Yes, kids, jumping to a major label used to be a significant financial, political and spiritual act; here, after four cherished albums on a Midwestern indie label, one of the great American rock bands enacts one of the great American cautionary tales. On 1985’s Tim, the Replacements’ volatile, ramshackle bar-rock cocktail of defiance, rage, lust, ­frivolity and desperation survives the jump to Sire, but the ­façade is already crumbling: Sad-sack happy-hour messiah Paul Westerberg sums up the band’s brutal arc in six blood-freezing words: “You grow old in a bar.” Pleased to Meet Me is ­endearingly crabby and worthy of power-pop worship, but 1989’s Don’t Tell a Soul and the following year’s death knell All Shook Down overdose on wistful pissing and moaning, kicking up a little dust, but more often evoking a slightly edgy Meg Ryan ­romantic ­comedy. B-sides, outtakes and alternate ­versions abound; two fiery demos of eventually neutered Soul tracks underscore how wayward this band’s bid for acceptance got.

DOWNLOAD “Left of the Dial,” “Alex Chilton,” “We’ll Inherit the Earth [Mix 1],” “Sadly Beautiful”