The surviving members of legendary post-punk band the Replacements have reunited to record their first new songs in 16 years.
Singer/guitarist Paul Westerberg, bassist Tommy Stinson and drummer Chris Mars convened in the band’s Minneapolis hometown to record “Message to the Boys” and “Pool & Dive.” The Westerberg-written tunes will appear on the retrospective CD, “Don’t You Know Who I Think I Was?: The Best of the Replacements,” due June 13 via archival label Rhino Records.
Session drummer Josh Freese, who has worked previously with Westerberg, was behind the kit for the new recordings, while Mars contributed backing vocals. Original guitarist Bob Stinson, Tommy’s brother, died of a drug overdose in 1995, four years after the band broke up without ever achieving mainstream commercial success.
Sources said the long-awaited Replacements boxed set is still in the planning stages and will not be out until 2007 at the earliest. Rhino is also working on expanded editions of the Replacements’ albums, but no release date has yet been announced for those packages either.