Okay, Okay, there are tons more to get to, but I am babysitting my nephews today (ages 6, 4, and 3) and they are all crowding around me, watching me type, and whining about how hungry they are. So far they are not responding to my mini-lectures about suffering for their art. “We have no art,” my nephew Cade said. So here’s what I’ve culled from the Internet so far. Lots of good reads here!
Campfire says Our Man Paul (which will never cease to crack me up, me calling him that) one ups Radiohead with the release of 49:00.
Medialoper calls 49:00 artrock.
This just in calls it not a throwaway but one of Westerberg’s best solo albums ever.
Tiny Mix Tapes claims to be on to Our Man Paul’s plan to shake up the record industry (and picks on him for having an AOL hompage as his official site).
Rock Town Hall reviews 49:00 and writes, “The album functions equally well as an endearingly sloppy take on Let it Bleed and Gasoline Alley, or a musique concrete deconstruction of itself.”
Pop Head Wound talks about the guerilla marketing aspect of 49:00, includes a few live tracks from the Pantages shows a few years back, and a link to a ‘Mats bootleg called Simply Unacceptable.
Rock is Dead RIP has the Gravel Pit bootleg available to download.
Favorite10 has a bit on 49:00, but the best part of it is the comment on the post. I am not going to spoil it for you, go read it and then we can talk about how funny it is.
I really like this review at Unfinished that says, “On albums that skip around or are delivered in a fast pace, reviewers often use an analogy that liken the music to an artist switching stations on a radio. I can’t think of a better analogy to describe 49:00. It even contains a cathartic mash-up of classic rock covers near the end. 49:00 sounds like classic Westerberg, but he comes off as so much more comfortable in this situation where he has decided that the rules simply do not apply.” (Go read the rest, it’s really good and thoughtful, except that part about Folker and the woodshed)
In what is probably my favorite post of the week, Brendan downloads 49:00 and then has to make room for Paul Westerberg on his iPod. Seriously, it’s funny. Read this one because it says things like this:
This is meant to be a comedic blog, but there are two things I don’t joke about: the size of my penis, and how much I love Paul Westerberg. Last night, I downloaded his new album.
P.S. My nephew Liam just asked me, “why you taking a long time? why aunt jodi, why?”
The “Making Room For Paul Westerberg” article is great. My old iPod was at max capacity and I would go through the same thing every time I bought a new CD. Finally, after having to chop down Sandinista to only about 10 songs, I just broke down and bought a bigger iPod.
I love the tiny mix tapes comment that paul is not just shaking up the recording industry with this release, he’s promoting “borderline communism.”