Customer Reviews

Grandpaboy

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First off, for those who don't know, Grandpaboy is actually Paul Westerberg. Due to restrictions placed by his former label "grandpaboy" is not allowed to release anything under his own name. But enough with the trivia....

I have been wanting this CD for a quite some time, having first gotten a taste of grandpaboy from THE modern rock station, 97x. Three songs (lush and green, hotun, and homelessexual) were in heavy rotation for a while. L&G was the first one out. I found it to be rather serious and deep. When it was followed by the playfully perverted "HotUn" I was delightfully surprised to find out it was by the same artist. This ability to pull off a wide variety of songs is usually not attributed to modern rockers. "Homelessexual" juxtaposes country-twang against provacative, "not-nashville" lyrical topics. The sound bites of "Ain't Done Much" and "Psychopharmacology" show much of the same twang/rock juxtapositions. I find the tunes to be quite catchy and the lyrics (aside from the serious "Lush & Green") to be humourous. Listen to these songs once... and you'll be singing them for weeks.

Following the break-up of the Replacements, Paul Westerberg came on strong as a solo artist with a pair of wonderful songs for the soundtrack to Cameron Crowe's movie "Singles", including the excellent "Dyslexic Heart." He followed those bursts of brilliance with full length albums, which never quite gelled and seemed all the more frustrating because of what their creator had already proven himself capable. "Grandpaboy" then was the moment where he seemed to re-capture lightning in a bottle, with five blasts of back-to-basics song-craft.

Of course, that last term has a slightly different meaning for Westerberg than it does for many former and would-be alternative rock heroes. In his case, back-to-basics means a return to that precarious balance between snotty and insightful and swaggering that has marked most of his best work. It opens with the winning Rolling Stones-y burst of "Hot Un" and continues through the remaining four songs. The end result is substantial enough to remind us of the prodigious talent Westerberg is, but not so long that the welcome is worn out. The last bit is important, because it must be admitted that the songs here do not represent his best work. That said, there is plenty here to support the belief that not all of that best work is behind him.

"Grandpaboy" is an alias for Paul Westerberg, who recorded this EP on a shoestring budget and put it out on a friend's tiny label. When you look at the CD packaging, it seems like a joke.

But, as with The Replacements, the joke is deceiving. This CD actually contains two Westerberg classics: the swinging "Hot Un" and the plaintive "Lush and Green." The other songs are goofy, clever filler. In other words, the same approach as The Replacements: 40% great, 60 % percent good.

If you yearn for the less self-conscious Westerberg, check this out.

After the heavy, oft-depressing All Shook Down, 14 Songs, and Eventually, Grandpaboy finds Westerberg in silly mode (mostly). With "Lush and Green" being a notable exception ( a great piece of elegaic folk), the other four songs are tossed off, done-in-a-weekend-style FUN. I know it's not at a high level of artistry, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. We don't punish Alex Chilton for not living up to Big Star, why should we punish Westerberg for breaking away from sensitivity and having a little f---d up good times?

I like it a lot, and catch myself humming "Psychopharmacology" at least a couple of times a month.

Mr. Westerberg's solo output in the 90's was somewhat sparse in terms of quantity (compared to now:Stereo/Mono, Come feel me tremble, Dead man shake, Folker, all in the space of a couple of years), so when this sucker came out (even though I had to hunt it down and figure out if Grandpaboy was indeed Mr. Westerberg) it was like an event. In fact,in 1992 I was so Replacements and Westerberg starved that when Dyslexic Heart and Waiting for Somebody came out on that otherwise piece of crap Singles soundtrack (the movie sucked too) I did back-flips. I would call this E.P. enjoyable (my favorite is Ain't done much) and would recommend hunting down the 45 [...]

This five-song gem is a delight! The lyrics will put a smile on your face, and the nifty guitar and sax solos with put a jig in your hips. It's only 14 minutes long, but while it lasts it's pretty much perfect. Years ago I gave it to a friend who told me recently he still listens to it because "It's just plain good."

This isn't a bad little collection of songs but I could've done without them and I'm as big a Westerberg fan as there is. These tunes just seem a little half-hearted to me. Not bad, though, just not in the same league as this genius's best or better work.