Paul Westerberg talks to the Village Voice, hints at new solo material

By Andrea Swensson Thu., Sep. 1 2011 at 1:40 PM

Categories: Local Music

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It's not often that Paul Westerberg talks to the press these days -- a fact that Village Voice contributor Peter Gerstenzang brags about in the intro to his new Q&A -- so it's interesting that the former Replacements frontman has shown up not once, but two separate times in New York blogs this past month.

In both yesterday's Village Voice interview and a recent "exclusive" with Rolling Stone, Westerberg hints at the fact that he's sitting on tons of new material that may not ever see the light of day.

In the Rolling Stone interview -- which was almost completely overshadowed by a tsunami of hype from the publication itself, who teased that they were maybe-possibly breaking the news for a Replacements reunion despite most of the quotes in the piece indicating otherwise -- Westerberg scoffed at the idea that his now-legendary band would ever play together again in an official capacity, but said he was working on assembling a 'Mats box set and had written an album's worth of new solo material in the last few years.

Westerberg teased Rolling Stone with info about his new songs in a way that was so, well, Westerberg of him: "I have enough stuff to release one tomorrow, but why bother? In this day and age, my thought is to make a song everyday and erase it as a sort of Dadaist protest."

But in this week's Village Voice Q&A, he takes a different tone.

Are you thinking of putting out a proper solo album again, or have you had it with the industry?

I'm always writing and I have plenty of songs, but I think the Glen Campbell record is a bit of a test to see if people still buy records. Or go for my stuff. I'd like to go on record and say something concrete, but I can't. So, we shall see.

Ah, the old "I'd like to go on record, but I can't" line. So tantalizing. So vague. Still, it sounds like a new Westerberg album is far more likely than anything else from the Replacements camp these days, so we're keeping our fingers crossed.

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