Pitchfork

As previously reported, former Replacements frontman Paul Westerberg is readying his first greatest hits collection (a sadly relative term in his case) devoted to his 12-year solo career. According to his official website, the 20-cut tracklist for Besterberg - The Best of Paul Westerberg has been finalized, and includes some of the more interesting "best of" selections in recent memory-- offering the stronger songs from the alt-rock hero's studio releases (on two different labels), plus a trio of soundtrack-only exclusives, two non-album B-sides, a pair of unreleased tracks from the Eventually sessions, and a lone selection from his side project/alter ego Grandpaboy. Now that's the kind of fan-conscious hits package we like to see (paying attention, Axl?)...no wonder they named the high school in Heathers after the guy. It's like this:

01 Dyslexic Heart
02 Knockin on Mine
03 World Class Fad
04 Runaway Wind
05 Things
06 Seein' Her
07 Man Without Ties
08 A Star is Bored
09 Stain Yer Blood
10 Love Untold
11 Once Around the Weekend (alternate mix)
12 Angels Walk
13 It's a Wonderful Life
14 Lookin' Out Forever
15 Nowhere Man
16 High Time (Grandpaboy)
17 Let the Bad Times Roll
18 What a Day (For a Night)
19 All That I Had
20 C'Mon, C'Mon, C'Mon

This collection marks the Westerberg's first release since 2004's pleasantly reliable LP Folker, and will be released on May 17 via Rhino. And while no updates on new studio recordings have surfaced, Westerberg has recently announced an additional 12 U.S. tour dates for his spring 2005 trek in support of the last disc. The lineup:

04-14 Milwaukee, WI - The Rave/Eagles Club
04-15 Chicago, IL - Riviera Theatre
04-16 Louisville, KY - Headliners
04-18 Columbus, OH - Newport Music Hall
04-19 Cleveland, OH - House Of Blues
04-21 Covington, KY - Madison Theatre
04-22 Detroit, MI - St. Andrews Hall
04-25 Boston, MA - Avalon
04-26 New York, NY - Supper Club
04-27 New York, NY - Supper Club
04-29 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
04-30 Philadelphia, PA - Theatre Of Living Arts
05-01 Norfolk, VA - The NorVa

Finally, as we touched on in our last Westerberg update, Rykodisc is prepping a set of reissues of the Replacements' first four Twin Tone albums (which include the alt-rock benchmark Let It Be). The discs are expected for release on a yet-to-be determined Tuesday this fall, and are promised to include unspecified bonus tracks (finally an official CD release of the slacker-rock poems "If Only You Were Lonely" and "Don't Get Married"??). Rhino is also promising remastered versions of the band's four remaining Sire-released albums, but details on when we can expect them are currently scarcer than Chris Mars' whereabouts.