REM: Classic or dud?

Some commentary by Mike on various songs and other R.E.M.-related things: https://www.vulture.com/article/mike-mills-rem-michael-stipe-superlatives.html

Kind of fascinating how much they (and others) rep for "Reveal." Like, “All the Way to Reno (You’re Gonna Be a Star)” as the best song after Bill left? Really?

Maybe it’s an in-joke

Number six.

Mike talks extensively about Up and other things: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/r-e-m-mike-mills-up-no-reunion-1234867325/

(Mike's a talker these days!)

daaaaamn -- that's a good long interview.

I will now promptly read the whole thing

Thanks for that!

Reunited! (in their appreciation of Michael Shannon)

heh, I suspected at least most of them would show up, but this is cool.

My friend Dag (plays guitar in the band, lifer) shared this fun pic of him and Stipe last night.

That's a great pic! (I'm friends of friends with Dag, he's sort of replacing my guitar teacher.)

wow!

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

My friend Dag (plays guitar in the band, lifer) shared this fun pic of him and Stipe last night.

― paisley got boring (Eazy),

I can't tell them apart!

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).

Love seeing the four of them together again

Bill almost breaking up caught me off guard tho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1qjo0Oz1qw

awww bill

I'm crying too, biiiillllll <3

loved seeing the four of them together, didn't even make me feel (very) old

Buck with the reunion truth bomb: "It wouldn't be as good"

is it wrong that i want the four CBS morning people to start an REM cover band

lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUdVeADoPOY

I did not expect that to make me tear up a little bit. <3 these guys still and that was such refreshingly honest interview. Like clearly still some feelings, but they all seem able to appreciate the bigger picture.

Gosh. There was a charm and unexpected sadness to that.

Ah man. I was at that Glastonbury show in the video!

the all-time champs of Band Dynamics

CBS' Sunday morning show has consistently the best interviews.

yeah, Mason is clearly a mega-music fan ... with exactly the taste you would expect, but still. at least they're making time for music.

<3

that was really cool and honest

Well well well

https://www.facebook.com/REMhq/posts/pfbid031VDjWwKEGKMTJGZgLWn7k4y4SSvRZ38AKVkjRsn8XsCVuRqaDDh3eZtTPCb4ebVNl

Me just now: "I wonder if setlist.fm has been updated."

And of course:

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/rem/2024/marriott-marquee-hotel-new-york-ny-3b57a878.html

It’s funny how the CBS anchor refers to them as “the iconic indie-rock group R.E.M.”

i did laugh at the fact they played just about every REM song most REM fans have no interest in hearing again.

Really? I would have thought that for most REM fans that would be their #1 choice for them to play. It's certainly my favourite of all the songs they've ever done.

"oh wow, they're playing "Shiny Happy People" / "Its the end of the world" / "Wolves, Lower" "

I still love Losing my Religion

they sounded fantastic, very impressed

jeez, talk about ambushed by unexpected emotion, i'm filling up here

shared the interview with my dad - rem were one of the few bands we could agree on when i was a teenager

wild to realise the four of them haven't been interviewed together in 30 years

losing my religion casts a spell that makes it totally resilient in the face of being massively overplayed, it never gets tired for me. i wouldn't have asked them to play any other song and i couldn't have asked them to sound any better playing it now, i found it moving

the Youtube above is US only, but i can play CBS's own video in Canada (41min): https://www.cbsnews.com/news/r-e-m-discusses-surprise-reunion-at-songwriters-hall-of-fame-reveals-why-there-wont-be-another/

not sure where the performance is on their site though

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATHHACcw3Q4

I'm in the UK and this link to the full 41m works for me

no performance in that video

i googled "rem songwriters hall of fame performance" and a recording by someone in the crowd that's on youtube came up

Same

sheesh what a song

so nice to see bill just floating along on the hand percussion

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8MbXgutzbT/?igsh=bjl3MDFkeXh2dnN6

Stipe still sounds great

xp michael sounds amazing. lyrics still a rich enigma 40 years later. i loved how they described it as a "bumblebee" as in it shouldn't fly at all but it did.