Friday, November 29, 2019

Paul Westerberg and The Replacements- A Couple Upgrades and Updates



A couple months back I posted the Replacements, Pleased To Meet Me Sessions. Thanks to reader Will, he recognized the version of Tommy Stinson's, If There's Trouble On The Way (track 17), as the copy he had trouble with in his tape deck that crunched the tape. The flaw appears as a momentary gap that apparently I didn't notice or I felt this is as good as it got. He sent me a non-crunched version to post, so if you downloaded the file, substitute in this track as an upgrade. (see below for download)

Will is also offering up an upgrade for Paul Westerberg's solo track, 33rd of July. A 160 kbps version of the song that has been around since 1999 has a glitch at 1m 40s. I sourced a lot of mp3's around that time via file sharing and downloading and I have a disc of Westerberg non-album tracks on a burned cdr. I checked my version and it sounds fine, but Will was tired of the flaw and actually bought the Japanese version of Suicaine Gratification just to get the 33rd of July track.

He has provided the flawless versions of both tracks in Apple lossless m4a format and also I converted the files to FLAC a format I'm more familiar with, so you have a choice. (I used to use box.net for linking single song files, so let's see if it still works. Let me know if there are any problems downloading or playing.)
Enjoy!

REPLACEMENTS- Trouble on the Way (m4a)
REPLACEMENTS- Trouble on the Way (FLAC)

PAUL WESTERBERG- 33rd of July (m4a)
PAUL WESTERBERG- 33rd of July (FLAC)

Please do not sell!
Please share!

Today is Black Friday here in North America, is this a thing worldwide as well? Sounds like another excuse for a over-hyped shopping day or as I like to call it Boxing Day part 1. Today is also Record Store Black Friday which includes a special release, the first vinyl release of Paul Westerberg & Grandpaboy, 2002's double CD, Stereo/Mono. I'm not sure if I'll buy the vinyl version because I have the original double CD release, but in tribute I'm listening the discs as I write this. This album has special meaning to me because I traveled to Minneapolis to see Westerberg (for the first time) play one of his solo shows at the Guthrie Theater on June 30th in support for this album. It was a incredibly intimate concert that I was thrilled to attend and even recorded the show to relive the show whenever I want.


p.s. An update about my Replacements- Dead Man's Pop order: It finally arrive on Tuesday, November 26th! The boxset looks amazing with a nice gatefold that holds the CDs and a album-size booklet with photos and information and history about the recordings. It includes one LP record with the remixed version of Don't Tell A Soul. What it didn't include was the limited cassette of the album with two bonus songs not found elsewhere in the set. I don't want to harp of this too much, but this raises a lot of questions. I started writing a timeline about my wait for arrival (a day before it actually arrived)...indulge me if you dare.
  1. July 21, 2019, placed order with Rhino for presale of Dead Man's Pop boxset. The first 500 presale orders would include a limited edition cassette with some tracks not included in the boxset.
  2. I received a message a day before the release date Sept. 26, that the shipping was delayed with issues with their warehouse. As a consolation, they sent a "courtesy" download of the release with the physical boxset to ship the next week.
  3. I emailed Rhino on October 28 and inquired if it was shipped and when I might expect delivery. 
  4. They responded on November 7 with the usual "it has always been and always will be, our mission to provide the best service to fans of our artists. However due to a complex warehouse move we have significant backlog of both customer inquiries and shipments..." They had no idea when the order would be shipped.
  5. Nov. 16, received email saying the order is on the way. In the order summary, the item shipped is  1 QTY- 4 CD/1 LP Deluxe and  0 QTY- Dead Man's Pop cassette. With no indication if the cassette is B/O-ed or if I won't receive one since it is limited. 
  6. Nov. 26, arrived! Nearly 2 months after the album was officially released and for sale in local retailers.
The point is I bought this as a presale, I expected to receive it before or when the stores would sell them. When I returned from my trip on October 12th, I saw the boxset in my local bookstore. In fact it is priced about $25 less than I paid for it, plus exchange. So in reality I paid $138 CDN ($104.13 US), in the store it is $89.00 CDN. (That's almost an extra $50). I've been told by friends I should get a refund, but the main attraction of the presale was the extra cassette and is the reason I didn't get it because it shipped so late or was I not one of the first 500 that ordered? I will follow up with Rhino/Warner Music and see if I can get an answer, I doubt it. I'll keep you updated. 

7 comments:

Jobe said...

And I can't find the two cassette songs ANYWHERE on the net either. Love the site. By the way you got any updates on Paul's whereabouts?

Bob Mehr said...

Send me your address and I will make sure you get a cassette..

Bob Mehr said...

bobmehr24@gmail.com

Jobe said...

Mr.Mehr e-mail sent

allan said...

Another Canadian customer here with a similar tale of woe. I also pre-ordered and finally got my set December 2, but no cassette. There has been a big discussion of this debacle on the later pages of this message board (page 47 or 48). Someone from Rhino is apparently making sure people get cassettes (I hope you got yours):
https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/throw-the-mats-a-dime-the-replacements-news-discussion-thread.861933

Anyway, great site!!!

binky said...

Thanks for the link! I see I'm definitely not the only one. I connected Mr. Mehr and he said he would send me a copy of the cassette, which i really appreciate. (still waiting...)

Vandal Lane said...

Great ppost thankyou

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