According to Billboard.com, the Replacements -- or at least some of them -- have reunited to record two songs for the forthcoming Rhino best-of I wrote about earlier this week. The disc, now apparently titled Don't You Know Who I Think I Was?: The Best of the Replacements, will feature new songs "Message to the Boys" and "Pool & Dive." The songs, written by Paul Westerberg, feature Westerberg, Tommy Stinson and Chris Mars. Session drummer Josh Freese, who has backed a solo Westerberg and played with everyone from A Perfect Circle to Devo, was behind the kit; Mars sang backup. No word on Slim Dunlap.

The Billboard piece also offers these other details: "Meanwhile, sources say the long-awaited Replacements boxed set is still in the planning stages and will not be out until 2007 at the earliest. Rhino is also working on expanded editions of the Replacements' albums, but no release date has yet been announced for those packages either."

It also includes a tracklist for the best-of:

"Takin a Ride"
"Shiftless When Idle"
"Kids Don't Follow"
"Color Me Impressed"
"Within Your Reach"
"I Will Dare"
"Answering Machine"
"Unsatisfied"
"Here Comes a Regular"
"Kiss Me on the Bus"
"Bastards of Young"
"Left of the Dial"
"Alex Chilton"
"Skyway"
"Can't Hardly Wait"
"Achin' To Be"
"I'll Be You"
"Merry Go Round"
"Message to the Boys"
"Pool & Dive"

Nothing terribly surprising here, though you could argue the choices from Sorry Ma and Stink (I would like to have seen "Go" from Stink, the clearest early sign that Westerberg was not your average punk). Otherwise, it offers an eight-song distillation of the band's four-disc Twin/Tone career and greatly abbreviates the offerings found on the previous best-of, All For Nothing/Nothing For All. I do wonder at the value of sticking only two new track on there. Those will be on file sharing sites within hours of release, and who beyond hardcore fans who own everything else and want only those two tracks would be enticed by their inclusion?