Brand spankin’ new from Paul Westerberg: Open Season Soundtrack

Paul Westerberg‘s re-entry into the world of film soundtracks is greeted ’round these parts with open arms and happy ears. Following his stellar contributions to the Singles soundtrack (Cameron Crowe’s 1992 film about the music scene and dating life in the Emerald City of Seattle, and one of my favorite soundtracks ever) Westerberg has dusted off his movie-musicmaker and done pretty much the whole soundtrack for the new Sony Pictures animated film Open Season.

I’ve read (possibly exaggerated) accounts that for the movie Singles, Westerberg locked himself in a hotel room and emerged twenty minutes later with the classic track “Dyslexic Heart.” Open Season by comparison took quite a bit longer. Westerberg says, “Singles took about two weeks [total], while Cameron Crowe sat there and sorta encouraged me along . . . This project took two-and-a-half years.”

Thanks to the music elves, I’ve got the new song for ya. I can’t think of a better way to kick off a Friday.

I find the new track very enjoyable – the opening is fantastic vintage Westerberg, with a similar feel to tunes like “Be Bad For Me” or the recent ‘Mats track “Message To The Boys.” The lyrics are admittedly a bit simplistic, but I don’t listen to him to discern the meaning of the universe or anything, so this will do just fine. ‘Mats bassist Tommy Stinson adds background vocals and wields the thunderstick for this song, as well as one other track called “Right To Arm Bears” (ha ha).

Love You In The Fall – Paul Westerberg
(Savefile link, open in a new window)

The soundtrack is out on Lost Highway on Sept 26th, and their website has streaming audio for two other tracks: “Meet Me In The Meadow” and “I Belong” (which Pete Yorn also covers as a reprise on the soundtrack). Also, they actually have a MySpace (hey, who doesn’t these days?) where you can stream these tunes as well as the danceable track “I Wanna Lose Control (Uh Oh),” an original composition by the Sacramento (Calif.) band Deathray. The film also includes the Talking Heads song “Wild, Wild Life” – a tune that I’ve found somehow everyone can sing, despite not really knowing what David Byrne is going on about.

Westerberg worked with a variety of old friends and new ones on this project, recording demos of the songs in his home basement studio, as well as in New Hampshire, Los Angeles, and finally finishing up back in Minneapolis. “So you get a little bit of everything on this one,” he says, “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.” The tracks were produced by Westerberg friend & collaborator Kevin Bowe, who has the following to say about the experience: “I hesitate to use the word ‘produce’ because you don’t produce this guy. You press record, duck and pray.”