Rapid Response: Paul Westerberg

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10 words or less, please.

― ben welsh (benwelsh), Sunday, 29 August 2004 03:37 (twenty-one years ago)

What?

― Jimmy Mod, Man About Towne (ModJ), Sunday, 29 August 2004 03:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Best so far this decade. All Shook Down volume two.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Sunday, 29 August 2004 03:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I love the man, I do, but "best Paul Westerberg album of the 21st century" doesn't exactly fill me with eagerness. Neither does All Shook Down Vol. 2. I'm sure it's perfectly nice. They're always perfectly nice. And those of us who loved him back when will always rally round and say that this is the one we've been waiting for, while the unconverted roll their eyes and look at us like the sad fools we are.

Which means I'm buying it, of course.

― spittle (spittle), Sunday, 29 August 2004 04:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I was a huge 'Mats fan through all their stages and have liked most of his solo work; All Shook Down being my personal fave. Making this comparison might mean different things to different people, but it's a high compliment coming from me.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Sunday, 29 August 2004 04:27 (twenty-one years ago)

"all shook down" is great

― amateur!!!st (amateurist), Sunday, 29 August 2004 04:28 (twenty-one years ago)

i love that line about the singapore sling and the fashion magazine and the airport. that's from all shook down, right?

― youn, Sunday, 29 August 2004 04:53 (twenty-one years ago)

all shook down is one of the worst albums ever released by a major band.

i know a lot of people love it. i've tried going back to it a few times over the years to see what i was missing, and every time i discover that i missed nothing.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Sunday, 29 August 2004 05:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I loved All Shook Down at the time, but in retrospect that was just preparation for me tending to overrate all Westerberg solo efforts out of loyalty. As a Replacements record, I'd rate it last. As a Westerberg solo effort, which is probably a fairer way to assess it, I'd put it second, under 13 Songs.

― spittle (spittle), Sunday, 29 August 2004 05:31 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd put it second, under 13 Songs.

I really don't see where Fugazi comes into this.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Sunday, 29 August 2004 05:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Oops. 14 Songs, that is.

― spittle (spittle), Sunday, 29 August 2004 12:57 (twenty-one years ago)

World Class Fad was the last time he seemed able of writing a great Replacements rocker....

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 30 August 2004 21:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Have you not heard the Grandpaboy "Mono" disc?

― Bimble (bimble), Monday, 30 August 2004 21:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Have you not heard the Grandpaboy "Mono" disc?

a couple of songs, but his newer rockers always hit me as kinda bar bandy, slighty stonesy things....and pretty weak lyrically....but maybe i need to hear more.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Monday, 30 August 2004 21:42 (twenty-one years ago)

last time he was able to write a great replacements rocker was circa side 1 of pleased to meet me.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Monday, 30 August 2004 21:47 (twenty-one years ago)

There's some good stuff on the first half of last year's 'Come Feel Me Tremble'. Search 'Crackle and Drag(original take)'

― derrick (derrick), Monday, 30 August 2004 22:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Picked this up today and I think it may turn out to be my favorite PW solo cd. For some this would be damning with faint praise, but not me.

― Jim Reckling (Jim Reckling), Saturday, 11 September 2004 03:47 (twenty-one years ago)

did anyone like Eventually as much as I?

― Vacillating temp (Vacillating temp), Thursday, 23 September 2004 02:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I liked it. I think "Mamadaddydid" is my favorite solo Westy song.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Thursday, 23 September 2004 03:11 (twenty-one years ago)

It took me a long time to get into Eventually, but I did.

Suicane Gratifacation, on the other hand, lost me somewhere. I've been real tentative about anything else he's done since then.

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Thursday, 23 September 2004 03:13 (twenty-one years ago)

i found a live version of paul on jools holland's show doing it's a wonderful lie somewhere, and it was damn near perfect. whoever said crackle and drag was otm.

― drew, Thursday, 23 September 2004 03:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Standouts on the new album: Folk Star, Anyway's ALl Right, How Can You Like Him. Looking Up To Heaven's like a Ryan Adams track-gone-right.

― ex-jeremy (x Jeremy), Thursday, 23 September 2004 03:29 (twenty-one years ago)

As Far As I Know is certainly an ace song.

― fred burrows, Thursday, 23 September 2004 20:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Never seen all the fuss about All Shook Down. It's just bland and underwhelming.
Mats albums in order of greatness...
1.Let It Be
2. Pleased To Meet Me
3. Tim
4. Hootenanny
5. Sorry Ma
6. Stink
7. All Shook Down
8. Don't Tell A Soul (production stinks)

I fucking love the first 6, but then there's a huge dip after.
Crackle & Drag is fantastico but many of his recent rockers are a bit bar bandy. But I'm glad he's gone back to lo-fi production.

― Stew S, Thursday, 23 September 2004 20:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Conversely, I've never understood all the Pleased To Meet Me love. To me, it's their most phoned in album ever (followed closely by Don't Tell a Soul).

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Thursday, 23 September 2004 20:21 (twenty-one years ago)

But but but...Alex Chilton, Skyway, Can't Hardly Wait...

― Stew S, Thursday, 23 September 2004 20:27 (twenty-one years ago)

No, those songs are alright. But what about the rest of it...I mean, really.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Thursday, 23 September 2004 20:29 (twenty-one years ago)

b-b-but Valentine! IOU!

I love that album, as it was my introduction to them.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Thursday, 23 September 2004 20:40 (twenty-one years ago)

for me, it took seeing paul live and him playing stuff like valentine and never mind to realize how absolutely uber-classic songs they were. for some reason, they come across slightly flatter on record, and yes i do think it's the production.

― drew, Thursday, 23 September 2004 21:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Jim Dickinson will do that to a band.

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Thursday, 23 September 2004 21:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Any suggestion that Pleased to Meet Me was anything short of fantastic is madness. Stew and Shakey Mo have already hit the major tracks but I can't think of anything on that album that's bad.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Thursday, 23 September 2004 21:23 (twenty-one years ago)

pleased to meet me is a damn good album. but hootenanny is a great album. "run it," "take me down to the hospital," "you lose," "treatment bound," i could go on and on. and you've gotta love that two-dollar drum machine on "within your reach." they had so much more life in them in those days.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 23 September 2004 21:29 (twenty-one years ago)

By "life", do you mean "booze"?

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Thursday, 23 September 2004 21:34 (twenty-one years ago)

well there was plenty of booze and pills, no doubt about that. but that was their problem, not mine. as a fan, i mean "life" in the sense of spirited, freewheeling, fuck-it-all songwriting, playing and singing.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 23 September 2004 21:37 (twenty-one years ago)

i also mean that "the ledge" isn't fit to kiss "you lose"'s ass.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 23 September 2004 21:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Sure, there's a raw, ragged rock 'n roll spirit to the Twin Tone albums that the Warners stuff never recaptured (losing Bob Stintson is a big part of that) but there are some wonderful songs on Tim and Pleased...
Hootenanny is phenomenal - quite right about Within Your Reach and Run It. Take Me To The Hospital shows they were all too aware of their drinking and drugging. And it fucken rocks dude!
Sorry Ma is also wonderful - some silly folk will have you believe it's some drunken attempt at hardcore. Nonsense, it's just amazing deliquent youth punkarama. Johhny's Gonna Die show Westy already had a way with a ballad. That album is a total blast. Maximum fun.
Stink is great too. "FUCK FUCK FUCK. FUUUCK MA SKOOOOL!"
The wild rock 'n roll of these albums is something many bands aspire to but rarely capture. They were ragged as hell, but fundamentally tight, which meant they could sound like they were on the brink of falling apart then pull it all together again. The effect is thrilling. We're Coming Out is a great example.

― Stew S, Thursday, 23 September 2004 22:04 (twenty-one years ago)

i am as big a booster of tim and pleased as you will find. but nightclub jitters? come the fuck on. i'd also like to raise an eyebrow at the aforementioned the ledge, which is maybe the first of many westerberg tracks to grope blindly at meaningfulness. that being said, pleased features some of the band's highest highs. anybody who prefers the time version of can't hardly wait needs to have their ears unclogged.

― drew, Thursday, 23 September 2004 22:07 (twenty-one years ago)

If you hate "Nightclub Jitters" I contend that you hate fun, sir!

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Thursday, 23 September 2004 22:17 (twenty-one years ago)

there's a raw, ragged rock 'n roll spirit

tommy once told creem magazine, quite emphatically, that the replacements were a rock and roll band who hated "rock." that was the first time i had heard anyone make that distinction, and i instantly understood him even if to this day i don't have a total grasp on what the hell he was talking about. though i think it might have something to do with swing and other such stuff. not that the replacements swung exactly. but at least they understood that you're supposed to. pleased to me meet me has lotsa good songs -- stew s OTM about everything in his last post -- but it's also the album where they stopped playing rock and roll and started playing rock.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 23 September 2004 22:17 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Ledge" is damn near the epitome of what the last song on side one of a late-eighties rock record should shound like.

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Thursday, 23 September 2004 22:19 (twenty-one years ago)

is that a good thing or a bad thing?

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 23 September 2004 22:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I actually like "The Ledge" a lot. Yeah, sure, it's overwrought and kind of the cartoon suicide you might find in a John Hughes movie or something like that, but I love the way the rhythm section propels that one along, and the way you can actually hear Westerberg's voice go from upset to desperate.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Thursday, 23 September 2004 22:29 (twenty-one years ago)

or from in tune to quavery and flat.

― drew, Thursday, 23 September 2004 22:54 (twenty-one years ago)

"though i think it might have something to do with swing and other such stuff. not that the replacements swung exactly. but at least they understood that you're supposed to."

As a matter of fact, Paul Westerberg said pretty much this exact thing a couple of years ago. He was faulting the bands rhythm section but went on to say that at least they knew you were supposed to swing a bit. Actually to tie this in to another recent thread, he proceeded to trash Nirvana for lacking any swing whatsoever and blamed it on some generational cycles and growing up listening to motionless records. He kind of lost it for a bit but I guess he's got your back.

― danh (danh), Friday, 24 September 2004 02:15 (twenty-one years ago)

OK, I'm listening to Folker after all sorts of people assured me that this really was the best PW album since (your favorite PW solo album here). And...nope. Sorry. It's flat. He's flat. No tunes! Several notches below Mono, and even that wasn't as good as it was supposed to be. It's nice he's still around and all, but I refuse to pretend he's still interesting.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Friday, 24 September 2004 03:14 (twenty-one years ago)

five years pass...

things paul westerberg is in "gun shy": rock star, fruit jar, yellow snake in a can, farm hand, john foot, chain link jackknife, iggy and the book

this album is really good! all his basement recordings in the last ten years have been so good.

― iiiijjjj, Sunday, 30 May 2010 00:22 (fifteen years ago)

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Rapid Response: Paul Westerberg - Folker