I thought The Great Beyond was a lovely single, as was Imitation of Life (even Bad Day fits into this category), but those seem more like lucky accidents than an indication that they could record an entire album as consistent as those 15 years ago.
― blackmail.is.my.life (blackmail.is.my.life), Saturday, 30 April 2005 16:12 (nineteen years ago) link
If "Hi-Fi" had ended with "Be Mine," it'd be classic REM, probably in my top four or five.
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 30 April 2005 16:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― miccio (miccio), Saturday, 30 April 2005 16:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― I.M. (I.M.), Saturday, 30 April 2005 16:39 (nineteen years ago) link
― miccio (miccio), Saturday, 30 April 2005 16:41 (nineteen years ago) link
having missed the monster tour - which would've been awesome as a high schooler - i was equally thrilled to see them on the UP tour as a college senior. they were ecstatic and did their best to include some older stuff...that the crowd booed!
― blackmail.is.my.life (blackmail.is.my.life), Saturday, 30 April 2005 16:53 (nineteen years ago) link
― miccio (miccio), Saturday, 30 April 2005 17:02 (nineteen years ago) link
― miccio (miccio), Saturday, 30 April 2005 17:03 (nineteen years ago) link
once they moved from dance clubs to theatres
― miccio (miccio), Saturday, 30 April 2005 17:04 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 30 April 2005 17:08 (nineteen years ago) link
― miccio (miccio), Saturday, 30 April 2005 17:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 30 April 2005 20:31 (nineteen years ago) link
― j blount (papa la bas), Saturday, 30 April 2005 20:36 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 30 April 2005 20:58 (nineteen years ago) link
Middle ground between what and what?
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 30 April 2005 21:01 (nineteen years ago) link
May I say that this is just an utterly DIRE portrait of the people that like their music?
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Saturday, 30 April 2005 21:04 (nineteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 30 April 2005 21:06 (nineteen years ago) link
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 30 April 2005 21:09 (nineteen years ago) link
― elwisty (elwisty), Saturday, 30 April 2005 21:58 (nineteen years ago) link
― j blount (papa la bas), Saturday, 30 April 2005 23:58 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 1 May 2005 00:14 (nineteen years ago) link
The Klosterman thing is patronising, but it is true that REM had a certain arty liberal outsider appeal. They were a great band to be into when you're first discovering music. They and Nirvana were the first bands not in my parents' record collections I got into. Both were non-macho, arty rock bands and a great gateway drug into more esoteric pleasures.
So Classic! Despite the undeniable dudness of Reveal and Around the Bum.(That said, Reveal had Beat A Drum, which is terrible on the album, but beautiful in its spare piano demo form).
― stew!, Tuesday, 14 March 2006 16:19 (eighteen years ago) link
― dr xo'skeleton, Tuesday, 14 March 2006 17:09 (eighteen years ago) link
― Lick The Strobelight Lollipops (Bimble...), Sunday, 28 January 2007 22:25 (seventeen years ago) link
― Lick The Strobelight Lollipops (Bimble...), Sunday, 28 January 2007 22:29 (seventeen years ago) link
― Sundar (sundar), Sunday, 28 January 2007 22:37 (seventeen years ago) link
― Sundar (sundar), Sunday, 28 January 2007 22:59 (seventeen years ago) link
― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Sunday, 28 January 2007 23:01 (seventeen years ago) link
― Mark (MarkR), Sunday, 28 January 2007 23:25 (seventeen years ago) link
― Lick The Strobelight Lollipops (Bimble...), Sunday, 28 January 2007 23:49 (seventeen years ago) link
― Lick The Strobelight Lollipops (Bimble...), Sunday, 28 January 2007 23:50 (seventeen years ago) link
― Lick The Strobelight Lollipops (Bimble...), Sunday, 28 January 2007 23:51 (seventeen years ago) link
i don't think people were saying the words were inaudible; just indecipherable. stipe didn't really start enunciating until lifes rich pageant, a rumored concession to their label.
― Lawrence the Looter (Lawrence the Looter), Monday, 29 January 2007 00:00 (seventeen years ago) link
― Lick The Strobelight Lollipops (Bimble...), Monday, 29 January 2007 00:21 (seventeen years ago) link
― Sundar (sundar), Monday, 29 January 2007 00:43 (seventeen years ago) link
That rant above is kind of ridiculous, though. R.E.M. were a power pop band who liked Gang of Four and Fairport Convention. If other bands were influenced by them in crap ways, it was their own fault.
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 29 January 2007 01:28 (seventeen years ago) link
― Lick The Strobelight Lollipops (Bimble...), Monday, 29 January 2007 04:40 (seventeen years ago) link
Tell me they don't look more kick-fucking-arse here than at any point since pre BINGO HAND JOB.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRVxOmu87MA
― pisces, Monday, 15 October 2007 02:36 (sixteen years ago) link
staring sideways at a laptop while singing pretty much removes all "kick-fucking-arse" from a performance
― da croupier, Monday, 15 October 2007 03:27 (sixteen years ago) link
fuck is Stipe's problem? You don't see a goddamn music stand in front of Peter or Mike.
― da croupier, Monday, 15 October 2007 03:28 (sixteen years ago) link
It is a good song, though.
― Davey D, Monday, 15 October 2007 03:32 (sixteen years ago) link
I would be 'anticipating' Accelerate in this thread if only I could listen to their watermarked promo on my computer or in my car. I may need to borrow a discman.
― fukasaku tollbooth, Sunday, 24 February 2008 21:59 (sixteen years ago) link
L£ak£d.
― pisces, Sunday, 16 March 2008 18:17 (sixteen years ago) link
So the weather in the UK has turned at last and out of the blue I have some strange and nostalgic feeling toward the first four or five REM albums. What gives?
― double shyamalan (MaresNest), Sunday, 23 May 2010 10:49 (thirteen years ago) link
You can see yourself at 30?
― Euler, Sunday, 23 May 2010 11:07 (thirteen years ago) link
Ha, well I'm 38
― double shyamalan (MaresNest), Sunday, 23 May 2010 11:20 (thirteen years ago) link
I still haven't worked up the courage to listen to Accelerate, not to mention the two recent live albums either. Soon! I've been enjoying a lot of 80s-era REM bootlegs recently; "Baby I" is such a hot song.
― Euler, Sunday, 23 May 2010 11:24 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah i'd say it's more "you can see youself at 40" for early REM nostalgia.
i get that feeling in early summer, too.
― Daniel, Esq., Sunday, 23 May 2010 11:26 (thirteen years ago) link
you know what sounds especially good as summer really begins to swelter? fables of the reconstruction.
― Daniel, Esq., Sunday, 23 May 2010 11:27 (thirteen years ago) link
Daniel, don't you live in Florida? It's always swelter there!
― Euler, Sunday, 23 May 2010 12:08 (thirteen years ago) link
I will now promptly read the whole thing
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Thursday, 2 November 2023 21:55 (six months ago) link
Thanks for that!
― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 2 November 2023 22:09 (six months ago) link
Reunited! (in their appreciation of Michael Shannon)
― soup of magpies (geoffreyess), Friday, 9 February 2024 22:31 (two months ago) link
heh, I suspected at least most of them would show up, but this is cool.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 9 February 2024 22:52 (two months ago) link
My friend Dag (plays guitar in the band, lifer) shared this fun pic of him and Stipe last night.
― paisley got boring (Eazy), Friday, 9 February 2024 22:55 (two months ago) link
That's a great pic! (I'm friends of friends with Dag, he's sort of replacing my guitar teacher.)
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 9 February 2024 23:19 (two months ago) link
wow!
― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table), Saturday, 10 February 2024 00:35 (two months ago) link
This is a great show, with a few special guests in the encore... highly recommended, if you ever put concert recordings up on the TV while you putter around:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JulR2TPAUfA
― atmospheric river phoenix (morrisp), Monday, 12 February 2024 17:34 (two months ago) link
― paisley got boring (Eazy),
I can't tell them apart!
― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 12 February 2024 17:57 (two months ago) link
nice, I was just watching that REM-in-Jersey show a week or so ago. really kicking myself for not going to the Michael Shannon thing in Chapel Hill (pretty sure it was reading an interview with Shannon that prompted me to watch that old REM show).
― Evans on Hammond (evol j), Monday, 12 February 2024 19:11 (two months ago) link