Tommy Stinson - Village Gorilla Head

by Eric Davidson [singer for The New Bomb Turks]
(August 2004, The Other Paper, Columbus, OH)

Tommy Stinson's story is one of the strangest on the pop periphery. At 12 years old he started playing bass with the legendary Replacements, out booozing and touring by age 13. After the Replacement's demise, Tommy started pumping out music with a couple of different bands, Bash 'n' Pop and Perfect. Then he somehow got hired as Guns N' Roses' bassist. Though a new GNR cd has yet to materialize and their tours continue to fall apart, Stinson is under contract and unable to join numerous (though probably futile) requests for a Replacements reunion. And He's still only in his early thirties.

He can, however, keep making solo records. Unfortunately all that experience hasn't translated into gripping music. 'Village Gorilla Head' isn't bad, but it's basically a junior Paul Westerberg solo record. A few modern tweaks are tried. "Couldn't Wait" has the distorted rush of many of the current bands influenced by, uh, The Replacements, and the title tune ooffers an electronically chilled vibe. "Motivation" and "Something's Wrong" are fine boppin' Stones knock-offs. But all this has as much flavor as the soundtrack to a TV drama: tasteful faceless pop played by a menagerie of studio musicians.