Misc. Open Season Stuff

[kgp]

There should be a catchall thread for all newsbites, articles that come trickling in like this one from the Suicide Girls. (Suicaine Girls?)

Was namechecking Winona really necessary?

[A Regular]

kgp said:

Was namechecking Winona really necessary?

From a site called Suicide Girls I'd have to guess yes?

[MWells]

unsatisfied2 said:

kgp said:

Was namechecking Winona really necessary?

From a site called Suicide Girls I'd have to guess yes?

God, that WAS gratuitous. And she's "got bigger fish to fry"? Like in all her spare time shoplifting or what?

[cford]

kgp said:

There should be a catchall thread for all newsbites, articles that come trickling in like this one from the Suicide Girls. (Suicaine Girls?)

Was namechecking Winona really necessary?

Yea.... that did seem to come out of left field. Winona Ryder was a pretty small blip on the Westerberg radar. It would only make sense to frame a whole Mats article around her if she was some sort of hero to this particular website.

CF

[kgp]

I guess someone has the soundtrack already. Hmmm. Drunken kitties? I thought it was a bear.

artsandfaith.com/index.php?showtopic=10746

and another

www.sonicslang.com/sonic_slang/2006/08/westerbergs_ret.html

[headlightbeams]

For the record and the link-deprived, the first of kgp's finds is the first honest to goodness Open Season review:

artsandfaith.com/index.php?showtopic=10746
New in the CD player this weekend ...
Paul Westerberg - Soundtrack to Open Season
There is something darkly humorous about Paul Westerberg, former leader of the besotted, ramshackle Replacements, creating a soundtrack to an animated film. But that's what he's done. Maybe the cute little onscreen kitties will stumble around in an alcoholic stupor and cuss a lot and end up in exclusive feline rehab facilities. I'd pay to see that. In any case, the animated kitties have provided the catalyst for Westerberg to reunite with the 'Mats intrepid bass player Tommy Stinson (at least for a few tracks), and together they have made their loudest, loosest, most balls-to-the-wall music in more than a decade. No, it's not quite a Replacements reunion, but there's plenty of good, juvenile fun going on in these songs, and if they won't win any awards for introspective insight, they boogie along in a proto-Stones/Faces kind of way just fine.


www.sonicslang.com/sonic_slang/2006/08/westerbergs_ret.html:
Westerberg Re-teams with Stinson on Open Season
We've been (and still are) pretty skeptical about this Open Season soundtrack that Paul Westerberg is penning. Sure, new Weste is always good, but when you're writing songs for a cartoon featuring Ashton Kutcher as a talking deer...well, it sends up a red flag. Moreover, it feels like a task more suited to the Goo Goo Dolls' Johnny Reznick, a long-time Westerberg imitator and an artist much more prone to the drippy, cliche-ridden ballad with that swelling, string-filled chorus that'll win an Oscar, but make the critics puke.
Or maybe it'll kick ass. One thing's for sure, this Billboard story made us feel a lot better, and the presence of Tommy Stinson again on bass keeps us holding out hope for that always-dismissed 'Mats reunion.
Open Season hits theaters on Sept. 26 with the soundtrack arriving 3 days prior. The 12-song tracklist, including 10 Westerberg originals, is below.
Open Season Tracklist:
"Meet Me in the Meadow" - Paul Westerberg (new PW song)
"Love You in the Fall" - Paul Westerberg* (new PW song)
"I Belong" - Paul Westerberg (new PW song)
"I Wanna Lose Control (Uh Oh)" - Deathray
"Better Than This" - Paul Westerberg (new PW song)
"Wild Wild Life" - Talking Heads
"Right To Arm Bears" - Paul Westerberg* (new PW song)
"Good Day" - Paul Westerberg (??)
"All About Me," Paul Westerberg (new PW song)
"Wild As I Wanna Be," Deathray (new PW song)
"Whisper Me Luck," Paul Westerberg (new PW song)
"I Belong (Reprise)," Pete Yorn (version 2 of new PW song)

[Meri]

Am I the last person to realize that Open Season is being released as an IMAX 3D[/color] movie experience?


OPEN SEASON: AN IMAX 3D EXPERIENCE-- SEPTEMBER 29, 2006

OPEN SEASON: AN IMAX 3D EXPERIENCE, Sony Pictures Animation's first CG project, will be digitally converted into IMAX® 3D and feature proprietary IMAX DMR® (Digital Re-mastering) technology.

In the film, Boog (Martin Lawrence), a grizzly bear with no survival skills, has his perfect world in the tranquil town of Timberline turned upside-down when he meets Elliot (Ashton Kutcher), a scrawny, fast-talking wild mule deer.

OPEN SEASON: AN IMAX 3D EXPERIENCE will be distributed exclusively by Sony Pictures Releasing to IMAX, IMAX Dome and IMAX 3D theatres worldwide.

Also, Sony's official Open Season site[/color][/b] now has video clips in addition to the two trailers. One of the clips features behind-the-scenes footage. Unfortunately, though, there's no glimpses into the making of the soundtrack (yet?).

[adamapple]

that review has got me itchin' to hear these songs!@#$%^&*()

[Seven Years]

This was taken off Amazon.

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist
Paul Westerberg's legendary status in rock 'n' roll history is more than secure. As leader of Minneapolis post-punk/pre-grunge icons the Replacements, Westerberg was the creative force behind one of the -- if not the -- most influential rock bands of the 1980s, creating a template that would later be adapted by such diverse rockers as Nirvana and Ryan Adams, among numerous others. And since 1991, he's maintained a solo career that would make most of his peers green with envy, if critically-acclaimed albums and fan respect still have anything to do with the equation. Open Season; Featuring The Songs Of Paul Westerberg marks a new direction and career path for this brilliant singer-songwriter, spotlighting his music from the soundtrack of Sony Pictures Animation's first feature-length animated film. The Columbia Pictures release features the voices of such stars as Martin Lawrence, Ashton Kutcher, Debra Messing and Gary Sinise, among others -- and tells the tale of a domesticated grizzly bear who befriends a deer, helping him and other wild animals escape a hunter in the forest just as hunting season begins. Of course, knowing all this detail may better help your understanding and enjoyment of these songs. But the amazing thing about Open Season: Featuring The Songs Of Paul Westerberg is that it works just as well as a terrific new Paul Westerberg album as it does a wonderful soundtrack. The songs are full of his trademark hooks and melodies as well as his ever-clever wordplay. When discussing how the project came to be, Westerberg is his regular irreverent, self-deprecating self. "After my last arrest, I had to do two-and-a-half years of community service," he laughs. "No. It was by accident. Once again. As fate would have it. My music was being pitched to various studios at the time. The very last one we went to was Sony. I played a few of my songs and was told: 'We've got this bear movie coming up. Do you wanna do a bear movie?' And I said, 'Sure, I can do that.'" He flew back to Minneapolis the next day, immediately composed the song "Right to Arm Bears," recorded it in his home studio, and sent it back to Sony's music supervisor in less than 24 hours. "And so before I knew it, I was writing songs for an animated film!" Westerberg also ended up scoring the movie with film score veteran, Ramin Djawadi. The process and the tunes came even faster after he was able to view a cut of the film, sans music. "Some of the songs, I wrote specifically for the characters, molding them and remolding them," he explains. "And then some things I just had sorta lying around and I changed the lyrics to fit what we were doing. In addition to the songs he rewrote to fit the animated animals, Westerberg also revived "Good Day," a beautiful track from his 1996 solo LP, Eventually, for the film's soundtrack. "That song really helped get the ball rolling after they heard 'Right to Arm Bears' and realized that this guy has a sense of humor -- and he works fast and cheap," he chuckles. "The music supervisor put it on a tape of my stuff for the various executives to hear and everyone thought that particular song was great. So I thought, 'Why not?’ Open Season is also unique in that it features two Westerberg originals covered by other modern rock artists -- "Wild As I Wanna Be" by San Franciscan Cake offshoot, Deathray (who also contribute their own "I Wanna Lose Control" to the album) and Pete Yorn's recording of the haunting "I Belong (reprise)." All the tracks were started and demoed in Westerberg's basement home studio, but the two-and-a-half year adventure would eventually take the composer to New Hampshire, to Los Angeles and then finally back to Minneapolis.
"So you get a little bit of everything on this one -- the old band feel but we've also got the new buddy feel. And the best part is it all sounds like it came out of the same garage."

Cheers,
Greg

www.myspace.com/randallgreg

[ndesimon]

Guilt, I have such guilt...

I'm thrilled that we'll soon have a bunch of new Paul songs. I'm tickled by the possibility of this movie becoming immensely popular, exposing Paul to countless new ears.

I swoon at the thought of Paul giving an Oscar speech in a rumpled tuxedo...however...

I can't help but worry (panic?) that Randy-Newman-Phil-Collins-esque movie soundtrack success could kill any chance of seeing Paul play live again.

So there you have it. I feel guilty for thinking this: but a selfish part of me hopes that Open Season doesn't turn out to be a monster hit.

head bowed in shame,
n

[justlikemartinsaid]

ndesimon said:

Guilt, I have such guilt...

I'm thrilled that we'll soon have a bunch of new Paul songs. I'm tickled by the possibility of this movie becoming immensely popular, exposing Paul to countless new ears.

I swoon at the thought of Paul giving an Oscar speech in a rumpled tuxedo...however...

I can't help but worry (panic?) that Randy-Newman-Phil-Collins-esque movie soundtrack success could kill any chance of seeing Paul play live again.

So there you have it. I feel guilty for thinking this: but a selfish part of me hopes that Open Season doesn't turn out to be a monster hit.

head bowed in shame,
n

After 28 years of history, I can safely predict that you needn't worry. However, were Paul to record an album comprised of tunes making fun of Randy Newman / Phil Collins movie soundtracks, it would probably be snatched up by Hollywood and accidentally become a blockbuster soundtrack, less than a year after he dies.

Seriously though, I hope it does well. He deserves it.

[ndesimon]

Seriously though, I hope it does well. He deserves it.

Agreed, whole-heartedly. Hence zee guilt.

[adamapple]

some more little bits fomr lost hjighway description of record------

Of course, this venture into child-influenced music shouldn't come as a huge surprise to longtime Westerberg fans. For one thing, he's been a proud Dad himself for a few years now. "I think it influenced me to take the gig, in many ways, more than it influenced the actual music,” he admits, “because Johnny is not a fan of my ballads. So the one or two songs they're probably going to be pushing from this album are not the songs he's gonna dig. He likes my rock 'n' roll stuff.”

And then there's just the plain and simple fact that there was often a childlike quality to some of the Replacements' and Westerberg's greatest material, be it "Waitress in the Sky" or "I Will Dare." The man who wrote those songs agrees. "'Mr. Rabbit' was definitely one. And some of the dumber rock 'n' roll songs. By dumber, I mean as in 'good.' Just because it's simpler and dumber doesn't mean it's not good.

The latter could be a description of what was often the Replacements’ aesthetic in a nutshell. And with that in mind, many Westerberg fans will be most excited to hear that two of the new Westerberg originals -- "Love You In the Fall" and "Right to Arm Bears" -- are sort of a continuation of the much-ballyhooed recent Replacements reunion that resulted in two new tracks for a Best of the Replacements album released earlier this year. Chris Mars didn't contribute this time -- but Tommy Stinson, Westerberg's brother-in-arms, plays bass on the two songs. If one listens closely, you can even hear his vocals on "Love You in the Fall."

--------

"I ended up recording about five or six tunes just a couple of blocks away from here at [blues producer and songwriter] Kevin Bowe's home studio," he says. "Kevin was also the guitarist who toured with me last year -- so we put that band briefly back together. Jim Bouquist on bass and [drummer] Michael Bland came over one afternoon to cut those tracks. And in about an hour, it was done

[DDog]

Has anyone heard when track samples / teasers will be made available?

[SnowCover]

Any chance that months song he played at the Pantages Friday night is one of the songs on this soundtrack?

[headlightbeams]

mrtambourineboy said:

Any chance that months song he played at the Pantages Friday night is one of the songs on this soundtrack?

I'd say the "Open Season" track called "Love You in the Fall" stands a pretty fair chance of being that Months Song that PW first played solo at the Friday Nov. 5, 2004 Pantages show in MPLS (also played Sept. '05 in Boston, where a setlist had it called simply "September" according to an old MWT Lyrics thread). Note that it already had a line with "bear" in it (not to mention "bar" as in "Paw, I just shot me a bahr!"):
"The bare trees will barely ease
The silent tears in a bar"

S - E - P - T - E - M - B - E - R
That's when you'll fall for me
Make love in your car
O - C - T - O - B - E - R
That's when you'll be insperable
Under a moon that's full
With a burnin' fire

Love affair can last forever
But not without a reason
It's just a season

N - O - V - E - M - B - E - R
The bare trees will barely ease
The silent tears in a bar
(so what or so a)
D - E - C - E - M - B - E - R
That's when you find another man
And I'll be free to run and understand
With the stars
mmm stars
In the stars

[kgp]

I was wondering the same thing.

[6stringbuddy]

I thought it was "The bare trees will bare leaves". I was hoping it would be the same, but after the samples I am sure it isn't.

[allshookup]

From a blogger/fan's interview of Pete Yorn:

You’ve had a lot of songs on movie soundtracks in the past few years. Do you have anything new coming up?
Yeah, I just did a, uh, Paul Westerberg song. He scored this new animated movie that’s coming out called Open Season, and they called me and asked me to sing one of the songs, so I recorded it and sang it. In the movie there’s an orchestrated version, then I recorded one for the soundtrack, like my own version. The song is called “I Belong,” and I think it comes out September 29th.
- - -
Are there any songs that you think would be cool to cover that you haven’t done yet?
“Unsatisfied” by Paul Westerberg – The Replacements. Definitely.

[kgp]

and the hits just keep on comin'