> REM had six #1 singles!
Nah...even "Losing My Religion" wasn't a #1 song. Are you thinking Modern Rock/Alternative/whatever charts?
― j.o.h.n. in evanston (john. a resident of chicago.), Saturday, 14 September 2019 02:20 (five years ago) link
Four top ten US singles, nine top ten US albums.
― timellison, Saturday, 14 September 2019 02:49 (five years ago) link
(Grain of salt on the last two albums, neither of which was RIAA gold.)
― timellison, Saturday, 14 September 2019 02:52 (five years ago) link
Timely!
Three-fourths of @remhq backing Vanessa Hay (@Pylongirl) on “Crazy” by Pylon tonight in Atlanta does the soul good. https://t.co/YfRdC5L908— Annie Zaleski (@anniezaleski) September 14, 2019
― I don't get wet because I am tall and thin and I am afraid of people (Eliza D.), Saturday, 14 September 2019 02:55 (five years ago) link
:D
― I am also Harl (Karl Malone), Saturday, 14 September 2019 02:56 (five years ago) link
Wow!
― timellison, Saturday, 14 September 2019 03:04 (five years ago) link
yeeeeeahhh
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Saturday, 14 September 2019 03:08 (five years ago) link
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EEY6upiXsAIY4VV?format=jpg&name=large
― #YABASIC (morrisp), Saturday, 14 September 2019 03:19 (five years ago) link
video of Texarkana plz
― timellison, Saturday, 14 September 2019 03:45 (five years ago) link
dying @ Battleship Chains with that lineup, but in a good way
― Larry Elleison (rogermexico.), Saturday, 14 September 2019 04:27 (five years ago) link
Perhaps Uncut gave me a distorted picture (again, the magazine was huge on Americana) because I thought The Band were still big and they got me into them (and they were huge for me). I'm sure they had a free cd of bands influenced/covering/tributing. Drive By Truckers had a gorgeous song about The Band. Maybe they're bigger in the UK as a result?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 14 September 2019 13:45 (five years ago) link
The Band was tremendously influential! virtually a sea change in 60s rock... between that, Basement Tapes and John Wesley Harding they changed the course of rock music from summer of love hijinks to ruralismI'd say Big Pink might be as influential as any album in rock, especially because it seemed to really shake up a bunch of big stars as mentioned upthread
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 14 September 2019 14:23 (five years ago) link
xps Vanessa is amazing, maybe she could front the R.E.M. Reenactment Society
I don't think R.E.M. ever came close to the Band's collective musicianship, but there are definitely parallels in terms of early canonization and subsequent fading from popular awareness ... in terms of ongoing influence on other musicians, the Band looms much larger
the comparison highlights the fact that R.E.M. never really made a roots/Americana move, in spite of the Byrds influences and and occasional mandolins ... maybe "Rockville" comes closest, but that's not exactly "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"
New Wave bands in Georgia c. 1980 had to take a hard line against country, blues, boogie, and choogling
― Brad C., Saturday, 14 September 2019 14:55 (five years ago) link
if there's a recording of that set I will pay top dollar just for "Money Changes Everything"
― I don't get wet because I am tall and thin and I am afraid of people (Eliza D.), Saturday, 14 September 2019 14:56 (five years ago) link
"Money Changes Everything" was the Brains' sort-of-hit when R.E.M. opened for them in May 1979 ... my first R.E.M. show </bragging>
― Brad C., Saturday, 14 September 2019 15:17 (five years ago) link
May 1980, god I am such a poseur
― Brad C., Saturday, 14 September 2019 15:18 (five years ago) link
no that’s awesome
― #YABASIC (morrisp), Saturday, 14 September 2019 15:31 (five years ago) link
a few nice photos in this review of last night's show
https://atlantaintownpaper.com/2019/09/concert-review-drivin-n-cryin-drive-by-truckers-and-most-of-rem-play-revival-to-benefit-fox-theatre-institute/
― Brad C., Saturday, 14 September 2019 15:54 (five years ago) link
I don't think R.E.M. ever came close to the Band's collective musicianship
Sure, but from the other side of the coin, not sure the Band ever made an album as good as Murmur.
― timellison, Saturday, 14 September 2019 16:14 (five years ago) link
I think the second album is.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 14 September 2019 16:21 (five years ago) link
I recall reading an interview with one of the Beatles, possibly/probably George, where even though they were all on friendly enough terms they had to always be aware where the rest of their former bandmates were, because they didn't want to all be in the same place at the same time and be pressured to play together.
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 14 September 2019 16:28 (five years ago) link
one of the amazing things about early R.E.M. is how well they wrote and played given Buck and Stipe's limited musical experience ... to me Murmur sounds like a young band making a creative strength of simplicity while Music from Big Pink sounds like veteran players doing deceptively simple things
― Brad C., Saturday, 14 September 2019 17:52 (five years ago) link
Yes, but I don't think their simplicity should be overstated. Peter Buck has said that he was pushing and playing at the limit of his capabilities in the early years. Mills and Berry could play.
― timellison, Saturday, 14 September 2019 18:16 (five years ago) link
Berry is a heckuva drummer. Probably my favorite element of the band, how he excitedly speeds up going into a prechorus or chorus. Maybe that’s a standard pop drummer trick but he did it so well, adding a few beats, not a fill but your heart speeding up, getting to the good part
― L'assie (Euler), Saturday, 14 September 2019 18:40 (five years ago) link
There were no replaceable parts in this band. I might even venture that if you had to replace one, they might have still been interesting without Stipe
― fremmes with neppavenettes (rip van wanko), Saturday, 14 September 2019 18:45 (five years ago) link
He's kind of the most interesting thing about the band (who are all interesting).
― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 14 September 2019 18:47 (five years ago) link
I might even venture that if you had to replace one, they might have still been interesting without Stipe
Warren Zevon has a plan for that!
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/19/Sentimental_Hygiene_album_cover.jpg
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 14 September 2019 18:57 (five years ago) link
The After Party:
https://defendingaxlrose.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/screen-shot-2012-08-19-at-3-02-11-pm.png
Includes "Battleship Chains"!
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 14 September 2019 19:02 (five years ago) link
Sentimental Hygiene is often my favorite Zevon precisely because of the paces Zevon puts R.E.M. through on "Even a Dog Can Shake Hands."
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 14 September 2019 19:03 (five years ago) link
There's probably an alternate timeline wherein Stipe fucks off in the late '80s, and the rest of the band becomes the Alt-Rock MG's.
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 14 September 2019 19:48 (five years ago) link
Was Stipe an obstacle to people liking the band? I heard that before they broke big, but not much afterward until Berry left.
― L'assie (Euler), Saturday, 14 September 2019 20:49 (five years ago) link
i can recall, as a kid, hating his voice
don’t remember how or why i came around
― mookieproof, Saturday, 14 September 2019 21:52 (five years ago) link
Don't forget this one! (Indigo Girls were the opening act when I saw them on the aforementioned GREEN tour.)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvIHhYQ8S8E
― I don't get wet because I am tall and thin and I am afraid of people (Eliza D.), Saturday, 14 September 2019 22:12 (five years ago) link
I never noticed it before last week but my college town record store has a bunch of old show flyers on the wall and one of them is for a house party with a band they were hyping as being from the same as Pylon and the B-52s town
― joygoat, Saturday, 14 September 2019 23:00 (five years ago) link
xp I think Stipe was essential to their success ... at the start his manic dancing and yelling were practically the whole show, and when they started doing originals he was the main source of their arty mystique ... he can be pitchy and inconsistent on stage, but his charisma is what made them R.E.M.
― Brad C., Saturday, 14 September 2019 23:06 (five years ago) link
Yes, although when you watch the video of him singing his new material, it's cool to hear him writing and singing again, but the music is clearly something other.
― timellison, Sunday, 15 September 2019 00:49 (five years ago) link
my first big rock show was the Green tour, and I don't think I've ever seen that level of charisma matched since
― fremmes with neppavenettes (rip van wanko), Sunday, 15 September 2019 01:11 (five years ago) link
I always loved Stipe's voice. The band was all a cacophony of timbres and jangles that matched my heart. In high school, i would only date people that had that same pull, which was probably a mistake.
― Yerac, Sunday, 15 September 2019 01:27 (five years ago) link
Berry is a heckuva drummer.
Berry was always acknowledged to be the primary writer of "Perfect Circle" but were there any other songs that were "his" so-to-speak?
― Elvis Telecom, Sunday, 15 September 2019 07:46 (five years ago) link
I saw them at a club in 1983 and even then it was pretty clear that they could easily scale up the show. The year after they played the Palladium, easily 10x the size, and played it like they were in an arena.
― Elvis Telecom, Sunday, 15 September 2019 07:55 (five years ago) link
xp I know Berry wrote Man on the Moon among others
― an incoherent crustacean (MatthewK), Sunday, 15 September 2019 08:13 (five years ago) link
‘everybody hurts’ was mainly berry’s
― don’t bore us, get to the aeon of horus (bizarro gazzara), Sunday, 15 September 2019 08:36 (five years ago) link
Pretty sure Try Not to Breathe and Driver 8 are also Berry's
― cwkiii, Saturday, 21 September 2019 02:04 (five years ago) link
Buck says:
"I remember Bill came up with the verse to 'Driver 8,' and after he showed it to me he said, 'I need to run to the market, I'll be right back.' I think he went to get some beans or rice or something. In the meantime, I came up with the chorus and the intro riff. Bill came back in about five minutes, and it was done. So I played it for him and he went, 'Alright, that's great!' Bill was totally excited.
― #YABASIC (morrisp), Saturday, 21 September 2019 02:57 (five years ago) link
“Possibly my favourite band from that era was The Auteurs. Luke Haines and I have just made a record together and I think that’s coming out in the spring. I’d never met him, but we’d just send stuff back and forth and then we went to a show together when I was over in London six months ago. I guess it’ll come out as a Luke Haines / Peter Buck record, it’s hard making up band names, you always have to say who you are!
https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/interviews/r.e.m.s-peter-buck-nine-songs-monster
Hmm.
― afriendlypioneer, Friday, 1 November 2019 12:02 (four years ago) link
Michael Stipe 60 years old yesterday. A bit hard to handle.
― Mule, Sunday, 5 January 2020 12:26 (four years ago) link
I can't see myself at sixty, I don't buy a lacquered dixie
― L'assie (Euler), Sunday, 5 January 2020 12:44 (four years ago) link
I remember years (decades?) ago Stipe complaining in an interview around the time of peak "omg, Michael Stipe must be sick!" rumors (after he shaved his head and was looking kinda gaunt) that he is just four years older than Brad Pitt. So it's a battle of healthy living vs. good genes, I guess.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 5 January 2020 14:43 (four years ago) link
Yeah, I mean, he looks 60...He released a new single y’day, btw.
― Into the Bro-known: One Dude’s ‘Frozen’ Podcast (morrisp), Sunday, 5 January 2020 18:21 (four years ago) link
Good little Q&A; he’s definitely still Stipey, after all these years: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/jan/11/michael-stipe-who-would-i-say-sorry-to-everyone-i-slept-with-before-the-age-of-27
― Don’t yell ‘Judas!’ in a crowded theater (morrisp), Sunday, 12 January 2020 20:19 (four years ago) link