REM: Classic or dud?

As opposed to apparently every critic around the world, I'm quite disappointed by Reveal. The last thing we need now is another apathetic 'Hey, everything will be alright' album. The tunes are pretty enough but I can't hear anything with the passion of Murmur or Lifes Rich Pageant. Maybe the computers just took it out of them a little.

Records I like in the zero decade include: Lloyd, The Negatives; 6ths, Hyacinths & Thistles; Costello / Mutter, For The Stars; B&S, FYHCYWLAP. Of these, I think Lloyd's is the best. EC does what he does. 6ths and B&S are patchy by their authors' standards. I can't think of many others.

Yeh, anything after 'document' or even 'lifes rich pageant' for that matter is supsect but ya kind of had o be there to understand the significance at the time.....

I but them at this time at of sentimentality

xpost:
tim, i think that post could cut both ways...

still classic, even if i hardly ever take these discs off the shelf any more. i used to debate the merits of gardening at night with my trig teacher.

I thought The Great Beyond was a lovely single, as was Imitation of Life (even Bad Day fits into this category), but those seem more like lucky accidents than an indication that they could record an entire album as consistent as those 15 years ago.

If "Hi-Fi" had ended with "Be Mine," it'd be classic REM, probably in my top four or five.

having missed the monster tour - which would've been awesome as a high schooler - i was equally thrilled to see them on the UP tour as a college senior. they were ecstatic and did their best to include some older stuff...that the crowd booed!

once they moved from dance clubs to theatres

Middle ground between what and what?

May I say that this is just an utterly DIRE portrait of the people that like their music?

The Klosterman thing is patronising, but it is true that REM had a certain arty liberal outsider appeal. They were a great band to be into when you're first discovering music. They and Nirvana were the first bands not in my parents' record collections I got into. Both were non-macho, arty rock bands and a great gateway drug into more esoteric pleasures.

So Classic! Despite the undeniable dudness of Reveal and Around the Bum.
(That said, Reveal had Beat A Drum, which is terrible on the album, but beautiful in its spare piano demo form).

Someone posted most of "Shaking Through," which is a good vantage, especially if you want to see Wurster's sartorial tribute to Berry:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qn3M3ZBzkJk

For those with access, Tom Breihan just posted his essay on "Orange Crush":

https://www.stereogum.com/2231808/the-alternative-number-ones-r-e-m-s-orange-crush/columns/the-alternative-number-ones/?1690980791

I used to have a great tape of REM's appearance on KCRW's Snap show w/Dierdre Donoghue in 1991, really loose, with lots of chat and impromptu cover versions. Well I lost the tape over time and could only find boots with the chat all cut out but thankfully KCRW have put it up on an online archive, it's a great listen.

https://www.kcrw.com/music/shows/bent-by-nature/rem-out-of-time-acoustic-live-1991

Thought this revive would be about REM tribute act Dead Letter Office, or DLO for short.

good show, MaresNest, thanks for sharing

Ha, I think that interview was on the B-Side of the Bingo Hand Job bootleg cassette I bought in Camden Town, nice to hear it again

I've never heard of this podcast, but the latest ep. = "R.E.M. founding member and bass player Mike Mills waxes nostalgic about his band's iconic 1992 release Automatic for the People": https://ncpodcasts.com/the500podcast

https://www.stereogum.com/2236106/micky-dolenz-rem-covers-shiny-happy-people/music/

Dolenz’s covers EP has the Michael Stipe seal of approval, via RS:

These songs are absolutely incredible. Micky Dolenz covering R.E.M. Monkees style, I have died and gone to heaven. This is really something. ‘Shiny Happy People’ sounds incredible (never thought you or I would hear me say that!!!). Give it a spin. It’s wild. And produced by Christian Nesmith (son of Michael Nesmith). I am finally complete.

Never one of my favorite REM tracks, but this does sound like a good idea.

seems appropriate ... R.E.M. did "(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone" in a lot of their earliest shows

Dolenz Sings R.E.M. Tracklist:
01. Shiny Happy People
02. Radio Free Europe
03. Man on the Moon
04. Leaving New York

Cool

Daydream BeSleeper

ok, i have to really tip my cap for getting Wuxtry Records into that cover. next best thing would've been the tree that owns itself.

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).