Color Me Impressed

Former Mats Westerberg and Stinson Jam in Minneapolis, Continue to Tease Me

2008-10-08T12:46:00.002-04:00

(LimeWire) What with Paul Westerberg's 45:00 and recent news of his recent jam session with former Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson, I'm pretty much beside myself with hope that attending a Replacements show will no longer be a pipe dream. This wouldn't be the first false alarm for fans, though ... a much-rumored reunion for Coachella 2008 was met with timidity by Westerberg and Stinson, who fear the ramifications of bringing the band back to life, along with its reputation.

Says Westerberg to Billboard, "I'm very hesitant about dragging the name out there and what damage we could do to the legend. Whatever we did, someone would want something else. If I went up there straight, they'd want us wasted. If we were fucked up, they'd want us to be this or that." Aw, Paulie. We just want the tunes! Anyway, I doubt many of the Replacements' original fans are still Living the Life, as it's been seventeen years since the band officially split.

While Bobby Stinson and Chris Mars probably won't show up, Soul Asylum/Prince drummer Michael Bland seems like a likely contender to round out the reunion crew. The three met up last month to "mess around" in the studio, but claim nothing was recorded. Stinson remarks, "That's getting to first base. We're sort of still in the dugout chewing gum." So, what's third base, guys? Eh? Please? Ain't too proud to beg, now ... Fine. I'll just content myself with this pile of lovely Mats reissues from Rhino.

Westerberg, Stinson 'Mess Around' In Minneapolis

2008-10-08T08:37:00.003-04:00

(Billboard) Giving fans further hope for some kind of Replacements reunion, group principals Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson joined forces last month to "mess around" in Minneapolis with Soul Asylum/Prince drummer Michael Bland.

Stinson told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that the trio didn't roll any tape, because "that's getting to first base. We're sort of still in the dugout chewing gum." But he assured that he and Westerberg are "good friends, and I'm sure we're going to work together again."

Westerberg's manager, Darren Hill, confirmed the sessions to Billboard but added there are "no plans beyond that right now."

The Replacements, who split in 1991, have been back in the spotlight this year as Rhino has rolled out expanded reissues of the band's complete studio catalog. The second and final batch, covering the band's major-label years with Sire, was released Sept. 23.

After years apart, Westerberg and Stinson hit the studio in 2006 to record two new songs for a Replacements retrospective and additional material for the animated film "Open Season."

In separate interviews with Billboard earlier this year, both men said the door isn't closed for some kind of project between them, although they added that Replacements drummer Chris Mars was unlikely to participate, owing to his thriving post-Replacements career as an artist.

Westerberg and Stinson have been tempted by numerous lucrative offers to reunite for festivals such as the 2008 Coachella, but "at the last minute, it just didn't seem like the right thing to do, so we didn't do it," Stinson said. "But I think Paul and I have something to offer each other still. I think that's pretty obvious when we get together."

"I'm very hesitant about dragging the name out there and what damage we could do to the legend," Westerberg said. "Whatever we did, someone would want something else. If I went up there straight, they'd want us wasted. If we were f--ked up, they'd want us to be this or that."

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Album reissues the bane of our existence

2008-10-08T08:33:00.000-04:00

(Tri-City Herald) Reissues are the curse of any hardcore fan or collector. By being in tune with your roster of faves, you faithfully grab everything a band throws out -- great or mediocre -- often amassing a half-dozen CDs or more, depending on the band's longevity. But labels don't know the meaning of too much.

It's happened more times than I can count. I've got everything the Replacements put out between Hootenany (1983) and All Shook Down (1990). I bought All for Nothing/Nothing for All just because it was such a well put together best-of double album. Then a few years ago, another best-of came out with two new songs penned by frontman Paul Westerberg.

Had to have it.

Now Rhino (the record label I love to hate, hate to love) is re-releasing all of the 'Mats records with deluxe edition treatment, including six or seven tracks of rare or unreleased demos or outtakes that I've yet to hear.

I can't very well ignore that can I?

The same thing happened years ago with Rhino's amazing reissues of Elvis Costello's finest, which were loaded with extras.

Sure, it's easy to, say, just go to Hastings and sell off the old copies. You'll still have all the music. Right, but then I wouldn't have the originals. How would it look if I was showing off my collection and all of my favorite bands were represented by compilations and rarities?

Terrible, right? You'd think I was a poser.

I will eventually pick them all up. But I'm also going to have to weed out a couple of CDs that are dead to me and use 'em as a trade-in toward the Westerberg-penned soundtrack for the animated flick Open Season.

Greatness Remembered

2008-10-08T08:30:00.001-04:00

(Knox News) Let's establish this: If you never heard The Replacements in the band's 1980s heyday, you owe it to yourself to listen now. The Replacements were the soul of rock 'n' roll - wild, raucous, smart and dangerous.

These four discs complete the deluxe re-release of the Minneapolis band's complete catalog. Following three albums and an EP on the independent Twin/Tone Records (all re-released earlier this year with bonus tracks), The Replacements signed with Sire Records, seemingly poised for the big time. "Tim" and (especially) "Pleased To Meet Me") hold up in all their glory.

Even with the departure of guitarist Bob Stinson before recording began, "Pleased to Meet Me" is the band's most stunning moment - the disc blends the ferocity of punk with gorgeous pop (the string- and brass-laden "Can't Hardly Wait" may be the most sublime rock song of the 1980s).

The surprise is that the group's last two discs ("Don't Tell a Soul" and "All Shook Down") are better than you remember.

At the time, "Soul" was seen as a sellout. Doubtless, the group intentionally watered down the sound in hopes of scoring a radio hit (the effort failed), but the songs, including "Talent Show," "I'll Be You" and "Achin' to Be," stand up well.

"All Shook Down" is sometimes viewed as singer Paul Westerberg's first solo album rather than a band effort, but the tracks still crackle with what was left of the band's spirit.

The four discs many bonus tracks (mostly early takes of album cuts) generally just let you in on how Westerberg and company changed each one for the better.

Tommy Says So

2008-10-08T08:24:00.003-04:00

(Star Tribune) Like a lot of things that involve rehashing the Replacements' legacy, Tommy Stinson admitted he was a tad skeptical about reissuing their eight albums with bonus tracks. In the end, though, he realized "you get a little more of the story of those records in those extra tracks."

After reissuing the Minneapolis band's first four discs in April, Rhino Records put out new versions of the final four albums two weeks ago with six to 10 bonus cuts apiece.

"We grabbed the best that there was, and some of it was still pretty rough," said Stinson, who joined the Replacements on bass when he was only 12 and stayed alongside frontman Paul Westerberg until the end (1991). "All the tracks we picked helped tell the story. You can hear the time and the moment captured. Whether it was a good moment or not is open to debate."

Stinson talked by phone last week from New Orleans, where he was writing songs with Dave Pirner of Soul Asylum, another band he sometimes plays in, along with Guns N' Roses. He also jammed with Westerberg in Minneapolis recently but described it only as "messing around." We'll see.

Here's how Tommy described some of the extras on the reissues.

"TIM" (1985)

"Nowhere Is My Home," an outtake from scrapped sessions with the band's hero Alex Chilton producing: "It wound up being probably the best track of those sessions. It was one we had played quite a bit before it came time to record, so when we did record it, we were probably kind of sick of it.

"We were inspired to work with Alex, because we were such big Big Star fans. Like so many things, what it was supposed to be and ended up being wound up completely different, and in this case it wasn't all that fruitful."

Complete Article Here

Under The Influence: "Left Here In The Dark"

2008-10-01T10:14:00.002-04:00

The Mats used to play this Vertebrats cover quite often. The Vertebrats formed in Champaign, IL in 1978. This is from their reunion show in 1992.

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If Magazine Reviews Remasters

2008-10-01T10:03:00.003-04:00

Here's a nice in-depth review of the new remasters. It's pretty long, so I provided a link to the complete article.

In the early ‘80s, The Replacements excelled as part of the indie Twin/Tone label in the early, evolving at a rapid pace from snot-nosed punkers to semi-polished snot-nosed pros. However, it was the second half of their career with a major label that really defined their sound and created a legacy that's still being aped by rock and roll posers today.

Too bad, the ‘Mats didn’t reap anything from those rewards.

Generally what happens to groups like the Replacements once they jump aboard the major label bandwagon, is their sound becomes more homogenized, more pop, more mainstream – which is not say the Replacements didn’t do just that.

But as a preface, their sound was heading into that direction anyway during their last Twin/Tone release LET IT BE. So it’s not a surprise that their Sire Records debut TIM from 1985 was the crunchiest and poppiest the group had ever been.

Complete Review Here

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Possible new Replacements project in the works

2008-10-01T09:54:00.003-04:00

UGH... I welcome ANY new music by Tommy and Paul, but please don't call it 'The Replacements.'

(City Pages) Chris Reimenshneider is reporting that Replacements members Tommy Stinson and Paul Westerberg have begun "messing around" in the studio with local producer and drummer Michael Bland. From the Pop Life blog:

He sounded enthusiastic about the sessions and said, “It was a lot of fun.” When I asked if they did any recording, though, he answered, “Nah, that’s getting to first base. We’re sort of still in the dugout chewing gum.” As for the general state of the two former ‘Mats mates relationship, he said, “We’re good friends, and I’m sure we’re going to work together again.”

The last time Westerberg and Stinson recorded together was in 2006, when they laid down two tracks for Don't You Know Who I Think I Was?: The Best of the Replacements with Chris Mars.

In other 'Mats news, Paul Westerberg has released another online-only track, "Bored of Edukation," which is available for 89 cents through Amazon.

Pitchfork Reviews the Final Four

2008-09-29T22:57:00.001-04:00

(Pitchfork) These reissues complete Rhino's ambitious treatment of the Replacements catalogue, with all eight of the legendary (a shopworn word in rock criticism, but these guys deserve it, for reasons good and bad) Minneapolis band's official releases in expanded and remastered deluxe editions. Rhino's decision to release the records in two flights-- the first covering the Twin/Tone years, the second their time on Sire-- cleaves their career into distinct halves, a division that seems sharper now than it did at the time. Yeah, everyone back then noticed Tim's horrible record cover and weird production, but to those not tuned into major/indie politics, it just seemed like "The record after Let It Be," not a talking point for a discussion on what happens when underground bands sign with a major. But returning to these four records after a lengthy re-immersion in the Twin/Tone platters, one gets a sense of exactly what had changed. The run of 1981's Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash to 1984's Let It Be, for all the variety on display, feels of a piece, the work of a wildly creative and energetic band with a strong sense of exactly who they were. Each of the Sire albums, on the other hand, seems to begin with, "Well, I guess we can try this and see what happens." There's no sense of continuity, nothing builds from record to record. Every one seems to come from a band starting over.

Given its superior distribution and marketing push, Tim was the first Replacements album many people heard, which, as is so often the case, means that it's frequently mentioned as the favorite. And that's understandable. "Hold My Life", "Bastards of Young", and "Left of the Dial" are anthems, no doubt about it, real voice-of-a-generation kind of songs. But Tim also has range. The jazzy, midtempo "Swingin Party" is Westerberg with perfect emotional pitch-- funny ("Bring your own lampshade, somewhere there's a party") and also vulnerable (the narrator admits to being ignorant, weak, and terrified, but if he can find someone in the same situation to hang out with, he'll live). "Kiss Me on the Bus" is light, melodic, and charming guitar pop, another new wrinkle.

Great songs abound, but Tim has its share of issues. Something that had changed markedly-- and whether it was erratic lead guitarist Bob Stinson's rapidly diminishing role in the band or self-consciousness, I can't say-- is that the Replacements would never again sound convincing on a dumb rocker the way they had so many times over on those first four records. You take "Run It" from Hootenanny or "Customer" from Sorry Ma and place them alongside "Dose of Thunder" or "Lay It Down Clown", and the latter seem downright anemic. The Replacements were having a harder time with "silly," something that was as natural as breathing in the early days, but they kept trying all the way until the end.

Tim's other big problem is the sound. The remastering on all of these discs is done well, but problems with Tim go much deeper. Originally produced by Tommy Erdelyi of the Ramones, Tim comes over as thin, limp, and weirdly distant, hitting with less than half the force of the Let It Be. Ironically, since Erdelyi is a drummer, Chris Mars' percussion is especially feeble. The six bonus tracks included throw the production shortcomings into relief. The demo of "Kiss Me on the Bus"-- recorded with Erdelyi, but it sounds live in studio-- is raw and direct. The two outtakes of "Can't Hardly Wait"-- a song that wouldn't be officially released until Pleased to Meet Me, one acoustic and one electric-- both suggest a sonic road not taken in addition to highlighting how much Westerberg refined songs over time.

Pleased to Meet Me could be heard as an overcompensation for Tim's failings. Much was made of it being a digital recording, which in 1987 was seen as extravagant, the kind of thing Peter Gabriel and Dire Straits indulged in. "Look ma, no hiss!" read a review discussing the moment of silence between the horn hits in "Can't Hardly Wait" (the fact that there were horns to hit-- not to mention strings-- was also shocking) and Pleased to Meet Me was presented as the Replacements finally ready for the big time. The reality, though, is that the record was all over the place, too schizophrenic for the band to be easily grasped, kind of like Hootenanny with fleshed-out ideas, more confidence, and way better songs. Here the Replacements were tacking cocktail jazz ("Nightclub Jitters"), wholly acoustic ballads (the gorgeous "Skyway"), gritty proto-grunge ("The Ledge"), and paying tribute to their Memphis surroundings-- local hero Jim Dickinson produced-- on buoyant, Big Star-channeling power-pop ("Can't Hardly Wait" and "Alex Chilton").

Perhaps with Bob Stinson now out of the band (he died of drug-related causes a decade later), Westerberg felt freer to experiment, to try genres that would have been given an ironic reading a few years earlier. The obligatory burners ("Shooting Dirty Pool" and "Red Red Wine") once again feel forced, but Westerberg more than made up with that with three of the best rock songs he ever wrote: "I.O.U.", "Never Mind", and "Valentine". More personal and specific than their counterparts on Tim, this trio is littered with lines that bands since have built an entire identity on. Songs like "Birthday Gal" and "Photo", which didn't make the record and are now included as bonuses, suggest that Westerberg was on a songwriting roll, and alternate versions of "Alex Chilton" and "Can't Hardly Wait" are welcome.

And then the bottom dropped out. Or, so the story goes, anyway. For many, Don't Tell a Soul, with its slick production-- saxophones and violins were one thing, but synths?-- and generally muted tone spelled the end of the Replacements as we knew them, and the only point to debate is whether this record or All Shook Down was their career nadir. "End of the Replacements as we knew them" I can agree with, but then, they were pretty much a new band with each of their two previous records as well. Don't Tell a Soul was met with plenty of derision at the time, but an even larger reason for its bad rep since likely has to do with the fact that this is the sound emulated by the Replacements worshipers that took the band's somewhere bigger, your Goo Goo Dolls and Ryan Adams types. Not to mention that you can hear echoes of Westerberg's lackluster 90s solo output throughout, and "I Won't" is possibly the most unconvincing rocker they ever recorded, with its wailing harmonica and a mix that sounds like four guys recorded their parts on different continents.

But I submit that the softer, more careful, and certainly more polished band on display here-- one clearly hoping to straddle the gulf between college rock and MTV's "120 Minutes" and pop radio-- succeeds on its own terms. "Asking Me Lies" and "Talent Show" are damn catchy pop songs, and the latter is both bravely dorky ("It's the biggest thing in my life, I guess/ Look at us, we're nervous wrecks/ Hey, we go on next") and, as especially revealed in the superior studio demo included as a bonus, has a great riff. Ballads "Achin' to Be" and "They're Blind" are a little on-the-nose lyrically, but they capture that "I want the world to know that I'm special, but I also want to hide in a closet" feeling endemic to being a teenager as well as anything this side of Morrissey. And "I'll Be You" completely transcends its production and could fight for a spot in an all-time Replacements top 10. The bonus tracks here also might be the strongest of this whole batch, with the fine country-ish "Portland" (its "Too late to turn back, here we go" chorus was cannibalized for "Talent Show"), straightforward studio demos that show the hearts of good songs beating beneath the plastic exterior ("Talent Show" and "We'll Inherit the Earth"), and an appealingly weird studio goof with Tom Waits that's almost as good as that sounds (B-side "Date to Church").

All Shook Down, originally envisioned as Westerberg's solo debut, really does feel like the end, and it's not a happy one. The acoustic guitars are out in full force, singing is hushed, and Westerberg made much of the record with studio musicians, with only a couple of tracks featuring contributions from Tommy Stinson, Chris Mars, and Slim Dunlap, (the latter replaced Bob Stinson on Don't Tell a Soul). There are some pretty good songs-- "Merry Go Round", "When It Began"-- but the overall mood is sleepy, fatigued, and some of the songwriting feels rote ("Bent Out of Shape", "Attitude") with melodies and chords plugged in in a predictable way. Westerberg still had a way with a heart-tugging ballad ("Sadly Beautiful") but even then, that fine line between the affectingly melancholy and self-pityingly morose is crossed with some regularity. The bonus material here, appropriately enough, is by far the least interesting of the eight records, consisting mostly of warbly lo-fi demos. When Westerberg emerged with two underwritten, slight, but ultimately fun solo tunes on the Singles soundtrack two years later, it was like a breath of fresh air. All Shook Down is depressing in ways only partly intended.

The Replacements may never have figured out what kind of band they wanted to be or how they wanted to sound after leaving Twin/Tone, but there's still a clear thread binding almost all of their work together, and that was the worldview of Paul Westerberg. He didn't just tell stories with his songs, though he could do that too; he offered a way of looking at things that seemed both disarmingly familiar and previously unarticulated. Westerberg's POV also dovetailed perfectly with his band's career arc in a way that in retrospect seems uncanny. He celebrated people with talent who were scared of growth, those ready to upset the natural order of things not out of careful consideration of power relationships-- as was the case with politically oriented punk-- but because they were either hopelessly bored, had a childlike curiosity, or were just plain afraid. The outlook he tapped into was more universal than he could have imagined, and had been underrepresented in rock music until he came along. Now, of course, they're indie rock staples. The Replacements' influence on the alt-rock explosion of the 90s has been overstated, but their approach has continued to resonate in smaller scenes, where you feel like you're experiencing music up close, less mediated by rock star iconography. Their songs touch on some heavy shit, the kind of feelings best expressed in a more intimate space, but there's also plenty of room in there for some laughs. That kind of mixed-up place is right where the Replacements belong.

Metallica? OK, but we still don't like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

2008-09-29T22:51:00.001-04:00

(Pop Machine) Pop Machine has repeatedly voiced its philosophical objection to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Rock ’n’ roll was never about seeking official acceptance; it was about striking out independently, not caring about your parents’ disapproval.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is your parents.

That said, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame keeps giving us reasons to scorn it on practical grounds as well. This year’s nine nominees, who will be whittled down to five inductees, are Metallica, Run-D.M.C., the Stooges, Jeff Beck, War, Chic, doo-wop group Little Anthony and the Imperials, pioneering rockabilly singer Wanda Jackson (the “Queen of Rockabilly”) and soul singer-songwriter Bobby Womack.

The inductees will be announced in January, and the ceremony will be held in Cleveland on April 4.

The Future Rock Hall Web site, usually fairly on target, predicted a mere four of this year’s nominees. It forecast Metallica, the Stooges, Chic Run-D.M.C., Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Hollies, Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Kraftwerk and Donna Summer.

This is the seventh time the Stooges have been nominated. Give Iggy Stooge/Pop his due already and induct him for his punk trailblazing—or quit using up a ballot spot on the Stooges before they turn into the Roll Hall’s version of Susan Lucci.

As for Chic, “Le Freak” and “Good Times” were landmark disco-era singles, but ABBA had more mid-’70s hits (among them “Waterloo,” “Dancing Queen,” “S.O.S.” “Take a Chance on Me”) that arguably were just as influential, yet Chic is occupying a ballot spot for the fifth time while the Swedish popsters were nominated only in 2003. Metallica was overlooked completely last year (its first eligible year) and I assume will make the final cut this time.

I’m not going to badmouth the other contenders in this pioneer-heavy slate, but the New York nominating committee has notions of importance that conform to a narrow idea of cool. Love it or loathe it, you can’t deny the lasting impact of progressive rock, yet bands such as Yes, Genesis, Rush, King Crimson and Procol Harum have yet to make the cut.

Nor have solo Peter Gabriel, XTC, Television, the Zombies, Devo, the Replacements, Husker Du, Tom Waits, Love, the Hollies, the Jam, Fairport Convention/Richard Thompson, Squeeze, the Specials, the Feelies, the Mekons, Nick Lowe, Nick Drake, Graham Parker, Irma Thomas, the Electric Light Orchestra, the Buzzcocks, Randy Newman, Roxy Music, Big Star, the Spinners, Gram Parsons, Jethro Tull, Styx and the Monkees. The Smiths were eligible for the first time this year but weren’t nominated (as was the case with Bon Jovi).

Because Pop Machine doesn’t believe in Halls of Fame, we won’t ask you to nominate an alternate slate. We will ask you which five non-Hall members you’d book for a concert to run at the same time as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony. (We’ll pretend that everyone is still around.)

I’ll go first:

XTC, the Feelies, Richard Thompson, Television and, what the heck, E.L.O.

Rediscover The Replacements

2008-09-23T10:01:00.003-04:00

(Courier Journal, KY) In the early 1980s, The Replacements were a lot of people's favorite Lost Boys, a ragged band of beer-drunk punks from Minneapolis who flirted with genius enough to warrant special attention.

They were led by a classic archetype in Paul Westerberg, an emerging rock 'n' roll poet who seemed caught between the anti-mainstream ideals of his peers and a growing need to write songs that might be remembered after the hangover faded.

But the hangover in those days was endless, and there were some who didn't want Westerberg to prove himself smarter than the scene that nurtured him.

So when Westerberg, Bob Stinson, Tommy Stinson and Chris Mars were signed to a major label in 1985, the haters lined up, ready to be disappointed.

They had to wait awhile.

The band's major label output on Sire Records was at first too good to ignore and later better than initially thought, but it was a rocky few years that ended in the band disintegrating, to no one's surprise.

Today, Rhino Entertainment releases deluxe reissues of The Replacements' four albums for Sire -- "Tim," "Pleased to Meet Me," "Don't Tell A Soul" and "All Shook Down." The bonus tracks are plentiful but don't appear to offer much genuinely surprising material, leaning mostly on alternate takes, rarities and demos.

The reissues conclude Rhino's Replacements campaign, which began in April with new versions of the band's four recordings for Minneapolis' Twin/Tone Records -- albums that ranged from awful to brilliant.

When The Replacements (or the Mats, as they were also known) were signed by Sire, a Warner Bros. subsidiary, the knee-jerk reaction by fans was typical: They were sell-outs; industry suits would destroy the music; the dream was over. But "Tim," released in October of '85, shut everyone's mouth.

The album is the best of The Mats' Sire releases and rivals the band's finest album, 1984's "Let it Be." It's a monumental record, from the exhilarating opener, "Hold My Life," to the classic 1-2-3 punch that closes it with "Left of the Dial," "Little Mascara" and "Here Comes A Regular." Any decent rock library includes this record, period.

"Pleased To Meet Me," released in 1987, isn't far behind and some actually prefer it to "Tim." But the band is too hit and miss, delivering miracles such as "Alex Chilton," "Skyway" and "Can't Hardly Wait" and B-side material in "Red Red Wine," "The Ledge" and "Shooting Dirty Pool."

Also, original guitarist Bob Stinson was gone, kicked out for drinking too much in one of history's most ironic rock 'n' roll firings. He was unreliable, unpredictable and uncontrollable -- in short, the perfect foil for Westerberg.

The haters finally had their undiluted moment of triumph in 1989 when "Don't Tell A Soul" arrived on a bed of slick production that was clearly designed to make the band stars. There are some very good songs, including "Aching to Be," "I'll Be You" and "Talent Show," but the band sounds dispirited.

The Replacements were essentially finished by the time "All Shook Down" arrived in 1990, having finally driven the last nail in their major-label coffin by delivering a disastrous, deal-breaking tour opening for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. The album, in fact, was originally intended as Westerberg's solo debut.

Many longtime fans had bailed and there weren't a lot of new ones, so everyone missed out on the band's most underrated record. It's more downbeat and restrained than any other Mats album, but there's a wistful kind of misery that holds up well, and Westerberg was never better than on "Sadly Beautiful."

If you passed on this the first time around, do yourself a favor and pick it up; its charms are subtle but undeniable.

Paul Westerberg's Replacements reissue four albums

2008-09-22T10:00:00.002-04:00

(NewsDay) This is typical Paul Westerberg.

The singer-songwriter was paying his respects to the Replacements' second drummer, Steve Foley, a few weeks back. "I'm standing there at the casket looking at him, and then wafting over the PA comes 'Sadly Beautiful,'" Westerberg says. "OK, I gotta leave."

He wasn't expecting one of his songs from the final Replacements' album, 1990's "All Shook Down," to be played at such a somber event: Foley drummed on the group's last tour and accidentally overdosed on prescription medication in late August.

"It doesn't seem to get any easier," sighs Westerberg, who said goodbye to the band's original guitarist, Bob Stinson, more than a decade ago. But - here's the Westerberg twist - "I would have preferred Glen Campbell's new version of the song."

That's his self-deprecating way of dealing with his legacy - a legacy that gets dusted off this week with Rhino Records' deluxe reissuing of the legendary Minneapolis rock band's final four albums (the group was also known as the Placemats and, in shorthand, simply the Mats). Each disc has rare and previously unreleased tracks tacked on. (Rhino similarly released the band's earlier indie-label albums in April.)

"Are they coming out as one big thing?" he asks of the individual Tuesday releases. "Or are they rereleasing the last three or four records?"

Typical Westerberg. He has no idea.

He opens the Rhino package while on the phone at home - they sent him the post-production discs. "I have to take off my glasses to see the track listing," he says. "There are some good songs on these things."

Westerberg mentions "Tiny Paper Plane," an evocative rough cut from the final album. "This was from the era that they were seriously pushing us to compete with The Cult, and that's not the type of song that makes for band material," he recalls. "You know, if they send me some vinyl, I might put it on."

And maybe, just maybe these albums will turn on a new generation to the hard-partying, but always eloquent outfit that began at the very end of the 1970s and finished things with a final show in Chicago on July 4, 1991.

"They were a band that was made up of their own persons," says Peter Jesperson, who discovered, managed and co-produced the group's early work. "They liked what they liked and weren't embarrassed about it. It's a little bit like what Big Star did, that combination of Gibson guitars through Marshall amps and great melodies."

Jesperson, now senior vice president for A&R at New West Records, still marvels at the growth he witnessed during the early days - from "Johnny's Gonna Die" to "Go" and "Color Me Impressed."

"I had the best seat in the house," says Jesperson, who also produced the reissues. (There isn't much more fully developed Mats material left to release, he admits.) "They were real mavericks."

So will the college-rock standbys reunite, perhaps?

"I think we still exist in some sort of fragmented form," Westerberg says. "It's just a question of whether he and I can ever get together again ... that's how close we are, I can't even mention his -- name."

Typical Westerberg. He's talking about his longtime bassist and foil, Tommy Stinson. "One day Tommy wants to sue me, the next he wants to jam. I think he's in the jamming mood this week, but by the time he gets here we might just meet and fight."

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. The reissues haven't hit the CD bins yet.

"Lets hope there's a couple of nice pictures," Westerberg says. "I hope this thing gets to somebody who hasn't heard it and I hope they don't have to weed through a bunch of crap to get to the good stuff." Yep, that's typical.

WHEN&WHERE Deluxe reissues of The Replacements' "Tim," "Pleased to Meet Me," "Don't Tell a Soul" and "All Shook Down" are in stores Tuesday. Paul Westerberg's "3oclockreep," which includes material recorded for "Don't Tell a Soul," is available at tunecore.com.

THE FINAL FOUR

'TIM' (originally released October 1985)
Known for: The Replacements' first album for a major label included their anthem "Bastards of Young"; a good-natured flight attendant put-down, "Waitress in the Sky"; and one of two classic Paul Westerberg love songs, "Left of the Dial," written about Let's Active's Angie Carlson. "Tim" was produced by the former Tommy Ramone - Tom Erdelyi.

Bonus Mats material:
Acoustic and electric outtakes of "Can't Hardly Wait" bookend one of the best Replacements songs ever, "Nowhere Is My Home" - produced by Big Star's Alex Chilton. "Kiss Me on the Bus," the other "Tim" love song, gets rocked up as Westerberg gets raspy.

'PLEASED TO MEET ME' (April 1987)
Known for: The first album without founding guitarist Bob Stinson was recorded at Ardent Studios in Memphis, the home of Big Star. "Alex Chilton" was the hit, a driving ode to their hero. "Can't Hardly Wait" gets reworked for the release, and drenched in horns, thanks to producer Jim Dickinson. (Trivia: Dickinson played piano on the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses'; his sons Luther and Cody formed the North Mississippi Allstars).

Bonus Mats material:
Eh. Original drummer Chris Mars takes lead vocals on The Sons of the Pioneers' "Cool Water."

'DON'T TELL A SOUL' (January 1989)
Known for: "I'll Be You," the only Billboard Hot 100 "hit" the Mats produced appears here, as does the lovely alt-countryish "Achin' to Be." (Both videos for these songs were the band's first viewer-friendly MTV clips, perhaps another stab at stardom, but who could blame them?) Bob Stinson's, uh, replacement, Slim Dunlap, makes his Mats recording debut after touring to support the band during "Pleased to Meet Me."

Bonus Mats material: It's fun hearing the scruffy ones cover "Cruella DeVille" as an homage to Disney tunes. Tom Waits helps out on "Date to Church," the B-side to "I'll Be You," but the real gem is the cover of Slade's "Gudbuy T'Jane."

'ALL SHOOK DOWN' (September 1990)
Known for: As the title implies, this was it for the band. A few ringers were brought into the recording sessions: John Cale (Velvet Underground), Johnette Napolitano (Concrete Blonde) and Benmont Tench (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers). Ballads and softer songs outnumber the rockers, foreshadowing Westerberg's early solo career. One ballad, "Sadly Beautiful" (written for Marianne Faithfull to sing) stands out; it's even sadder in hindsight, knowing this is the final album.

Bonus Mats material: Demo versions of "When It Began," "Tiny Paper Plane" and "Kissin' in Action" sound spacey and lo-fi, a nice change from the polish of the final three albums.

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Let It Be

2008-09-22T09:55:00.002-04:00

(Tiny Mix Tapes Review) When discussing The Replacements, I am fond of quoting Robert Christgau, the Dean of American Rock Critics, who, in his original A+ review of Let It Be, wrote: “Bands like this don’t have roots, or principles either, they just have stuff they like.” Now, throughout his long and inspiring career, Christgau has been guilty of portentous idiocy from time to time (BossanovaLet It Be is the ‘Mats’ indisputable masterpiece. There are those, however, who call it “scattershot” and dismiss Paul Westerberg’s jumbling of sensitive balladry and sloppy kitsch as bratty self-sabotage. These detractors tend to prefer 1985’s Tim, the band’s Sire debut, which contains 11 competently-played, easily-digestible pop songs that all sound as though they actually belong on the same record. But it was precisely this earlier mess that defined The Replacements; they were just kids in a garage, pinching Ted Nugent riffs and singing about drugs and dicks, occasionally tossing off something beautiful and pretending not to realize it. Their jokes had just as much soul as their art --- when Westerberg sang “Gary’s got a boner/ Gary’s got a soft-on,” he meant it. is the best Pixies album?), but when he’s right, he’s right, and

Three records in, it took guts for these guys — who had started off in Minneapolis circa 1979 as slightly-tuneful hardcore punkers — to betray any hint of sincerity, maturity, or ambition, lest the devoted fan lose his bearings. Of course, they had never let that sort of thing bother them; The Replacements were legendary for antagonizing their audiences with almost Kaufman-esque cruelty. At a gig in, say, Nashville, the band was likely to play fast and loud until only punks remained, at which point they would dust off the country moves. Ho ho. Slashed amps and tipped vans were not uncommon.

It was a given that Let It Be was going to cost The Replacements a fair slice of their original fanbase. If the songs hadn’t been worth a damn, that might’ve been the end right there. Still, I imagine scores of arty-farty R.E.M. disciples buying the record for Peter Buck’s solo on “I Will Dare,” straining to stick it out at least through Side A, then frisbeeing the thing against a wall before collapsing back into the safe, reliable arms of jangle-pop.

Describing this album as scattershot hardly does it justice. Not once does it settle into a certain groove, musically or otherwise, for two songs in a row. The folky shuffle of “I Will Dare” gives way to the sweetly punkish “Favorite Thing,” before “We’re Coming Out” completely eclipses the band’s first four years of hardcore. Only The Replacements would have sandwiched the bleary-eyed jazz-pop of “Androgynous” between “Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out” and a shambolic (and underrated) cover of KISS’s “Black Diamond.” George Martin has been quoted as saying he always wanted to trim The White Album down to one LP. Just think, if The Beatles had taken his advice and had been four boozy Midwesterners born from 1959-66 who shared a penchant for The New York Dolls and The Stones, The White Album would have sounded something like Let It Be. (That made no sense, I know, but it was fun to write.)

As for the copping of the Fab Four’s title, it was the ‘Mats’ canny way of making a brazen grab at classic-rock status and simultaneously admitting they’d never make it. But, true to form, they weren’t giving themselves enough credit. And I think they knew it, even then.

Remembering The Mats

2008-09-22T09:47:00.003-04:00

(Memphis Flyer) Roughly 22 years ago, local producer Jim Dickinson holed up in Ardent Studios with a trio of notorious rock-and-roll troublemakers — the three surviving members of Minneapolis' Replacements — to make a record.

The album that resulted, Pleased To Meet Me, arguably rivals the White Stripes' White Blood Cells as the best made-in-Memphis album by a nonlocal artist. It wasn't the commercial hit the band's major-label overlords anticipated, but it was an artistic triumph.

This week, Rhino Records will reissue the album (and the rest of the band's output for Sire Records), with bonus tracks and new liner notes. To commemorate the occasion, Dickinson took the Flyer on a trip down memory lane.

Flyer: How did you get the assignment to work on Pleased To Meet Me?

Dickinson: Through their management. I don't think the Replacements knew who I was. What bass player Tommy Stinson told me later — they'd just fired lead guitarist Bob Stinson [Tommy's brother] — was that they'd come to Memphis to break up. They'd had it planned that they were going to kind of theatrically combust. But we got to cutting demos, and it started working. They had never played as a trio, but it seemed to work, and so we started the project.

Tommy articulated it better than [lead singer Paul] Westerberg. He said they wanted to make an adult record without compromising. I've always viewed rock-and-roll as children's music anyway, and I guess that's what they thought they were doing. They were pure punk aesthetic. Westerberg told me as we started that he wasn't going to give me 100 percent, because I didn't deserve it. I'd heard that notion expressed by black R&B artists, but I'd never encountered it myself, so I took it as a challenge.

Did their reputation precede them?

Oh yeah. They were notorious drunks. To their credit, they tried to play sober, and they could not do it. They had learned to play drunk as kids. Westerberg was about to get married and kind of semi-sober up. His world was about to radically change. But I got the tail end of the real Paul Westerberg. His voice changed after that.

This was the first record without Bob Stinson. How much was his absence noted or acknowledged?

It was a constant issue. I wanted to call the record Where's Bob?, but nobody thought that was funny. I told the management, bring him on. I want Bob. They would just make the sign of the cross and leave the room.

There's a linear, melodic thing on the Replacements' earlier records. That is Bob. That's nowhere on my record. That's my regret. That and the fact that [Westerberg] didn't give me an anthem. There's no "Bastards of Young." I got some real good songs, but I got no anthem.

Were they hard to control outside the studio, or was that not your concern?

Well, they didn't have driver's licenses. When we were done, they would stagger off into the night, and I never knew if they were going to show up the next morning.

You've got about eight blocks from Ardent to the former Holiday Inn on Union at McLean.

Yeah, and they could get in trouble in those eight blocks, believe me! They could score dope before they were out of the parking lot. They were amazing. You know that line in "Can't Hardly Wait": "Lights that flash in the evening/through a hole in the drapes"? That's about that hotel.

"Nightclub Jitters" and "Can't Hardly Wait," in particular, have what were unusual arrangements for them at the time.

The saxophone on "Nightclub Jitters" is Prince Gabe Kirby, who worked over at the dog track and had been a salesman at Lansky Brothers. He also had a band on Beale Street. The horns were a real touchy subject. I had been dictated by the [record] company that "Can't Hardly Wait" was going to be the big song. Everybody knew it. I had gotten a telegram — that's how long ago it was — the first day (and which one of the guys at Ardent was stupid enough to deliver to me in front of Westerberg), saying, "This is the big song, blah blah blah. What about the Memphis Horns?"

So, to introduce the horns as an issue, I brought in Prince Gabe. They loved him right away. In fact, you hear the applause at the end of "Nightclub Jitters"? That's them applauding for him as he's walking back into the control room. It just stuck to the tape, and it sounded right.

But the day I was going to do the Memphis Horns [on "Can't Hardly Wait"], Westerberg and Tommy got on a plane and flew home. Westerberg's still pissed off about the strings. But you know, when he would reference Alex Chilton, he was referencing Big Star. I wanted to take it all the way back to the Box Tops. That's what those strings were to me.

Your son Luther of the North Mississippi Allstars plays guitar on "Shooting Dirty Pool." How old was he, 14?

Yep. 14. When I was doing the movie Crossroads with Steve Vai, Luther had learned a lot of those Steve Vai tricks. The laughing thing. I can't remember what they all were. Luther had names for them. He said, "Well, what do you want me to do, Daddy?" I said just make the Steve Vai sounds. And that's what he did.

What did the band think about that?

Westerberg loved it. It was just off the wall enough for him. In fact, the line in the song "You're the coolest guy I ever did smell" ... he's talking about Luther. Luther was wearing aftershave lotion. He didn't know you weren't supposed to wear it in the studio. He came in smelling, and Westerberg nailed him!

The Replacements: Tim / Pleased to Meet Me / Don't Tell a Soul / All Shook Down

2008-09-21T20:32:00.002-04:00

Well, after having been without power or internets for almost a week (remnants of Ike), we're back. Here's a nice long story/review from The Detroit Metro Times. It includes the liner notes from the reissues:

In many regards, I probably shouldn't be writing about the Replacements at this point, since it must look to many like I can no longer be objective (... although I firmly believe I can be — for instance, I still think All Shook Down was a major disappointment; besides, during my time back in Detroit, I've discovered there are as many "conflicts of interest" in this town's music scene as there were in Hollyweird!). Still, the Replacements befriended me backstage at Ann Arbor's Michigan Theater back in the mid-'80s; almost delivered a mini-reunion of sorts at one of my parties (alas, we missed Westerberg's call) in the early '90s; dedicated "IOU" to me from the stage of L.A.'s Greek Theatre when they finally did do a mini-reunion (well, at least Paul & Tommy were there) two years ago; and, full disclosure, I wrote the liner notes to the Don't Tell a Soul reissue.

On the other hand, since these are reissues, there's certainly now been enough time for history to prove us Replacements fans correct. That is, in many ways, the Replacements were the last truly original great American rock 'n' roll band — at least the last truly funny great American rock band ... and I'll say it again: No band has ever recorded a better trilogy of albums than Let It Be (part of last year's first batch of reissues), Tim and Pleased to Meet Me (there have been trilogies that are just as good, of course — but none any better).

Rhino also hired me two years ago to write a new set of notes for the Pleased to Meet MeBest of the Replacements anthology that came out two years ago, former Sire A&R rep Michael Hill took over ... and my notes disappeared into the haze. But just so they don't totally go to waste — hey, I interviewed both Westerberg and legendary Memphis producer-musician-character Jim Dickinson for my notes — I thought, "Why not post them somewhere?" So, if you go to metrotimes.com you'll find my original PTMM notes there for posterity. reissue — but when original Replacements manager Peter Jesperson took over the project last year, he decided there should be a different writer on each disc. And since I also wrote the notes for the

Oh, yeah, and buy these albums, particularly Tim and Pleased to Meet Me, especially if you've never owned or heard them before. Objectivity or not, the Replacements were — and remain — one of the fucking greatest American rock 'n' roll bands of all time. (Maybe I should also mention that it says volumes about the music biz that, in this age of non-albums, Westerberg, who turns 49 on Dec. 31, released 49:00, one of the greatest records of this year — adventurous, complex, complete and even psychedelic, the way great albums used to be — online only, charged 49 cents for it, and then made it available for about that many, i.e., 49, hours. But maybe that's the topic of another review or column.)

Complete Article Here.

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Bored Of Edukation

2008-09-13T18:25:00.002-04:00

Another day, another new Paul song. Grab "Bored Of Edukation" at Amazon for $0.99:

Amazon

The Final Four

2008-09-12T10:05:00.003-04:00

Here's the press release we received from Rhino/1888 Media:

(1888 Media) Rhino Remasters the Band's Sire Releases With Rare and Previously Unreleased Tracks for Deluxe Reissues of Tim, Pleased To Meet Me, Don't Tell A Soul and All Shook Down

Available September 23 From Rhino

LOS ANGELES --Rhino launched its upgrade of The Replacements' catalog to much acclaim this spring, remastering the band's legendary Twin/Tone canon and expanding it with rare and unreleased songs. The sonic overhaul continues as Rhino reissues all four of the band's Sire albums, including its 1990 swan song. On September 23, Rhino will release deluxe editions of TIM, PLEASED TO MEET ME, DON'T TELL A SOUL and ALL SHOOK DOWN. Each will be available at physical retail outlets and www.rhino.com for a suggested list price of $18.98. On the same day, all eight of this year's remastered Replacements deluxe editions, including bonus tracks, will be available digitally for the first time at all digital retail outlets.

Paul Westerberg, Chris Mars and brothers Tommy and Bob Stinson were heroes of the budding alternative music scene thanks to a trio of riotous albums they recorded in the early '80s for their hometown indie Twin/Tone. The Replacements signed with Sire in 1985, where the band
recorded these four powerful albums before playing its last show in Chicago on July 4, 1991. Peter Jesperson, the band's longtime manager, served as producer for the deluxe editions. As with the Twin/Tone reissues, the band provided invaluable assistance by selecting the bonus tracks for these reissues -- many of which have never been heard, even by hardcore fans.

Expectations were high for TIM (1985), The Replacements' major label debut and follow-up to its most acclaimed album, Let It Be. The band did not disappoint, returning with another batch of classics like "Kiss Me On The Bus," "Left Of The Dial" and the anthemic "Bastards Of Young."
Recorded in Minneapolis, the album's 11 songs were produced by the Ramones' founding drummer and producer, Tommy "Ramone" Erdelyi. Westerberg says: "I can go back and listen and know that those are good songs. Yeah, the [recordings] are a little quirky and a little off...but, you know, a lot of the stuff that I've loved throughout my life didn't sound perfect. And I kinda like that about Tim." Of the six bonus songs on the deluxe version of TIM, half are outtakes from a brief session with Alex Chilton of Big Star, a band that had a huge influence on The Replacements. Featured here from that session for the first time ever on CD are "Nowhere Is My Home" and electric and acoustic versions of "Can't Hardly Wait."

PLEASED TO MEET ME (1987) was The Replacements' first album without founding guitarist Bob Stinson, who exited the band after the final tour dates in support of Tim. The band, now a trio, went into a Memphis studio with producer Jim Dickinson, a veteran session player and producer who helmed Big Star's dark masterpiece (and 'Mats' fave), Third. The album won rave reviews for memorable songs like "Alex Chilton," "Skyway" and "Can't Hardly Wait," which surprised some with Dickinson's propulsive horn and string arrangement, a truly bold musical move at the time.

Among the 11 bonus tracks on PLEASED TO MEET ME are unreleased demos ("Birthday Gal," "Valentine," "Bundle Up") and alternate versions of album tracks ("Can't Hardly Wait," "Alex Chilton"). A mix of covers ("Route 66," "Tossin' 'N' Turnin'") and rarities ("Election Day") rounds out the collection.

Guitarist Slim Dunlap, who toured with The Replacements for Pleased To Meet Me, joined the band in the studio for the first time to record DON'T TELL A SOUL (1989). Produced by Matt Wallace and the band, the original album featured 11 tracks, including "I'll Be You," the band's highest charting single; and the country-rocker "Achin' To Be," a song some critics have credited as one of the founding/defining moments of the Americana roots music movement. The eight bonus tracks on DON'T TELL A SOUL open with "Portland" and "Wake Up" -- both recorded in 1988 but not released until1997 on the compilation All For Nothing/Nothing For
All. Also included is the track "Date To Church," which features Tom Waits and was originally released as the b-side to "I'll Be You." Half of the bonus tracks on this deluxe edition are previously unreleased, including a cover of Slade's "Gudbuy T' Jane."

The following year, The Replacements released their final album, ALL SHOOK DOWN (1990). The most consistently strong collection of songs in the band's entire career, the album stands as one of the most poetic and enduring epilogues in rock history. Produced by Scott Litt and the band, the original album features 13 tracks, including "Someone Take the Wheel," the eerie title track and "Sadly Beautiful," a ballad originally written for Marianne Faithfull that became revered in The Replacements' canon. Of the11 bonus tracks on ALL SHOOK DOWN, eight are unreleased demos for album tracks ("Sadly Beautiful," "Nobody," "Attitude") and the non-album track "Tiny Paper Plane." The remaining three tracks were previously issued in 1991 on the promotional EP Don't Sell Or Buy, It's Crap.

TIM Bonus Material
12. "Can't Hardly Wait" (Acoustic - Alex Chilton Sessions Outtake) *
13. "Nowhere Is My Home" (Alex Chilton Sessions Outtake)
14. "Can't Hardly Wait" (Electric - Alex Chilton Sessions Outtake) *
15. "Kiss Me On The Bus" (Tom Erdelyi Demo) *
16. "Waitress In The Sky" (Outtake - Alternate Version) *
17. "Here Comes A Regular" (Outtake - Alternate Version) *

PLEASE TO MEET ME Bonus Material
12. "Birthday Gal" (Demo)*
13. "Valentine" (Demo) *
14. "Bundle Up" (Demo) *
15. "Photo" (Demo)*
16. "Election Day"
17. "Alex Chilton" (Alternate Version) *
18. "Kick It In" (Demo) *
19. "Route 66"
20. "Tossin' 'N' Turnin'"
21. "Can't Hardly Wait" (Alternate Version) *
22. "Cool Water"

DON'T TELL A SOUL Bonus Material
12. "Portland"
13. "Wake Up"
14. "Cruella DeVille"
15. "Talent Show" (Demo) *
16. "We'll Inherit The Earth" (Mix 1) *
17. "Date To Church"
18. "We Know The Night" (Outtake) *
19. "Gudbuy T' Jane" (Outtake) *

ALL SHOOK DOWN Bonus Material
14. "When It Began" (Demo) *
15. "Nobody" (Demo) *
16. "One Wink At A Time" (Demo) *
17. "Torture" (Demo) *
18. "Attitude" (Demo) *
19. "Happy Town" (Demo) *
20. "Tiny Paper Plane" (Demo) *
21. "Sadly Beautiful" (Demo) *
22. "Kissin' In Action"
23. "Ought To Get Love"
24. "Satellite"

* previously unissued recordings

Rhino party page
REAL
WMA

Chat with musician Craig Finn (The Hold Steady)

2008-09-12T09:59:00.003-04:00

For some reason, an article or interview about the Hold Staedy can't be written without at least one Replacements mention. This is kind of interesting, considering it was don by ESPN:

(ESPN) Welcome to The Show! On Wednesday, Sept. 10, Craig Finn, baseball fan and lead singer of the band The Hold Steady, will stop by to take your questions on his beloved Minnesota Twins, his band's latest album "Stay Positive" and more.

Finn, born in Boston but raised in Edina, Minnesota and currently living in New York City, hit the scene in 2004 with the release of the debut album "Almost Killed Me" and followed that up with "Separation Sunday" in 2005 which included a lengthy tour schedule helping launch The Hold Steady into the limelight. In 2006, the band released "Boys And Girls In America" which was named Rolling Stone's No. 8 album of the year and led Blender magazine to name The Hold Steady as their band of the year. The new album, "Stay Positive", was one of the most highly anticipated releases of the year and has been warmly received by critics and fans alike.

While putting "Stay Positive" together in 2007, the band took time out to record a special version of "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" to be used during the seventh-inning stretch at Twins home games.

Send your questions now about baseball and music and join the live chat on Wednesday, Sept. 10 at 3 p.m. ET!

Interview Here

Against Me! Cover The Mats

2008-09-12T09:53:00.002-04:00

Well, sorta...

(Buzznet) Tom Gabel of Against Me! has been working on new music for an upcoming solo EP and some song titles and music video info have been revealed.

"Recording for the past 11 days has been a positive and fulfilling experience. It's made all those nights this past year when I've chosen to go back to my hotel room, or back to the bus, and write instead of going out and partying, worth it. I feel energized, excited about making music and writing," Gabel wrote on his personal blog.

According to Alternative Press, the EP, which features guest vocals from both Chuck RaganMatt Skiba, is named Heart Burns and songs to be featured on the EP include:

"100 Years Of War"
"Anna Is A Stool Pigeon"
"Conceptual Paths"
"Cowards Sing At Night"
"Harsh Realms"
"Random Hearts"
"I Can't See You, But I Know You're There" (This track may or may not appear on the EP)

In addition to the EP, Gabel recorded a cover of "Here Comes A Regular" by The Replacements, which will appear on a future 50th anniversary compilation.

Gabel announced in his blog that he has shot a music video for each song on the EP, which current does not have a release date: "It was pretty awesome standing on a rooftop in downtown Los Angeles, singing at the top of my lungs to the endlessly expanding city below, as the sun slowly set. As we sat huddled in the dark watching the playback on the camera, laughing, talking, drinking beers, I felt like I was 19 again. Life was dangerous and exciting. All ideas were possible and should be followed with passion. The future was unpredictable. I want to always feel that way."

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The Replacements - New Old Music

2008-09-09T11:02:00.004-04:00

(Pitchfork) "There's never been a shortage of thirty and fortysomethings reminiscing about the 'Mats," Mark Richardson observes in his review of the first four Replacements albums' Rhino reissues. Much to my eternal non-cred, I'm not a part of that indiest of generations. That means I heard "Can't Hardly Wait" over the credits of a movie starring Ethan Embry (who?) and Jennifer Love Hewitt (who?), got obsessed with "Alex Chilton" thanks to streaming internet radio, and fell in love with "Kiss Me on the Bus" after the same profanity demon hellride to Des Moines that prompted me to download "Hell Greyhound Bus Ride" by Wesley Willis. It also means I knew the underachieving, beer-soaked Minnesota band's legend from books like Michael Azerrad's Our Band Could Be Your Life before I'd heard big chunks of their discography.

Doesn't matter. If these demos from Rhino's next set of Replacements reissues tell us anything about this band, it's that their songs were sharp and tuneful enough to withstand not just the indignities of studio production, but also their own underdog mystique.

Tim's "Kiss Me on the Bus" is considerably faster and rougher on this demo, cut in the summer of 1985 to see how well the band got along with ex-Ramone (and eventual Tim producer) Tommy Erdelyi, but the bittersweet modern kicks that made the song great were already there.

"Photo" could be familiar to some diehards as "P.O. Box (Empty as Your Heart)"; this work in progress comes from the band's first demo session without guitarist Bob Stinson, in summer 1986 ahead of Pleased to Meet Me, and despite thematic similarities to Let It Be's "Answering Machine" it sounds like it should've been on an album.

"Talent Show", stripped of the overproduction and ringing acoustic guitars of Don't Tell a Soul, takes on a renewed vitality. All of which makes even a person of my non-McCain age wonder whether that's just indigestion, or if the music is making me actually feel something. Better buy some beer just in case.

[the deluxe reissues of Tim, Pleased to Meet Me, Don't Tell a Soul, and All Shook Down are due 09/23/08 from Rhino]

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Golden Smog Rolls With The Best

2008-09-05T11:28:00.003-04:00

Here's a release we received from 1881 Media. The Minneapolis music scene always a little incestuous, especially in the 80s. Golden Smog may have been the Minneapolis supergroup that only those we had a clue heard of.

(1888 Media) Rhino Presents 16 Essential Tracks from the Band's Rykodisc Recordings. Plus an Early Version of "Until You Came Along" and an Unreleased Cover
of Brian Wilson's "Love And Mercy"

Available September 23 on CD and Digitally from Rhino

LOS ANGELES--In the late '80s, Minneapolis was home to a tightly knit music scene that claimed its fair share of groups on college and alternative radio playlists. When they weren't playing in their own bands, singer Kraig Johnson (Run Westy Run) and guitarists Dan Murphy (Soul Asylum) Gary Louris (the Jayhawks) and Marc Perlman (the Jayhawks) got together as Golden Smog to play with friends and have a good time. The band recorded a pair of albums for Rykodisc in the early '90s, featuring Uncle Tupelo/Wilco's Jeff Tweedy and drummers Noah Levy (Honeydogs) and Jody Stephens (Big Star).

Rhino brings together the essential tracks from both of those early releases for STAY GOLDEN, SMOG: THE BEST OF GOLDEN SMOG. This 18-song collection also features an alternate version of the fan favorite ("Until You Came Along") and an unreleased Brian Wilson cover ("Love And Mercy.") On September 23, this compilation will be available from Rhino
Records at all retail outlets, including www.rhino.com, for a suggested list price of $16.98 on CD and $10.99 for digital download.

What began as a wicked cover band in 1989 evolved into a group featuring a rotating cast of talented musicians. The group's greatest strength has always been its collective songwriting prowess. Solid contributions from members writing solo and together helped the band create a lovable pastiche of soulful twang and thrilling garage bravado. The band released an EP, On Golden Smog, in 1992, then its first full-length album, Down By The Old Mainstream, in 1996 and its follow-up, Weird Tales, two years later.

STAY GOLDEN, SMOG: THE BEST OF GOLDEN SMOG contains eight tracks from
the group's full-length debut, including a trio of great collaborations: "V" (Johnson/Louris), "Radio King" (Louris/Tweedy), and "Red Headed Stepchild" (Murphy/Perlman). Also featured are the standout solo efforts: "Pecan Pie," Tweedy's bubbly ode to dessert, and "He's A Dick," Johnson's ode to jerks.

The group's second album is also represented on THE BEST OF by eight tracks, including strong contributions by Murphy ("To Call My Own"), Johnson ("Looking Forward To Seeing You"), Louris ("Until You Came Along") and Tweedy ("Please Tell My Brother.") STAY GOLDEN, SMOG: THE BEST OF GOLDEN SMOG also contains a pair of Johnson/Louris efforts "If I Only Had A Car" and "Jennifer Save Me." The collection ends with an early version of "Until You Came Along" and an unreleased cover of Brian Wilson's "Love And Mercy," a song that originally appeared on his 1988 solo debut.

STAY GOLDEN, SMOG: THE BEST OF GOLDEN SMOG

1. "Until You Came Along" (Gary Louris)
2. "Looking Forward To Seeing You" (Kraig Johnson)
3. "Ill Fated" (Dan Murphy)
4. "Lost Love" (Jeff Tweedy)
5. "Jennifer Save Me" (Kraig Johnson, Gary Louris)
6. "Making Waves" (Kraig Johnson)
7. "Glad & Sorry" (Ronnie Lane of the Faces)
8. "V" (Kraig Johnson / Gary Louris)
9. "To Call My Own" (Dan Murphy)
10. "Pecan Pie" (Jeff Tweedy)
11. "Won't Be Coming Home" (Gary Louris / Mark Olson)
12. "Red Headed Stepchild' (Dan Murphy / Marc Perlman)
13. "He's A Dick" (Kraig Johnson)
14. "Radio King" (Gary Louris / Jeff Tweedy)
15. "Please Tell My Brother" (Jeff Tweedy)
16. "If I Only Had A Car" (Kraig Johnson, Gary Louris)
17. "Until You Came Along" (1997 version) - Bonus Track (Gary Louris)
18. "Love And Mercy" - Bonus Track (Brian Wilson)

*Rhino Party Page*

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Was 1980s music that bad?

2008-09-05T11:24:00.003-04:00

(Cnet) A couple days ago, NPR's All Songs Considered asked listeners to vote on which year had the best music. (The poll is here--you have to answer it to see overall results.) Unsurprisingly given NPR's demographic, the 1960s scored high, with top year 1969 figuring in 9 percent of all responses. More surprisingly, the 1990s also did quite well, with 1991 (grunge) and 1994 (alternative) both scoring 4 percent. There was also a little uptick in 1977--the year punk broke for the first time scored 4 percent. But the 1980s were a bleak wasteland, however, with all years scoring 1 percent or less except for 1987, which scored 2 percent. The ASC folks tried to convince listeners that the '80s had some bright spots, highlighting bands like The Replacements, Talking Heads, Minor Threat, and, um, Escape Club.

I had a hard time answering the question. Certain albums stick out--I know that the Beatles' White Album came out 1968, Who's Next was 1971, and Modest Mouse's The Moon and Antarctica was 2000. But a best year? Impossible to say.

So I decided to look at the empirical data. Because I'm a music nerd, I keep a running spreadsheet of every album I own (vinyl and CD), including the year they were originally released. (You fellow music nerds know exactly what I'm talking about--don't pretend otherwise.) First I scrubbed the data, making sure that things like greatest hits albums and movie soundtracks, where the release date was years or decades away from the actual recording dates, were not counted.

Then with Excel's useful COUNTIF function, I discovered that 1970 is my personal winner, with 30 albums. By decade, the '70s were tops with 216 albums, followed very closely by--gasp--the '80s with 195 albums. Next up were the '90s (156), the '00s (112 with only seven years and eight months gone), the '60s (94), the '50s (9), and the '40s (1--can you guess which album it was?).

So no, the '80s didn't suck. You just have to dig a little deeper.

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New Westerberg Release Possibly Features Tom Waits

2008-09-05T11:18:00.003-04:00

(Pitchfork) Just over a month ago, Paul Westerberg announced the digital release of a 49-cent album. Then, in early August, came the "5:05" single, a digital track that clocked in at, yes, five minutes and five seconds. Now, he has released a mini-album called 3oclockreep

It seems that Tom Waits is featured in the 20-minute banter/song collage of "3oclockreep", though his involvement is unconfirmed. But around the track's 15-minute mark, there's certainly a singer that sounds like Waits. As for "Finally Here Once", it's a satisfyingly straightforward rootsy pop song. 3oclockreep can be downloaded via TuneCore.

On a sadder Replacements-related note, drummer Steve Foley died last weekend at his Minneapolis home, according to Westerberg's website. Foley was a replacement Replacement, filling in for original drummer Chris Mars on the band's final tour in 1990 and 1991. According to Westerberg's website, "The cause of death is believed to be an accidental overdose of prescription medication." He was 49 years old. featuring two more new tracks for download, the title track and "Finally Here Once". Dude's on a roll.

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Westerberg Drops More New Music

2008-09-05T11:16:00.001-04:00

(Live Daily) Singer/songwriter Paul Westerberg, who last month released online a new, 24-track album, has dished out two more new tracks.

"3oclockcreep," the first of the two new cuts, clocks in at a hefty 20 minutes, while the second cut, "Finally Here Once," is a more manageable 3:27, according to the two songs' distribution page at TuneCore's website.

Westerberg also teamed with TuneCore for last month's "49," which he priced at 49 cents. The two-dozen songs featured on the album come in the form of a single, 44-minute file.

In other Westerberg news, drummer Steve Foley, who played with Westerberg in The Replacements during the group's 1991 farewell tour, died last weekend as the result of what is believed to have been an accidental overdose of prescription medication, according to the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He was 49.

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"Tolerence" Chris Mars Book and Exhibit

2008-09-05T11:11:00.002-04:00

(Lee Joseph Publicity) “TOLERANCE” is a Green and Fair-Trade 160 page book printed on recycled bleach free paper with vegetable based ink, featuring 159 full-color images including numerous essays written by the artist. The book is being released in conjunction with Chris Mars’ exhibition at Billy Shire Fine Arts, Sept. 13 – Oct. 4, opening reception and book signing will be on Saturday, September 13th from 7 pm – 10 pm. The exhibition will consist of 30 new oil paintings and will be Mars’ first out-of-town public appearance since 1996. Mars will also be signing “TOLERANCE” at the Laguna Art Museum on Sept. 14 from 3 pm – 6 pm.

Rock star, recluse, brother, activist. Artist. Chris Mars’ work graces the hallowed halls of museums throughout America and is tattooed on calves and biceps throughout the world. “Tolerance” is the long-awaited collection of his work.

Chris Mars was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1961 to parents Constance and Leroy Mars. He is the youngest of seven children. Mars’s eldest brother Joe suffered a so-called Nervous Breakdown in 1966 and was institutionalized at St. Cloud Mental Hospital. The impact of that event, along with Joe’s life-long struggle with Schizophrenia, set the groundwork for a life’s mission of championing society’s downtrodden and outcast. Mars hopes his work causes the viewer to question the nature of evaluation and labels, be it by investigating the meaning of beauty or by casting aside the exclusion of the meek, the forgotten, or the enemy.

Complete Press Release Here

Under The Influence: "Burn It Down"

2008-09-02T21:43:00.004-04:00

The Suicide Commandos were one of, if not the first punk band from Minneapolis, MN. I think you can hear their influence on the first two Mats albums.

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Even more Steve Foley

2008-08-29T15:43:00.002-04:00

MTV
Blend Music
Philly Burbs
93X
All Headline News
Gant Daily

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Gettin' Nowhere, but with Gusto: Revisiting The Replacements

2008-08-28T00:08:00.003-04:00

Filter Magazine has a really good article on the Mats and an interview with Paul that is worth checking out:

It likely had something to do with the wide-smiling revisionism of the Reagan era, but the 1980s foisted some bizarro visions of the Heartland on the rest of America. Looking back and taking stock was a drag amidst the new cowboy optimism, and it seemed like the tumult of the ’60s and the malaise of the ’70s would no longer penetrate the cornfields and sleepy Main Street drags of that magical American dawning—the only drip of discontent permeating the farmer’s cup of Folger’s might have been the latest small-town hit from Johnny Cougar or Don Henley.

Completely unwittingly, and without equal, The Replacements were the closest thing to that missing voice for middle-America’s wayward children. Forming in 1979 and hailing from the seemingly unexciting city of Minneapolis, they caroused and slacked their way into being one of the best bands of their generation; just in time for the end of The Gipper’s first term.

A drunken foursome of loser kids—including a janitor (Paul Westerberg), a bully (lead guitarist Bob Stinson), a high school dropout (drummer Chris Mars) and Bob’s 12-year-old misfit-brother, Tommy, as their bassist—they could be rocking, snot-nosed, good for nothing, pissed-off and heartbroken; a song like “Color Me Impressed” (“Everybody at your party/ they don’t look depressed/everybody’s dressing funny/color me impressed”) could somehow manage to be all of these things at once. This is not to say that people actually heard The Replacements as generational torch-bearers (or even heard them at all for that matter), for in truth, their videos were evasive “fuck you’s” and their major TV appearances shambling puddles. But through the prism of retrospection, one would be hard pressed to find a band better suited to honestly address tiny-town isolation, or to sum up the decades of music that preceded them...

Complete Article Here

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More on Steve Foley

2008-08-27T23:54:00.003-04:00

Several news stories on the passing of Steve Foley:

Billboard
411 Mania
All About Jazz
CMJ
Punk News
Reuters
NME
Showbiz Spy

More Westerberg downloads: 3oclokreep

2008-08-27T14:07:00.005-04:00

Two new tracks have shown up on TuneCore: "Finally Here Once " and "3oclockreep". You can download both tracks for $3.99. Is this the future of Rock & Roll?

R.I.P. Steve Foley

2008-08-26T23:08:00.005-04:00

(Star Tribune) He was only in the band for its final year (1990-91), but the Replacements' replacement drummer Steve Foley told biographer Jim Walsh, "It will always be a treasure in my mind."

"Some days I walk down the street and go, 'God, I was in that [expletive] band?' Unbelievable. It is."

Foley, 49, died over the weekend of an apparent accidental drug overdose, said his sister, Colleen Foley. He was found at home in Minneapolis by some co-workers Monday when he did not show up for his job as a car salesman.

Steve was "by-the-book sober" for almost 15 years after the whirlwind with the Replacements, Colleen said, but he struggled with anxiety and depression in recent years.

"He was such a lovable guy -- a total cornball who specialized in bad puns and corny jokes," she said.

LeeAnn Weimar, a Minneapolis concert promoter and close friend, said, "This is not your typical rock-guy-on-drugs story. He was really struggling, but we know he definitely wasn't trying to check out."

After the Replacements, Foley and his brother, Kevin, joined 'Mats bassist Tommy Stinson in his band Bash & Pop, which released an acclaimed 1993 album, "Friday Night Is Killing Me," on Sire/Reprise Records. Stinson now performs with Guns N' Roses.

Prior to joining Stinson and frontman Paul Westerberg in the Replacements in 1990 -- when original drummer Chris Mars bowed out -- Foley performed with local rock stalwart Curtiss A for a decade. Some of the other Twin Cities bands he drummed with include Wheelo, Snaps, Bang Zoom, Trailer Trash, Things That Fall Down and the Suprees.

"Foley was a beautiful and gentle soul, the kind of dude that strange things happened to," recalled Mary Lucia, a DJ at The Current (89.3 FM).

The story of how he joined the Replacements was perhaps weirdest of all.

As recounted in Walsh's book, "All Over But the Shouting: An Oral History of the Replacements," Stinson and Westerberg randomly ran into Foley at the C.C. Club in Minneapolis while looking for a new drummer. They left for an audition in Foley's car, which happened to have the band's just-issued CD "All Shook Down" cranking in the stereo.

"They looked at each other and went, 'You're already in,'" Foley told Walsh.

Foley grew up in the Hopkins area with a tight-knit crew of six siblings, all of whom were music nuts, his sister said. His late father "grouched" about Steve wanting to play the drums professionally until the day he played with the Replacements at the Orpheum Theatre.

"Dad couldn't have been happier, and neither could Steve," Colleen said.

Visitation will be Friday at 11 a.m. at Washburn-McReavy Funeral Chapel, 5000 W. 50th St., Edina, with a service to follow and burial at Lakewood Cemetery.

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead cover "Within Your Reach"

2008-08-25T12:59:00.003-04:00

(Billboard) ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead is putting the finishing touches on its sixth album in New York with producer Chris Coady. The as-yet-untitled set is due in January via the band's own Richter Scale label through the Universal-distributed Justice Records.

An EP, "Festival Time," will precede the album in October. In addition to the title track, it will feature an unconventional cover of the Replacements' "Within Your Reach" as well as the instrumental "The Betrayal of Roger Caseman and the Irish Brigade" and the dark, riffy "Bells of Creation," which will appear on the album in a different form.

During a break from mixing, group members Conrad Keely and Jason Reece told Billboard they feel revitalized after exiting Interscope, which released three of the group's albums between 2002-2006.

In fact, Keely says he doesn't consider the band's major-label swansong, 2006's "So Divided," to be a proper Trail Of Dead album. "It was almost like an exercise in different pastiches," he says. "We allowed ourselves to be really free with the material. We didn't say no to any ideas. For it being that kind of record, it exceeded my expectations. But it wasn't in the tradition of our making of records, where we have a concept and we're going to be really ambitious with it."

To that end, Trail Of Dead this time around parted ways with longtime producer Mike McCarthy and teamed with Coady, who has worked closely with acts such as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV On The Radio, Foals and Grizzly Bear.

The material previewed for Billboard is indeed more hard-hitting than on the past two Interscope albums, with "Inland Sea" building from a measured, midtempo rocker to a furious instrumental finish and the snappy "Fields of Coal" conjuring an inspirational chorus that Reece says reminds him of the Summer Olypmics. Another untitled track is fast and punky, with an Unwound-style feedback barrage.

"On the last two albums, we were really meticulous recording to click-tracks and doing overdubs," Keely says. "This time, we threw all that out. We learned the songs and all tracked live."

Trail Of Dead isn't planning to tour until early next year, but tonight (Aug. 25) at New York's Santos' Party House, Keely and Reece will perform as a two-piece for the first time in a decade. "We have no idea what we're going to play," Keely says with a laugh. "Maybe we'll just hash out some old disagreements from high school."

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It was 27 years ago today...

2008-08-24T23:10:00.001-04:00

Happy birthday, Sorry Ma...

Under The Influence: "Oh My Sweet Carolina"

2008-08-24T01:41:00.001-04:00

Here's someone who's been influenced by Mr. Westerberg.

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The New College Rock

2008-08-24T01:16:00.002-04:00

(those guys are The Whigs) As someone who's always looking for new good music, I found this article interesting. Although I can't stand Vampire Weekend...

(MetroMix) Back in the ‘80s, in those dark days before the Internet, “college rock” referred to bands that got played on college radio—R.E.M., the Pixies, the Replacements and their scruffy brethren. But these days, bands like Vampire Weekend are at the forefront of a new kind of college rock—the kind made up of actual college kids, whose careers take off before they’ve barely had a chance to graduate. Here are 15 of the hottest bands in America that got their start playing student unions and frat parties.

Vampire Weekend (they wear Bill Cosby sweaters for God' sake...)
Chester French
Ra Ra Riot
Tally Hall
Walter Meego
MGMT
The Whigs (these guys rock)
Ponytail
Morning Benders
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (I ain't buying it)
3OH!3
The XYZ Affair
Sherwood (my mother-in-law used to live on Sherwood Lane)
The Sinister Turns (sorry, the only female fronted bands I dug are The Pretenders and Lone Justice. The Plasmatics always scared me.)
Deas Vail

For the complee article and info about each band, check here.

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Within Your Reach

2008-08-24T01:01:00.005-04:00

Things you didn't know....

(SeattleSt) Last weekend, Seattlest revisited the other Shorewood High School for our 20-year reunion. And it's been 20 years since Lloyd Dobler and Diane Court left Lakeside High, so on our flight to Milwaukee, we got reacquainted with Cameron Crowe's Say Anything.... Singles gets the Seattle-centric attention, but Say Anything... is the movie where Seattle first caught our eye, several years before we actually moved to the land of the Gas 'n' Sip.

FACT: The boombox scene gets all the attention, but according to Ione Skye, if she hadn't been dating Anthony Kiedis and Cusack hadn't been in love with someone else, they would've gone home together after they filmed the sequence where Lloyd teaches Diane how to drive. Ah, the romance of stick shift.

FACT: Speaking of the boombox scene, the shot used in the film was the last take of the last shot on the last day of filming. And it took a while to figure out what song would be playing. In the screenplay, Crowe said it was Billy Idol's "To Be a Lover." On set, Cusack was blasting Fishbone's "Turn the Other Way." At some point, Crowe asked the Smithereens to write a song. They came up with "A Girl Like You," but Crowe pulled it from the film because the lyrics mirrored the plot too closely. (It was the Smithereens' first top 40 hit, though, when it came out on the album 11.) Crowe stumbled across "In Your Eyes" on a wedding mix tape he'd made for his wife, and Peter Gabriel agreed to let them include it once the studio sent him a copy Say Anything... instead of the John Belushi bio-pic Wired, their initial shipping error. And at first, during the scene when Lloyd is leaving his sister's apartment to go to England with Diane, they were going to play "In Your Eyes" again, but Cusack and Crowe decided that was "too pussy." So we get the Replacements' "Within Your Reach" instead.

Complete Article Here

Old Grey Whistle Test

2008-08-18T12:00:00.001-04:00

(Pop Matters) When the Old Grey Whistle Test DVD Set came out, for some reason I wasn’t surprised that the Replacements performance wouldn’t make the cut. Although I never got to see the band during their days of performance, countless hours have been spent on YouTube seeking out their performances—and “Kiss Me on the Bus” has been one of the most consistent, exceptional pop songs that the Replacements ever produced.

This performance, circa 1986—shows the Replacements in their prime. Although not quite as memorable as their famed Saturday Night Live performance, this highlights Paul Westerberg’s raw vocals at their best, and Bob Stinson whips up a solo variation that has the guitar sounding massively out-of-tune, and massively wonderful. Every time you watch the Replacements play, there’s something different to be offered, and that’s part of the glory of the Replacements. They never tried to be something they weren’t and the songs were never perfect. They were more focused on a valued performance and a songwriting that left an impression—a lesson a plethora of bands that spend entirely too much on their image and exact reproductions of the studio sound can learn from.

Peter Jesperson: The Teenage Kicks Interview

2008-08-18T00:49:00.007-04:00

The guys over at Teenage Kicks have done a pretty lengthy interview with Peter Jesperson (The Mats first manager) worth checking out:

Peter Jesperson is an indie rock superhero. As manager of the legendary Oar Folkjokeopus record store in Minneapolis, he was a noted tastemaker and all-round rock and roll good guy. Then, as co-owner of Twin Tone records, he stumbled across four guys who called themselves The Replacements. Immediately blown away, he signed the band and managed them for the next several years. Now Sr. VP/A&R at New West Records in Los Angeles, Jesperson oversees a stable of artists including Buddy Miller, Ben Lee and Old 97s, among others...

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Another 49:00 Review

2008-08-18T00:41:00.001-04:00

(Obvious Pop) Paul Westerberg of Replacements fame decided to release a new album in MP3 format only, it’s called 49:00 and it could be considered more of a single than an album because it’s a number of songs all mashed together as one long track with no breaks or tracking points. Paul will be 49 years old this year, the track was sold for .49 cents and the length of the track is, you guessed it, 43 minutes and 55 seconds long…what?! This is a mix of new songs and covers. Many of the songs that are mixed into this long track are short and sound unfinished, although some are complete songs and they are surprisingly good. But they all run together…and did I mention it’s all one long track? In a music industry that is currently overflowing with bad ideas, this may be the mother of them all. Who knows what the track listing is…because it’s one long 44-minute track! It does happen to contain the best musical ideas Paul has had in years, maybe ever. But unfortunately he buried them in this one, single, bad idea of a track. The other problem is that some of the best sounding and well-written moments sound unfinished. Or end abruptly. It would be one thing if this was one song, like some art rock epic, but it’s obviously a number songs, many bordering on brilliant that were run together for a reason that eludes me. To make things worse, the only place you could get the track was from Amazon (even then only in the US), but that doesn’t matter now because it’s been pulled from Amazon, I assume for copyright violations (nice Beatles cover). Then the track was posted for a while on the TuneCore site, but it’s been pulled from there as well. TuneCore now has another track up that’s called "5:05," and this one is actually 5 minutes and 5 seconds long and is one cohesive track. I imagine this is the missing "5:05" from the 49:00. Who can make sense of it? If the goal was to get publicity, kudos to you for that because a supposedly 49 minute one track album being sold for .49 cents has generated a lot of buzz, including a review in the new Rolling Stone and this review I’m writing now. If the goal was to seriously confuse and irritate the listener, kudos on that as well, mission accomplished. All that to say there are some great songs and song ideas here. However, even that is a mute point now though because you can’t buy it anymore even if you wanted to subject yourself to this 44 minute MP3.

Honestly Paul, how many shots of Goldschlager did you have to drink before you came up with this one?

Memo to Paul: Separate these songs (or at least put in separate tracking points), put out a CD or CD’s with full, mixed versions of all of them in real packaging with credits and track info and sell it on your site and on iTunes. I’ll buy it, and for full price. Forget the .49 cents for one long mash-up idea. Now you’ll have to excuse me because I have to go find something a bit more listenable and concise to cleanse my palate, like Tales From Topographic Oceans.

Petal Pusher

2008-08-18T00:34:00.002-04:00

Laurie Lindeen (aka Mrs. Westerberg) has here own blog called "Petal Pusher." Laurie used to be in the band Zuzu's Petals who released a best of this year titled "Kicking Our Own Asses - The Best Of Zuzu's Petals."

Paul Westerberg re-emerges

2008-08-18T00:28:00.003-04:00

(photo by: Kathy Perfetto) (City Pages) Of all of the interviews I have ever conducted with musicians in the Twin Cities, I would guess that at least two-thirds of my interviewees attribute some part of their history and upbringing to Paul Westerberg or the Replacements. No exaggeration—the influence Westerberg has on this city's music scene is palpable. Unlike our state's other musical icons, Bob Dylan and Prince, Westerberg and the 'Mats always stayed just far enough off the national radar to give them permanent underdog status, spawning a whole generation of new local musicians who have mastered the art of teetering between going down in flames and going down in infamy.

Because of this far-reaching influence, it is rare in my profession to hear anyone speak poorly of Westerberg. Which sets a strange stage for a conversation about his new album. Do people adore Westerberg because he continually puts out solid work, or do people love the idea of Westerberg so much that his body of work is granted critical leniency?

In the case of his new online-only release, 49:00, which is being referred to as an album but is actually one 43-minute-and-55-second track, Westerberg walks a thin line between playing and mixing his songs so recklessly that they are barely listenable and pushing the limits of his sound toward something groundbreaking and brilliant. Westerberg is good at walking this line—he practically invented this line—and it makes for an album that is simultaneously aggravating and exhilarating.

The songs themselves—or the segments of the track that could be divvied up as songs, given that nothing on 49:00 is separated or labeled—are, for the most part, straightforward and representative of Westerberg's songwriting style. It's the way the songs are mixed that is unusual. At times, songs fade in and out on top of one another so dramatically that it sounds like someone is fiddling with the dial on an old AM radio. At first the effect is jarring and somewhat off-putting, akin to listening to the Beatles' "Revolution 9" when you really just wanted to hear "Revolution." After the initial shock wears off, however, the cross-fading becomes entrancing and helps to bind the album into a cohesive unit.

In a digital age filled with iSingles and ringtones, Westerberg's approach is refreshing. He's made a concept album, an art form that is dying faster than the compact disc, and while many of the "songs" are strong enough to stand as individual tracks, they are most enjoyable when nestled between ramshackle guitar overlays and sonic protrusions.

Opener "Tell Me Who You Gonna Marry?" is up-tempo and catchy, and it sets the stage for an album about heartbreak, rejection, and feeling like a misfit. "With or Without Her" and "Something in My Life Is Missing" expound on that theme, and for the first third of the album the songs only run into one another at their beginnings and ends, as if a DJ is mixing together a set. By the time the album reaches the halfway mark, though, Westerberg gets more heavy-handed with the cross-fading and overlapping, leading to a climax of cut-and-paste covers of songs like "Rocket Man," "Born to Be Wild," and "I Think I Love You." You can practically picture Westerberg fiddling around with old equipment in his basement, recording snippets of songs on top of one another and laughing maniacally.

Possibly the most heart-wrenching ballad on the album, "Goodnight Sweet Prince," is also the most entrenched with layering and fading, which is typical of Westerberg's seemingly self-destructive nature: Just when he's about to lay all his cards on the table, he makes sure that his vulnerability is covered in a thick layer of fuzz.

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About the Chump(s) Who MIGHT Have Tried to Sue Paul Westerberg

2008-08-18T00:26:00.001-04:00

(Lynnsters Music Zone) And the Westerberg controversy just gets groovier and groovier.

I’m a couple of days late on this because (as noted on my other blog) I had to run out of town for a couple of days, but as you will recall, Paul Westerberg’s 49-cent full-length one-track album release 49:00 was mysteriously pulled from purchase availability from Amazon and TuneCore the other day.

There has been no official explanation as yet, though there has been much speculation that the album was pulled due to potential copyright infringement issues over the medley of songs on one part of 49:00 that included one-liners from gems such as Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild”, The Kinks’ “Dandy”, and many more, plus a little bit more than one line of The Partridge Family’s “I Think I Love You” (something Paul’s been performing live on stage for eons).

Well, now what has appeared but 5:05, which appears to maybe be a response to 49:00’s disappearance and, after listening to it, I’d say the speculation about copyright infringement issues is probably right since it includes wonderful lines such as“if you wanna sue me…” and “bring on the lawsuit…” ** I love it and I laughed my ass off (in fact I’m laughing right now as I type). There’s also an absolutely tongue-in-cheek snippet of, um, something else at the end that’s obviously there on purpose. And a few “f*** you”s at the end, hehe. I’m not trying to fuel any rumors further here (yes, I am) but copyright infringement threats would very much appear to be the mostly explanation for all this weirdness lately.

Well, good for Paul! I wish in my lifetime that artists worldwide would basically mutually agree to chill out over the whole copyright thing when it comes to lines and snippets. It’s one thing to take a whole song and do it, and it’s probably always going to be a necessity in rap and hip-hop, which so often is totally or near-totally based on other people’s music. If you have an ENTIRE album that’s woven around somebody else’s stuff, then yeah, okay.

But something like this, where one single solitary big deal of a line from your song was obviously beloved enough to be included in a few seconds of tape by such a legendary artist as Westerberg? You oughta be proud and pleased and thrilled, not calling your lawyers, you greedy little #$@&%(s). Whichever greedy little #$@*&%(s) you are, acting like a crying wimp on the playground or the sniveling little tattletale that everybody in school hates and makes fun of because you’re always crying and whining about something stupid. Yep, that’s pretty much about how I feel about the whole issue.

Most of you artists have stolen from each other at one time or another ANYWAY, whether outright or in passing. Why not just agree that there’s a limit and stop being big crybabies suing each other over every little measure or note?

Think of it this way, you litigious money-grubbing morons out there. Your song, which possibly few people care about anymore but old hippies or grandmothers (or artists with good taste like Westerberg), just got smacked with a whole bunch of cool it really no longer had before 49:00 was released, and possibly because of that one single solitary line being included in Westerberg’s song, your has-been music just got introduced to a whole sea of young music listeners who a month ago probably could have cared less who you were because of its inclusion on that MP3. *** (Okay, if Ray Davies is one of the potential litigants I’m going to regret saying “has-been music”, but most any of the rest - pfft.)

And really, of all the people to threaten to sue. Paul Westerberg is undoubtedly one of the most respected and adored artists of the last three decades, beloved by critics, fans, and other musicians alike.

I would hate, hate, hate to be the person(s) who may soon become known as “the chump(s) who sued Paul Westerberg”.

In any case, pick up your copy of 5:05 here, and hurry in case it disappears too - you can pay by Google Checkout or Paypal. Go, go, go!!! I know there’s an army of us out here breathing a sigh of relief that we grabbed 49:00 when we could, don’t wait to grab this one. You can buy 5:05 for either 99 cents or $5.05, whichever you choose - it’s the same track.

On another note, I sure could get used to this new Westerberg release every couple of weeks deal. Woohoo!

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Meet Me In The Meadow...

2008-08-18T00:16:00.004-04:00

Here's an old review of the Open Season soundtrack that I ran across. I think the Paul songs on this album tend to be forgotten, which is unfortunate, because in my opinion (and the reviewers) they are some of his more enjoyable tunes in awhile:

(Beat Patrol) Though not technically a “Paul Westerberg” album (due to there being other artists on it), it is about three-quarters of a new Westerberg album. The soundtrack to last year’s children’s movie of the same name, this is a strange place to find St. Paul and an even stranger place to find perhaps his two finest solo songs ever.

“Meet Me in the Meadow” and “Love You in the Fall” have got to be his two most infectious, rocking and memorable songs since the heyday of the late, beloved Replacements. Okay, let me state it another way: these songs are INSTANT CLASSICS! The kind you simply don’t find much these days. Just for these two songs alone, it’s worth the price of admission. They simply have everything we ever loved about Westerberg. Hooks, catchy, sing-along choruses, great lyrics. They sound like long-lost gems circa 1987. One listen to these songs and you feel like you have known them all your life (just like all of Paul’s best songs over the years). Why is it so hard to write songs like these anymore? Why can’t anyone write a decent melody these days? I don’t know. But then again, Paul just simply makes it look easier than it is. He himself hasn’t written these type of Replacement-like songs since…well, not since the glory days of the Replacements. He has made many wayward albums over the years, as well as many great ones. But here he does what he does better than any other songwriter on this earth, just to show us he simply can still do it. And it’s a joy to behold.

Maybe the reason why he returned to that sound is due to the fact of former ‘Mat bandmate Tommy Stinson helping out. Or perhaps he invited Stinson to contribute to the proceedings because of the fact that these songs have that Replacements-like sound…? And if it took writing songs for a children’s movie to bring out the best in Paul again, I’m all for him doing more soundtracks.

The next song “I Belong,” is another great song from the master - one of his slow, heartfelt, heart-on-sleeve weepers. The kind that the Goo Goo Dolls borrowed from him and took all the way to the bank. The album ends in an orchestrated version of the song by Pete Yorn, that he does very well and which I think may have been up for an award. I’m not positive though. Anyhow, I like both versions.

“Any Better Than This” is a happy-go-lucky song with an infectious melody. Hard not to smile while listening to it.

“Right to Arm Bears” is another rocking song, with Paul’s great use of wordplay (check out that title again). Another memorable, catchy chorus. If you aren’t humming at least one of these songs three weeks after hearing them, there is something wrong with you my friends. And why these songs weren’t Top 10 hits is just another crime against humanity. It still amazes me that Paul never reached the top of the charts (the way his imitators did). But I guess he is just resigned to his fate as a semi-famous cult artist. Maybe it’s all for the best.

“Good Day” is a ringer on the album. This heartfelt tribute to former Replacement Bob Stinson (in the wake of his unfortunate early death) is taken from his 1996 solo album Eventually. It sounds great no matter where it is though. This is one of the great happy-to-be-alive songs of our generation. And done by someone who usually does not write optimistic songs.

“All About Me” is another winner, as is “Whisper Me Luck,” which has a quieter folkier feel to it, highlighted by acoustic guitar and harmonica.

The album also includes Talking Heads’ 1986 hit “Wild Wild Life,” which probably doesn’t need to be on here (although I guess it was featured in the movie) but always sounds good no matter what.

The group Deathray (of which I admit I know nothing about) also have two songs on here. I’m not sure if they were written for the movie or when they were recorded but they are actually very enjoyable. They are in more of a punk-pop direction with some touches of electronica. Both quite memorable. I would like to hear more from this band in the future.

And that wraps it up. Definitely worth investigating if you are a lifelong Westerberg fan. If you lost touch with him over the years, now would be a good time to jump back on board. And if you have never heard the man, this is just as good a place as any to begin.

The master is back and not a moment too soon.

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Under The Influence: "Iron Man"

2008-08-12T22:21:00.002-04:00

If you took all of the times The Replacements tried to play this Black Sabbath classic, and added them together, you may have one complete performance. Probably not though...

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I'm In Trouble

2008-08-09T13:23:00.002-04:00

Stolen from The Post Punk Pogresive Pop Party (which you should really check out):

On this date in 1981, The Replacements released their debut single, "I'm In Trouble". It was backed by an acoustic song, "If Only You Were Lonely". The A side appeared on their debut album, Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash. The B side was a non-LP track. The Minneapolis, Minnesota contemporaries of The Suburbs and Husker Du were pure punk at the early stages of their career.

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Slim's still playing....

2008-08-06T23:57:00.006-04:00

Looks like Slim Dunlap's still rockin'. I found this in an interview with Nick Leet of High On Stress. OK, now who's going to head over and tape the show?

Burgo: Finally, want to pimp any of your upcoming shows?

Nick: September 5th at the Fine Line in Minneapolis we are having our CD release show for “Cop Light Parade.” We’ve got a great line-up. Romantica (Top 100 albums of 2007 - Paste Magazine), the Snaps (featuring members of the Flamin’ Ohs - Mn Rock Hall of Famers) and Slim Dunlap (former guitarist of the Replacements)

Complete Article Here

5:05 Lyrics

2008-08-06T22:25:00.003-04:00

Courtesy of rjhockey from a Guided By Voices board, here's a stab at the 5:05 lyrics. As he put it, " a definite "FUCK YOU" to the recording industry." And I'd have to agree:

voice over]
That was the voice of Adolf Hitler, the most ferocious dictator the
world has ever known. For 13 years he led a reign of terror. During
that period, his public appearances created a state of mass hypnosis
among his many followers. His speech over, the crowds would shout,
"Zeig Heil! Zeig Heil!"

And then break forth in joyous song - joyous song - break forth -
break forth ...

All your clients
Who all are giants
They sit by their supplies
And see so many flies

I ain't about the money

If you wanna sue me
Can't see through me
Bring on a lawsuit
I'll bring my swimsuit
All you girls and guys
And join the 5:05

5:05
5:05

(…church… places of worship… non-taxable…)

5:05
Hey

The loneliest place on earth

You act like they died
Just to be on your…
I better say a prayer to the Ramones

If they wanna sue me
Can't see through me
Bring on a lawsuit
I'll bring the swimsuit
All you girls and guys
Make some noise
And join the 5:05

5:05
5:05

Non-taxable
Tell me you decide

Hey!
Ho!

????? Ramones?
What they do there (???)
I really don't know
5:05
5:05

All you girls and guys
Join the 5:05
C'mon and fly the flag, high

If you wanna sue me
Can't see through me
The spider is surprised
Bring on a lawsuit
I'll bring my swimsuit
C'mon make some noise

5:05

(places of worship… non-taxable)

5:05
5:05
Fuck you!
5:05
5:05
Fuck you!

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5:05 Artwork

2008-08-06T13:59:00.002-04:00

New Color Me Impressed Mailing List

2008-08-06T12:11:00.003-04:00

CMI has had a web based discussion board for several years now. We thought it was time to start a mailing list discussion group. Unlike the web-based discussion, you can receive individual or digest mailings. This allows you to get the latest news first and have discussions with others who share a passion for The Replacements. It's also a great way to set up trades, find that show you've been looking for, arrange to hook up with other fans at shows, share your latest discovery, argue about music, etc. To join, just enter you're email address on the right and click 'join.' Hopefully this will be a success...

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5:05

2008-08-06T00:24:00.001-04:00

Anyone know the scoop on this one? The Amazon and TuneCore download links no longer work. Rumour has it it may be something to do with the cover songs on 49:00. So umm... keep your head on the ground and keep reaching for the stars....

Here's the link: 5:05

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The Inquisition: Glen Campbell

2008-08-05T17:36:00.003-04:00

Glenn covers the Mats on his new album:

(Spin) Music has always come easy for Glen Campbell -- his gift for ballads ("Wichita Lineman") and rodeo-bar staples ("Rhinestone Cowboy") made him the king of country pop, but it's away from the mic where life's been hard -- drug abuse, divorces, a much-ridiculed mug shot from a 2003 DUI arrest. Now he's releasing the strangest album of his 46-year career: Meet Glen Campbell, a collection of cover songs by Green Day, U2, and Foo Fighters, among others, and that finds the 72-year-old in a reflective mood. "I've made mistakes," he says. "But God forgives and so do I -- or I beat 'em up."

Why wait until now to call an album Meet Glen Campbell?

I don't know. The producer said, "Call it Meet Glen Campbell."

You cover songs by the Replacements and the Velvet Underground. Were you already familiar with their work?

A lot of the songs I'd heard before, and some of 'em I hadn't. [To his wife, Kim] Honey, how many songs did [producer Julian Raymond] send me? I mostly went with Julian's picks. The John Lennon song ["Grow Old With Me"] -- gosh. [Sings] Dee-doo-dee-doo. Wow!

Did you have reservations about covering any of these songs? Those bands weren't choirboys.

The songs stand on their own. [Country singer] Roger Miller once said, "It's my mouth, and I'll haul coal in it if I want to."

How did Cheap Trick's Robin Zander come to sing backup on the album?

Oh, I don't know. Who was it that you said? [To wife] Robin Zander? You know, I really don't know. You'd have to call Julian.

You've always kept the darker aspects of your life separate from your music. Why?

Why grieve and moan? Ever since I ran into Kim, the whole world turned around. She was an honest woman.

You had problems with dishonest women?

I had, in fact. But I'd been dishonest before, too, so who am I to gripe? I'd sat down and prayed for God to send me a wife. I just couldn't get along. I can tell you, lies will break up anything.

Your mug shot was everywhere a couple of years ago. What do you think of the way celebrities are covered now?

Some people don't like to forgive. That's not God's way. God don't lie and B.S. you. I tell you, I've been so happy since I married Kim. Well, maybe after I straightened her out a little. Ha ha!

What new music do you like?

It goes back to instrumental guitar playing, to Django Reinhardt -- the best in the world.

How about people making music now?

You ever heard any Django Reinhardt?

In the '60s, you filled in when Brian Wilson was unable to tour with the Beach Boys. What was wrong with him?

He was abused a little bit when he was a kid. He really had to toe the line with his old man. Every good writer I know has something in their past they have to get out. That's why guys write books; that's why I sing songs. Especially songs like "Rhinestone Cowboy."

What was in your past?

Well, drugs. I was not a very good person. [To wife] Was I, honey? Ha ha! But I'm real good now, right, honey? She said, "You're good now, honey."

How did music help you?

My dad always said, "Whip light or drive slow, pay cash or don't go." [Pauses] I don't know what that means. I think it means you have to toe the line and do it God's way.

Who do you think this album will appeal to?

I think it'll make some waves out there. The young kids have never heard these songs before. Then there's the people who have heard 'em. It covers a lot of territory.

You were on The Mike Douglas Show when a two-year-old Tiger Woods came on to putt against Bob Hope. Are you surprised to see how Tiger turned out?

No. His dad started him from scratch. That shows what you can do with a kid that's athletic and has a clean mind. [Publicist reminds him of his own tee time] Oh, I gotta go soon.

Here's hoping you shoot a low score today.

I hope I shoot a low score every day.

Welcome back Paul...

2008-08-05T17:32:00.002-04:00

(All My Best Friends Are Daleks) WTF?! Not only did Westy unexpectedly drop his first full album in 4 years w/out ANY warning while I was on vacation, but he did it as a single long home-recorded track with no song titles...selling it as an online only release at a price of $0.49...and, finally, at a length of 43 minutes rather than the expected 49 the title would lead you to believe. If that wasn't crazy enough, the plot thickens relative to it's availability...but more on that later.

This decade has served as a beautifully weird chapter in the book that is Paul Westerberg's post-Replacements career. The return to form in the bi-polar (but stellar) double album that was 'Stereo/Mono' in 2002...the follow up w/ the the equally as cool self-recorded/directed album/documentary 'Come Feel Me Tremble' AND a 'blues' album from alter-ego Grandpaboy via 'Dead Man Shake' in 2003...the more cohesive, polished (and, maybe, a little less interesting) 'Folker' in 2004...the wonderfully lush pop genius set forth on the 'Open Season' soundtrack and, finally, a mini-Mats reunion on the Rhino 'Best Of' in 2006. Whew!

Since then, a near career-threatening hand injury and a big batch of Twin Tone-era Mats reissues were all we had to go by and then, somewhere during the week of 21-July, he lobbed another curveball w/ '49:00'. The tapestry of partial tunes, melodic snippets and complete songs (some w/ legit segues and some roughly spliced together) was like a musical slap to the face after 'Open Season'...albeit one that makes me say 'thank you Paul, may I have another'.

Make no mistake though, this isn't just a cast-off collection of home demos...'49:00' is rife w/ enough excellent full-blown songs to anchor this album. At times, that makes the decision to glue them together, oft haphazardly, w/ some stranger sonic snippets, a little frustrating. That said, Westy has shown to be at his best when delivering music from the fringe and I feel just as excited about his music since 'Stereo/Mono'. I've seen comparisons in this album to Bob Pollard/Guided by Voices and while there is significant parity there...it's done w/ a pop rock sensibility Uncle Bob could only dream about. I highly recommend picking it up...if you can find it.

'Find it?!' you say? Well, if the irony of a computer illiterate old-schooler releasing such a rough-hewn, sometimes lo-fi album via such a hi-tech method wasn't delicious enough...as of this posting, Amazon is no longer making the album available via it's online store and has no info on it's further availability. I'm hard-pressed to think it won't see light of day somewhere else, but the other part of me hopes it's gone away mysteriously as it came...like the Great Pumpkin. Reality is, it's floating around already and will likely float around even more now that you don't even have the legal means to obtain it.

Worth tracking down though. In lieu of posting a sample that would actually be the full album, enjoy one of my favorite tracks from 'Stereo/Mono' to get you in the mood. Also...WELCOME BACK, PAUL!

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"A loose, shaggy beast"

2008-08-05T17:29:00.002-04:00

(AV Club) In the mid-'90s, Paul Westerberg was in danger of ruining his reputation as the songwriter for deeply influential alt-rockers The Replacements, thanks to a raft of bland solo material that showed little of the passion of classics like Let It Be or Tim. Thankfully, he's recaptured more than enough of the Mats' ragged glory by flying under the radar as Grandpaboy, and with his latest release under his own name, the lo-fi, self-recorded 49:00. Titled after Westerberg's age (he turns 49 in December), it's a loose, shaggy beast that throws together a collection of new songs, seemingly unfinished snippets, and a medley of classic-rock covers. (The latter is a single 44-minute mp3 with no official track listing or title, and it was released as an online-only 49-cent download less than a week after it was finished.)

Westerberg songs generally sound better when they're roughed up a little—the Mats' Don't Tell A Soul is proof enough that he doesn't shine when he's too polished—and 49:00 doesn't so much embrace that aesthetic as wrestle it to the ground in a big, joyous sprawl. Songs fade in and out, or smash into each other like cars at a demolition derby, cutting each other off and sometimes playing simultaneously. The jarring transitions, or lack thereof, might be frustrating for anyone expecting a traditional album, and it certainly ruins the mood of his heartbreaker about a father's death to have the subsequent rave-up burst through like Kool-Aid Man in a funeral home. But that's the way he wanted it— stating emphatically in all caps on his website that "ALL SOUNDS ARE INTENTIONAL AND VALID AS A WORK OF ART"—and it mostly works wonderfully, positioning Westerberg right where he ought to be, between Guided By Voices and the Stones' Let It Bleed.

A.V. Club Rating: B+

The former king of angst

2008-08-03T14:26:00.003-04:00

(Schenectady Daily Gazette) Angst. Now there’s a word I haven’t used in awhile.

There was a time when I used it quite frequently, because it so perfectly encapsulated my overall state of mind, but angst seldom comes out of my mouth these days, except in an ironic, self-deprecating way. Much like old flannel shirts, wanting to study philosophy and sleeping until 2 in the afternoon, I associate angst with being a clueless undergraduate. By the time I graduated from college and was forced to confront some unpleasant questions, such as what I was going to do with my life and where I might find a job, angst just didn’t seem cool. Like maybe I had other things to ponder besides my creeping sense of existential dread.

I guess you could say that I outgrew angst, or at least my preoccupation with it. Having watched friends struggle with serious mental health issues, I no longer romanticize depression and anxiety, as a lot of young writers do. And you know what? Being happy, I’ve discovered, is kind of fun. But there is one area of life where I still like a bit of angst, and that’s in my CD collection, which has evolved quite a bit since college but still reflects my college tastes. Back then, of course, my favorite bands were all about angst.

My favorite band of all time is The Replacements, the seminal 1980s garage-punk band that was notorious (I was going to say famous, but that might be stretching it) for getting drunk during live performances and trashing things. On my favorite Replacements album, “Let it Be,” snotty punk songs like “Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out” alternate with heartfelt rock and roll songs like “Unsatisfied,” where lead singer and songwriter Paul Westerberg sings, in a voice both mournful and defiant, “Look me in the eye/And tell me that I’m satisfied. ... I’m so, I’m so unsatisfied.” It’s juvenile and self-absorbed, but it’s a feeling almost anybody can relate to, at some point in their life. Every Replacements album contains lines like that, lines that are simultaneously sad and angry and confused, and it now occurs to me that in his heyday Westerberg may well have been the King of Angst.

The Replacements broke up in 1990, and Westerberg sobered up and began putting out solo albums filled with literate, well-crafted pop/rock tunes. None of these albums can hold a candle to the great work of The Replacements, and I think it’s because Westerberg stopped drinking and settled down. I’m happy for him, and he remains one of my heroes (my cat, Paul, is named after him), but I’ve stopped buying his solo albums, which are nice, but tend to sound the same and lack the crazy self-destructive energy of The Replacements.

Last week a friend e-mailed to ask if I was aware that Westerberg had released a new album, “49:00,” available for 49 cents as an MP3 download. I was not aware, and decided to download the album at once. I’ve listened to it several times. It’s good, ragged and raw, but it goes without saying that it’s not as good as The Replacements, despite lines that sound like vintage Replacements, such as “Everyone’s stupid in the classroom, even our friends.” I’m not sure what this means, but I relate to it, because it seems to sum up some basic truth about my waking life, much like this great lyric from an early Replacements song: “Everybody at your party/They don’t look depressed/And everybody’s dressin’ funny/Color me impressed.” This line comes to mind whenever I’m at a large social gathering and everyone starts to annoy me, which happens more often than I should probably admit.

There’s angst on “49:00,” but it comes sporadically, in bits and pieces. My theory is that Westerberg’s solo work would be a whole lot better if it contained more angst, and this album is no exception. In an e-mail, my friend Geoff summed up some of my feelings. “[‘49:00’] has some nice moments,” he wrote. “But mostly it shows how hard it is to be an aging rocker. His finest artistic moments were so, so young. ... I still think Paul is cool, but I feel bad for him.”

Unlike Geoff, I don’t feel bad for Paul. He seems to be in a better frame of mind these days. The fact is, angst doesn’t age well, which explains why many rock bands peak when they’re young, and why I’m always a little embarrassed whenever I think about my sophomore year of college. But angst is also timeless, because everyone feels alone and misunderstood sometimes. On those occasions, I just throw in an old Replacements CD.

With The Debut Of Their New Video, Against Me! Have Officially Transformed Into The Replacements

2008-08-03T13:59:00.003-04:00

(The Syndicate) We knew it was only a matter of time. We saw it coming from a mile away. AGAINST ME! just released their new video for “New Wave” and it takes more than a liberal amount of influence from THE REPLACEMENTS video for “Bastards Of Young”. A black and white single edit shot, no band, smoking, one camera angle, ending with destruction of said music.

We love the direction AM! has gone with this new album, loosening up the idea of what they consider punk and just writing good tunes. They’ve done a killer cover of “Bastards” in the past so it was only a matter of time they actually mimicked it’s video. With any luck they will turn a new generation of people onto the ‘Mats catalog.

Against Me "New Wave"

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liveDaily on 49:00

2008-07-31T22:35:00.003-04:00

Paul Westerberg's immediate post-Replacements output always felt a bit too mannered compared to his previous unhinged and slightly drunken output with his Minneapolis brothers. From everybody's losers, Westerberg sprung well-heeled into a second career as a slick and popular purveyor of Hollywood soundtrack music.

Eventually Westerberg lost his niche, got dropped by his label and returned to a semblance of his old sound (or at least aesthetics), but many fans stopped dropping by, and his material began to acquire a sheen of indifference that not even an impending and overdue Replacements revival could overcome. Then Paul discovered the Internet...

Complete Article Here

Enter 49:00

2008-07-31T22:32:00.001-04:00

(Aquarium Drukard) Paul Westerberg’s post-Replacements career has been an interesting one and listeners have dithered back and forth on the merits of each solo release, no two coming to a consensus on any one of them. But it was as universal a thought as possible that he had stumbled onto something good when the twin Stereo/Mono albums were released back in 2002. There was the whole pseudo-mystery about whether it was actually Westerberg, Tommy Stinson and Chris Mars playing pseudonymously on the record (it wasn’t - it was nothing but Westerberg) because of the ramshackle playing style and how, well, fun especially the Mono record sounded. Westerberg’s records had become increasingly melancholic and the whimsy of the ‘Mats seemed gone. But that’s maturing. Or so they say.

The follow ups to Stereo/Mono, the subsequent Grandpaboy album and two Westerberg solo albums, were in the same vein, but just not as engaging. Enter 49:00. Coming out of the blue, and on the heels of a protracted break from music after a screwdriver/candle wax/guitar hand accident, it was a bit unexpected. It also has a couple of gimmicks: It’s only available online and for 49 cents; it is sold as one, forty-three minutes and fifty-five second long mp3. Songs fade out as others fade in - almost like a radio station - and songs even land on top of each other, sometimes completely cutting another off, or even coming in alongside. You also don’t have the benefit of, you know, song titles, so you’re left to call them by the most oft repeated phrase. So the two questions here are: a) does all that one-track nonsense detract from the songs and b) how are the songs?

To answer the latter first, they’re great. Westerberg sounds right on the money with the scrappy, infectious energy that has informed the best of his solo material. Songs range from the sentimental rockers that Westerberg once cranked out like clockwork (“Who You Gonna Marry,” “Something In My Life is Missing”), the light-hearted and whimsical (“Visitor’s Day,” “I’m Clean”) and even a song that comes close to rivaling the most beautiful song Westerberg has written post-Replacements, “Lush and Green.” “Goodnight, Sweet Prince” is the Westerberg oeuvre in a nutshell - a gorgeous, mildly somber and heart-wrenching song that gets its overall effect dampened/amplified (depending on your perspective) by something else. In this case, no fewer than two songs come in along side the song at various points of time, giving us dueling Westerbergs for patches of the song’s telling of the death of Westerberg’s father.

So what about all the interruptions, incomplete songs, song snippets and general sloppiness going on here? The whole thing ends up sounding like a collision of old and new school - like a set of iTunes mixes that are filtered through an FM radio station being played in a car stereo barreling across several state borders, occasionally catching that elusive all-night station that sounds like heaven. Where it is slightly frustrating that some really good songs are here in incomplete form, the sheer amount of really great material makes you forget about it - you begin to understand the songs as complete just the way they are. Even the covers medley that skates through towards the end, sounding like a game of “Name That Tune,” is endearing in its indirect recall of the infamous Shit Hits the Fans performance where the Replacements couldn’t manage to get through more than about a minute of any cover song they attempted.

As surprising and unexpected as the delivery method is, just as surprising and unexpected is how good Westerberg sounds across all nearly forty-four minutes. Replacements fans who had given up on Paul, Paul fans who had given up on Paul, rock and roll fans who had given up on rock and roll - 49:00 is for you.

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Trust Paul...

2008-07-31T22:29:00.001-04:00

(Eye Weekly) Trust Paul Westerberg to create the internet’s first equivalent of a music store bargain bin. His first record since 2004’s dreary Folker, 49:00 is only available as a digital download from Amazon and Tunecore, for the princely price of 49 cents. Featuring a dozen-or-so tunes mashed up together into a single track — songs stop and start, and cross speaker channels randomly — it’s probably Westerberg’s most lo-fi release since The Replacements’ cassette-only 1985 live album, The Shit Hits the Fans. The quality of the actual songs is pretty questionable — like a lot of the singer’s recent output, every tune sounds like a variation on “Waitress in the Sky” or “Knockin’ On Mine” — but it’s certainly Westerberg’s most fun record in a long while. Sure, it’s impossible to tell whether 49:00 is a gift or a goof-off, a present or a piss-take — but when it’s this enjoyable, why worry? 4/5 Stars

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Rock Band 2 Wish List

2008-07-31T21:29:00.004-04:00

Here's a pretty good article I thought was worth passing on:

(IGN) It's hard to pinpoint why The Replacements are the coolest band in the history of the Earth, but there are lots of little bits of data that can lead you to that conclusion.

Incendiary live shows featuring drunken sets full of cover songs chosen specifically to antagonize the peeves of whoever decided to show up in the audience.

Albums that featured apologies in mid-track and acknowledgments that they'd stolen the lyrics from "some guy who'll never hear this".

Songs consisting entirely of quotations from the local personal ads. Sarcastic shout-outs to fellow scene heroes in their song titles. Videos produced for MTV consisting solely of a boombox playing their song. Hell, songs about how much they hated making videos for MTV. The list goes on and on and on.

The Replacements were clever and sardonic without being ironic, principled without being naive, and honest and emotional without being whiny. Although Rites of Spring gets credit for being the first "emo" band, The Replacements have a place in that discussion too -- there's a reason lead singer Paul Westerberg's solo work ended up on emo mainstay Vagrant Records in the early part of this decade.

What's even more amazing is that, like human beings, The Replacements grew up. Their music evolved with age, with thrashing melodies evolving into evocative, gorgeous pop songs through the snarl of Westerberg turning into a voice of a legitimate singer/songwriter. For a janitor who only got into the band because he convinced the old singer the band didn't like him, Westerberg became arguably the most talented songwriter of the mid-to-late eighties.

Above all, though, his songs remained fun, which is why a wishlist for Rock Band 2 is full of tracks that should inspire you to the same drunken revelry and yelping that the band went through night after night, year after year. As usual, we start chronologically with the band's first album.

I Hate Music
A four second blown intro gives way to the most simple 4/4 punk song Westerberg wrote: "I hate music/Sometimes I don't/I hate music/It's got too many notes". Tommy Stinson's bassline drives the song through its two-minute carnage, with steady, fast guitar and a drum part that leaves plenty of opportunities for theatrics.

I'm In Trouble
Here, it's the guitar of Tommy Stinson's brother Bob playing mini-solos in each bridge that seemingly make use of every available second of space possible. Westerberg's vocals are pushed to the forefront in the band's first single, and shows off his affinity for hooks with his first tiny one at the end of the song's line-long chorus, "You're in love/I'm in trouble".

Kids Don't Follow
Any song that starts with the police breaking up your gig by saying "The party is over" is bound to be brilliant, and the band doesn't make anyone think otherwise. The Stinson brothers contribute their most inspired work to the band's first big underground song, with Bob's desperate guitar line sounding like every guitar part Alkaline Trio wish they wrote. At 2:50, it's the longest track on this eight-song, 15-minute EP. The Replacements considered Stink their attempt at a hardcore punk EP, but this showed that the band had far too much melody to be constrained in the genre's trappings.

Color Me Impressed
Just like Jawbreaker, it's impossible to listen to The 'Mats and not hear the literally thousands of bands who've copped their style, knowingly or not. Here, they write the perfect pop-punk song years before the genre existed, but like Jawbreaker, instead of merely repeating activities or lamenting, they raise their own lives to higher art. "Put the party on the mirror/Oh s**t, pass the bill to Chris/Intoxicated lover ending our French kiss/Can you stand me on my feet?"

Lovelines
This is the sort of song that indie bands could put together in the eighties when there wasn't a suffocating blogosphere waiting to denigrate every last decision they made; an absurd, goofy track stuck on the second side of their LP. Westerberg reads each personal about-to-laugh, but comes off as enjoying the whole silly enterprise, not as condescending or ironic, occasionally adding random vocal flourishes and strange syncopation. Besides, where else in Rock Band could you sing "Attract some women/Scientific formulated spray/The conductive male hor-mones/Work/Turn the lights off/Oh baby let's turn a page"?

I Will Dare
The first song on the first great Replacements album is basically the band's calling card--we'll play anything, anywhere, with anyone, piss them off, and still get home alive. The song's guitar solo comes courtesy of Peter Buck of R.E.M., but the song is the first sign that the band had grown up--the melody's slower, but it allows Westerberg's brilliant verses to shine through: "How young are you?/How old am I?/Let's count the rings around my eyes/How smart are you?/How dumb am I?/Don't count on any of my advice".

Favorite Thing
Westerberg's incoherent yelp leads to a more vintage Stinson guitar line on the album's next track, but the driving line is impossibly catchy and its staccato chorus ("Yeah, I know, I look like hell/I smoke and I drink and I'm feeling swell/Yeah, I hear you think it's weird/But I don't give a single s**t") is topped only by its downright gorgeous, bass-only bridge, condensed guitar solo, and shambling outro.

Seen Your Video
The band's anti-MTV screed is all instruments for its first two minutes, but a brilliantly simple guitar solo leads into Westerberg's simple message: "We don't want to know/your phony rock and roll". In Starship's hands, such a lyric would be appalling; in Westerberg's, it's a war cry.

Hold My Life
Westerberg builds his bridges here strictly out of "Razzle dazzles", and it's a credit to him that he keeps it together and makes a brilliant, anthemic piece of pop music. His vocals have gone from being screams in the background to the stablest parts of each song, while the tics and effects he's learned come into play as he enters into each chorus. It's actually very reminiscent of Michael Stipe if anyone. Tommy Stinson's bass line provides the song with its memorable, jumpy melody.

Bastards Of Young
The song that got the band a lifetime ban from Saturday Night Live--yes, it seems impossible to think they were actually on SNL--is perhaps the best blend of Replacements old and new. Westerberg starts the song off with a yell at the top of his lungs that is going to be the most entertaining part of any Rock Band song ever, a yelp that Tim Armstrong has tried to put down on record approximately 1000 times without success. It doesn't help when Westerberg's first verse blows away a decade of Rancid lyrics: "God, what a mess/On the ladder of success/Where you take one step and miss the whole first rung/Dreams unfulfilled/Graduate unskilled/It beats picking cotton and waiting to be forgotten".

I.O.U.
The 'Mats straddled a lot of genres, and one of those genres was, unlike almost any other band of their era, classic rock. I.O.U. is just a straight-up, balls-to-the-wall rock song that doesn't bear any resemblance to punk, just hook after hook with an astoundingly catchy riff to pick it all up, and Westerberg spinning his greatest opening verse: "Get me out of this stinkin' fresh air/90 days in the electric chair/Step right up, son/Gonna show you something, never ain't ever been done/You're all f***ed".

Alex Chilton
This song's already confirmed for Rock Band 2, but we just wanted to add it so we could express how fantastic that news is. Likely chosen for RB2 because of its lack of vulgarity, this song's actually carried by a drum and percussion line that belies the style of its subject, the famed singer of Big Star.

Can't Hardly Wait
Yes, the crappy Jennifer Love Hewitt movie takes its name from this song, which plays during the flick's closing credits. The song's a star vehicle for Westerberg, who writes in a voice that goes from downright funny ("Jesus rides besides me/He never buys any smokes/Hurry up, ain't you had enough of this stuff/ashtray floors, dirty clothes, and filthy jokes...") to gorgeous ("Lights that flash in the evening/Through a hole in the drapes/I'll be home when I'm sleeping/I can't hardly wait...") in the course of seconds. One of the ultimate mixtape songs, but the better version to put on Rock Band 2 is the demo version, which swaps out the horns and synths of the studio version for more guitar, albeit with worse lyrics.

I'll Be You
The sound of the band permanently changed with the departure of Bob Stinson, and the band here is unrecognizable relative to the one that appears at the beginning of this list. It's not a change for the better, but there's still some excellent music to be had, and "I'll Be You" is the best example of that, a guitar crunch covering Westerberg's now-expected brilliance: "If It's just a game/Then I'll break down just in case/Hurry up, we're running our last race".

Beer For Breakfast
A B-side collected for a 1997 collection, the song got more recognition through a note-for-note cover from avowed Replacements fans The Get Up Kids on their own "Eudora" B-side compilation, even down to attempting to get the drums to sound exactly the same. It invents arguably our favorite word of all-time, and one that sums up the Replacements as a whole: "Halle-f****in-llujah!"

Playback...

2008-07-31T21:24:00.003-04:00

(San Antonio Current) It’s one of the great caricatures of crotchety old people that they’re always lamenting the effects of inflation.

In our ageist imaginations, they’ll whine about the good old days, when they used to be able to get into a movie theater for a nickel, have a three-course meal for a dime, or get a rim job for a quarter.

But no one from the 78-rpm era could claim that a penny would buy them a minute of recorded music. Even Rudy Vallee records couldn’t have been that cheap.

Paul Westerberg’s latest release, however, is that cheap. Titled 49, the collection might be the biggest format-buster of our digital, format-busting age. It’s a 44-minute album in which all the songs flow, bleed, bump into, and, at times, collide with one another. Westerberg chose to release the set not as an album, but as a single 44-minute mp3, without any divisions, song titles, or anything else to break up the listening process for our deficient attention spans.

Westerberg released 49 through TuneCore, a digital-music delivery service, and since TuneCore charges artists only $9.99 a year per track (and 49 is technically only one track), Westerberg could simultaneously be looking at the lowest sales price and the greatest profit margin in the history of the music industry. Let’s assume that 40,000 people plunk down their Kennedy half-dollars for this album, a pretty realistic estimate, given the small investment that’s required. That would bring Westerberg nearly $20,000, with a profit margin of nearly $2,000 to 1.

This makes so much sense that it’s a wonder more people aren’t doing it. But, of course, more people will be doing it very soon.

The part that I like best about Westerberg’s new release is the instant-music component. He reportedly finished the album on a Monday, got it to his manager on a Tuesday, and had it selling online on Saturday. Until technology enables us to plug right into an artist’s brain and dissect his or her dreams in real time, this is about as good as it gets.

And what about the music? Westerberg issued 49 with the following warning: “Do not listen while operating a motor vehicle. This product is not faulty — all sounds are valid and intentional as a work of art.”

He’s not kidding. While individual tracks (let’s pretend they have titles and call them “Who You Gonna Marry” and “Everyone’s Stupid”) are pleasant in the rough-hewn, one-man-band style of Mono/Stereo, some tunes pop in and out before you can decipher them, and the effect can be like having a hyperactive 4-year-old rapidly flipping radio stations, only to find that Paul Westerberg songs are on every station.

The big 14-car pileup happens near the end, when a bunch of covers, including The Kinks’ “Dandy,” Alice Cooper’s “18,” Elton John’s “Rocket Man,” and the Partridge Family’s “I Think I Love You” all meet at the same intersection.

Such moments won’t fly for many listeners. But at 49 cents a pop, it’s hard to imagine that anyone will want his or her money back.

"There’s not much that Minnesota can brag about..."

2008-07-30T14:15:00.002-04:00

(Consequence Of Sound) This might piss off a few Mid-westerners, but consider this an apology. There’s not much that Minnesota can brag about. It’s cold, it’s tucked away above two other boring states, and there’s a lack of diversity there. When your demographics are 87% White, it’s hard to consider yourself culturally significant. On a positive note, they’re strong environmentalists, their summers are pretty, and they happened to birth one of the greatest American acts of the past thirty years, The Replacements. More specifically, Minnesota is responsible for Paul Westerberg.

Following the ‘Mats last album, All Shook Down (1990), which is moreover a Westerberg solo outing, the former frontman went off on his own. It took three years, and a soundtrack to boot (1992’s Singles), but Westerberg found his footing in 1993’s 14 Songs. It wasn’t The Replacements, but those that had stuck around longenough to survive through All Shook Down, would have seen hints of this new sound in songs “Nobody”, “Merry Go Round”, or “Someone Take The Wheel.” Despite being loaded with musicians, including appearances from former members of Georgia Satellites and Faces, the album still retained a raw sensibility. It was clear that Westerberg was running ahead, without turning around. It’s only now that he seems to be all nostalgic, returning to such form, and on the awkward release of 49:00.

Released via his official site (well, Amazon.com, actually) for a whopping .45 cents, 49:00 is actually titled 49:00 minutes of your time life. Maybe it’s a joke, but the album is just under 44 minutes, and it’s one constant, moving track. In other words, there are no song titles, some of the songs cut out short, and there are even covers here. It almost sounds as if one recorded it off a warped radio station, which had been sabotaged by ol’ Westie himself. Though this works more as an edge, paralleling the raw simplicity in Westerberg’s new material. It’s a step above listening to demos, which by all means is exciting.

By the first song, loosely titled “Who You Gonna Marry?”, its clear the folk mentality seen in 2004’s Folker (and oddly enough in 2006’s Open Season soundtrack) is taking backseat. This is Westerberg in old form, complete with a driving acoustic, a simple beat, and catchy riffage. He adds some pop too, with a sing-a-long chorus (”Terry, who you gonna marry?”), and some of that 90’s flair in the bridge. Most important is that the story is relating, which shouldn’t be a surprise, considering it’s why the man has legions of fans to this day. “Kentucky Risin’” owes itself to the last few records, sounding more like a b-side than anything. While the three minute opus, “Something in My Life Is Missing”, might give reason to the entire project. With a sprawling chorus, a jangly chord progression, and crooning vocals, its as if Westerberg has no problem hitting the stony barrier that conditions the listener’s soul. Hell, that might explain such a lyric, “He writes like a Mid-western Shakespeare/in a tiny perfect hand.” Self aggrandizing much? Oh, well let it go.

“Visitor’s Day” clocks in next, which is a nice if not forgettable “bluesgrass” number, extending its stay a tad too long. Then there’s lil’ snippets of songs, sounding like a few clicks of the radio dial, splicing together what must have been unused demos. It’s a clever segue into other songs and its the filter throughout the album. After all this madness, “Devil Raised A Good Boy” (loosely titled, mind you) shatters through, complete with electric guitars, unnerving solos, and windmill chord work. It’s the closest thing yet to a reunion of his former band, only of sound and not of members. The next legible song is “Everyone’s Stupid” which is bouncy but a bit elementary, though that’s the point… look at the song title.

The soft ballad, “Goodnight, Sweet Prince”, climbs and climbs. It sounds more like a rough recording than an actual finished song. This is intriguing, however, considering ballads of this type are typically polished and reworked ten fold. There are some odd notes vocally, specifically in the sustained keys, but overall Westerberg’s vocals come out unscathed. “Outta My System” is clean fun; an easy, predictable song that should be second nature to the songwriter at this point.

Towards the end, things start dwindling down. “C’mon Be My Darling” is one of the few glossy songs, with a few hooks both instrumentally and vocally. One might consider this a case of objective songwriting too, a Mad Libs if you will, where the listener can really adjust it to their own liking. When Westerberg reels out lyrics, “It ain’t mine/pair of help me eyes/come on be my darlin’”, it’s anyone’s guess to who he’s describing, but isn’t that the fun of it all?

Aside from a short medley of covers, ranging from The Beatles to Elton John, Simon & Garfunkel to Alice Cooper, there isn’t much else here. A few one minute songs show some exciting things that happened in the studio, with the closing track dissolving into a madness of screaming and distortion. To summarize, it all goes to hell.

For an artist who had put out release after release, its good to see some experimentation. 49:00 is a refreshing, new outlook for the Minnesota native. It shows he’s working things out, perhaps feeling the years. Maybe he is, considering his December birthday is just around the corner (Is it coincidental that he turns 49?). There’s nothing wrong with that, some of an artist’s best work comes during this time. There’s usually a bittersweet moment of nostalgia, and here it shows, working more like a scrapbook, with trimmings here and there and the seams showing. There’s honesty in that and while one long, running track is the least accessible method in music these days, perhaps that’s a good thing. We’re cultured in singles, spoiled with one trick wonders, and always hungry for the next. This begs for your time.

And just forty-four minutes.

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Five band reunions we'd like to see

2008-07-28T16:52:00.006-04:00

I'm a fan of all of these bands, but I gotta admit, I DO NOT want to see Paul and Tommy tour as The Replacements. The expectations would be HUGE and there is no way they could live up to it. The only thing it would do is hurt their legacy. Now "The Paul And Tommy Show" is something I would look forward to though!

(AZ Central) Now that Stone Temple Pilots have hit the alternative-rock reunion trail, it may be time to think about some bands we'd really like to see cash in before the banks go under.

The Replacements

Sure, Bob Stinson's dead, but he was gone by Pleased To Meet Me. And if Chris Mars doesn't want to do it, well, that's bound to make it seem a little less legitimate, but I'm sure any number of amazing drummers in the prime of life would walk - or even run -- on nails to get there (after which their feet would obviously need some time to heal). The point is, both Paul Westerberg and Tommy Stinson are ready and willing to give it a whirl, in which case I say "Bring it on." Their legacy looms larger now than ever, still inspiring every scuffed-up post-punk rock and roll band worth its weight in empty liquor bottles and copies of Exile on Main Street, either directly or filtered through people like Guided By Voices. They could even get around those nagging questions of legitimacy (especially if Mars says no) by peppering the set with new material in the spirit of their old material and drinking just enough to sprinkle in some ridiculous covers of stupid old radio songs they don't know how to play (I'm not suggesting they tackle You Light Up My Life, but trust me, I've had worse ideas).

Husker Du

While we're on the subject of great Minneapolis bands that fooled us into thinking they were hardcore for a year or two then turned around and hit us with some of the '80s most sensitive thinking-person's punk and roll, a Husker Du reunion could be pretty awesome too. Of course, Bob Mould has said he'll never do it and unlike, say, the Replacements, there's no chance these guys will be inducted to the Hall of Fame before they're dead, so no reunion there. But think about it. If their sound is still vital enough to inspire the glorious knockoff that kicks off the Hold Steady album, wouldn't it be great to hear that sound played live again by the people who actually pioneered it in the glory days of Zen Arcade and New Day Rising? They could come up with some new songs, too? That lead-off track on Bob Mould's latest album could have been a Husker Du song if he hadn't tried so hard to "get on with his life" and "challenge himself as an artist."

Pavement

Sure, we still have Stephen Malkmus, whose work since leaving Pavement makes it hard to miss the good old days. And Preston Industry, Scott Kannberg's band, is really good. But don't you miss the good old days? I mean, come on. You're eight years older than you were the summer Malkmus called Kannberg (also known as Spiral Stairs) to bitch that Pavement's website made it look like they were still a band when he'd already moved on in his own mind without bothering to tell the other members of the band. Nice guy. And yet, Kannberg is perfectly willing to try his luck again, suggesting in at least two publications that the band could get together in 2009 to honor the 20th anniversary of them getting together in the first place. As for Malkmus, he told Entertainment Weekly earlier this year he might sign off on "something small in 10 years like the Zeppelin thing," then added, "Obviously, the arena would be smaller than theirs, though." See that? His slacker wit is primed to write another Pavement album. All he needs now is a big old bag of weed.

Talking Heads

David Byrne is clearly not above nostalgia tours. He's promising "The Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno" at the Orpheum this fall, including tracks from Fear of Music and Remain in Light, his old band's finest hours. Meanwhile, artists like Vampire Weekend are taking the sound those albums pioneered to a new generation of indie fans. So why not share a little of that glory with the other members of the band on which his legacy will ultimately come to rest? Those other members may have dug their own grave when made an album called No Talking, Just Head as the Heads in 1996. And Tina Weymouth did tell Glasgow's Sunday Herald that Byrne was "a man incapable of returning friendship." So they'd clearly have some issues to resolve. But if he's doing songs from Fear of Music and Remain In Light, he may not be as many miles apart from his old friends on musical terms as he'd have you believe. If there's a heart inside that giant suit of his, he'd take one for the team. Van Halen did it. And there's no way he hates Tina Weymouth more than those guys hate each other.

Public Image Ltd.

John Lydon's no stranger to playing on public nostalgia, having reunited with his other, more infamous band any number of times since dusting off his legendary Johnny Rotten shtick in 1996, when the Sex Pistols staged the coyly titled Filthy Lucre Tour. So why not give his other band a moment in the sun? They couldn't match the scandal but their legacy is every bit as relevant today as post-punk, even post-rock pioneers whose awe-inspiring debut single, Public Image, is the only song a kid would need to study to become The Edge. If they did get back together, though, they'd need to do it right and get the Public Image lineup back together. Or at least bring in guitarist Keith Levene and bassist Jah Wobble, whose contributions to the post-apocalyptic tension of those early records helped make Rotten's old band sound like bubblegum. The most abrasive bubblegum you've ever chewed, perhaps, but clearly not as revolutionary as his second act.

Rockin’ mothers: Judy Davids and Laurie Lindeen (Mrs. Westerberg)

2008-07-28T16:47:00.002-04:00

(Detroit Metromix) Rockers become moms and moms (occasionally) become rockers. It's the circle of life with the amps turned up, turned down and then turned WAY up again.

So reader be advised -- there is a growing sub-genre of writing making its way onto book shelves devoted to pop music. Books about hitting the road, hitting the right chord, hitting the "big time", and hitting on the right name for the newborn.

Two women who took that same road at different times in their lives have each penned delightful and revealing memoirs. These grrrllls (woommmmyn?) are Judy Davids of The Mydols and Laurie Lindeen, former vocalist and lead guitarist for Zuzu's Petals. They will be sharing the spotlight and the sound equipment at a joint appearance/signing at Royal Oak's Barnes & Noble Sunday, July 27.

Metromix caught up with them recently and asked a few questions on the meaning of it all.

Aren't you afraid that other mamas will follow your lead and take to the wild and uncertain road of rock 'n' roll?
(Judy Davids, author of “Rock Star Mommy”): Truthfully - yes! The Mydols' goal was never to be the greatest band in the world or even just the best girl band in Detroit. Instead we created a little niche to call our own. As a result we are, without doubt, considered one of the top five "mom" bands in the whole country. Of course, there are only about five groups out there that want to call themselves "mom bands", and I like it that way.

Would the Gore Gore Girls sound better if just one of them were lactating?
Better? Maybe not. But perhaps if it happened, they'd consider covering some of our material like "One More Nail in the Coffin of Our Sex Life" or "Take Out the Trash." We'd be honored.

What was the funniest "local" reaction to your book?
The placement of my book in stores is kind of odd. My publisher recommended it go in the memoir section. Instead book stores have opted to shelf it in the music section. I got an email that read: "I found your book between a memoir by the singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and a new book of photographs of the earliest (and greatest/sleaziest) incarnation of Guns ‘N Roses. I never thought I would know anyone brushing literary shoulders with weirdo dudes like that."

Motherhood and rock 'n' roll - how do they complement each other?
(Laurie Lindeen, author of “Petal Pusher, A Rock and Roll Cinderella Story”): Judy Davids and I are on opposite trajectories; she was a mom turned rocker, I was a rocker turned mom. I was lucky to meet her at SXSW this year, and so fortunate to have her for a friend… she's beyond amazing!

With Zuzu's Petals road schedule, if I were to have a baby, and I really wanted to have a baby -- I pity any man in the line of fire when the biological alarm goes off because it's a tunnel vision "Must Have!" when it hits -- but it would've had to be conceived in the back of the van which is unsavory for a variety of reasons...(and I was tired and fried and unhappy).

I'm currently writing a novel tentatively titled "Suburban Birds" that is based on the often ungraceful adjustment from the van to a new house -- sort of a modern day suburban “My Fair Lady” -- with lots of imaginative leaps sewn in for fun. I was so careful with the memoir form and need to cut loose).

My background of being a traveling musician suited me well when I became a mom; I had no problem getting up and going back down at all hours of the day and night, and not showering, etc. I had no problem just being, and saving up my energy for the next time I was "on." And luckily, I'm proving to be well-suited for motherhood; it comes naturally, I am amazed by it, I'm a better person...just lots of good things. I met my ugliest self a little too regularly in the band, and I've recovered my best self through motherhood (sorry to be such a sap). That and I draw tremendous satisfaction in trying to amass a book length manuscript.

You went for "nesting." Your husband (Paul Westerberg, formerly of The Replacements) went for a more independent path in the music business. Who had a rougher time?
Paul is first and foremost an artist, a songwriter completely devoted to his art. He'll always be independent with and through his art and we have a "no interfere/ no edit each other’s art" clause since it's hard enough to generate new stuff. He's much much more of a homebody than I am, and I'm a lot more social than he is. Both of us are completely devoted parents, and otherwise happy to be left the Hell alone to write, so that works out well...and we're both probably not the easiest to live with...

What advice would you give a female rocker today?
My advice for female rockers today is to start young while you have tons of drive and energy and fire and trust your gut and be wary of smooth-talkers who say everything you've ever dreamed of hearing, and always wash your hands. Oh, and figure out how to handle the competition that is natural with being in any band; it should be the thing that makes y'all strive to be better together and not the thing that tears you apart. And avoid drama whenever possible.

Pitchfork Reviews 49:00

2008-07-28T16:42:00.001-04:00

(Pitchfork) On December 31, Paul Westerberg will turn 49. Now, 49's not the most famous or familiar of birthday milestones, but for a guy who once embodied the frustrations and reckless follies of youth, turning almost 50 may be milestone enough. It means Westerberg's officially old, for whatever that's worth, more likely closer to the end than to the beginning, though given Westerberg's life and career, the man may yet shock us all.

Certainly 49:00, Westerberg's first album in four years, is a big surprise in and of itself. Even in this age of internet giveaways and pay-what-you-want schemes, it came as a minor bombshell when Westerberg, with no warning, dropped this home-recorded album-- which arrives as just a single long track with no song titles-- selling it for the nice stunt price of $0.49. That's a little bit more than a penny a second (the album runs a perverse 43 minutes rather than the expected 49), which may very well be what Westerberg spent to create it.

The guy felt the need to get something out of his system-- and get it out fast, free from the usual fanfare, and, most importantly, free from any expectations. 49:00 feels not unlike something Westerberg might have stuck on a cassette and mailed to his best friends in lieu of a Christmas card. Say what you will about Trent Reznor's generosity, The Slip freebie still felt delivered on his rigid terms. The no-frills 49:00, on the other hand, feels downright liberated, absolutely no strings attached, other than the ones connecting Westerberg to his past. If there's anything to be learned from the Replacements' various ups and downs, it's that loose and sloppy, two ways to describe the bash and pop of 49:00, is sometimes the right approach.

Songs fade into one another like one weak radio signal on a road trip supplanted by the next as the car crosses some invisible border. Two tracks occasionally play simultaneously. Snippets of a dozen cover songs-- Beatles, David Bowie, Alice Cooper, the Partridge Family-- are squeezed into the span of a few minutes. Lyrics fade in and out of the mix, sometimes clearly, sometimes not. "I'm going to stick around and spoil your morning." "It wouldn't hurt to see your grandma every now and again." "Everyone's stupid in our classroom, even our friends." "Whether you're famous or nameless, you never go dancing in the street." "Goodnight, sweet prince." And of course: "I gotta get it outta my system!"

Best of all, the melodies and sentiments Westerberg has always been able to spin out, seemingly at will, are here in full force, sometimes fragmented, sometimes implied, sometimes more fully formed, but rarely less than heartfelt. And really, that is and always has been Westerberg's greatest gift: To go beyond the context and simply connect, however casually. On 49:00, cobwebs or no, that uncanny ability has rarely been clearer as he channels the spirit of the Stones or Faces, not to mention the Replacements, or other classic rock touchstones, though his own unique spectrum.

That something so overtly slapdash could still come off so oddly sincere is no small part of the album's appeal (see also: prime Guided By Voices). In fact, if 49:00 turns out to be the rock equivalent of a transitional hip-hop mixtape, and some of these by turns brilliant and baffling bits and pieces end up polished and expanded on a proper album, there'll still be a place for 49:00. It's music with no pretense, no purpose, no baggage, proof that when it comes to labors of love, the latter is a much more important ingredient than the former.

Under The Influence: "I Think I Love You"

2008-07-25T18:26:00.001-04:00

Only seems fitting ...

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Westerberg, Fully Loaded

2008-07-25T18:20:00.003-04:00

(Star Tribune) Sounds like Paul Westerberg has been hanging out in the basement again. Which means, thankfully, he finally went back to work.

After another four-year hiatus partially brought on by a screwdriver-to-hand injury two years ago, the Replacements frontman quietly issued a new album this past weekend. He's not really billing it as an album, though. Instead, it's being sold as a single-track download for 49 cents via his website (via Amazon.com).

What's more, there are no song titles on it, no record label behind it and no explanation. Just a hand-scrawled CD cover with the words, "49:00 ... of Your Time/Life." More weirdness: It actually clocks in at 43:55 and comes up as "Bling Bling" by Mac Carter if you load it into your iTunes.

Hardly the kind of mature work you'd expect from a rock vet who turns -- you guessed it -- 49 at the end of this year.

An uninitiated fan might mistake this download as some kind of a throwaway joke. Most of us, however, know better. Westerberg's legacy is pretty much built on great things that weren't very well planned.

"49:00" is made up of individual songs just like any other album. They're just not split up by track numbers. In some cases, they're not even split up. A few songs start before their predecessors end, and a couple more are randomly stacked on top of each other like two music-spouting Web pages opened simultaneously.

So, the editing's a little odd. And so are the waning minutes, which feature spliced-together snippets of various covers ("Hello Goodbye," "Born to Be Wild," "Stupid Girl," "Rocket Man" and the Partridge Family's "I Think I Love You"). The jukebox mix gives way to a finale with a young kid -- probably Paul's son Johnny, 10, from a few years back -- mumbling and hollering like the Fall's Mark E. Smith over a rollicking guitar fade-out.

As messy as all that sounds, it's amazing how cohesive the album really is. Musically, it comes off as an easy compromise of his "Stereo"/"Mono" albums. Lyrically, it comes off as stream-of-consciousness, and in an unforced way. Some of the songs interlock thematically, especially the handful that reference the 2003 death of Hal Westerberg, his Cadillac-salesman dad. A few wistfully reflect on family and fatherhood in general.

That's so like Westerberg, to hide some of his most touching songs ever in a package without titles and deliver them in a way that probably won't make him any money. That doesn't mean "49:00" lacks genius, though.

His manager, Darren Hill, responded to questions about "49:00" as best he could. Which is to say he didn't have many answers. Since Paul is not tied to a record label, Hill lined him up with Tunecore.com, a site that delivers songs for indie artists to sites like Amazon. "He finished the album last Monday and sent it to me Tuesday, it was that quick a process," Hill said.

Hill doubts that Westerberg will re-release "49:00" in a more convetional form, or do anything to promote it (i.e., perform). He is working on more new music that will likely be released soon, Hill said, but "I'm not sure in what configuration."

The news of Westerberg's "49:00" intermingled last week with Rhino Records' announcement that the latter four Replacements albums will be reissued Sept. 23 with six to 10 bonus tracks apiece. So Westerberg should make some money this year after all. See the full list of bonus cuts at startribune.com/poplife. ...

Walk Away From The Computer Slowly ... Put The Crack Pipe Down ...

2008-07-25T18:16:00.002-04:00

Funny thing is, I agree with about everything he says, especially the U2 album, except for the Mats entry... imagine that ..

(Jelly-Town) Five Overrated Albums

1. The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. If we're going to do this, why not go right for the jugular of the rock'n'roll canon? In my mind, "overrated" doesn't automatically equate to "bad." Some fine, fine records can be overrated (see #5). Like every other studio album from the mop-tops, Sgt. Pepper's is formidable, but its routine placement at the top of greatest albums of all time is out of line with its quality. This isn't even the best Beatles album. It's significance is undeniable, but I'd much rather listen to the white album (or Revoler, or Rubber Soul, or...)

2. Lauryn Hill, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. I'll concede that I don't have the full critical moral standing to throw darts at this one, having never sat down and listened to it start to finish. There's plenty on here that I've probably never heard. Still, I never quite understood the breathless use of the word "groundbreaking" from this record's advocates when everything I heard off of it had the sound of music Neneh Cherry had mastered almost ten years prior.

3. Tom Waits, Bone Machine. He's become iconic enough that it's easy to forget that his warped warbles are an acquired taste (I once asked a college DJ to play a half-hour of Waits' music on his birthday and she was furious with me after it). Bone Machine's industrial buzz was hailed in many quarters a daring experiment from a seasoned artist, but the sound is really not a good match with the man's gravel road voice. In the words of my movie pal, Juno MacGuff, it's just noise.

4. U2, All That You Can't Leave Behind. A return to form or a cowardly retreat? I'd argue the latter.

5. The Replacements, Let It Be. It pains me to include this, but I think the term fits. I can be unkind to Paul Westerberg's solo endeavors, but I love everything emblazoned with the name Replacements the way the paparazzi love Britney. But Let it Be, anointed as the band's best in list after list, is highly compromised. It's a transitional album marked by Westerberg's stubborn unwillingness to full embrace his gift for songcraft. One album later he'd be able to take his goofier ideas and turn them into some of the best songs in the Mats' catalog ("Kiss Me on the Bus," "Waitress in the Sky") but here he's just using them to short-circuit expectations. It's fascinating as a portrait of the artists as a young punk, but you still stuck listening to "Gary's Got a Boner."

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49:00 Minutes Of ....

2008-07-24T15:23:00.002-04:00

(Aaron Poehler) It’s been an embarrassment of riches lately for fans of the Replacements what with the spurt of expanded reissues packed with outtakes and rare tracks, but despite issuing a couple of decent newly-recorded tracks on their “hits” collection the ‘Mats themselves haven’t made the obvious full-fledged reunion move since bassist Tommy Stinson seems firmly stuck in the solo band Axl Rose likes to call Guns ‘N’ Roses. Fortunately, in his absence, Paul Westerberg hasn’t just been sitting and biding his time. Here, Westerberg reinvents the album form as a single mp3 file the length of a single side of a cassette tape — despite the title, 49:00 comes in at 43:55 precisely — which is appealingly homebrewed and packed with tantalizing Guided By Voices-like snippets and fragments in between the more finished-sounding tunes, dropped on the listening public with little advance notice or fanfare suddenly last weekend. Westerberg’s rudimentary drumming continues to be the main downfall of his recent solo work, but he’s succeeded in recapturing a significant amount of the ragged spirit of fun that once seemed so effortless within the context of the Replacements but which drained quickly out of Westerberg’s major-label work. Even the Mats’ predilection for unrehearsed cover tunes is back in the form of brief clips of Westerized versions of tunes like “I Am A Rock”, “I’m Eighteen”, “Born To Be Wild”, “Rocket Man”, and “Hello Goodbye”. Word is Paul has been working on a mountain of new material, a rumor that seems far likelier to be true considering he’s selling this solid album-length chunk of new stuff for a mere 49 cents. No, this isn’t the world-shaking type of attention-grabbing gesture made by such as Radiohead and Trent Reznor, nor should it be expected to be, but this only makes 49:00 even easier to like. I’m not gonna expect all of Paul’s future work to hit this price point, but as long as it all hits this level of quality I’ll be satisfied.

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Paul Westerberg's Major Label Replacement

2008-07-24T15:14:00.003-04:00

(Hickory Wind) Paul Westerberg was never really cut out for the majors. So it figures that the former ringleader of the ramshackle band The Replacements would find a way to flourish in the current digital free-for-all that has brought us a name-your-own-price album from Radiohead (“In Rainbows”), a freebie from Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails’ “Ghosts, I-VI”) and countless artists selling tracks directly to fans through their MySpace pages. Although you wouldn’t expect him to jump headlong into any marketing trend, that’s pretty much what Westerberg has done. His latest release, “49:00,” isn’t free, but at 49 cents it’s pretty close.

That’s right, people: A 49-minute mp3 (actually 43 and change) for 49 cents at the Amazon.com download store. There are no song titles (though PaulWesterberg.net generated an unofficial track list, which should make it easier for fans to discuss the tunes), no lyric sheet and only the following two statements for liner notes:

“WARNING: DO NOT LISTEN WHILE OPERATING A MOTOR VEHICLE”

“THIS PRODUCT IS NOT FAULTY – ALL SOUNDS ARE INTENTIONAL AND VALID AS A WORK OF ART”

Even if he was so inclined, Westerberg may not have had time to write more detailed notes.

“He finished it on Monday, sent it to me on Tuesday and it was out this weekend,” Westerberg’s manager, Darren Hill, told Billboard.com on Monday. “It’s just wonderful that you can actually do this. The freedom an artist can enjoy these days is fantastic. Can you imagine me pitching this idea for a label?”

I maybe could see Hill pitching it. But a label would never buy it. Even now, with desperation gripping the industry, it’s unlikely that a major would take a chance on 40-plus minutes of songs, fragments and sonic experiments packed into one track.

“49:00” continues the trend of lo-fi home recordings Westerberg started with his excellent 2002 releases, “Stereo” and “Mono.” Those basement tapes were released as conventional discs, though the feel was decidedly informal with some songs cutting off abruptly as if Westerberg had run out of tape. “49:00” also is jarring at times, and switches gears frequently. There are nine segments less than a minute in length; three of those last less than 10 seconds. Other times, the sound bleeds from one song into the next, as if the listener were turning a radio dial. Such is the case with a late medley that includes snippets of Westerberg covering The Partridge Family’s “I Think I Love You,” The Beatles’ “Hello, Goodbye,” Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild,” Simon and Garfunkel’s “I Am a Rock,” Alice Cooper’s “I’m Eighteen” and Elton John’s “Rocket Man.” The last track reportedly features vocals by Westerberg’s son, Johnny.

There’s plenty of conventional songcraft, too, largely in the vein of his most recent solo work. Getting to it just takes a little more patience than it did with past releases.

Given the construction of “49:00,” it’s hard to offer much in the way of a traditional review. Some will be put off by the haphazard, almost stream-of-consciousness nature of the recording, and others will be bummed that the tracks aren’t split. Longtime Westerberg fans are likely to dig right in and find the gems. Some of them will like it just the way it is. Almost all camps will agree that the price is right. It’s best to just download “49:00” and judge for yourself.

Faster Than A Thoroughbred Links

2008-07-24T15:06:00.002-04:00

Bypassing Tradition With Paul Westerberg (West Coast Walker)
Paul Westerberg 49:00 ($5 Music Or Less)
Westerberg Album Popular (Post Bulletin)

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More 49:00 Art

2008-07-23T23:28:00.002-04:00

On The Record

2008-07-23T23:23:00.001-04:00

The first real review:

(ABC News) Last Saturday, former Replacements leader Paul Westerberg was supposed to release his new album on his website. The catch was that it was supposed to be forty-nine minutes of music (it’s actually 43:55! Go figure!) for a low, low price of forty-nine cents, in celebration of June 49th. (In case you are wondering, that’s July 19th.) Something in the plan must’ve hit a snag because the album wasn’t up for download until Monday, but it is now available for just under two quarters as promised.

The record is one massive track containing what would amount to many different songs if there were indeed traditional track divisions. They fade in and out of each other with bizarre frequency. Once you get used to something, something else comes in on top of it and smothers it. The effect can be maddening. It’s as if someone left the radio station in the not so capable hands of Skippy the Intern. Occasionally different songs are played at the same time out of different speakers. Truth be told though, this is really an enjoyable experiment. Westerberg is able to prove that he hasn’t mellowed and he can still be sonically unruly. It’s well worth the price. Any fan of the Replacements or Westerberg’s edgier solo material (like let’s say his Grandpaboy alter-ego) should find something to enjoy here. It all sounds as if it was recorded in his basement, and I have to say, there is something refreshing about someone like Westerberg still jamming out like a kid in his parents’ garage. Too many of his contemporaries have mellowed and honed their productions into blandness. This record is anything but bland and uninteresting.

It’s almost like it has a progression based on clarity. It gets messier as more time passes.

It opens with Westerberg singing “Terri, Terri, who you gonna marry?” singing as a jilted ex-lover who has just learned his ex is engaged. The song sounds like it would’ve fit on his “Come Feel Me Tremble” album. In fact, most of this record feels like “Come Feel Me Tremble” without a rulebook. The first few songs are clear-cut songs. The second song sounds like an upbeat answer to the Replacements’ classic “Skyway.”

When he sings “something in my life is missing by a mile” on the third song, it’s apparent that he hasn’t lost his clever, dark edge. Any fan of Ryan Adams’ “Rock and Roll” should take note.

The man in jail singing the country blues on the forth song is anxiously awaiting “visitor’s day” when he hopes to see his children. Westerberg sings this song with a winking tongue-in-cheek sensibility.

It’s after this track, the mix begins to evolve into snippets and little freak-outs. On a punked-up number he sings a lyric that is hard to make out but sounds like “Devil Ray’s a good boy.” It’s a hard-rocking standout.

For a few seconds he then sings, “you’re my girl,” before chiming into a very catchy refrain of “Everyone’s stupid in my family.” (It’s really way catchier than it should be!)

A few evolutions down the line, Westerberg sings a softer song about a son watching his dying father’s morphine drip. Throughout this track, things really become unraveled when other songs continually try to unsuccessfully interrupt the flow. Many people may not be able to handle the multiple songs playing at once.

Another highlight is when Westerberg sings “gotta get it out of my system.” In another life, this could’ve been a single, as would it’s equally appealing follow-up, on which he sings, “come on, be my darlin’.”

Westerberg sings “I’m clean, I’m clean, I’m clean” with a celebratory gladness. This section of the record also stands as a highpoint.

Towards the end of the record, he tries out a few covers (if for only a few seconds at a time.) Within about a minute or so, he plays bits of the Beatles’ “Hello Goodbye,” Steppenwolf’s “Born To Be Wild,” Elton John’s “Rocket Man,” and others before settling on a surprisingly awesome rendition of the Partridge Family’s “I Think I Love You.”

The record ends with what sounds like a child screaming incoherent phrases over a hand-clapping garage-rock jam. Westerberg can be heard whispering something underneath. It’s an oddly fitting close.

Nothing about this record is easy. Sometimes it’s exceedingly difficult, but maybe that’s why listening to it is such a liberating experience. Nothing is clean cut. It’s good old fashioned, messy, rebellious rock and roll. With “49:00,” Westerberg proves that he is still not only interesting, but a decent songwriter as well. If you can get past the album’s mish-mash construction, you should be highly satisfied. If you can’t, you’ve been spoon-fed by the radio too long and should widen your horizons. It may be messy and loud, but it’s the best bit of entertainment I’ve ever gotten for a mere forty-nine cents.

Why is everything so focused on the number forty-nine? According to both imdb.com and allmusic.com, Westerberg was born on December 31, 1959. Perhaps his approaching forty-ninth birthday is the source. In any case, whatever the inspiration, this was a worthy and economical experiment.

Rhino readies second half of Replacements overhaul

2008-07-23T00:21:00.003-04:00

(Pop Matters) Back in April, when Rhino Records revamped the Replacements’ sonically slovenly first four albums (recorded for the Twin/Tone label), I held out hope that the reissue house would do likewise to the remainder of the band’s catalog. Its Sire Records releases, that is: college-rock classics “Tim” (1985) and “Pleased to Meet Me” (1987), the slicker though not entirely emptier “Don’t Tell a Soul” (1989) and the group’s back-to-basics swan song, “All Shook Down” (1990).

Well, ask and ye shall receive. All four are slated to arrive in spiffy expanded editions on Sept. 23, at which time the entire ‘Mats catalog will be available at all download outlets for the first time. Although I’m not sure what’s more of a selling point - to have Paul Westerberg’s most memorable material (apart from 1984’s “Let It Be") brought up to modern audio standards or to savor more detritus that didn’t surface on the 1997 best-of-plus-leftovers “All for Nothing/Nothing for All.”

I ‘spose it depends on which disc we’re talking.

“Tim” sports early drafts of “Here Comes a Regular,” the snarky novelty “Waitress in the Sky” and the wonderful “Can’t Hardly Wait.” “Pleased to Meet Me” boasts a few nutty covers ("Tossin’ and Turnin’,” “Route 66?), rarities like “Election Day” and alternate takes on “Alex Chilton” and “Valentine.” “Don’t Tell a Soul” rescues their version of “Cruella DeVille” from the notable, atmospheric Disney tribute “Stay Awake” (which is well worth tracking down) and includes demos of “Talent Show” and “We’ll Inherit the Earth” plus a remake of Slade’s “Gudbuy T’Jane.” “All Shook Down,” meanwhile, will now feature early versions of just about every cut on the album, including the perfectly titled “Sadly Beautiful.”

I could make a case for owning all of them - even “Soul,” which isn’t half as vapid as its reputation would suggest and does actually include the band’s one bona fide hit, “I’ll Be You.” But if you’re on a budget, or browsing through the past ... well, you need to start with “Let It Be.” “Tim” and “Pleased,” however, remain just as essential.

Total Cost Of Album: $9.99

2008-07-22T14:49:00.003-04:00

I found this article pretty interesting. It answers several questions. Like why one track? Clever ...

(Virtual Turntable) As I write this the #1 Amazon download is by a brooding, enigmatic rock star named Paul Westerberg who used to be the lead singer/songwriter for the not-so-brooding, enigmatic rock band The Replacements. (You know he’s brooding and enigmatic now because he never takes his shades off, especially when he sings songs with names like “Unsatisfied” whereas all the band photos from the 80’s have him bare-eyed.)

TuneCore is a digital distribution service that will, for a small fee, post your music to all the big “retail” music sites like iTunes, Amazon, eMusic. etc. For example, for a flat fee of $9.99 per year they will post a single song to all those stores.

Being a broody, enigmatic shmarty pants, 48 year old Westerberg smashed together more than 22 songs he one-man-band recorded in his basement into one honking 70 MB MP3 that careens from song to song, some overlapping, some cut off after six seconds and posted it using this special deal. Not that TuneCore is upset or anything, they devoted a special section of the site just for the Westerberg release called “49“. The name “49″ btw comes from the sale price of the album which is $0.49 USD, supposedly 1 cent per minute. Unfortunately at 43 minutes 55 seconds it actually comes out to way more, more like 1.1157495256166982922201138519924 cents per minute. Bummer.

Yesterday, Westerberg’s manager earned his cut by calling Billboard magazine (who can’t afford to test their website on Firefox) to let them know that the album was out and that the only online retail music store that would “play along” with the $0.49 price is Amazon. Now that the song is the #1 paid download at Amazon, I’m sure iTunes and eMusic are more than relieved they took a pass on it.

Westerberg is not any Townes Van Zandt (he’s not god either so I guess that may be unfair) but on first listen the album is a great piece of music. I’m going to have to listen more to dig out what he was trying for lyrically and there could be a boatload of references to things like The Replacements that I’m missing. But musically it’s obvious that there’s decades of gigging at work here. He pulls off a lot of stuff that shows off that experience. The sound and fury of last few minutes is, I think, supposed to be ironic with it’s snippets of him covering the Beatles, Alice Cooper, Steppenwolf and the Partridge family. But fans of Strictly Kev and Plunderphonics will be less impressed by that particular passage because the bar is set so high by folks that have been doing cut-ups for decades. The whole thing works best for me when he isn’t trying to be “indie” and “edgy” and just sings his songs, which again, will take me a few listens before I’m ready to pass judgment.

If only he would have taken that $100,000 record company advance to record some real music and released with some real label and some real publicity firm and some real money. As it is, how will he ever, god help him, make his $9.99 back???

49:00 #1 Download On Amazon

2008-07-22T12:34:00.001-04:00

Paul has a #1 Record!

49:00 Minutes Of Links

2008-07-22T10:59:00.002-04:00

Paul Westeberg Releases 49-Cent Online-Only Album (AV Club)
Paul Westerberg - 49:00 Minutes = 49¢ (Digital Music News)
Paul Westerberg - 49$ Album ... Sort Of (MP3 Monster)
49 Minutes Of Music For 49¢ (Daily Swarm)
Paul Westerberg Sells 44 Minute MP3 For 49¢ (Wired)

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Paul Westerberg charges 49 cents for his new album

2008-07-22T10:56:00.000-04:00

(The Guardian UK) It's like Paul Westerberg is living a century ago. First of all, he doesn't have a computer. And secondly, he's selling his new album for just 49 cents (about 25p) – less than the price of a morning roll, less than a single song at the iTunes music store, and about the same price as a CD would have cost in 1900, if CDs had been invented then.

The former Replacements frontman made the album available on Sunday – just 49 cents to download 44 minutes of new music, aptly called 49:00. It's a single, undivided MP3 file sold via Amazon.com.

49:00 has no track list, lyrics or song titles, and some of the songs are only a few seconds long, smudged together or get abruptly cut off. "It's almost like you're scanning a radio dial," Westerberg manager Darren Hill explained to Billboard. "You're getting a glimpse inside Paul's head here."

Westerberg played every instrument on the album, which includes new versions of fan favourites Out of My System and Everyone's Stupid. The finale is a medley of covers, including the Beatles' Hello, Goodbye, Steppenwolf's Born to be Wild, Elton John's Rocket Man and Simon & Garfunkel's I Am a Rock. Paul Westerberg's young son, Johnny, even contributes some vocals.

"He finished it on Monday, sent it to me on Tuesday and it was out this weekend," Hill explained. "It's just wonderful that you can actually do this. The freedom an artist can enjoy these days is fantastic. Can you imagine me pitching this idea to a label?"

Westerberg's last album, 2004's Folker, was released conventionally by Vagrant Records.

49:00 is, Hill said, "just the tip of a really large creative iceberg. Paul has been writing and recording at a furious pace". Westerberg had hoped to charge "a penny a minute", but 49 cents was the best they could do. Amazon was the only online retailer willing to "play ball with me on the price point," Hill said.

Westerberg has only performed once since injuring his hand in 2006 while trying to remove candle wax with a screwdriver. His manager underlined that "there are no plans or talk of doing any performances at the moment".

The Replacements' entire major-label catalogue will be reissued this fall by Rhino. Maybe Westerberg will include free zoetropes, Victorian coins, or mugs of sarsaparilla.

Paul Westerberg's 49:00: A Sorta-Instant Review

2008-07-22T10:53:00.001-04:00

(Rock Town Hall) In a move that happened too fast for most online music news sources to notice, Paul Westerberg released a new, online-only album today, 49:00, for only 49 cents.

At this point, it's available from Amazon.com and something called Tunecore.com, apparently the only sites that would agree to the 49-cents thing.

Of course, with Westerberg there's a catch. You get all the songs in one big MP3 file, and no indication of song titles. (Although another fan site made pretty good guesses.)

There's plenty of other curve balls. Firstly, it's only 43:55 minutes. 49:00 at times sounds a bit like an old TDK blank tape he saw fit to cram with as many songs and scraps as he could on one side. Some songs begin just before the prior ones abruptly end. Occasional six-second splurges of unrelated songs bridge one "proper" song to the next. You might think this is Westerberg being lazy, but I don't.

Like everything he's released this decade, except the Open Season soundtrack, this album is a one-man-band-in-his-basement affair. When he first unveiled this new direction, on 2002's awesome Stereo/Mono, he seemed to hit upon way to treat lo-fi as a sonic value. It's as if he realized he could get a better, more unique sound on his own, with rudimentary engineering skills. Rather than hire a bunch of session hands to try and fail to re-create, say, the classic Stones sound, he himself tried and failed to re-create the classic Stones sound. In the process, he found a cool sound all his own.

Based on one listen, 49:00could be the next step for Westerberg's evolving aesthetic. The album functions equally well as an endearingly sloppy take on Let it Bleed and Gasoline Alley, or a musique concrete deconstruction of itself.

My take on Westerberg, which has no basis in any real interaction with the man, is that he's a lot like Neil Young: A curmudgeonly control-freak perfectionist who wants, no demands, that things sound messy. He wants that off-the-cuff one-take vibe, and has little or no compunction about dropping your ass if you can't supply it. I'll admit, it can provide a listener with a severe case of cognitive dissonance at times. But it also allows him to tap into that devil-may-care, funny streak that made The Replacements so endearing to a lot of people.

Paul Westerberg’s Weird Experiment

2008-07-21T22:11:00.003-04:00

(MediaLoper) In a year where it has become almost de rigueur for artists to screw with the accepted music release model, Paul Westerberg has come up with yet another variation, for his download-only album 49:00, released today on Amazon..

Betcha didn’t even know that Paul Westerberg had anything new coming out, did you?

It’s called 49:00, and it’s an entire album’s worth of new music for the low low price of 0.49 cents. But, as in all things Westerbergian, there’s a bit of a self-destructive twist.

That entire album’s worth of new music: it’s all contained in a single file. You download one single .mp3, which is 43:55 in length.

Holy crap, Paul Westerberg has gone art-rock!

49:00 is the futuristic tale of how the Interplanetary Music Consortium has banned all artists from recording music anywhere but in the Saturn Recording Studio on Saturn, whereupon the music is locked down on their Quanto-Servers with a DRM algorithm that is virtually uncrackable because it uses Really Big Numbers.

In this way, Interplanetary Music Consortium controls all music and the price that people pay for that music. The cost of a single brainload has skyrocketed to nearly 100,000 paroctoids!

And at these exchange rates, who can afford that?

But we have to, because violation of the new musical order is punishable by death. So all musicians and music fans meekly comply, and the Interplanetary Music Consortium has power beyond belief, making them virtually unstoppable in their quest to control all of the 47 Galaxies.

That is all musicians, except for one — the semi-retired Grandpaboy — who has discovered the Last Cassette Recorder, and has used it to record 49:00 worth of music, the beauty and strength of which is powerful enough to take down the entire Consortium. If only he could somehow get people to hear it . . .

OK, I just made that up. But you gotta admit, it would be awesome!! No?

In reality, while 49:00 is a single file, it consists of several songs. Which means this: Paul Westerberg has figured out how to get people to listen to an actual album all the way through. There’s really no choice, especially since — as I write this — there doesn’t seem to be any actual song titles floating around. It’s all or nothing.

At first, it’s a bit overwhelming: with no real reference points like names and times, 49:00 comes across as just a jumble of songs, like you’re driving cross-country and stumbled across a radio station that’s playing some cool music you’ve never heard before, but the damn thing is fading in and out.

Because its not just full songs, it’s also song snippets. Then its two songs playing at the same time, and excerpts from cover versions that fade in and out, and then, suddenly, I’m in love, what’s that song?

No really, what’s that song?!?

It’s all a bit of a mess, really. But that’s OK, because it only cost forty-nine cents. In a strange way, Westerberg has used the internet to bootleg himself.

Because it’s such a mess, you might wonder who is going to listen to it more than once, and then you realize that because it’s a nice big digital file, what will eventually happen is that his fan base will come up with consensus names for all of the songs, and song snippets, and the time codes for everything.

And after that, it will be a snap for somebody to go into the file, break everything into individual files, and what started as a weird experiment will evolve into being the new Paul Westerberg album. I don’t know if that’s what he intended, but that’s what it will end up being.

Paul Westerberg Offers New Album For 49 Cents

2008-07-21T17:24:00.004-04:00

(Billboard) Despite the fact that he doesn't have a computer and may never have been online in his life, Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg is the latest artist to embrace the Internet for rapid dissemination of new music.

Yesterday, Westerberg made available a 44-minute single MP3 file of a dozen-plus songs, dubbed "49," for 49 cents. Amazon.com is handling the commerce. Tunecore will begin carrying the release later today.

"He finished it on Monday, sent it to me on Tuesday and it was out this weekend," Westerberg manager Darren Hill tells Billboard.com. "It's just wonderful that you can actually do this. The freedom an artist can enjoy these days is fantastic. Can you imagine me pitching this idea to a label?"

The 49-cent price was a joking suggestion from Westerberg to charge "a penny a minute," but Amazon.com was the only digital retailer that "would play ball with me on the price point," Hill says.

"49" has no track list or lyrics, keeping with a long-standing Westerberg tradition. But a handful of the songs will be familiar to hardcore fans, including an alternate version of "Out of My System," which previously appeared on the compilation "Hot Stove, Cool Music," and "Everyone's Stupid," which is written from the perspective of a pre-teen who discovers he's the last to know about his parents' impending divorce.

Westerberg played all the instruments on the decidedly lo-fi recordings, which often feature two songs playing at once for a few seconds and short snippets that abruptly cut off. "It's almost like you're scanning a radio dial," Hill says. "You're getting a glimpse inside of Paul's head here." "49" concludes with a strange mash-up of partial covers such as the Partidge Family's "I Think I Love You," the Beatles' "Hello, Goodbye," Steppenwolf's "Born To Be Wild," Simon & Garfunkel's "I Am a Rock" and Elton John's "Rocket Man," and a rave-up apparently sung by Westerberg's pre-teen son Johnny.

Without revealing specifics, Hill says "49" is "just the tip of a really large creative iceberg. Paul has been writing and recording at a furious pace." However, he adds that "there are no plans or talk of doing any performances at the moment." Westerberg has only performed once since severely injuring his fretting hand in 2006 while trying to remove candle wax with a screwdriver: he was the subject of a September 2007 episode of "The Craft," a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame chat-and-sing series a la VH1's "Songwriters," at Minneapolis' First Avenue, during which "Everyone's Stupid" was premiered.

As previously reported, the Replacements' major-label catalog will be reissued in expanded form Sept. 23 via Rhino.

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Paul Westerberg - "49:00 Of Your Life"

2008-07-20T13:37:00.003-04:00

Buy direct from Amazon NOW

49:00

WARNING:
DO NOT LISTEN WHILE OPERATING A MOTOR VEHICLE

THIS PRODUCT IS NOT FAULTY -
ALL SOUNDS ARE INTENTIONAL AND VALID AS A WORK OF ART

Rhino Reissues, Expands Replacements' Sire Albums

2008-07-20T13:29:00.002-04:00

(Pitchfork) Rhino will finish its expansive reissue campaign of Replacements albums with remastered and expanded editions of their four full-lengths for Sire: 1985's Tim, 1987's Pleased to Meet Me, 1989's Don't Tell a Soul, and 1990's All Shook Down

These deluxe editions, out September 23, serve as a follow-up to Rhino's April 22 reissues of the 'Mats Twin/Tone discs. Amongst the various bonus tracks included on these new sets are recording sessions with the Ramones' Tommy Erdelyi and Big Star's Alex Chilton as well as a song featuring Tom Waits ("Date to Church").

Also on September 23, Rhino will give their entire Replacements reissue campaign a digital release. That means everything from the band's 1981 Twin/Tone debut Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash to All Shook Down will be available, bonus tracks and all.

Tim:

01 Hold My Life
02 I'll Buy
03 Kiss Me on the Bus
04 Dose of Thunder
05 Waitress in the Sky
06 Swingin Party
07 Bastards of Young
08 Lay It Down Clown
09 Left of the Dial
10 Little Mascara
11 Here Comes a Regular
12 Can't Hardly Wait (acoustic, Alex Chilton sessions outtake) [previously unreleased bonus track]
13 Nowhere Is My Home (Alex Chilton sessions outtake) [bonus track]
14 Can't Hardly Wait (electric, Alex Chilton sessions outtake) [previously unreleased bonus track]
15 Kiss Me on the Bus (Tom Erdelyi demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
16 Waitress in the Sky (outtake, alternate version) [previously unreleased bonus track]
17 Here Comes a Regular (outtake, alternate version) [previously unreleased bonus track]

Pleased to Meet Me:

01 I.O.U.
02 Alex Chilton
03 I Don't Know
04 Nightclub Jitters
05 The Ledge
06 Never Mind
07 Valentine
08 Shooting Dirty Pool
09 Red Red Wine
10 Skyway
11 Can't Hardly Wait
12 Birthday Gal (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
13 Valentine (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
14 Bundle Up (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
15 Photo (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
16 Election Day [bonus track]
17 Alex Chilton (alternate version) [previously unreleased bonus track]
18 Kick It In (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
19 Route 66 [bonus track]
20 Tossin' 'N' Turnin' [bonus track]
21 Can't Hardly Wait (alternate version) [previously unreleased bonus track]
22 Cool Water [bonus track]

Don't Tell a Soul:

01 Talent Show
02 Back to Back
03 We'll Inherit the Earth
04 Achin' to Be
05 They're Blind
06 Anywhere's Better Than Here
07 Asking Me Lies
08 I'll Be You
09 I Won't
10 Rock 'N' Roll Ghost
11 Darlin' One
12 Portland [bonus track]
13 Wake Up [bonus track]
14 Cruella DeVille [bonus track]
15 Talent Show (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
16 We'll Inherit the Earth (mix 1) [previously unreleased bonus track]
17 Date to Church [ft. Tom Waits] [bonus track]
18 We Know the Night (outtake) [previously unreleased bonus track]
19 Gudbuy T' Jane (Slade cover) (outtake) [previously unreleased bonus track]

All Shook Down:

01 Merry Go Round
02 One Wink at a Time
03 Nobody
04 Bent out of Shape
05 Sadly Beautiful
06 Someone Take the Wheel
07 When It Began
08 All Shook Down
09 Attitude
10 Happy Town
11 Torture
12 My Little Problem
13 The Last
14 When It Began (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
15 Nobody (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
16 One Wink at a Time (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
17 Torture (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
18 Attitude (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
19 Happy Town (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
20 Tiny Paper Plane (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
21 Sadly Beautiful (demo) [previously unreleased bonus track]
22 Kissin' in Action [bonus track]
23 Ought to Get Love [bonus track]
24 Satellite [bonus track]

Round 2

2008-07-20T11:22:00.003-04:00

(Star Tribune) As was promised when the first four albums were reissued in April, the latter four albums in the Replacements discography are set to be reissued with bonus tracks galore. Rhino Records has just announced a Sept. 23 release date, and it included a list of the extras on each album.

Coincidentally or not, Sept. 23 is also the date Rhino is issuing “Stay Golden: The Best of Golden Smog,” which includes a couple unreleased tracks (a cover of Brian Wilson’s “Love and Mercy” and demo of “Until You Came Along). Click here to read about that.

Here’s a list of the ‘Mats bonus tracks:

Tim:Can’t Hardly Wait (acoustic demo, Alex Chilton session) / Nowhere Is My Home (Alex C produced outtake) / Can’t Hardly Wait (electric demo, also w/ Alex C) / Kiss Me on the Bus (alt) / Waitress in the Sky (alt) / Here Comes a Regular (alt)

Pleased to Meet Me: Birthday Girl (demo) / Valentine (demo) / Bundle Up (demo) / Photo (demo) / Election Day / Alex Chilton (alt) / Kickin’ It In (demo) / Route 66 / Tossin’ ‘N Turnin’ / Can’t Hardly Wait (alt) / Cool Water

Don’t Tell a Soul: Portland / Wake Up / Cruella DeVille / Talent Show (demo) / We’ll Inhert the Earth (mix #1) / Date to Church / We Know the Night

All Shook Down: When It Began / Nobody / One Wink at a Time / Torture / Attitude Happy Town (all demos) / Tiny Paper Plane / Sadly Beautiful (demo) / Kissin’ in Action / Ought to Get Love / Satellite

Only about a fourth of those tracks appeared on the “All for Nothing/Nothing for All” two-disc compliation, so there’s enough there to interest the diehards. “Nowhere Is My Home” is one of my personal favorite outtakes, as is “Satellite,” our first clue that Tommy was due to front his own band soon. I’m really interested in hearing all the “All Shook Down” demos, which (if memory/legend serves) back then were supposed to amount to Westerberg’s first solo album. Let’s go ahead and call it a travesty that “All He Wants to Do Is Fish” didn’t get included.

More Mats Reissues / Westerberg Downloads

2008-07-20T11:15:00.003-04:00

Looks like the second batch of reissues is starting to heat up:

(Twin Cities.com) Rhino will release expanded reissues of the Replacements' final four albums Sept. 23 for Sire Records. Each album features previously unreleased bonus tracks; the entire reissue catalog will also see digital release the same day.

The Replacements' major-label debut, 1985's "Tim," features some of the band's most enduring material, including "Bastards of Young," "Kiss Me on the Bus," "Left of the Dial" and "Waitress in the Sky."

The reissue includes alternate versions of "Waitress," as well as "Here Comes a Regular," a demo for "Kiss Me on the Bus" recorded with producer Tommy Ramone, and three outtakes from sessions tracked with Big Star's Alex Chilton, including both acoustic and electric versions of "Can't Hardly Wait."

The new version of 1987's "Pleased to Meet Me" includes 11 bonus tracks, seven of which are seeing the light of day for the first time. Among them are demos of "Birthday Gal," "Bundle Up" and "Valentine," plus an alternate version of "Alex Chilton."

In related news, frontman Paul Westerberg planned to release a host of new music for 49 cents via his Web site Saturday. The artist's last solo release was 2004's "Folker."

The Heroine Sheiks (The Cows)

2008-07-16T12:49:00.004-04:00

I remember The Cows from back in the day and thought some may find this interesting:

(Crawdaddy) By the time you read this, the Heroine Sheiks are already out on the road. Their newest record, Journey to the End of the Knife, was recently released on Amphetamine Reptile Records and includes a new line-up. They toured the South and East Coast at the end of May, and a West Cost tour is tentatively slated for October. Bear witness: The band is now hitting harder, writing better songs, and needs to be seen.

Singer and group mastermind Shannon Selberg, formerly of the seminal Minneapolis band Cows, took some time out before the tour to chat with Crawdaddy! about the new record and line-up, the art of being a frontman, and working around the shadow of his previous band.

Selberg has built his reputation by baiting audiences through a one-two punch of his lyrics and a visual combativeness. In front of a crowd’s rapt attention, he walks a tight line between surrealistic drama and parody with an unusual brilliance not often seen in the rock world. The Cows were far from being taken seriously at first, sliding onto the Minneapolis scene in 1987 just as the Replacements/Hüsker Dü juggernaut was coming to an end. The Cows ushered in a new era of noise, art, irreverence, and bad vibes all in the disguise of a crooked party band. Their music was mostly devoid of melody and at times form, with Selberg occasionally bleating a roughed-up bugle. No one wanted to know about them and those who did considered them nothing more than a joke that would hopefully go away soon.

But they didn’t go away, and instead they began to evolve. By 1993’s Sexy Pee Story, the jokey aspects of the band’s approach were all but ditched and focus now centered on lurid tales from the singer’s head along with heavier, tougher, and more creative musicianship. On stage, the entire group oozed danger: Drummer Norm Rogers looked sickly and never smiled; guitarist Thor Eisentrager appeared downright mean with a steely expression and was capable of violent outbursts if he felt audience members had violated his boundaries; bassist Kevin Rutmanis was either out of his head or just a brat—making faces, flipping people the bird, or spitting and drooling—sometimes all at once while playing some of the finest bass work the genre had heard in years.

Selberg, meanwhile, was becoming known for his creepy stage attire: Mousetraps dangling from his ears, a suit made from the skin of sex dolls, masks under masks… it changed every show, the only constants were the drawn-on tattoos, the piercing eyes, and that presence. This wasn’t mere schtick and he wasn’t being just a singer; this was performance art. This was taking things a welcome step farther. They were good and had already taken their party across the country and into Europe a few times. Audiences were either hot or cold and when they were cold, the band stepped up the absurdities, sometimes with one of them (not always Selberg) getting into some sort of entanglement, physical or otherwise.

Tom Hazelmyer owns the Amphetamine Reptile label and has known the singer for years, so his point of view is better than most. “I've had bouncers that were scared of him [Selberg] based on seeing him in the Cows,” he tells me. “Unlike others that try to incorporate showmanship into the set, Shannon has always done so by tapping into an actual twisted perspective, versus the usual schmuck trying to create a stage character, and once offstage is taking the dog for a walk and checking up on their stock portfolio. With Shannon, what you see is what you get. Half the time what fucks with people’s heads is simply his sense of humor. Unbeknownst to him only one percent of folks actually get the joke; the rest of the world sees it as some deeply twisted aesthetic performance.”

The Cows had run its course by 1999 after nine records, countless singles, a few drummers, and years of relentless work to build a strong following the old fashioned way—touring. Selberg was now living in New York City, only joining the band back in Minneapolis for a week of rehearsals before a tour.

Naming his next project the Heroine Sheiks was typical: Crude, funny, and a little shocking. Rumors of hard drug use had followed Selberg and Rutmanis for years during the Cows' tenure, a situation not helped by vague, eerie lyrics and onstage stunts like the hometown show near the end of the band’s run, for example, when Selberg performed with a stuffed monkey on his back. Between songs, an associate would wander up to him offering him a giant syringe on a silver platter, which Selberg would casually wave off. This band took flirting with irreverence to a higher level.

Along with former Swans/Feotus guitarst Norman Westberg, Heroine Sheiks were originally made up of New York’s seediest looking musicians, and Selberg picked up where he left off by using unwanted songs from the Cows’ waning days for the Sheiks’ debut album, 2000’s Rape on the Installment Plan. Audiences looking for Cows Part Two were befuddled by the new group; the previous band’s power was traded in for keyboard/guitar-based music that was more art damaged than it was unmelodic. Selberg’s magnetic stage presence continued albeit without some of the more grandiose costumes. They toured and recorded two more records, Siamese Pipe (2003) and Out of Aferica (2006) before he dissolved the New York line-up and headed back to the Minnesota.

Weller Sounding Like Westerberg

2008-07-15T00:19:00.003-04:00

As a huge fan of Paul Weller, I thought this was pretty cool:

(Paste Magazine) “You get to this stage in life where you say ‘I’ve done everything that I can do,’” says Paul Weller. As he passes the half-century mark, Weller easily could have returned to his old stomping grounds, whether it was the mod-punk of his first band the Jam or the pop leanings of the Style Council. But rather than reliving past glory, Weller spent the last year recording 22 Dreams, the most expansive and experimental album of his career. “I was conscious when I walked into the studio that I wanted to do something different. I didn’t want to make As Is Now Part 2,” Weller tells Rock Daily. “There was this mentality where it was like, ‘Let’s try anything that comes into your mind.’” Weller sequestered himself in his country studio, recruited some famous Britpop friends like Oasis‘ Noel Gallagher and Blur’s Graham Coxon and spent hours improvising with his band. The result was 22 Dreams, a genre-leaping set of 21 tracks that fluidly weave in and out of rock, electronica, avant-garde and folk. “I’d never made a double album before, so I wanted a challenge,” Weller says.

Unlike double albums like The Wall, there’s no all-encompassing concept or theme, but 22 Dreams still ties together. “It’s cyclical. Our studios were out in the country, and we watched the seasons change over the course of the year,” Weller says. “The album is sort of like a trip, and in the end it brings you to the beginning again.” Between the bookends, there’s the fuzzed-out rocker “22 Dreams,” the Marvin Gaye-via-Stereolab groove of “Empty Ring” and the laid-back, front porch feel of the folkish “Black River,” which features Coxon on drums. “All I Wanna Do (Is Be With You)” has Paul Weller sounding like 14 Songs-era Paul Westerberg. But the highlight is the propulsive, anthemic “Echoes Around the Sun,” which came about after an improvisational session between Weller and Oasis’ Gallagher. “We always talked about working together,” Weller says of the collaboration.

For closer “Night Lights,” the band opened the studio doors during a thunderstorm, with Weller and his studio mates playing the song in a live take while observing and recording the storm. “I just wanted to stop and record our environment really,” Weller recalls. “I do love the concept of putting your actual environment in the record.” As for why there’s 21 songs on an album called 22 Dreams, artistic integrity won out over symmetry. “There was supposed to be 22 songs, but we didn’t like one of them. It didn’t fit with the rest of the album, so we left it off.”

With the recent reformation of fellow Brits the Verve, My Bloody Valentine and Portishead, has Weller been bit by the reunion itch, especially considering the insane amount of money festival organizers would dole out for the Jam to get back together? “I get approached all the time about a reunion with the Jam. I just have no interest whatsoever,” Weller says. “I don’t think I’ll ever want to do that.”

Is There Anyone In Music Who Doesn't Wish It Was 1989?

2008-07-11T00:13:00.003-04:00

Not a lot of Mats here, but funny none the less. (And you know you about crapped your acid washed jeans when you saw Donnie looking at you like he was going to put a cap in your ass).

(Idolator.com) Michael Jackson is collaborating with New Kids On The Block? Are they for real? Assuming he doesn't still think Donnie et al are still in their teens, the only reason he'd team up with a group he wouldn't have been caught dead with 20 years ago is that he really misses 20 years ago. And it seems he's not alone. We've got Sonic Youth filling most to all of their sets with Daydream Nation, Public Enemy taking a nation of millions back in time, Dinosaur Jr. reunited, R.E.M. showing off a drummer, My Bloody Valentine acting like ain't a damn thing changed, Lloyd and Lil' Wayne sampling "Ashley's Roachclip," and Pretty Ricky rocking giant shoulderpads. While it's no news that nostalgia can run in twenty-year loops, it's possible that no one who pushed product back in the day, and is still trying to do so now, wouldn't mind hearing it was 1989 again. Are any artists actually in a better state now than they were then? I could think of very, very few.

American Idiot is their biggest album since Dookie, so the boys probably aren't ready to get back in touch with their inner Gillman St. An Operation Ivy reunion, though? With Rancid now stuck with the drummer from the Used, that shit could happen tomorrow.

On a relative scale, that post-Rattle & Hum period was a bit icky. Not that most bands today wouldn't be happy to have been in their cowboy hats.

Oh sure, "All Summer Long" is nostalgic. But not for this.

Beyond that, I'm at a loss! Even old bands with comeback albums like Motley Crue and Def Leppard were still doing better in '89! Journey was on hiatus, but Neal Schon was still making hit ballads with Bad English! Don Henley may not have had the Eagles, but he had The End Of The Innocence! Rod Stewart could do what he wanted, and Janet could rely on the Rhythm Nation. Neil Young may be proud of Living With War, but it's not "Rockin' In The Free World." Elvis Costello had "Veronica," Paul Westerberg had "I'll Be You," Donna Summer had "This Time I Know It's For Real." Rattle & Hum was only barely a flop, but I just cannot think of an act that did worse but is doing fine now. Can you think of a veteran artist today who can say they are in a better state, commercially and artistically, than they were in 1989?

Off With Their Heads

2008-07-11T00:05:00.003-04:00

(Punknews.org) I wouldn’t say I’m a procrastinator -- I just have a problem with putting things off. I got this CD about four months ago and immediately slipped it in the bottom of the pile for reviews. My first thought was that like a headlining act or a main dish, I should save the best for last. Then I decided I should wait ‘til I moved to Minneapolis before busting it out to make the experience more “special.” Fast-forward to two hours ago when I realized the record-release show for their debut full-length is in about two days and that I should probably pump out the review of their splits/7”/rarities compilation All Things Move Toward Their End, and that about brings us up to speed: Me listening to this on repeat for the last hour and a half and frantically whipping up this review in less time than I know I should devote.

However, if I can do this release any justice at all, I might as well let my praise for Off with Their Heads flow freely, unadulterated and void of any grammatical or scholarly restraint.

There’s no denying that Off with Their Heads put out some of the catchiest melodic punk in the upper Midwest, currently rivaled only by Dillinger Four, whose ceremonial head of band, Paddy Costello, plays on five tracks here. While the raw, gravelly, bare-bones approach to pop-punk suits the band just fine, the great thing about OWTH is their unwillingness stay within genre boundaries, throwing in some organ stylings straight out of Booker T and the MG’s playbook (“Fuck You, You Tshirt Necktie Wearing Motherfucker,” “Bar Close and the West Bank Bridge”), twangy, latter-day Replacements pop (“Horse Pills and the Apartment Lobby”) and open-chested suicide anthems that fall somewhere between Jets to Brazil and Kind of Like Spitting (“Don’t Laugh, I’m Totally Serious”). Though singer Ryan Young’s melodic tales of incurable ache are the subject of so much of the band’s material, there is a sardonic undertone hiding behind themes of everything from carjacking to drug abuse to teenage flings turned sour.

With a pair of stellar covers in the form of the Muffs’ “Big Mouth" and the Replacements’ “Goddamn Job,” OWTH demonstrate their ability to not only craft their own gruff sing-alongs from the ground up, but also put their own spin on a couple of classics (though Google seems to think “Goddamn Job” is an OWTH original). The jury’s still out on what ought to be considered the best cuts on this collection because they’re all so damn good, but it’s between “Call the Cops” and “Sleeping in Carrie’s Car” which comes off as something between a perverse song of affection and a cry for help: “I can’t help but think, if we tried to lead a normal life…would we survive? Or would we fuck ourselves up worse than we do right now? We’d just be doing it in a house instead of my pullout couch / […] / We’re in debt but we don’t own a fucking thing / I spend your money on booze, you spend my money on speed.”

Although the contents of this compilation come from such varying origins as 7-inches, splits with the likes of Tiltwheel and the immortal J Church, and unreleased material, there is still a remarkable evenness and flow. There’s still a few more days ‘til the debut full-length comes out, so go pick this up and get yourself up to speed in the meantime!

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Under The Influence: "Jailbreak"

2008-07-08T23:59:00.003-04:00

Gotta admit, I never really appreciated AC/DC until the last couple of years. They were always a little too much of a Bud Light-stoner band that attracted the lowest common denominator. That said, I've become a fan. Some bands are just great at what they do and AC/DC is one of those bands. The Mats played this on December 4, 1984 at Pastimes, Buffalo, NY. I'm guessing this was Bob's influence...

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50 States Of Great American Music

2008-07-06T23:17:00.002-04:00

(Idolator) Fuse and the Boston Phoenix have coincidentally come up with similar ways to celebrate Independence Day. The Phoenix has named the best band, best solo artist, and best new band from each of the 50 United States, while Fuse is having viewers decide which of two modern acts should represent each state for an All-American Face-Off. The Phoenix is going for bands that exemplify both the "all-time greatest" and ultrahip, so their choices rarely coincide with Fuse's. For instance, while the Boston alt-weekly praises Alabama's Hank Williams, Louvin Brothers, and Wild Sweet Orange, Fuse sticks with Ruben Studdard and Taylor Hicks. What about Massachussetts' own The Pixies and Jonathan Richman, Fuse? No thanks, they've got Rob Zombie and Staind. But there are a few cases where the two sides agree on the best artists (if not always said artists' home states), and we'd like to celebrate those moments of consensus.

MINNESOTA: Prince / The Replacements
The Phoenix is asking its readers to decide between Prince or Bob Dylan as the winner of Minnesota's All-Time Solo Artist crown (Fuse would obviously go with Prince), but the Replacements get unconditional love from both media outlets. Sorry, Husker Du, Soul Asylum, Babes In Toyland, and Information Society.

Complete Article Here

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Mats on Rock Band 2?

2008-07-06T23:10:00.003-04:00

Finally, some cool Mats news. Hopefully this is true, it'll make the guys a little cash and expose all the kids to some real music.

(kotaku.com) There are differing leaks out there regarding the track list for Rock Band 2. Both are unattributed, one to a friend of a friend who got a look at an email from Harmonix to MTV or something. But in the interest of rumormongering, we'll repeat both with the caveat that there is no way of knowing if this stuff is for real or not. But if, combined, they're half right then this could be one hell of a track list, possibly the best of any rhythm game.

...
57 Ratt Round & Round
58 Red Hot Chili Peppers Give it Away
59 Replacements, The Alex Chilton
60 Rise Against Give it All
61 Rush The Trees
...

Complete article and track list here

.

Catchin Up

2008-07-02T00:51:00.005-04:00

Better late than never. And if you don't have this, you should. IMO it's one of the top post-Mats releases by any member.

(Paste Magazine) I receive more music than I can listen to. Don’t hate me. I do the best I can. What that means is that I periodically go back and semi-sytematically check out what what I missed the first time. Today’s edition is brought to you by the letter B.

I won't bother to tell you about all the crap I listened to briefly, and then disdainfully tossed aside. No sir, you get only the best, the cream of the crop, or, if you prefer, the Best of the B's, albeit belatedly.

Bash and Pop - Friday Night Is Killing Me

I bought this album in 1993, when it was released. I must have played it, but I don't recall much about the music at all. My loss. This is Tommy Stinson's band, and Tommy had just left The Replacements because that old blowhard Paul Westerberg wouldn't let anybody sing or play anything but Paul Westerberg songs. So Tommy split the 'Mats, switched from bass to lead guitar, and then unleashed a batch of songs that sound rowdier and looser than anything The Replacements had recorded since the mid-'80s.

Tommy's a more than capable frontman, and his scratchy tenor recalls Rod Stewart when he could still sing rock 'n roll. And Rod really is the touchstone here because Tommy and his bandmates clearly love that early '70s ramshackle boogie when Ronnie Wood was still trading off gigs betwen The Faces and The Rolling Stones. It's an uneven effort. The ballads don't work, but there aren't that many ballads, and at least none of them are entitled "Tonight's the Night." The rockers and mid-tempo tunes are fabulous, though, and this album is well worth tracking down.

And while we're at it :

Prom Is On

2008-06-28T10:58:00.001-04:00

Thought this was funny:

(Tallahassaee.com) Get all gussied up in your party frocks and vintage tuxes — it's time for the annual grown-ups prom at Waterworks , 1133 Thomasville Road. This year's theme is "Kiss Me On the Bus," which is very appropriate, considering Waterworks is in the building that once housed Kent's Lounge, where The Replacements attempted to tear the roof off the sucker back in the '80s. Have all the fun of high-school prom without the tears, along with great dance music, colored balloons and more at 9 p.m.

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Born In The 80s

2008-06-28T10:51:00.004-04:00

(Bay Area Reporter) Coming as it did after the musically significant and varied decades of the 1960s and 1970s, it took the 1980s a little while to establish an identity. But once it did, via the rise of college radio, there was no turning back.

Minneapolis was a hot-spot during the 80s. Prince grabbed our attention in the late 70s, but came into his own during the decade that followed. The 2/3-gay Husker Du and Soul Asylum also heated things up in Minneapolis.

Before they went on to achieve a certain degree of major-label success, the Replacements released a trio of full-length discs on the Twin Cities-based Twin/Tone Records label. The best of the three, Let It Be (Twin/Tone/ Ryko/Rhino), was one of the most celebrated albums of 1984, and rightfully so. It's the album on which the Replacements found the right way to combine their ingredients into a proper recipe, while still making a mess in the kitchen. Opener "I Will Dare" is a glorious pop song that sounds as good today as it did back then. "We're Comin' Out" does hardcore punk proud, while "Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out" is punk paying homage to itself with a crooked smirk. The remarkably insightful (and still timely) "Androgynous" displays heartbreaking sensitivity. In addition to the cover of Kiss' "Black Diamond" from the original album, the expanded reissue also finds the Replacements trying their hands at the DeFranco Family ("Heartbeat – It's a Lovebeat"), T. Rex ("20th Century Boy") and the Grass Roots ("Temptation Eyes"). Also reissued in expanded editions are Sorry Ma, Forgot to Take Out the Trash and Hootenanny.

While the Replacements were holding down the punk fort, the Stray Cats were ruling the rockabilly revival roost. The trio's fifth and sixth albums, Rock Therapy and Blast Off (both reissued on Hepcat/EMI, with reflective liner notes by Lee Rocker), arrived a few years after they had their biggest success as a band. Rock Therapy, the better of the two, honors the band's rockabilly roots on tracks such as "Race with the Devil" and "One Hand Loose."

The Stray Cats didn't have a lock on the rockabilly revival, and as their pomaded glow began to fade, artists such as Chris Isaak and Ben Vaughn emerged to keep the torch burning. On Beautiful Thing (Noble Rot), Vaughn sounds like Isaak as channeled by Lou Reed, especially on opening track "Jerry Lewis in France." Vaughn's strong suit is humor, as you can hear on "Clothes Don't Make the Man," and "Shingaling with Me."

By the time Midnight Oil had its first massive stateside hit with "Beds Are Burning," they had already been releasing albums for almost 10 years. Long established in their Australian homeland, the band started to get attention with 1983's 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, which contained the song "Power and the Passion." But there's no denying that the politically charge Diesel and Dust (Columbia/Legacy), newly reissued in an expanded CD/DVD edition, was the band's domestic breakthrough. In addition to "Beds Are Burning," the disc contained popular tunes "Dream World" and "The Dead Heart." The DVD contains the documentary Blackfella/Whitefella, detailing the band's 1987 tour, and music videos.

Don Dixon twiddled the knobs on the essential early R.E.M. albums of the 80s, as well as those by Marti Jones, Let's Active, Guadalcanal Diary, out musician Tommy Keene, and others. If Dixon had produced the Bangles, they might come out sounding something like Wednesday Week. Wednesday Week was a 3/4 female band from LA, purveyors of edgy jangle pop on their album What We Had (Noble Rot), which has been reissued with 10 (!) bonus tracks. Not exactly dated, the songs including "I Hate Lying to Mom" and "You Wanted Me To Hang Around" have a definite sound that places them at a specific moment in time. It's a time when you could imagine watching the kids in a John Hughes movie dancing to these songs.

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