"Dead Man Fake": PW Tribute CD

I'm happy to tell you that a second PW tribute CD has been put together by the folks on the message board. Dead Man Fake: Bring Your Own Lampshade Volume 2 is now available for download. With covers ranging from "I'm In Trouble" to "My Daydream", it covers the entire PW spectrum. Enjoy!

In other PW-related news, Warners released a CD called "Covered: A Revolution in Sound", featuring some of their newer bands covering some of their older bands and Against Me! covers "Here Comes a Regular". You can listen the entire CD on MySpace, including Adam Sandler seriously covering "Like a Hurricane". Scary. And Tommy commented on the (un)likliehood of a Mats reunion a few weeks ago, the probability of which seems to fluctuate every few years. Tommy said: "I just don't know if we have it in us...Why would we do it? Well, they'll pay us really great. Is that the reason to go do it or not? I don't know."

If you like the Justin Townes Earle cover of "Can't Hardly Wait" a few inches down on the page, you'll be pleased to know that it's included on his new album "Midnight at the Movies".

Magnet Magazine: Paul Westerberg 2002 interview and more

It's been pretty slow around here as of late, so thanks to MAGNET magazine for giving us some Mats content today. First up is a post about the five most over- and under- rated Mats songs. I would beg to differ on their picks for over but I agree with 3 out of 5 of their unders. Next, their excellent 2002 cover story on Paul is now up online. This is one of the best interviews with Paul from that tour and I highly recommend it. Also online is the sidebar to that interview, with Paul's comments on his discography - those of you who have always wondered "WTF?" about the cover of "Tim" will appreciate Paul's comment on that: "The cover is the worst piece of shit. [The label] hired Robert Longo: World Famous Artist. Nobody liked it—I can’t believe that Robert liked it." Hah! Oh and one more thing, and this one made my day. It's a short piece from George Pelecanos, who in addition to being a novelist, was also a writer/producer on "The Wire", which as you know is the greatest show in the history of television. So thanks to MAGNET for all the links and sorry we were kind of tough on your under/overs on the message board, we're just a wee bit opinionated!

Paul Westerberg Covered (again)

Thanks to forum poster Schecky for sharing this video of Justin Townes Earle (son of Steve "Walon" Earle) covering "Can't Hardly Wait".

Paul Westerberg Covered

Happy belated New Year. Here's hoping we see even more new Paul music this year...and maybe that we even see Paul. I have a few links to share with you on this snowy Sunday:

• This is a lovely cover of "Meet Me Down The Alley" by Alison Scott, a Minneapolis artist who included it on her recent covers CD, "Hiding Under The Covers" (which was produced by Kevin Bowe of Paul's Westerberg's Only Friends). Enjoy!

• Speaking of covers, I'm posting a link to yet another of Bill Janovitz's Cover of The Week songs. This one isn't a Mats cover (it's Blondie's "Dreaming" mixed with "Till The Next Goodbye", which is enough of a reason to get it right there) but the accompanying post includes a Westerberg story. So it's got that going for it.

• If you have any cash burning a hole in your pocket and you don't have a Paul Westerberg First Act Guitar yet, well, now might be the time to get one. They are marked down to $89.99 on the First Act site, such a bargain!

• The latest issue of MAGNET (Nick Cave on the cover) has a look back at some of their most memorable stories, including their PW cover story from 2002. They also posted a nice item on the "D.G.T." release.

• Profilc video maven Blasty posted another great clip on YouTube, this one is PW solo from...I'm gonna guess on this...2005? It's Paul doing "here Comes A Regular" ("here goes a career").

Happy Holidays: New MP3 Download From Paul!

Ho Ho Ho!

Download 3 songs from Paul Westerberg for $0.74!

You'll get 3 tracks in MP3 format (320kbps), plus very cool,
very plaid, cover art for only $0.74:

1: Always In A Manger (listed as "Always", should be "Away")
2: Streets of Laredo
3: D.G.T.

Misc. Westerberg Links

• Ground Control magazine posted a review of all of the Mats reissues, from "Sorry Ma" to "All Shook Down", "All For Nothing/Nothing For All" and "Don’t You Know Who I Think I Was?". It's a comprehensive look at the Mats catalog and I recommend it even though they don't give PTMM the proper respect, tsk tsk.

• On Wednesday Dec. 10, WNCI's Dead Air Radio Show will devote their entire program to the Mats and PW. You can join host Paul Sweeney at 90.9FM if you're in the New London, CT area or listen online at www.wcniradio.org. The show runs from 6pm-9pm EST. Enjoy.

• Bill Janovitz (Buffalo Tom) posted a lovely acoustic cover of "Little Mascara" on his blog.

Paul Westerberg Interview on "Rock Band"

"Alex Chilton" is in "Rock Band 2" and in conjunction with that, Paul did a phone interview with Brett Milano that is now posted on the Rock Band site. The interview is about 18 minutes long, and Paul talks about the smell of rock and roll, "Rock Band" (he doesn't played it, but his son does and Paul proclaims it "good technological fun"), "Alex Chilton" (the song and the man), the Mats and hostile audiences ("if you can't beat 'em, kill 'em"), the recent sessions with Tommy, Jim Boquist and Michael Bland, the inevitable reunion question (current status: Playing together was a blast but just him and Tommy only didn't feel just right, he feels they need a third element in the mix to make it work), all the money he lost of "49:00" because of the snippets of cover songs, how much fun he had doing it anyway and how much he enjoyed getting the songs out there.