Just a couple months after playing the last of the Repacements' shows in Portugal, Tommy Stinson is already ready to hit the road again, this time fronting a new MVP-class band that will hit the Turf Club on Sept. 12 with Steve Selvidge of the Hold Steady on guitar and Guns N' Roses drummer Frank Ferrer. The Minneapolis rock legend also just dropped a new charity single online and has two more new songs coming on a 7-inch single next month.
The one tune that's out now, a bittersweet strummer titled "Can't Be Bothered" (posted as a video below), can be downloaded via iTunes or Google Play to benefit Roundhouse Young Creatives, a youth arts fund created by the London studio where the song was recorded.
Stinson laid the tune to tape when the Replacements played the adjoining Roundhouse theater in early June. North Mississippi Allstars frontman and ex-Black Crowes guitarist Luther Dickinson also happened to be in London at the time and performed on the recording, as did Davey Lane of You Am I, the opening band for those 'Mats shows. Dickinson also played on the sessions for Stinson's new album, which they recorded back in the States before the 'Mats headed to Europe.
Replacements fans, of course, know Dickinson's prior ties to the Replacements: His late father was legendary Memphis producer and session man Jim Dickinson, who produced the 'Mats' 1987 album "Pleased to Meet Me" when Luther was just a 14-year-old punk hanging around the studio. You can hear his masterful 42-year-old slide-guitar work all over the new song.
Tommy explained in a press release, "I did it as a demo thinking I'd record it with Luther and the band, but the experience at Roundhouse was such a hoot that I decided to release it as-is."
Stinson's new lineup -- which also features bassist Cat Popper of Ryan Adams' Cardinals and Jack White's Peacocks, plus keyboardist Tony Kieraldo – performed at the Newport Folk Festival a few weeks ago and will head to the Midwest in September around Chicago's Riot Fest, where they play the day after the Turf Club on Sept. 13. Selvidge is filling in for his longtime pal Dickinson on these upcoming shows.
Their new 7-inch, titled "L.M.A.O." and featuring the songs "Breathing Room" and "Not This Time," will drop just before the gig on Sept. 11. Those tunes are also being issued on cassette by Burger Records. All this is leading up to the full-length album's release sometime next year, Stinson reports. His last solo record was 2011's "One Man Mutiny."
Stinson also produced a new EP by the buzzing Southern California punk band Together Pangea in his (ample) downtime between this past year's Replacement gigs.
