Paul Westerberg
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Paul Westerberg (born December 31, 1959) is an American musician, best known as the former lead singer and songwriter of The Replacements, one of the seminal indie rock bands of the 1980s.
He worked as a janitor in the Twin Cities; according to Replacements lore, he was walking back from work one day and happened to hear a punk band practicing in the basement. Westerberg talked his way into the band by convincing the singer that the other band members - Bob Stinson, Chris Mars and Tommy Stinson- were going to fire him. The singer quit and Westerberg joined the group, which eventually became known as The Replacements.
The Replacements quickly made a name for themselves in the Twin Cities punk scene, largely thanks to Westerberg's songwriting. The band made several critically acclaimed albums for local label Twin/Tone before signing to Sire Records in 1985. Despite the jump to Sire, the Replacements never translated their critical success into commercial sales.
By 1990, the band had run its course. The 1990 Replacements album All Shook Down was for all intents and purposes a Westerberg solo project: there are numerous guest performers and the other three members of the band (including Slim Dunlap, who had replaced Bob Stinson) make minimal contributions. Mars left the band during this project. After touring behind the album (which was well-received) with replacement Replacements, Tommy and Paul went their separate ways.
Westerberg's first solo appearance per se came in from of two songs on the soundtrack for the film Singles. Soon, he had completed his first solo album, 14 Songs, on Reprise Records released to mixed reviews. Three years later, Westerberg released Eventually, which met with critical indifference and poor sales. His third album Suicaine Gratifaction was released on Capitol Records; the label was undergoing reorganization, and failed to push the album.
Westerberg quit the major label circuit, and disappeared for three years before staging a major comeback with two records released simultaneously, Stereo and Mono (Mono being released under his alter ego Grandpaboy). They were acclaimed as his best works since the Replacements, and Westerberg became increasingly prolific, releasing Dead Man Shake, Come Feel Me Tremble and Folker all within the next two years, to critical success.
He is married to former Zuzu's Petals guitarist Laurie Lindeen. They have a son, Johnny, whose voice can be heard on "Whatever Makes You Happy" from Suicaine Gratifaction.
In December 2005, Westerberg reconvened with Tommy Stinson and Chris Mars to record two new songs for a Replacements compilation.
Contents |
Discography
DVD/Movie
- Come Feel Me Tremble - Redline Entertainment/Ventura Distribution (2003)
- Lets Do It - With Joan Jett, from Tank Girl Soundtrack (1995)
Albums
- 14 Songs - Sire/Reprise Records 45255 (1993); produced by Matt Wallace and Paul Westerberg; limited edition CD book Sire/Reprise Records 45335
- Eventually - Reprise Records 9 46176-2 (1996); produced by Paul Westerberg; co-produced by Lou Giordano; (3 tracks produced by Brendan O'Brien and Paul Westerberg) ;
- Grandpaboy (self-titled CD EP) - Soundproof/Monolyth MCD 1315 (1997)
- Suicaine Gratifaction - EMD/Capitol (1999); produced by Don Was and Paul WASterberg
- Mono (Paul dba Grandpaboy) - Vagrant(2002); limited edition Mono stand-alone CD, 10,000 copies produced
- Stereo - Vagrant VR 369 (2002); includes bonus Mono CD
- Dead Man Shake (Paul dba Grandpaboy) - Fat Possum (2003)
- Come Feel Me Tremble - Vagrant Records (2003)
- Folker - Vagrant (2004)