REM: Classic or dud?

i have to admit: i was obsessed with REM when i was about 15 years old, in 2000-2001. don't really understand why that happened, but nonetheless, really can't understand the hate for them. they WERE a great band and released some amazing records... jesus, i was even in a band that COVERED some REM songs. Cello, stand-up bass, and acoustic guitar version of "Try Not to Breathe" was a show-stopper.

i was older than 15, i realize. *sigh*

They were an important band for me, saw em on each tour for the first 5 albums or so. Including once the night after the circus left Madison Sq Garden, peeeeeeeeeeyuuuuuuuuu.

Seen REM several times over the years... First was an amazing show at the Pomona Valley Auditorium soon after Murmur was released. Maybe about 20 people there.

Haven't seen them live since the LRP tour - always thought that REM quality was proportional to length of Stipe's hair.

I wish Warren Zevon was still around so they could do another Hindu Love Gods album.

i'd say r.e.m. were pretty great through up. been dead to me since then tbh.

i was both late to them and (slightly) early to leave. but they were certainly great for 15 years.

aftp has more than a couple skippable tracks but drive and try not to breathe among others are peerless.

always thought that -- on AFTP -- find the river was a better sappy ballad than either (the cloying) everybody hurts or even nightswimming.

everybody hurts sux, nightswimming rules

"Ignoreland" describes itself.

I wonder if they'd have relegated it to a b-side if they'd known that Clinton would beat Bush that year.

they needed a rocker

that's for sure

http://www.thegoodtimber.com/FinalPics/rockingChair.jpg

the secret jam on aftp is monty got a raw deal--that song rules

maybe they should have put circus envy on AFTP.

but yeah, "Find The River" is a keeper. I love how it goes from its sweet lament into menace with its closing line, "all of this is coming your way".

"Circus Envy" is one of my favorite REM songs: as snotty as they ever got?

maybe they should have put circus envy on AFTP.

― Daniel, Esq., Wednesday, September 21, 2011 9:16 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol oh man, circus envy. i listened to that shit a couple weeks ago for the first time in probably a dozen years.

monster had its production flaws, but it had a lot of very strong (if somewhat bland, for rem) songs, and circus envy is a corker.

yeah, snotty as they ever got. it almost snarled.

what's the frequency kenneth is a total classic but i'm honestly not sure what else i would save from monster.

i like to imagine that R.E.M. had been privately lobbying Lou Reed for years to make an album with them, and when he picked Metallica instead it just broke their spirits

Pitchfork is reporting that the R.E.M. website is announcing the break-up of the band.

Stipe's comments about knowing when to leave the party are a bit laughable as the dried vomit has already been scraped off the floor and the lampshade hat has been returned to its proper perch.

I didn't care for much they did after Document; still, enough to be a bonafide classic.

of monster, i'd save the following:

• what's the frequency, kenneth
• i don't sleep, i dream
• circus envy
• i took your name

Monster's got good stuff on it--"Crush w/Eyeliner" "I Took Your Name". Love Buck's guitar sound falling between garage & glam.

x-post

i really like some songs on Monster, it's just kind of deadening as a whole. makes for good compilation highlights.

The best part of Monster IS the production -- so damn perverse. They reified glam with several removes of vocal and aesthetic filters, but left the sex in.

Idea of Monster was better than the songwriting but the idea was enough, after Green/OOT/AFTP and lot and lots of mandolins.

Berry even then would have walked if they hadn't made it

I prefer the underbelly of R.E.M. - so I'm listening to the bonus disc that came with the "And I Feel Fine" IRS-years comp.

For me, the most perfect song on Automatic is "New Orleans Instrumental No. 1."

Here's a clip from the second show I saw, a year later, in a much bigger venue; also an interview with Mills (the interviewer is Mordeci Richler's son). I hadn't seen this since it first aired, and was hoping I'd turn up in the front row...no luck.

"New Orleans Instrumental No. 1" is so beautiful

^yeah!

Also OTM:

always thought that -- on AFTP -- find the river was a better sappy ballad than either (the cloying) everybody hurts or even nightswimming.

While we're talking about 90s REM, I want to say that while Stipe's singing largely left me cold post-Monster because of his retreat to that talk-sing you hear on "I Took Your Name", "E-Bow The Letter", &c &c &c, he lets it rip on "Leave" & that song's a real keeper; dig the Bomb Squad-style production on that track too.

R.E.M. News - boo

Favorite nineties REM songs:

Half a World Away
Near Wild Heaven (lovely melody, lovely Mills vocal; glad he didn't get too many)
Leave
Bittersweet Me (my favorite of their nineties second singles)
Tongue
Monty Got a Raw Deal
Texarkana
Me in Honey (effective use of Kate Pierson)

alfred otm

my first kiss was to Leave. thanks REM!

thread needs more awesome live REM videos like tipsy posted upthread. everyone's seen this one, but still it's a classic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ykp0Vq77IBw

yeah to alfred's list. i'd add new test leper, which works really well despite being kind of bland, and electrolite.

Alfred, I was gonna post something about how much i adore "Near Wild Heaven."

"Bittersweet Me" was great. I used to hear one of the other NAiH-F singles, "Electrolite" alot in grocery & drug stores. It made shopping pleasant.

That's a great list.

"Band and Blame" is my favorite second REM single of the 90s; Stipe's vocal is uncharacteristically tender & as Alfred said earlier, it exudes sexuality: open, vulnerable, wanting, "dares to cross your threshold".

ack "Bang & Blame", way to miss the point, self.

electrolite gets a bad rap because it's played a lot in grocery and drug-stores.

but the hook and melody makes it an unforgettable earworm.

i hate band and blame with the heat of a thousand suns.

yeah "Electrolite" has had an unexpected second life as Muzak; I hear it far more than the other NAIHF singles.

"Bang & Blame" is kind of interminable, imo everything it does well is done better by "I Don't Sleep, I Dream"

"Do you give good head?"

and that terrific strummed electric hook.

My favourite '90s song, with my favourite R.E.M. lyric ever: "You know, there's talk of time/Talk is fine."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_JnCWT-_O8

I adore Out of Time, which still doesn't get much love because It's The Big One. The marvel for me, as I wrote in my own obit, is how "Losing My Religion" sounded a hundred times more ambiguous with each radio play. I've never gotten tired of it.

And the record has all kinds of crinkles and filigrees. "Near Wild Heaven" I mentioned, but what about the loping "Endgame"? Those flutes!