scene since 2001, long enough for Prince to shout him out during "Play That Funky Music (White Boy)." The St. Paul native authored the book "First Avenue: Minnesota's Mainroom" and previously worked as a music critic at the Austin American-Statesman in Texas.

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