Horseshoes and Hand Grenades by Chris Mars

Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, the 1992 debut solo album from Chris Mars on Smash Records, is what happens when the Replacements' drummer finally gets to run the whole show. Mars plays almost everything himself, with J.D. Foster handling bass, and Soul Asylum's Dan Murphy and David Pirner drop by on "Monkey Sees", "Before It Began" and "City Lights on Mars".

The mood is sour and funny at once. "Popular Creeps" takes aim at the stuck-up cliques of high school, "Better Days" recalls staying home sick and tripping on bad cold medicine, and elsewhere he digs into breakups, mental illness, alienation, homelessness treated as a fashion, and, apparently, his old bandmates. After eleven years behind the kit in Minneapolis, he sounds like a man with a lot saved up. 75% Less Fat was next.

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