all the news that print will fit.
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| notes from underground - societal whispers all the news that print will fit. |
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Saturday, April 20, 2002 np: three years of rumours and conjecture smashed... i walked up to wqfs yesterday to retrieve some new albums to review for rotation. the new melvins is one of them, a few others. and the golden apple of the lot: the new paul westerberg. stereo/mono is a double-cd split between paul westerberg on stereo and grandpaboy, paul's alter-ego/side-project (although it's mostly solo as well), on mono. i've had mono (sounds like i've been sick, heh) since february when it received a limited edition release. it's really awesome, but it was the new paul westerberg that i've been most anxious about. and i got my first listen to it yesterday. i've listened to it three times, and i'm in the midsts of my fourth right now. it's truly amazing. i'm terribly biased, of course, but as much as i loved his last record, suicaine gratification, this one is a great big step up on the artistic leanings he took on that record. there are truly beautiful and floating moments of his past flash and glory in songwriting. people can talk about how he hasn't been the same since the replacements all they want, but the fact is, it's taken a long time to get out from under their shadow. when you front one of, if not _the_, most influential band of 1980s underground-rock (a sound they created which resonates in nearly _every_ modern rock/alt-rock song you've heard over the past decade, even if the bands themselves didn't know where it came from) it's a tough act to follow. the sheer brilliance of all the collective players of the unit (paul, chris mars' manic and stylized drumming, tommy stinson's youth-infused energy, bob stinson's trashy but god-like guitar playing, and later, slim dunlap's stonesy-bluesy-country led solo work) hasn't been matched in any of their solo work after. tommy's has come close to catching the spirit of the replacements' in his stones-esque rock. chris has definitely taken up the more eclectic side (and to wonderous effect - at least three of his solo albums are masterpieces of kitsch and weirdness, and catchy songwriting) and so forth. the point being, go give this album a listen. and if you like it, buy it. good music needs your support. badly. if there was any justice in the world, despite his stodgy attitude and their attempts to royally fuck up any success, the replacements would still be one of the biggest and best bands in the world. paul westerberg deserves to be cannonized as one of the great rock songwriters of the past half-century. and i don't think i'm overstating. posted by J. Neas | 4/20/2002 03:17:00 PM
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