Love Ya Til Friday

"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."



Reuters talks to Paul Westerberg about Open Season. Nice to see news again of next year's box set, but really, if you've been a fan of The Replacements over the years, you ALREADY have a lot of the bootleg stuff that's been in the vaults. There was a 4 CD set that was floating around on the torrent sites last year that had a lot of demos, rehearsals sessions and outtakes -it's great, and that's the one I think will be plundered mostly for the Rhino box set.

And if you like the Mats (like me!), you'll be excited to hear the next (October) cover in my 12 Covers-12 Months series. Stay tuned.

WEEKEND UPDATE: Another great article on Paul and the film is in this weekend's Wall Street Journal (so rock of me, yes, I know!). You can read it here if you're registered. It details much of the behind the scnes work exeriences with film directors, and replacing Paul's scruffy voice with the apparently smoother voice of ....Pete Yorn?? One bit at the end has the classic Westerberg faux cynicism...it's below:

"Long-suffering Replacements fans may get something out of it, too. They have waited more than 15 years to see the band, or even just some of its members, reunite for a live performance. That finally is set to happen at the film's premiere in Los Angeles on Monday night, when Mr. Westerberg is to be joined by Replacements bass player Tommy Stinson to play two songs. It's an appropriately bizarre twist for rock's most lovable losers. "We get back together to open up for a cartoon, in front of a bunch of people who never heard of us," Mr. Westerberg says. "That's fitting."