Blog: Things I'd Rather Be Doing

According to Billboard.com , the Replacements -- or at least some of them -- have reunited to record two songs for the forthcoming Rhino best-of I wrote about earlier this week. The disc, now apparently titled Don't You Know Who I Think I Was?: The Best of the Replacements , will feature new songs "Message to the Boys" and "Pool & Dive." The songs, written by Paul Westerberg, feature Westerberg, Tommy Stinson and Chris Mars. Session drummer Josh Freese, who has backed a solo Westerberg and played with everyone from A Perfect Circle to Devo, was behind the [...]

Good news from Lawrence Block : The prolific mystery author's next book, Hit Parade , hits stores July 4. Nothing like a good old feel-good book about a professional hit man to stir that patriotic spirit. It's Block's third to follow hit man Keller , and the book again follows the formula of offering short stories that, when read back-to-back, stitch together nicely as a novel (or, one assumes. I'm out of the business of getting galleys way in advance, so I must wait like everyone else). After a long winning streak, Block has been a bit [...]

The near future holds several interesting projects from some favorite artists. The most exciting is the long-promised Replacements box set. Some tangible news about that has started to surface, most on the excellent unofficial Paul Westerberg page Men Without Ties . It seems there will be a 'Mats best of called Bastards of Young in May from Rhino -- one that, unlike the decent but unremarkable All For Nothing/Nothing For All set from Sire a few years back, will also draw from the band's Twin/Tone days -- followed by a multi-disc set. A podcast with [...]

I often get needlessly worked up over things of no consequence. Today, that thing is a report on Billboard.com about the forthcoming new record from "The Who." Consider those quote marks a contemptuous sneer, because, of course, there can be no new music from the Who. Keith Moon: dead. John Entwistle: dead. The Who: dead. That won't stop Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend from sticking that name on whatever it is they come up with in the hope of selling a few copies to the few fans not turned off by their innumerable "farewell" tours over the past [...]

I have been living with the new disc from Track a Tiger for a few weeks now, and I find myself returning to it again and again. A caveat: I'm friends with band leader Jim Vallet, having watched him in the Iowa City bands that he willingly mentions in the TAT bio (Head Candy) and those he doesn't (Devastation Wagon, Peterbuilt, et al). Jim wrote one of Head Candy's sweetest songs, "Part of the Earth," but who knew he was capable of this? Track a Tiger's Woke Up Early [...]

I'm not sure why, but I cringe at the thought of writers tackling recent events in their fiction. It seems as if we need more temporal separation before diving into such charged material. The post 9/11 books and stories seemed rushed; who could adequately process something like that so quickly? Of course, that's the beauty of fiction, offering a tangential way of looking at an event by offering the view through someone else's eyes. With that in mind, I've been waiting with dread for the inevitable Katrina fiction. I'd usually steer clear, but I stumbled into a new [...]

Author David Hajdu, whose Positively Fourth Street was an interesting look at the relationships between and among Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Richard and Mimi Farina, tosses one in from way out in left field with an odd critique of the impact of MySpace on music. The piece , on The New Republic online (requires subscription), starts predictably enough with a look at the site and the way it has exploded as a cultural phenomenon. Hajdu notes that it has 55 million+ members, and that more than 1 million bands and musicians have pages on [...]

Another week, another interview up at PopMatters. My piece on Isobel Campbell was posted today. It's not near the long ramble that last week's Robert Pollard piece was, partly because my recorder crapped out leaving me with only the notes I typed as we talked. Still, I was able to glean her thoughts on her new disc with Screaming Trees frontman Mark Lanegan, her notions about strong female artists and a word or two about Belle and Sebastian. In the week I've been away, I've amassed quite a list of discs to look forward [...]