MINNEAPOLIS — Paul Westerberg is ready to get back to his roots.

        After his last solo record on a major label failed, Mr. Westerberg abandoned slick production and signed with independent label Vagrant Records for Stereo, a two-CD set that captures him “unmixed, unproduced, unengineered” — flubs and all.

        “It infuriates me that I've listened to some records we spent so much dough on that sound almost as good as this one,” says Mr. Westerberg, who plays the 20th Century in Oakley at 8 p.m. Wednesday ($20 in advance; 562-4949).

        For Stereo, the fourth solo album by the former Replacements frontman, Mr. Westerberg included a Mono CD from his Grandpaboy alter ego. The Stereo disc features softer, more lyrical numbers, while Mono has the ragged singing and thrashing guitars reminiscent of early Rolling Stones, Faces — or Replacements.

        “I'm telling people . . . it cost me a thousand dollars to make,” says Mr. Westerberg, 42, who recorded the album in the basement of his suburban home. “I got a million dollars from another record company, but you eat that up in producers, engineers, hotels, studios and promotion, and it's a wash.”

        He says there's no living down the legacy of the 'Mats, a band known for its boozy performances and hits “Alex Chilton” and “I'll be With You.” The group disbanded in 1991.

        Guitarist Bob Stinson, kicked out of the band in 1986, was found dead in 1995. The medical examiner determined Mr. Stinson, 35, died of natural causes, complicated by chronic drug and alcohol use.

        “We used to take it to the edge, and most of us cleaned up. The surviving members have all stopped,” Mr. Westerberg said.

        Question:. In the Replacements, you did softer things like “Achin' to Be,” but you also had a good, gritty rock feel, too. Is it hard to switch gears?

        Answer: It's what's kept me fresh and alive for this long. It's kept me with a career, and it's probably held me back from going over in a major way because there's two sides to me, and you can't really separate one from the other. You can't sell me as a singer-songwriter, and you can't sell me as just a rock 'n' roll singer. I am both, combined, rolled into one.

        Q: Why did you become a songwriter?

        A: I couldn't learn anyone else's material. I couldn't figure out how to play other people's songs. I had a very low singing voice for rock.

        Q: Why have you stayed in Minneapolis?

        A: There is that unpredictability of the seasons that I enjoy. I like to not know what's coming. I like the threat of a tornado. I like the threat of 4 feet of snow. And the summer, the fall, it's absolutely beautiful here. I do feel a sense of needing some roots, because once I started to travel, it was nice to come home, because it made me feel a little relaxed, and I do feel that this is my home.

        Q: How long have you been sober?

        A: It's been over a decade. . . . It was easier after five years. You think, "Never, ever, ever again will I be going near the stuff.' In the last two or three years, my confidence has been shaken in that. . . . The passing of my father or, say, like, what if I were to lose my son, would that push me back toward drinking? I couldn't swear and say I'd never touch another drink, you know? I know the comfort that it gave me. But I don't anticipate it. I didn't like the person I was when I was drinking.

        Q: Will there ever be a Replacements reunion?

        A: We would do it for a lot of money, but it would have to be for a big laugh. It would have to be funny, not serious. The potential of making ourselves look really dumb would have to be extremely high because that's what sort of held us together — four Milton Berles who liked, as sort of entertainment, the daring of “let's go do something just utterly ridiculous.”

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