Paul Westerberg is Back, Cheap

Paul Westerberg, frontman for The Replacements, is the latest addition to the ranks of musicians harnessing the power of the Interweb to provide new music to fans.

Yesterday, Westerberg released a single mp3 file on Amazon.com for instant download, for the low, low price of 49 cents. The file is 49 minutes long and contains over a dozen songs - including what appear to be some covers of such classics as “Rocket Man” by Elton John and Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild” - and it’s called…er, 49. Or, more specifically, 49:00 …Of Your Time Life. Because Westerberg is subtle like that.

In keeping with tradition, there is no tracklist and you’re not going to get any lyrics. At various points throughout the album, Westerberg has two separate songs playing over top of one another, and the music will occasionally abruptly stop before starting again as something else. Darren Hill, Westerberg’s manager, likens it to scanning a radio dial - so if you’re one of those people that are driven insane by someone in the car with you rapidly flipping through radio stations with abandon, 49 might be more an exercise in psychological torture than an album of artistic statement. We’re also warned with the following:

“WARNING: DO NOT LISTEN WHILE OPERATING A MOTOR VEHICLE

THIS PRODUCT IS NOT FAULTY - ALL SOUNDS ARE INTENTIONAL

AND VALID AS A WORK OF ART”

I rather enjoy that they felt it necessary to include that little blurb - obviously, you wouldn’t want your intentional, artistic random noises to be mistaken for a corruption in the file that produces unintentional, non-artistic random noises. It is an important distinction not to be taken lightly.

You can head on over to Westerberg’s site, Man Without Ties, for more information and instructions on how to download 49 for your listening pleasure.

(Live video of Westerberg performing “Everyone’s Stupid,” a song included on 49, after the jump.)

You can really start to appreciate the truth of a song called “Everyone’s Stupid” on a deeper level when you note that the person that uploaded it to YouTube got the title wrong. And that Westerberg has only played live once since 2006 when he injured himself with a screwdriver while trying to pry candlewax off of something. Oh irony, you slay me thusly.

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[StereoGum]: Paul Westerberg’s 49:00 Costs 49 Cents