the industry

Replacements, World’s Last Broken-Up Band, to Reunite Soon

Photo: WireImage


’Mats Back Together?: Tommy Stinson and Paul Westerberg, fresh off remastering the Replacements’ first four albums, tease Billboard and fans with reunion talk, claiming they’ve been contacted by Coachella and other festivals and are close to agreeing to reunite. Band would be filled out by a session drummer (as Chris Mars has retired from music to paint) and an unnamed guitarist (to replace Bob Stinson, who died in 1995). “Whatever we did, someone would want something else,†Westerberg complains. “If I went up there straight, they’d want us wasted. If we were fucked up, they’d want us to be this or that.†All we would want is to hear them play “Alex Chilton,†straight or fucked up. [Billboard]

G N’ R Goes Backward: In other not-yet-news, Guns N’ Roses is reportedly “in negotiations†for the release of the long-awaited Chinese Democracy. We’d imagine the negotiations go something like this:
Record companies: Did you finish the album?
Axl Rose: Not yet.
Record companies: Okay, so we’ll talk to you later.
Needless to say, guitarist Robin Finck has left G N’ R to rejoin Nine Inch Nails. But don’t worry, we’re sure you’ll be drinking Dr. Pepper soon. [Billboard]

Mendes Comedy Gets Funnier: Sam Mendes’s untitled comedy, now shooting in Connecticut from a script by Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, adds Jeff Daniels and Catherine O’Hara to its cast, suggesting at last that it might be an actual comedy and not a cerebral McSweeneyian idea of a comedy. [Variety]

Madsen Joins Amelia: Virginia Madsen, still trying to find something interesting to do after Sideways, joins the Amelia Earhart biopic Amelia, playing Richard Gere’s first wife, whom Gere’s character dumps for Earhart. While the period of time for which Madsen’s character will be suffering has not been formally announced, we can safely assume it will be long. [Variety]

Stan Lee Can’t Stop Making Superheroes: Fresh off selling a bunch of new hero ideas to Disney, Stan Lee inks deal to write ten graphic novels for Virgin Comics, introducing ten new superheroes to the fledgling comics company. At some point he’s gonna be pressed for time and just try to slip in Spider-Man again, right? [Variety]