Peter Buck: Classic or Dud?

Reminds me of his famous quote about being the most famous "underground" band akin to being the world's tallest midget...

this is not to say that buck is bad, just that too much of him is a bad thing.

for his part in rem's great records, buck is classic.

agreed

One thing: At least I'll give him credit for a sense of humour, recording a track called "E-Bow The Letter" and NOT actually using the e-bow on said track. Assuming that actually WAS a joke of some kind. Never could tell with those guys.

Also a great porn star name!

Then again, "Country Feedback" also consists of mostly what the title tells us :)

there's ridiculous amounts of e-bow in that song. including the two-note lead. -- Joseph Cotten

Sorry, my mistake. (Well, not ENTIRELY mine: I actually read that somewhere recently and just assumed it was correct! I've never even HEARD "E-Bow The Letter", to my knowledge.)

so here's what Buck is doing post - R.E.M.
http://journaldelpacifico.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Todos-Santos-Music-Festival-Poster-231x300.jpg

http://journaldelpacifico.com/blog/music-festival/

Anyone heard the Peter Buck solo album yet? I ordered it on impulse the other night, still waiting for it to show up.

http://soundcloud.com/slicingupeyeballs/peter-buck-10-million-bc-rem

hmm, sounds like steve wynn

http://www.daysofthecrazy-wild.com/audio-new-peter-buck-corin-tucker-supergroup-debut-12-songs-at-portlands-secret-society/

encouraging? but please, don't name this band "super-Earth."

TS: super-Earth vs. SuperHeavy

Get a haircut u tramp

Ridiculously stoked about this.

Yeah same

Cool. The tragic curse of recording and performing solo under his own name is that he can never break up. Super groups are more dramatic and suspenseful.

The new solo album, I Am Back to Blow Your Mind Once Again, is pretty good! Looking forward to super-Earth, which seems like a natural evolution from the two solo records: Rieflin and McCaughey have been his backing band for a while now, and the songs with Tucker have been highlights of both records, so this makes sense. Anyway, I'm excited!

Krist is in: http://www.spin.com/articles/krist-novoselic-super-earth-peter-buck-corin-tucker-rem/

that's a weird vibe-combination, i think?

every generation gets their travelin' wilburys

if someone from the Fastbacks was already in the mix, i don't feel like having Novoselic dramatically offsets that makeup. anyway it seems like Buck-Tucker is the songwriting team and the other guys are just filling out the sound.

http://thebaseballproject.net/

So is Buck no longer in this group? I think sometimes he records with them, but doesn't tour. Haven't heard the 3rd release that cam out in March

I didn't hear anything about him leaving the group. Mike Mills is involved now, too.

http://onlyagame.wbur.org/2014/03/29/baseball-project-third-album - this was linked on the official R.E.M. site recently.

i like the idea of these old college rockers making albums about baseball, but i have no real desire to hear the results. but maybe someone can convince me...

Not me. :)

Something about Scott McCaughey has always rubbed me the wrong way, though. Maybe if you're into Young Fresh Fellows et al you might dig it, but I was not a fan of the songs I heard.

The songs about Ted Williams and Roy Halladay that I was forced to endure years ago still haunt me.

Young Fresh Fellows are a band a like the idea of, but I've never really gotten into them. I mainly like ideas.

I can't get past their sense of humor, which also pervades The Baseball Project. Which is a bummer, because I do love the idea of this band existing. I should probably just shut up and start my own baseball band, though.

the Baseball Project is a fun idea with solid parts, but the end result isn't that great. it's clever here and there, but kinda bland overall. sorry to say...

i did see one of their shows a few years ago in a room that holds 100 ppl, and Buck *was* there (so he has toured w/ them at least once) ... I actually thought he toured but didn't really record, but that is based on basically nothing.

was cool to see Buck in a place that small, tho, regardless of the band around him, the music, etc.

also, in case anyone missed it, this interview he did with a Portland alt-weekly a few weeks back is terrific:

http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-22438-permanent_vacation.html

he comes off very cool and humble, and the story about the Verve is so great.

few years ago, i found myself standing behind him at barney's in nyc, waiting to get our pants tailored. if you've ever wondered where rock stars buy their psychedelic velvet threads, now you've got one answer. i was buying threads that were neither psychedelic nor velvet, but you don't need to know that. anyway, the guy waiting on him said something like, "murmur was a great album," in a polite, deferential tone. buck glared back with the iciest eyes i've ever seen and said, "that was 15 years ago." neither buck nor the salesman opened his mouth again as far as i could tell

This is still hilarious

Going by the timeline, wasn't this when he really started to go to town with the "this is our best album ever" stuff?

http://pelhamminorhockey.com/news_images/org_950/Image/peter_puck2.jpg

He's one of those dudes, like Elvis Costello, who produced some pretty iconic records and then, weirdly, never really worked as a producer for hire again.

I have seen him on stage a good 8 or so times due to my fiendish Robyn Hitchcock fandom and he always looks totally disgruntled. I think that's just his playing face and he's always focused on what he's doing.

yeah, i've never seen him w/ hitchcock, but my brother did a few years ago and he said Buck looked extremely disinterested. but i think that's just his Buck Face (and in those situations he probably has some idea of just being a sideman who no one is paying attention to). He must enjoy it to some extent, he certainly doesn't have to be playing with Robyn Hitchcock to make ends meet. or maybe Robyn knows some dark things about Buck and is blackmailing him.

He's indicated he loves that gig. The skeleton in the closet is probably just "I peter buck am a huge soft boys nerd"

he always looks totally disgruntled.

Last time I saw him with Robyn, he also did an opening set with his own group and he looked and sounded drunk as a leader, but such characteristics were less noticeable later that night backing Robyn. It still made me later look up that old story of him on the plane.

new (?) album warzone earth is a major jam session, way more raucous than i was expecting. it's even kind of stooges-y. dude can't sing for shit but neither can lots of solid bros

I still can't believe what a big deal REM used to make about quitting on 12/31/99 on how stupid it would be to continue making records once they became irrelevant and mediocre, and then proceeded to do just that.

i think about that a lot too. my friends and i thought it was such a cool idea and that factored into our love of the band. wish they had kept their word.

it's really stupid to make records

They are the biggest example of a band that stuck around too long.

i'm relistening to those 1980 show links, i like that version of rem.

http://www.daysofthecrazy-wild.com/audio-new-peter-buck-corin-tucker-supergroup-debut-12-songs-at-portlands-secret-society/

― Tom Waits for no one (outdoor_miner), Saturday, May 3, 2014 12:09 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

still waiting for this, but guess i need to hear the new stuff

TBP is maybe my favorite band now

really enjoying The No Ones - The Great Lost No Ones Album

https://the-no-ones.bandcamp.com/album/the-great-lost-no-ones-album

Peter Buck and his homie Scott McCaughey plus guys from a Norwegian power pop band called I Was a King that I'm not familiar with

really nice jangle stuff, not surprising but there are some really good songs on here and has good energetic feel