Happy New Year's Eve Birthday, Paul Westerberg and Color Me Obsessed with The Replacements

Today is Paul Westerberg's birthday, so Happy Birthday to him, Happy New Year to the rest of you. His recently released tune My Road Now popped into my head while watching Color Me Obsessed, the doc on The Replacements that includes no members of the band and no music by the band (which you can stream in its entirety here).

My Road Now



Westerberg and Tommy Stinson are putting out some music to benefit The Replacements' Slim Dunlap who suffered a stroke last February, you can get more info at paulwesterberg.com or soon at the Songs for Slim facebook page and website. Chris Mars has done a track (adding to the one he's already released for Slim), and it looks like 17 more artists will be recording songs for the cause including Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, and Jakob Dylan.

Color Me Obsessed



Love Untold



Nowhere Man



Westerberg and Joan Jett

Tommy Stinson - It's a Drag



Tommy Stinson - Meant To Be



Tommy Stinson - Zero to Stupid



Chris Mars - Popular Creeps



Chris Mars - Monkey Sees



Slim Dunlap - the Ballad of the Opening Band

Slim Dunlap - Hate This Town

New Mendicants - This Time

If you were in a newly-formed band touring Australia, would you put out as your first release an INXS cover? The New Mendicants would. The New Mendicants are comprised of Joe Pernice (Pernice Brothers, Scud Mountain Boys, Chappaquiddick Skyline), Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub, BMX Bandits ), and Mike Belitsky (The Sadies, Jale - not pictured).Here's the scoop from The Pernice Brothers website where you can purchase the new EP:

"This 6-song CD EP was put together so Norman and Joe would have something to sell on their January/February 2013 tour of Australia. (Mike wasn't actually in the band on its first day, when the touring plan was hatched and flights were purchased. He joined on the 7th day.) It contains 3 brand new songs, plus 2 instances of Joe and Norman covering themselves (tres postmodern) and one INXS cover (The Australian government requires musicians wishing to tour Australia release an INXS cover before they will issue the necessary work visas. But luckily, they had some good songs.) This is a limited-edition piece, and is probably only available via mail order. This will ship in late January/early February, and will be available then in all the usual digital places."



I put Joe Pernice up there with Mark Kozelek as a genius singer-songwriter who hasn't yet received the deserved accolades. Norman Blake, I think, has been recognized as a great guy with a melody already. Here's a few examples of each to jog your memory.

Overcome by Happiness Something For You (the first minute of this tune reminds me of Teenage Fanclub) Zero Refills Dumb it Down The Great Depression Teenage Fanclub - The Concept Teenage Fanclub - Everything Flows Teenage Fanclub - Baby Lee Teenage Fanclub - Dumb Dumb Dumb Teenage Fanclub - What You Do To Me Teenage Fanclub - Neil Jung

The Shins - The Rifle's Spiral

You know why The Shins' The Rifle's Spiral is so special? MAGIC!!!!



I don't think I had heard of Nintendo 3DS before, or maybe I threw it out of my mind as unnecessary info. But this video was pretty eduactional for me as to how much work goes into a visually rich stop-motion video such as this one.