Peter Buck: Classic or Dud?

er... the Dream ACADEMY.

He's on The Days of Wine and Roses? Huh, for some reason that slipped my mind.

X-post Hahaha! I was wondering about that!

I've been listening to the early REM albums quite a bit of late and they are as great as I remembered. They just were not the same band later on, which probably is to be expected I suppose.

buck's playing on the first several rem albums makes him a guitar hero to me -- clean, simple lines, completely absent any "guitar hero" flash, catchy as hell, and he got fabulous sounds.

a 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.

maybe he should have said "Monster (or Reveal) (or Up) was a real shit album."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1910000/images/_1913175_peter_buck150.jpg

Personally I was under the impression from numerous interviews I read during the ten years R.E.M. was my favorite band that Peter Buck found a way to fit both reading and alcohol into his busy day.

JACK COLE I DISAGREE WIF YOU.

http://www.stthomasu.ca/~pmccorm/research/pbuckchair.gif

and yeh, he's a classic. not only does he play wonderful mandolin on the billy bragg album (cf other thread); he's also an old sentimentalist who talks to his plants as if they were children (IIRC from an old NME interview).

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.

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?

haha, he did seem to go through a pretty grumpy phase, but those recent interviews seem like he's relaxed into being an ex-rock star.
since we're talking about 'em, i just wrote this thing about super early R.E.M. : http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/335-invisible-hits-rem-in-1980/
actually really love this stuff.

thumbs up, tyler

Thumbs thirded. Great to read about the early REM boots. There's a full 1981 Tyrone's set up on youtube now which you probably know about.
I've been an REM fan for years, but it was only with the internet that I was able to hear them. I did buy some bootlegs in the '90s but for some reason I never looked for the early ones. I can understand why the early tunes were never properly recorded, but there are some rough gems in there: catchy garage rockers played with tremendous energy and joy. Burning Down, Baby I and All The Right Friends are my faves, and it's nice to hear embryonic versions of Murmur and Reckoning tunes. Some of the covers are great fun too: they do a great Rave On in the Georgia Peaches Ripe boot.
It would be great to have a official bootleg which compiled the best of the early songs along with some of the better covers. I don't think the band have any plans to do release this stuff though. IIRC Buck or Mills said in an interview that they were happy for them to float about online. That said, it would be nice to hear them with improved sound quality, if that's possible.
What's maybe more likely, and feasible, is an '80s odds and sods compilation that goes beyond Dead Letter Office to cover ace unreleased tunes like Ages of You and That Beat - also the much sought after Elliot Mazer sessions... ok, enough REM geekery from me.

If I were to meet Buck I'd hope I didn't talk nonsense at him. I'd thank him for effectively teaching me to play guitar and hipping me to some great books when I was a teenager. I've always appreciated bands who share their cultural interests with their fans and Buck was like your weird record and book nerd uncle.

thanks dudes.
IIRC Buck or Mills said in an interview that they were happy for them to float about online.
i think i've read that buck is a pretty serious bootleg collector, so yeah, part of him probably is glad to have some bootleggy things out there.
but it would be good for them to do an expanded version of Dead Letter Office (or something along those lines)! in some ways that's my fave REM album.

You mean like this?

oh haha, hadn't heard of that! though i guess I was thinking more like a 1980-82 kinda comp. lord knows i don't need the lengthy club mix of finest worksong.

Hah, the lengthy club mix is on my 90s Document reissue. It's not very good. There were some good cuts on those editions though, mostly nice covers and live acoustic versions.
Fair enough to gather these together as a low key digital release, but we want proper rarities! Xmas fanclub EPs! Dubious covers of Mission of Burma and Television (but hey, they led me to check out the real thing so respect is due).
One thing I'm surprised they've not put out is a deluxe vinyl reissue of Chronic Town. Maybe next RSD? Maybe it's not especially valuable - got mine in Glasgow SH for about £6 around 2000, but then REM's stock was less high back then. The IRS stuff is easy enough to come by, but the vinyl is pretty flimsy. Surely IRS/EMI are missing a trick there? Or maybe I'm missing the releases...

that story up-thread, about peter buck being a jackass to that fan, is legit disheartening.

I sometimes wonder what he thinks of fans of only the early REM stuff.

It seems he would be quite discerning/critical with bands he likes....that obviously, arent REM

I mean, if pressed, you could imagine him being more critical over the catalogue in a few years, beyond Around the Sun

Another likely story would be - "I never listen to it"

can't wait to read that tyler

this line from a recent interview has some shades of "i am R.E.M. and you are just an air steward/yogurt container" : "I have 20 songs I demoed for R.E.M. that didn’t get used, and I could easily find another singer and make a record that would sound exactly like what the next R.E.M. record would’ve sounded like"

anyway i can't say i'm a huge fan of his solo records but buck gets an eternal free pass for his contributions to R.E.M. from chronic town thru automatic. also seems like he's having more fun now than he was in the last 10 or so years of REM. the contrast between the surly sunglasses wearing guy of later years and his younger self is pretty striking. dunno why they kept chugging along when the fun and inspiration was clearly gone

That might be reading into things quite a bit. I saw him once playing bass with the Minus Five and I don't know as that he was any more or less surly. Saw R.E.M. three times in the later years and he always seemed to be giving it his all. Too easy to say things are "more fun now" because he writes songs about apes.

true that i'm probably pulling some of that from thin air. still though he does pretty much admit that REM was on its way to becoming a chore and his new thing lets him be as off the cuff as he likes

Weird that there's no mention of his production of The Feelies - The Good Earth, one of the best albums he was ever associated with. Run Westy Run's Green Cat Island (1990) is also well worth checking out.

As is Uncle Tupelo's "March 16-20, 1992" ... a Buck production.

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