The tail end of the summer is usually so bittersweet. Swimming trunks are put away, Halloween decorations are dusted off, and cable programming switches from summer blockbusters to brand spankin’ new episodes of reality television. The worst part, for some, is that school starts again. That’s why new releases from Paul Westerberg are both necessary and wanted.

If Radiohead paved the way for mainstream artists to expel their new stuff on the net, then Westerberg is certainly, to quote one of the Bobby boys, “making [the form] it’s bitch.” Since the release of July’s 49:00, Westie has put out the poppy single “5:05″, and just now: “3oclockkreep”, which also includes “Finally Here Once.”

So, big deal… two new songs, right? Wrong! The lengthy, twenty minute “3oclockkreep” features backing vocals by what *might* be none other than the throaty, smoke covered frontman, Tom f’n Waits. Yes, you’ve heard that right. Tom Waits and Paul Westerberg are together on a track and it sounds unbelievable. It might not be what our publisher Alex Young prefers (a Waits/Springsteen project), but it’s certainly one for the cards. With all this new music (and for so cheap, too), one can assume that hand injury a couple years back really sparked some creativity in the Midwestern mogul.

Click here, spend three bucks, and find out:

TAGGED AS: Paul Westerberg