Since approximately one minute after alt-rock icons The Replacements ended their 22-year hiatus back in 2013, fans of the group have been clamoring for a new original material. Now it looks like they may actually get it. Confirming reports made by Rolling Stone last year, Billboard says the band hit the recording studio on a couple of occasions in the last year, and have seven or eight songs ready to go. “It’s just a question of what the band wants to ultimately do with them,” the band’s co-manager David Hill says.
In the meantime, for those who just can’t wait to get their hands on something new from the 36-year-old group, the ’Mats debuted one of their new compositions on their current tour which, thankfully someone recorded in full during their show at the Hollywood Palladium. Called “Whole Foods Blues,” the song is a slow-burning, minor key track about the travails of shopping at the nationwide health food chain. In classic Replacements fashion, the entire thing is gloriously tongue-in-cheek.
If all of that doesn’t satisfy your Replacements lust, the band also has plans to re-release their entire back catalog on vinyl this year. In addition, bassist Tommy Stinson and singer/guitarist Paul Westerberg have been talking with writer Bob Mehr for his upcoming biography of the band, and a deal for a documentary directed by some “Oscar-winning filmmakers” is reportedly in the works. Not bad for a group that took two decades off.