Celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Let It Be and the paperback release of The Replacements: All Over But The Shouting at 7 p.m. on Friday, November 27th at First Ave. Tickets are $6 in advance and $8 at the door. The event is also a benefit for the Twin Cities Music Community Trust and will feature:
The Let It Be House Band
The Idle Hands
Gospel Gossip
High On Stress
Jennifer Markey
Jeremy Messersmith
Martin Devaney
Ashleigh Still
Stook!
The Bottom Forty
The Tisdales
Patches and Gretchen
The Hard Left

And probably much, much more. You can get all the details at on First Ave’s site here.

Okay, I feel not so guilty at all for skipping so many weeks of Monkey’s favorite Paul Westerberg.net feature. Because you know what? There are slim pickins out there my fellow Westernerds. So get out there and get writing.

KEXP in Seattle interviews Laurie Lindeen.

Too Sweet for Rock and Roll has a write up of Achin’ to Be.

The Rock and Roll Geek Show had a great Westerberg quote as quote of the day way back on January 3.

Rock Critics.com brings up the age old question do politics belong in music? Discuss.

Julie at Hughesworld has some interesting observations about Laurie Lindeen, Jim Walsh and their books.

Carrie Brownstein formerly of Sleater-Kinney says Paul Westerberg was her poet laureate for a long time.

The Denver Post lists bands that should never be covered again. Riddle me this, what Pixies song did Paul Westerberg cover?

Kirk at Loto Mojo has an aha! moment reading All Over But the Shouting.

This Book is For You chooses 10 of the Best Non-fiction books of 2007 and includes Jim Walsh, Laurie Lindeen and the phenomenal Rob Sheffield.

Ol’ Scott Hudson, one of our fave South Dakotans gives us a rundown of 2007 including some ‘Mats/Westerberg highlights.

Previously on In the Blogs.

So yeah. Also, I warn you I am watching the “100 Greatest Songs of the 90s” on VH1 (and I am making cookies), I’m a multi-tasking queen of the underground. So yeah. It’s too late to turn back, here we go:

Michael at Teenage Kicks give us his thoughts on All Over But the Shouting, but this post is much more than that, it includes these awesome lines:
Despite the connection I felt to the band, I never really wanted to know them. They had a reputation for being drunk, petty, dismissive, and belligerent. I once stood about five feet away from Tommy Stinson, the band’s bassist, in a nearly empty bar. But I declined the chance to introduce myself. It seemed a risk not worth taking.

Holy Shit! The Presidents of the United States of America’s song “Peaches” is on right now. Remember that song? “I’m moving the country, I’m gonna eat a lot of peaches.”

Blogcritics gives All Over But the Shouting a big thumbs down. Of course, I think the reviewer is wrong, though he does bring up some good points. But, really, I’m still amazed that Walsh gave the book a narrative using other people’s words. Maybe it’s one of those nerdy writer things most readers don’t notice.

Largehearted boy points us to a Paul Westerberg concert in LA on September 16, 1996 that you can download.

Some things you just have to read to understand so I submit to you, Everything I Ever Wanted to know about Love & Sex I Learned from Indie Rock: PART DEUX.

The Official AFI & DF Message Board discuss The Replacements.

Chris Menconi of the The Charlotte (at least I think it’s Charlotte) News & Observer writes a bit about the ‘Mats and being included in All Over But the Shouting.

Yug, it’s been back to back Jewel/Matchbox 20 on the best song of the 90s. I object! However, and I am ashamed to admit this, I find Rob Thomas oddly attractive in a big hunk of cute blond meat kind of way.

Cracked lists The 9 Most Unnecessary Greatest Hits Albums of All Time and includes this little gem about Nelson: answers the age old question, “what would it sound like if The Replacements were gang raped by Styx?”.

Rocksellout.com lists a few of their favorite Westerberg lyrics.

All Music has a review of All Over But the Shouting.

Deus ex Malcontent (god I love that name) writes up a nice piece In Praise of The Replacements.

Jim Walsh stopped over at WYNC New York Public radio to talk about All Over But the Shouting.

Why the Replacements Saved my Life. It’s long, but it’s good. I am sure 99.9 % of y’all will dig this.

Reveille’s got some great pictures of the All Over But the Shouting release party at First Ave. So does Mordac.org.

Be the Boy revists his old fave, The Replacements: There may be bands that wrote better songs, or were better musicians but nobody has ever turned awkwardness into rock and roll and made me feel it on a gut level quite like they did.

The Village Voice lists great books of 2007 you might have missed and includes both Petal Pusher and All Over But the Shouting.

Metachat is linking to a bootleg of The Replacements at Fitzgerald’s in Houston, TX on September 1, 1983 that you can download.

Okay, you gotta stick with me on this one. Wolfdogg is always going on and on about Steve Poltz this dude he loves who happened to write a few songs with Jewel (yeah, Jewel). So of course when I stumbled upon Duck Snorts, a blog about the San Diego Padres who had a interview with Poltz talking about how he was trying to teach Jewel about the difference between The Beatles and The Replacements, well I had to tell you about it.

P.S. Don’t forget to leave a comment for a shot at the autographed copy of All Over But the Shouting.

While I was there, I got my book signed, and then because I am a kind and gentle queen of the underground, I got another one signed for one lucky reader!

Woo to the hoo.

As you can see it’s an actual copy of All Over But the Shouting and not just a piece of paper that I had him sign in an attempt to fool all you.

The inscription is “Hey You, Remember singing iwilldare.com like we were headed for the promise land? Cheers, Jim Walsh.” It’s a riff on a Mad Ripple lyric from the song Homebodies (Don’t be careful with your love).

So what do you have to do to get this hot little number sent your way? Just leave a comment here telling us why you want the book or why you deserve the book or why you visit paulwestberg.net or why birds suddenly appear every time you are near.

Then we’ll put all the commenters names in a hat and draw one lucky winner.

Okay, in honor of the All Over But the Shouting book launch party at First Avenue on Wednesday, November 28th, at 7 p.m. I’ve gotten together all the latest hooha about the book, because I am good like that.

Also, as a warm up to the First Ave. shindig, Walsh will be at that Barnes & Noble in the Galleria in Edina, MN on Tuesday, November 27th and at the Electric Fetus in Minneapolis on Wednesday, November 28th at 5 p.m.

Dan Wilson (who just released the quietly beautiful album “Free Life“) formerly of Trip Shakespeare and Semisonic (and producer of my one of my all-time faves Mike Doughty) writes about reading All Over But the Shouting on tour and “it was kind of exhausting reading the words of so many friends, fans, and colleagues, all confirming my suspicion that the Replacements consciously avoided the success that we all wished for them.”

Vita.mn, the Strib’s alt weekly, gives the book and The Replacements a lot of ink (er or pixels I guess) with an interview with Walsh and some excerpts from the book.
At Reveille, Walsh himself writes about a Hootenanny and a lead up to the big launch party Wednesday (November 28th) at First Ave: The reason “If Only You Were Lonely” is such a universal song is because there’s no “if.” Everybody’s lonely. The Replacements made loneliness feel fun, like a sacrament.

John Davidson at The Big Takeover talks about how he, himself had considered doing and oral history and though he find some frustration with Walsh’s book is overall pleased with the end result.

The Austin Statesmen in Texas gives the book a great write up: But it made for some good stories, many of the best of them preserved in Walsh’s book. This is what people do when they’re no longer young enough to rock and roll all night and party every day. And it beats confronting the at-times discomfiting realities of being, belatedly, a grown-up: Bob Stinson is dead now, having worn out his body a dozen years ago. Tommy is on Axl Rose’s payroll and Westerberg is making quiet records in his basement. We’re bastards of old. Where’s the song about that?

P.S. You can listen to Walsh on the Don Shelby show, here and he’ll be on KFAN 1130 AM Tuesday at 2 p.m. with Chad Hartman and Brian Oake. I am not sure if you can listen on the web site, because the web site BLOWS.