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August 15, 2007 "First Avenue HayDay" is screening tonight at the Fine Line in MPLS. Produced by Rick Fuller (co-director of "Come Feel Me Tremble"), the movie celebrates the legendary club with performances and interviews and includes the Mats, Hüsker Dü, Soul Asylum, The Jayhwaks and many more. See the trailer below for some great Mats footage. Also for MPLS locals, the Twin/Tone movie "7 Nights in the Entry", shot September 2-8, 1981, will be showing at the Riverview Theater Wednesday, August 22 as part of the Sound Unseen Festival. The movie includes Husker Du, The Replacements, The Dads and again, many more. In non-film news, here's an interesting interview with Laurie Lindeen posted on CNN yesterday. July 26, 2007 There's a tantilizing sneak peek at "All Over But The Shouting" (the upcoming Mats oral history by Jom Walsh) up at Reveille Magazine. The book is due out on Nov. 15 and based on this Q & A with Jim Walsh, it's going to be like crack for Mats fans. A couple of interesting tidbits:
Reveille: When did you first see The Replacements live?
Walsh: July 2, 1980. Their first gig at the Longhorn, opening for the Dads (note that The Dads included future HOF Kevin Bowe). I went down with my band after practice. Our drummer, Rick, was 15; our guitarist, Kevin, was 16. They were awesome. Did a fast version of "Johnny’s Gonna Die" and covers by 999 and the Heartbreakers (Johnny Thunders, not Tom Petty). They were amazing. Danced on the floor with my friend Cecelia, with a few other kids. Reveille: What was it about their live shows and music that set them apart from other local bands? Walsh: Spontaneity. Spirit. In the book, Lori Barbero and Marc Perlman say it very well. Lori talks about hanging out in the Stinson basement, watching practice, wondering what was going to happen next. The first time Perlman saw them, they did "Hello Dolly" seven or eight times, driving many out of the room. He realized, "they were more than a band. They were a gang." Reveille: Do you think the remaining members of The Replacements will play live together ever again? Walsh: Yes. April 18, 2007 Laurie Lindeen (aka Mrs. Westerberg) has written a memoir called "Petal Pusher: A Rock and Roll Cinderella Story", (read an excerpt) coming out in May. Here's a summary of the book from the publisher:
Set in the years between the meteoric launches of Madonna and Courtney Love, Petal Pusher takes readers on a stirring journey across rock and roll, from the big-haired 1980s to the grunge-filled 1990s, when Laurie Lindeen brought her all-girl band, Zuzu's Petals, to compete in the indie rock arena.
Minneapolis in the eighties was a musical hotbed, the land of 10,000 lakes and 10,000 bands that gave birth to Prince, the Replacements, and Soul Asylum. For Laurie Lindeen it was the perfect place to launch her rock-and-roll dream. She moved to the city with her best friends Phyll ("Annie Oakley meets Patsy Cline") and Coleen ("former cheerleader gone off the arty deep end") to crash in decrepit apartments and coax punk rock from crappy used guitars. But unbeknownst to her friends, Laurie has a secret in her past -- a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis that fuels her passion to make it big on the local, national, and international rock scene. With inspiring determination, Laurie and her Zuzu's Petals survive the many challenges of being underdogs in a man's world. Then Laurie is thrown a curveball when she falls for Paul Westerberg of Replacements fame and reevaluates exactly what it means to "make it big." By turns hilarious and heartrending, Petal Pusher is a brilliant behind-the-scenes look at music on the front lines, and the awe-inspiring tale of one woman's fight against disease and the disillusionment of life in the rock underground. Laurie will be appearing at the next Fakebook event in St. Paul on June 16. For the edification of non-MPLS people (like me), these events are presented by 89.3 The Current, a public radio station in MPLS and hosted by Mary Lucia, a DJ on the station (and Paul's sister) and are described thusly: "The Current Fakebook series brings together writers and rockers for an evening of music and insights inspired by the written word." Paul appearing live! I thought that might get your attention. For those in the Twin Cities area, here's ticket information. In other new, thanks to Tom for sending in this picture of Paul from a Twins spring training game a few weeks ago. Paul is outfitted in full Twin regalia. 
Feb. 2, 2007 Given Paul's hand injury, there hasn't been much to report so far in 2007 but I've put together a few items that might be of interest: "Bastards of Young" (Elevator version) "Dyslexic Heart" (Acoustic version) Dec. 20, 2006 Sorry to have to report some bad news today. Jim Walsh posts in his blog that Paul had a nasty injury to his left hand, cutting some nerves and damaging cartilage, and is currently in a cast. The details: "A week or so ago he put a screwdriver through his left hand trying to get some wax out of a candle and cut some nerves and ripped some cartilage and hurt himself pretty bad. He's in a cast. He's seen a couple doctors who say he won't be able to play guitar for a year." So please send out some good thoughts or say a prayer to the divinity of your choice for a speedy recovery. Dec. 7, 2006Sugarfoot Music, a MPLS-based label, has releasing "FOR NEW ORLEANS", a double CD to raise money for the Musician’s Village in New Orleans, a Habitat for Humanity project that will build 81 homes for musicians displaced by Katrina. (For more info on the project, visit Habitat's web site). One of the groups contributing a track to this project is PW & The Honky Heartattax (wink, nudge, who could that be....?), doing a song called "Old Money". Also included is a song from Friend & Painkiller Kevin Bowe, "My Favorite Pain", with his band The Okemah Prophets. Many other great artists are on the CD as well, so great music plus great cause = no brainer, buy this one! November 4, 2006Congrats to Dale Edwards, the winner of the autographed PW First Act guitar. At right is a picture of Dale's son Grant, with their spiffy new geetar! 
In other PW/Mats news, a new Replacements tribute album, "We'll Inherit The Earth" was released in October, by 1-2-3-4 Go! Records. Visit their site for a track listing and MP3s samples. Some great versions on Mats classics on there, definitely worth checking out.
"That (the song "I Belong")," Westerberg says, "was the biggest pain in the ass. I wrote it through improvising: I shut my eyes and started playing chords on the piano and saying the words. I came up with a charming, as they say, version. Then for a solid year they kept asking me to re-record it. Then they started wanting me to change the title: 'This Is Where We Belong', 'Is This Where We Belong?', 'Is This Where I Belong?'. They even got Peter Yorn to sing an alternate version, which they use in the film. On the (CD) you get 'I Belong' with me and the band, but on the vinyl version you get what I did by myself in the first place, at home. That, to me, is the one. It had lots of 'waiting' chords, like I throw all these diminished things in while I'm waiting for a rhyme to pop into my head. There was an ache in that version that we couldn't seem to get back."
October 5, 2006"Now, having done Hollywood, Westerberg considers his options. Somehow, doing another film score isn’t at the top of his list. "I'll write another song for another film,” he suggests, “but after hearing strings and orchestras on everything for two and half years, I just want to get a guitar, a bass and some drums and make the most garagelike, nasty piece of crap I can.” Two new interviews with Paul came out this week, check 'em out: And thank to Mark Brown, we have an extended version of his interview with Paul, nearly the full interview transcript. Septober 26, 2006The premiere for "Open Season" was held last night at the Greek Theater in LA and the pre-movie entertainment was a just a tad better than what you and I would find at our local multi-plex: A 3-song set from Paul, Tommy and Josh Freese, featuring: Thanks to an intrepid party crasher, you can read all about it on the message board and also see some pictures from the night, including a great picture of Paul and his family on the green carpet. Oh, and Paul is playing the PW First Act guitar, as you'll see in the picture. And of course, the "Open Season" soundtrack is out today, as is the 10" vinyl with the bonus tracks. One of the bonus tracks, "Wild as I Wanna Be" (replacement version), will be available on iTunes, but the other (an alt. version of "I Belong" will not). The vinyl can be ordered here. Septober 22, 2006The WSJ ran a great interview with Paul today, it really gives you a sense of what it took for Paul to do this soundtrack. You don't get much more corporate than working on a big-budget studio picture, quite a change for any musician, let alone someone used to writing and recording home alone. Example:
For the 46-year-old Mr. Westerberg, whose career could be characterized as a series of near-misses with big-time success, Hollywood represented both a gilded cage and a fearsome wilderness. It's a land of plenty: He was paid handsomely (he won't say how much) for his work on "Open Season" and recorded with bigger budgets and more musicians than he ever had before. Yet he also was put through the Hollywood wringer -- the studio even hired another singer to record a showpiece song Mr. Westerberg wrote for the film (though both versions appear in the movie and CD.) He now jokes about accepting the movie gig as "community service after my last arrest."
The filmmakers also asked Mr. Westerberg to rewrite the lyrics to his song "I Belong" so it would better fit a critical moment in the plot. "It was a group effort and a little bit of a struggle," says Ms. Culton. The studio plans to submit "I Belong" for consideration for the Golden Globes, the Academy Awards and other prizes. But Sony hasn't been shy about bringing a more mainstream approach to his material. The studio enlisted singer Pete Yorn to record a smoother version of "I Belong" that appears both in the film and on the soundtrack album. Mr. Yorn's rendition is the one that will be submitted to the various awards organizations, although prizes typically go to the songwriter, not the performer.
Lots of press happening, here are a couple of new stories:
"A Replacements boxed set is tentatively on Rhino's 2007 schedule. Westerberg maintains a profound ambivalence about his old work and is keeping his distance from compilation labors on the box at this point. But he confesses that he can still be tickled by the 'Mats' music.
"I was surprised the other day when I heard something good on the radio. I turned it up, and I started groovin', and I was thinking, this is sort of like rockabilly, but it's poppy, and yet it's got this garage thing." He chuckles and adds, "It took me 20 seconds to realize it was us -- it was 'Love You Till Friday.' So the proof is in the pudding." There will be a vinyl release of the soundtrack, with the same songs as the CD. But there will aso be a 10" vinyl-only release that includes only PW material, including 2 songs not included on the CD or vinyl editions of the regular soundtrack. The track listing is: Side A 1) Love You In the Fall 2) Right to Arm Bears 3) Whisper Me Luck 4) Wild as I Wanna Be (replacement version)* Side B 1) Meet Me In The Meadow 2) Any Better Than This 3) I Belong (piano/vocal version)* * songs not available on regular soundtrack
The latest issue of "Paste" (October issue) includes "Love You In The Fall" on the CD sampler and an interview with Paul, "Paul Westerberg Fights for the ‘Right to Arm Bears’". Thanks to Paroo for transcribing the interview and posting it here. I found this interesting, since I was wondering why the soundtrack included other bands doing 2 of Paul's songs -- not that there's anything wrong with the covers, I love Deathray's version of "Wild As I Wanna Be", but turns out there's a bit of a story behind them:
"'The Right to Arm Bears' and 'Love You in the Fall' are essentially Replacement songs," says Westerberg. But the studio, oddly, didn’t think Westerberg was Westerberg enough for certain tunes, so they enlisted Pete Yorn and the band Deathray to recut a few tracks.
"I always thought I’d want {to hear other artists play my songs}," says Westerberg, "and now that I hear other people doing them, it feels weird. When I listened to {Deathray’s version of} ‘Wild as I Wanna Be,’ I thought it was me for the first 10 seconds," he laughs. "Then I thought, ‘what have they done?’ {The studio} claims I sounded sick on my version, as in ill, which I was – I had a lung infection. But I thought it made my voice sound kind of good… I mean, do you want charming or do you want somebody who’s gonna sing in tune and not make a fuss?” What is "charming"? I'll take Rhetorical Questions for $200, Alex. Septober 9, 2006 AOL's Music Blog has an interview with Paul. Interesting discussion on the potential Oscar push for one of the songs, "I Belong":
Westerberg spent more than two years swimming in 'Open Season,' an experience he concedes was difficult at times. But now that the album comes out Sept. 26, with the film following Sept. 29, his involvement takes on another dimension -- particularly if the film is successful.
In fact, if Sony has their way, Westerberg might be following Collins and John all the way to the Oscars. "They asked me to go back and do another version of 'I Belong' that they were submitting to the Academy. They felt it was more singer-songwriter-ish than what went on the record," he says. "They're seriously looking at that as a push for the movie. I heard they have or are going to be recording the song in 37 different languages, or something. They're not fooling around." As previously mentioned, several of the songs were recorded this summer with HOF (Kevin Bowe, Jim Boquist and Michael Bland), at Kevin's studio in MPLS. Kevin has some info on the recording up on his site here. Best quote about the recording process from Kevin: "I hesitate to use the word "produce" because you don't produce this guy, you press record, duck and pray." Thanks to Kevin for this great picture from those sessions.
Septober 5, 2006 Another PW story in Billboard today, "Westerberg Open To More Stinson Collaborations", which pretty much is the gist of the story, Paul talks about working with Tommy on the two songs for "Open Season", the possibility that he and Tommy may do a TV appearance to promote the release of the soundtrack (SNL?) and also says "I'm always writing. I was writing when they asked me to do this film, and I kept writing songs through it, some that didn't fit in the film. I could put together a new solo album tomorrow if I had to."
In other "Open Season" news, "Love You In The Fall" is the first single from the soundtrack and has been getting some reported airplay. August 24, 2006Check out the Lost Highway Records site for an interesting interview with Paul. Aside from the two songs recorded with Tommy in LA quite awhile ago, the other new PW songs were recorded just last month, with His Only Friends. And recorded very close to home, at Kevin Bowe's home studio: All the tracks were started and demoed in Westerberg's basement home studio, but the two-and-a-half year adventure would eventually take the composer to New Hampshire (for the earliest recordings), to Los Angeles (for a majority of the scoring process), and then finally back to Minneapolis. "I ended up recording about five or six tunes just a couple of blocks away from here at [blues producer and songwriter] Kevin Bowe's home studio," he says. "Kevin was also the guitarist who toured with me last year -- so we put that band briefly back together. Jim Bouquist on bass and [drummer] Michael Bland came over one afternoon to cut those tracks. And in about an hour, it was done. "So you get a little bit of everything on this one -- the old band feel but we've also got the new buddy feel. And the best part is it all sounds like it came out of the same garage."
There's an article on the Best of CD, including a brief interview with Paul in today's New York Times: "Memories of the Replacements, a Band That Could, but Didn't". Includes a picture of Coach Westerberg at the ballpark. The NYT site requires registration (or you can click here for a peek at it). Potentially very interesting tidbit mentioned in the article: "In a book due out next year built on oral history about the band, Jim Walsh, a columnist at City Pages in Minneapolis, calls the Replacements "the little working-class band that could — but didn't." So for everyone who ever said "Someone should write a book about the Mats"...looks like someone is. June 12, 2006 All positive reviews so far (how could they not be?), here are some from around the web, thanks to everyone who sent in the links:
There's an interview with Paul up on MSNBC's site, it looks to be from Newsweek, so it may appear in this week's print issue of Newsweek as well. Some notes on the interview:
Paul and Tommy were scheduled to call-in to The Jim Rome Show today and premeire the new Mats single. The good news is, Tommy actually called in. The bad news, Paul...not so much. Jim Rome and his listeners were none too pleased with Paul's no-show. But Tommy did a pretty short interview and Jim Rome played "Message to the Boys" and hearing a new Mats song? Makes for a pretty damn good day, regardless. Thanks to Pline who has posted Tommy's segment on the show - for those of you who didn't hear it today or if you want another listen (or 20 listens) to "Message to the Boys", click here for the links to files. March 31, 2006
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