UPDATE 8/28/08- Two more new tracks have been added to the Westerberg downloads, "3oclockcreep," the first of the two new cuts, comes in at a chunky 20 minutes, and the second cut, "Finally Here Once," traditional 3:27, according to the two songs' distribution page at TuneCore's site.
UPDATE 8/27/08- Replacements drummer Steve Foley, 49, died last weekend in Minneapolis, MN. According to Minneapolis media, he accidentally overdosed on prescription medication.
Foley joined the Replacements in 1990 as a substitute for the band's original drummer, Chris Mars.
MUSIC NEWS- Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg is the latest artist to make use of the internet for quick distribution of new music and tunes. On Monday (7/21), Westerberg made his cool, new 44-minute single MP3 file of a dozen-plus songs available, named "49:00," for 49 cents. Amazon.com is handling the sales via a link from the Westerberg web site Men Without Ties (and thru our Amazon MP3 button here on MNN- click any song to buy and use the Amazon search bar for 49:00). Tunecore will also be carrying the release. "He finished it on Monday, sent it to me on Tuesday and it was out this weekend," Westerberg manager Darren Hill recently told Billboard magazine.
"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 sales price was a joke suggested by 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. "49:00" has no track list or lyrics, keeping with a long-standing Westerberg tradition. But several of the songs will be familiar to hardcore fans, including an alternate version of "Out of My System," which previously appeared on compilation cd "Hot Stove, Cool Music," and "Everyone's Stupid," which is written from the vantage point of a pre-teen who discovers he's the last to know about his parents' impending divorce. Without revealing too many specifics, Hill says "49:00" is "just the tip of the large creative iceberg. Paul has been writing and recording at a furious pace." He added that "there are no plans or talk of doing any performances at the moment." So we can expect more new stuff soon! Westerberg has only performed once since his severe fretting hand injury back in 2006. He injured himself trying to remove candle wax with a screwdriver (not a good idea, kids!). He was the subject of a September 2007 episode of "The Craft," a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame chat-and-sing series similar to VH1's "Songwriters," at First Avenue in downtown Minneapolis, where "Everyone's Stupid" was premiered.
In other news, the Replacements' major-label catalog will be reissued in expanded form by Rhino Records on September 23.
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