Boxcars are POLLing out of...REM's "Chronic Town"

For me, this is TS: "Suspicion yourself, suspicion yourself, don't get caught" vs "Not only deadlier but smarter too!" vs Mike Mills's background wailing on "Carnival of Sorts." This is the fiercest, freakiest record they ever cut, and really took me by surprise when I picked it up. "Stumble" and "Gardening" are the odd ones out to me - they could fit very comfortably on Murmur while the rest are these hepped up, kudzu no-wave adventures into the unknown. Amazing record in any case.

Yeah this is definitely one of the best records ever. Light years beyond anything else they ever did. My favorite is "Wolves Lower." I wish they had stayed with this energetic confident punk-folk style for an album or two before slowing down like they did on Murmur or Fables (both great records, but still). I guess the closest they would ever get to this style again are the faster songs on Lifes Rich Pageant, like "I Believe" or "Just a Touch." Ah well.

i remember my dad brought this home shortly after it came out because they had it on in the record store and he thought it sounded cool. i got sort of obsessed with it -- the gargoyle on the cover, everything about it was mysterious. later on, whenever i put on another r r.e.m. album, dad would say "i don't hear anything as good as 'carnival of sorts'."

It really is like the work of a different band - different both from the shuffling, mumbling wizards of Murmur AND the genial party-rock ravers you hear on early live recordings. Maybe it's just because I've never heard early live recordings of these songs, so they just seem to come out of nowhere and then disappear back thataway.

Carnival. Light years almost as good as Murmur.

I wish they had stayed with this energetic confident punk-folk style for an album or two before slowing down like they did on Murmur or Fables (both great records, but still).

I completely agree. A few songs on Murmur sound like they would fit into Chronic Town, but yeah, they had clearly already shifted gears.

"Gardening at Night" is probably my fav REM song.

Carnival of Sorts, with Gardening at Night a close second.

probably "Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)" but it's pretty hard to call one of these over the others.

"carnival of sorts." if these five songs were the first half of an album with an equally amazing second half, it would be the best thing they ever did

I just listened to this, and while my sentimental vote will always be for "Gardening at Night" (too many memories etc), today I will vote for "Stumble". As I walked around the lake it sounded like the soundtrack to Odysseus' raid of the cattle of Helios. Whatever they're doing is probably wrong---if they were stumbling through *your* yard you'd probably be upset---but you realize they're just doing what free people do.

I thought this would be a hard choice, but it's really not. Box Cars is the one that really tears my attention away from whatever it is I'm doing and gets me all hot and bothered. I can't even sit down when I'm hearing that.

Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)! I love this whole EP. I didn't own it separate from Dead Letter Office until sometime in the 90s when I found a mint copy of the vinyl for a dollar.

Another vote for "Carnival."

Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)! I love this whole EP. I didn't own it separate from Dead Letter Office until sometime in the 90s when I found a mint copy of the vinyl for a dollar

totally j

i found it around '97 on cassette in a gas station in Delta, Louisiana. i think i paid around $4 for it.

I remember riding my bicycle home from the record store in the rain with this balanced on the handlebars i.e. I courted death AND IT WAS WORTH IT.

PS every track is awesome but come on: Carnival

Wow, are we headed for our first undisputed landslide? Will have to listen to this again later tonight so I can call out specific awesome things about "Wolves, Lower" and "1,000,000" by name.

Voted "Wolves Lower".

hoouuuuse innn or-derrrrrr

This album kind of epitomizes what I was trying to get at with this old thread: Key Moments of Stridency In Songs Where You Have No Idea What They're Talking About But You Sing Along Anyway

Masterpiece post-punk motherfucker. Look at the sleeve!

Any unaware and interested "80'S BABIES" TAKE NOTE. This is one hell of a classic post-punk record right here.

...I'm an 80s baby, but I had CDNow reviews, living in Athens, and a poster of the album cover on the dorm wall of a girl I fancied, so maybe I cheated.

hahahahah A+++

Thanks for the video, Jesse. Mike Mills does that Bruce Foxton Rickenbacker maybe better than Bruce does it. After all these years still can't understand the words: "Gentlemen don't get caught/Pages under cage?"

*wink*

Holy shit that Carnival You Tube clip.

Did I mention I love this board?

Was introduced to Chronic Town by a friend who attended Davidson College (just outside of Charlotte, NC). REM played frat parties up there frequently in the early years. After hearing the record I was insanely jealous. Great to see the YouTube clip from the era... Stipe in glasses, though, yikes.

What's weird is, as demonstrated on earlier polls I'm every inch a snotty "I prefer their earlier work" R.E.M. fan but for whatever reason I find Chronic Town less interesting than all the IRS albums that followed -- I mean, at the time (or rather, in 1988 when I first heard this) it would have been "Carnival," easy, but now I think the material of that song -- boxcars, weeping willows, torn posters -- are TOO directly referential to the kind of small-town mysticism they were trying to convey. Surely "Driver 8" does it much better. I voted "1,000,000" for the opening chords.

interesting, except there's no "weeping willow" in the song. it's a "reaping wheel," an image that would have done "driver 8" proud. speaking definitively of early stipe lyrics is a fool's game sometimes cuz of all the murmuring, but not in this case. there's only nine syllables in that line, not ten

I think the point is still interesting though. I don't read it as a conscious milking of Southern Gothic mystique but I can understand how that would come across, in comparison to the more organized poetry of the following records, where the imagery is in clearer service of emotions, moods, characters, etc. "Chronic Town" is all scene-painting, which is fine by me given the amount of energy the band brings to the table.

i picked 1000000. man i loved this ep when it dropped. havent heard any of it for at least 15 years tho. i always thought it was "cages under cage" as in the boxcars were loaded up with circus animals.

Wolves, Lower just for the title.

whenever i think of them i see them as the murmur era poster in my bedroom. they are standing in front of a red loading dock door, in dissolve/double exposure.

I also hear "Cages under cage," but hadn't made the leap to circus animals, which I quite like. Nice!

Oh god I want to die:

Whoops wrong one! oops! Wait...
&

wow! that was impressive.

Stipey been drinkin'!

Suspicion Yourself, Suspicion yourself,
don't get caught.

OMG I had no memory of that Livewire show on Nickelodeon until just moments ago. Also, killer performance.

chronic town, poster torn, weeping wheel

secret, stigma, reaping wheel

carnival of sorts

chronic town, poster torn, reaping wheel

box cars

are pulling

OUT OF TOWN

Gentlemen, don't get caught
cages under cage

secret
stigma
wheeping wheel
stranger to these parts
diminished
stranger
gentlemen don't get caught
cages under cage
out of town

out of town

out of town

I could live a million.

not only deadlier but smarter too
smarter too

We'll stumble through the yard.

Ball & chain.

Who's the guy playing guitar in that clip who's not Buck?

I remember riding my bicycle home from the record store in the rain with this balanced on the handlebars i.e. I courted death AND IT WAS WORTH IT.

i remember my dad brought this home shortly after it came out because they had it on in the record store and he thought it sounded cool [..] later on, whenever i put on another r.e.m. album, dad would say "i don't hear anything as good as 'carnival of sorts'."

..make me realize how sad it is that I've never held physical copies / CD cases of even my very favorite albums.

Wolves, Lower I guess?? Cannot overstate what this EP does to me.

how sad it is that I've never held physical copies / CD cases of even my very favorite albums.

Wha...?

NYC'ers: What's going on at Kim's Video

Yeah, are you from the future or what?

Please to click on Kim's Video link.

It's kind of not helping.

Wolves, but man, they are all so good.

So is "Carnival" based on this Carnival of Souls?

Until I watched that video I was never quite aware of those crucial Bill Berry backing vocals.

Wild to see video shot at The Pier. Great Raleigh club from the early 80s.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Decisive but fascinating. Thanks for playing, everyone! Next poll going up shortly...

https://www.facebook.com/chronictown/
“music venue • record store • pinball arcade • café • kava bar • vegan waffles • organic smoothies • artisan glass • stereo repair”

Pure gold start to finish, hard to think of any track being that much better than any other

I still have my autographed copy of this EP. The band member who shares my first name wrote "sorry about the name, pal".

I agree w/RVW – the idea of “ranking” these tracks is a bit of a head-scratcher: they’re a perfect set.

(Dr. M – that’s awesome; I’m guessing it was Bill...?)

One of my my favorite musical moments™ is when the bassine under the verse in “Stumble” shifts by one note – subtly, but with great impact – in its final iteration (after the “Don’t need that... jazz” bridge freakout section).

"Coffee Shop in State College, Pennsylvania"

oh HELL no, don't EVEN

I just went to look up who owns this because I lived in State College for two years where one of my only friends (miccio who used to post here) was also a huge REM fan. This turns out to be the only hookah bar I have ever been to in my life- used to be called Tall Shiva.

Watch for my vape shop themed to the first 10,000 Maniacs EP — it’s called
Secrets of the E-Cig.

xp not hating on PSU or State College, I enjoyed my one visit, but an establishment named Chronic Town ought to be located in Chronic Town

This EP is a better representation of what their shows sounded like 1981-83 than Murmur

We need to hate on it because it's a hookah bar. And State College sucks (sorry PSU'ers).