"Sewn into my heart is the pervasive need to settle, the near-constant scourge of the Midwestern mentality that chokes off aspiration in favor of what is easy." (Elliot Berdan, “Toward a Fort Wayne School of Fiction”)

“Maybe because of their outsider, Midwestern roots, lack of record sales, or perverse, couldn't-give-a-damn, self-destructive streak—take your pick—these Minnesota misfits never escaped underground, cult status.” (Greg Gaston, “A Live Remembrance”)

 

Reading these lines, we can’t help but think there is something in them, some feeling both captured and expressed by them that is the same. There is something about the Midwest that feels like The Replacements and something about The Replacements that feels like the Midwest.

Gaston says this about Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg: “Maybe his voice affirms what the Midwest really sounds like: flat, unaffected, yearning in the isolation of the frozen prairie towns like Minneapolis, cut off from the coasts and their hip cultural cachet, and so far inside the country's interior they've somehow become outsiders. The English equivalent would be Sheffield or Manchester, these industrial, tundra towns that groups like the Smiths or Joy Division call home as well as write about in songs that reflect their dead-end but questing worldview.”

Thoughts like these are the impetus for our third issue, “Unsatisfied.”

 

Call for submissions

Issue Three: Unsatisfied

What is it about The Replacements that continues to fascinate and inspire despite (or perhaps due to?) all their efforts at self-sabotage? Do they, as Westerberg has suggested, capture “the American Midwestern punk ethic of No Future” or do they capture something more? Is the longing and alienation reflected in many of Westerberg’s lyrics tied to the Midwestern landscape he grew up in?

How much of The Replacements is because of the Midwest and how much of that band is the Midwest? Is our part of the world just what inspires that sort of rebellion - or are we still working through chords in garages, waiting for our own chance on stage?

The Replacements were legendary for their live performances. You'd show up to the venue and see an amazing show - or a train wreck. Two sides of the same band. We've all had those same moments with this area, too - nights of awesomeness and days of extreme frustration. Which of those modes is really The Replacements? And which is the real Midwest? And how do the different sides of those coins mesh?

Those are the sort of questions we're trying to answer.

We don’t have any length restrictions – make your work as long as it needs to be, and not much longer. We read everything we’re sent and we pay to publish your work if it feels like a good fit.

E-mail submissions to twosixzero@pyecommabrown.com by August 16, 2014.

We look forward to hearing from you!

pye,brown

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