REM: Classic or dud?

i'm not a guy who thinks their post-college rock stuff is a waste of time, but I do just think of REM in the 80s being a different band than REM in the 90s.

i do agree that fables IS a perfect sweltering-summer type of record. in fact, it was the first proper REM record that i'd ever bought and it always takes me back to the summer when i first heard it (listening to it at my parents' vacation cabin in Vermont, during what passed as a "sweltering summer" by Vermont standards).

wendell gee: perfect summer, moody, southern gothic rock.

definitely going to get this:
R.E.M. will celebrate the 25th anniversary of their third album Fables of the Reconstruction with a double-disc reissue that pairs the complete digitally remastered original record with a second disc of demos and unreleased tracks from the era titled "The Athens Demos." The Fables reissue, due out July 13th, will also come with new liner notes written by R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck packaged in a lift-top box with a poster and four postcards. The reissue will also be available digitally and on 180-gram vinyl.

"It's a personal favorite," writes Buck of the album, which includes the band's classic "Driver 8," "and I'm really proud of how strange it is. Nobody but R.E.M. could have made that record. It took our four twisted personalities and the legendary Joe Boyd to make an album that character-filled and vibey."

Fables of the Reconstruction found the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers leaving behind their native Athens, Georgia, and recording for the first time in London, though "The Athens Demos" captures the group's initial recordings in their hometown. In addition to all 11 Fables tracks in demo form, the second disc also features the debut of the fan-favorite unreleased track "Throw Those Trolls Away" plus the demo of B side "Bandwagon" and an early version of "Hyena," which would later appear on Lifes Rich Pageant.

R.E.M. - Fables of the Reconstruction (25th Anniversary Edition)
Disc One: digitally remastered original album
1. "Feeling Gravity's Pull"
2. "Maps and Legends"
3. "Driver 8"
4. "Life and How To Live It"
5. "Old Man Kensey"
6. "Can't Get There From Here"
7. "Green Grow The Rushes"
8. "Kohoutek"
9. "Auctioneer (Another Engine)"
10. "Good Advices"
11. "Wendell Gee"

Disc Two: "The Athens Demos"
1. "Auctioneer (Another Engine) [demo version]"
2. "Bandwagon [demo version]" [final version was B side to "Can't Get There From Here"]
3. "Can't Get There From Here [demo version]"
4. "Driver 8 [demo version]"
5. "Feeling Gravity's Pull [demo version]"
6. "Good Advices [demo version]"
7. "Green Grow The Rushes [demo version]"
8. "Hyena [demo version]" [album version appeared on Lifes Rich Pageant]
9. "Kohoutek [demo version]"
10. "Life and How To Live It [demo version]"
11. "Maps and Legends [demo version]"
12. "Old Man Kensey [demo version]"
13. "Throw Those Trolls Away [demo version]" [previously unreleased]
14. "Wendell Gee [demo version]"

fables doesn't sound one bit like it was recorded in london.

by Joe Boyd (the same dude who produced Nick Drake) even ... wasn't until over a decade later (when i started listening to Nick Drake) that i realized the connection. and even later than that when i realized just WHY there might have been some tension b/w Boyd and the REM-mers during the recording of that record.

I stopped enjoying Wendell Gee when I realised it sounds alarmingly like Wind of Change by the Scorpions.

interesting that this is the firts of the 3 reissues so far without a live disc. i know they HATED making this album, and possibly hated touring it aswell? so that could be why.

there was a fucking killer interview from Melody Maker from the Fables era but it i can't find it online.

*first

well WTF the new album is really good. much better than anything since UP. Maybe better than that album too (depending on how you feel about that album).

mm definitely their best since Up. this is the thread where we say as much:
R.E.M. news - yay

Robot Hull on early R.E.M.:

http://www.rocksbackpagesblogs.com/2009/08/a-great-southern-voice-revisited-part-one/
http://www.rocksbackpagesblogs.com/2009/08/a-great-southern-voice-revisited-part-2/

http://www.pitchfork.com/news/44074-rem-break-up/

The band broke up years ago. R.E.M. has basically been three solo projects all at once.

Sad, though. End of an era.

And, and obviously: classic.

It's good they finally put themselves out of their misery - had they done this after Up they'd probably be triumphantly reuniting now like Pulp. They had a longer great run than most though, will be listening to Lifes Rich Pageant tonight.

while I can't imagine any doubt now that the only reason these guys stuck together is this mammoth-ass contract they signed after all the multi-platinum, I have to admire what a bizarre road they took while fulfilling it

http://www.svs.com/rem/news/wb.txt

R.E.M.,WARNER RECORDS SIGN $80 MILLION DEAL

GRAMMY-WINNING BAND WILL PRODUCE FIVE ALBUMS UNDER LARGEST RECORDING
CONTRACT EVER.

Here's the whole article: (very long)

R.E.M., the hottest free agent in the music business, signed a
five-album contract Saturday with Warner Bros. Records worth an estimated
$80 million--the largest recording contract ever awarded, sources said.
The Grammy-winning band's deal surpassed the $70-million mark
achieved seven months ago by pop diva Janet Jackson as well as other
mega-deals by such superstars as Michael Jackson and Madonna, whose
six-album pacts included film and joint venture record label components.
The signing was announced unexpectedly at the Anaheim Convention
Center on Saturday, where Warner Music executives were gathered for their
annual strategy summit. Delighted at the news, thousands of employees leaped
to their feet and broke into a standing ovation...

Artist Contract Company and Date
R.E.M. $80 million Warner Bros. 8/24/96
Janet Jackson $70 million Virgin Records 1/11/96
Metallica $60 million Elektra Records 1/10/95
Barbra Streisand $60 million Columbia Records 12/13/92
Madonna $60 million Warner Bros. 4/20/92
Michael Jackson $60 million Sony Music's Epic Records 3/20/91

The signing was announced unexpectedly at the Anaheim Convention
Center on Saturday, where Warner Music executives were gathered for their
annual strategy summit. Delighted at the news, thousands of employees leaped
to their feet and broke into a standing ovation...

this is such a bizarre image!

Oh no, what are all their fans going to do now?

well there's a new coldplay album with a goofy ass name coming out

Sing along!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DvVYwXqFEE

g-g-g-g-g-georgia!

Everything post-Automatic is crap, but you can't be a dud if you have 3-4 classic albums to your name.

What a weird line of demarcation.

listening to the life's rich pageant demos on spotify for the first time. not radically different, but kinda nice to hear these rawer versions. stipe humming through I believe, the big instro version of king of birds.

i actually liked these ^^^ demos far more than i thought i would.

I break with most fans in that I like some of their newer stuff. It's very different than their 1980s sound but occasionally still interesting. You could collect the best tracks from their post-Up (or Automatic or whatever) output and make a strong best-of album.

this band has been so boring for so long. I loved them in the 80s but when I revisit that stuff now it seems so flat and one-dimensional.

document and life's rich pagent seem especially boring to my ears these days.

I just find the unvarying sound of those 80s albums - clean electric guitar/bass/drums/vocals + occasionally backing vocals - with no overdubs or other instruments ever just really fucking boring

I view the breakup as akin to Jay Leno retiring: love the early 80s stuff, haven't had much of a reason to pay close attention since.

rem is ok but although i like pavement god damn they can be so arch it's gross. feel like stephen malkmus has got to be a smug asshole.

will still rep for Reckoning

what is my autographed copy of Chronic Town worth?

Noo! Cut down in their prime. They had so much to offer. R.I.P. R.E.M.

No overdubs on the 80s albums? There are like a million guitars all jangling away on Murmur and Reckoning. You can't get that lush ringing sound with one track. Not many other instruments, granted, but then it's what you do with them innit? And they were a fantastic band. Check those mid 80s live clips on youtube - they're on fire.

yeah i dunno, i'm always struck by how layered their early records are. in a subtle way i guess. but they were always a canny band in the studio, using bits of reverb, weird sounds, treated keyboards, etc.

Sad to see them quitting, even though they have been kind of uneven after "Automatic For The People". Everything from "Monster" onwards is pretty controversial, with people not being able to agree on which albums are good or not (well... OK .... everyone seems to agree that "Around The Sun" sucked monkey shit).

Still a great body of work behind them. Great until 1992. And, as you guys may know, I also like "Up" and "Reveal" a lot.

should've quit in 1983. /challopsing (but not really)

No, you're right. Major, major wrong turn for music almost from the beginning, on so many levels. I can't think of many other bands with a worse legacy.

"Stipe's penis: flaccid or wood?"

yeah i've found this band pretty hard to take the last 15 years. i don't mean the new releases from the last 15 years--i mean i found nearly all their music pretty hard to take for those years. prob mostly due to michael stipe. horrible singer.

I mean, in many ways their career was as if Disco Demolition Night had gone on for 30 years.

Please expand on this interesting theory about why nearly the entire career of R.E.M. was so damaging to all music everywhere.

ha what? rem, destroyers of disco?

This isn't sad, guys -- it's a relief. Enough with these mediocre records. Better to break up and start new projects. Like John Lennon said, we have the old records if we want to reminisce. What depressed me was the run of uninspired, redundant albums of the last thirteen years.

This piece actually does a nice (albeit inadvertant, I think) job of crystalizing everything they fucked up...

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/index.ssf/2011/09/rem_breaks_up_the_athens_band.html

I read through paragraph after paragraph thinking, "Fuck, yeah,they did do that, didn't they. Fuck."

I dunno. Whatever else, Out of Time is "focused."

It also happens to be my favorite album of theirs at the moment.

I think you linked to the wrong article. Or else you just need to spell out your issues for us.

(xpost)

Nope, right article. Ha ha.

I haven't figured out why an album as perfect-in-its-own-way as AFTP has left me cold for almost fifteen years. I loved the thing in '92 yet now I can't be bothered; I'll reach for three other REM albums instead. I can't think of a single crippling thing wrong with it though.