The Smiths served much the same purpose overseas, no? Clean guitars, clean production ...
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 22 September 2011 19:55 (twelve years ago) link
(xxpost) Plus the distribution that came with being on IRS wasn't the same as being on Twin/Tone or Reflex.
― Prostetnic Vogon Limbaugh (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 22 September 2011 19:55 (twelve years ago) link
It's been a long while since I've listened to anything from Murmur beyond "Radio Free Europe"--played it constantly when it came out--but yes, I can definitely hear the Gang of Four in the jaggedness of the tracks posted above. Not so much in the vocals, though; for me, R.E.M. still come out of an Everlys/Byrds tradition of harmony, which would explain why I connected with Murmur immediately while the Gang of Four left me cold way back when.
― clemenza, Thursday, 22 September 2011 19:59 (twelve years ago) link
The LRP reissue with All The Right Friends is worth picking up.
― brotherlovesdub, Thursday, 22 September 2011 20:00 (twelve years ago) link
When the reunited Gang of Four played in Athens a few years ago, Stipe was there and acting all excited. He and Vanessa from Pylon sang backup on "I Love a Man in a Uniform."
― Brad C., Thursday, 22 September 2011 20:10 (twelve years ago) link
Oh, boy - should I be afraid to read ur-rockist Bill Wyman's career assessment in Slate, titled "R.E.M.'s Revolution: How a post-punk band from Georgia changed rock 'n' roll forever?"
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:20 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, couldn't make much sense of the piece. Like:
Still, in the overheated industry of the period, the band's sales were middling, and it wasn't as though the Replacements were moving product either. It took a few more years, until the rise of a band with a leader who plainly looked to R.E.M. for career if not musical inspiration, before the Amerindie movement could truly assault the industry. After Nirvana's Nevermind, everything changed ...
But this makes no sense, since R.E.M. was selling millions before "Nevermind," and millions of weirder records, at that. I wouldn't link the concurrent success of "Nevermind" and "Automatic" at all. They're almost opposites of one another in nearly every sense.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:29 (twelve years ago) link
yeah that's just wrong. and even if cobain professed to be an REM fan, it did not show in his music.
― tylerw, Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:30 (twelve years ago) link
well, Document broke them to a Top 40 audience and OOT made them superstars, six months before the release of Nevermind. No wonder writers conflate REM and Nirvana's successes.
― Anakin Ska Walker (AKA Skarth Vader) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:30 (twelve years ago) link
except Out of Time was released in April and Nevermind that fall, and didn't get big until that next spring
― Mr. Que, Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:33 (twelve years ago) link
But he's saying it was "Nevermind" that changed everything, when if you go by R.E.M.'s success, it was R.E.M. that changed things for Nirvana. But again, I don't see the connection.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:33 (twelve years ago) link
check out this insane picture
http://img.slate.com/media/1/123125/2066611/2281252/2303818/110922_MB_REMBand_EX.jpg
― Mr. Que, Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:34 (twelve years ago) link
document (and the one i love) both made the top 10 iirc
― bunnistula (buzza), Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:35 (twelve years ago) link
I think ppl aren't picking up on Alfred's blatant sarcasm...?
― the tax avocado (DJP), Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:35 (twelve years ago) link
yeah srsly guys
― Anakin Ska Walker (AKA Skarth Vader) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:36 (twelve years ago) link
Now, per the writer's odd, rushed thesis, there is an obvious case for "Nevermind" making good on the failed promise of the Replacements and Husker Du, for sure. But in terms of breaking down the doors, R.E.M. was in the big leagues already.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:36 (twelve years ago) link
rip sarcasm, rem
― bunnistula (buzza), Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:37 (twelve years ago) link
R.I.P.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:38 (twelve years ago) link
RIPan interesting thing about the our band could be your life book was how REM, to most of the bands of the time, were godlike rock stars, even from the early days. at least relatively speaking. from their perspective REM led some kind of charmed existence.
― tylerw, Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:39 (twelve years ago) link
there's that quote from Cobain's last RS interview in which he praises'em for behaving "like saints" during their period of mass success.
― Anakin Ska Walker (AKA Skarth Vader) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:39 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1671211/r-e-m-michael-stipe-nirvana-kurt-cobain.jhtml
― bunnistula (buzza), Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:40 (twelve years ago) link
So looking back, I guess R.E.M. was already playing arenas by '89.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:40 (twelve years ago) link
Might be covered in that article buzza linked, but weren't there tons of rumors flying around about a Cobain/Stipe collaboration around the time of Cobain's death?
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:44 (twelve years ago) link
Stipe used the project as an excuse to check on Cobain, Stipe said.
― Anakin Ska Walker (AKA Skarth Vader) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:45 (twelve years ago) link
REM were def playing arenas in 1989, at least in the southeast. I still regret not going to the last show on the Green tour, at the Omni in Atlanta.
― Euler, Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:45 (twelve years ago) link
yeah, the tourfilm doc shows them playing a pretty large space.
― tylerw, Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:46 (twelve years ago) link
I do think it odd that there was never any creative overlap between the Smiths and R.E.M. Contemporary peers, (broadly) similar sounds, (broadly) Marr/Buck guitar style, Stipe/Morrissey, all obvious analogs. Even now Marr and Buck live in the same city. But never the tween shall meet, I guess.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:47 (twelve years ago) link
[2-disc grrrrrreatest hits coming out in Nov: Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage: 1982-2011]
― tylerw, Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:47 (twelve years ago) link
buck and marr both appear on robyn hitchcock's last album.
I saw them at Mud Island, a fairly large amphitheatre, in 1986.
― Antonio Carlos Broheem (WmC), Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:48 (twelve years ago) link
when did stipe become bill murray?
http://www3.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Michael+Stipe+2011+Can+Awards+Dinner+FWNewDHpoE4l.jpghttp://beardporn.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/bill-murray-475x289.jpg
― bunnistula (buzza), Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:48 (twelve years ago) link
You know, there's a good case to be made that Metallica actually deserves credit setting the stage for Nirvana.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:48 (twelve years ago) link
R.E.M. basically followed U2's trajectory, albeit on a lag, and with a more wayward approach. People forget they didn't even tour behind "Out of Time" and "Automatic," their two biggest records!
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:49 (twelve years ago) link
That's why the Monster tour was so huge with multiple nights at big arenas that sold out so quickly.
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:51 (twelve years ago) link
Smiths & REM: I lived in Atlanta in the late 80s, & when Strangeways the buzz in my hs was that Stipe & Morrissey were regularly seen in Athens holding hands, & that the end of "Unhappy Birthday" ("the one you left behind") was a sly note to Stipe. I don't know if it's true! But that was the word from kids going back & forth to Athens (I was too young to drive at that point).
― Euler, Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:52 (twelve years ago) link
when Strangeways came out, I meant
can't write today, trying to do too much at once
You know, there's a good case to be made that Metallica actually deserves credit setting the stage for Nirvana.i think this is true ime. in 7th grade, during lunch hours on fridays, they let kids play music over the PA at my school. first it was the black album, and then it was nirvana. this seems like pretty hard evidence, i know.
― tylerw, Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:52 (twelve years ago) link
R.E.M. certainly were like the American kings of having all sorts of crazy rumors flying around!
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:53 (twelve years ago) link
Mozz and Stipe used to be pen pals, I believe.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:55 (twelve years ago) link
Stipe also befriended Morrissey in the early nineties; he had a Mother Hen instinct for stars-in-need.
― Anakin Ska Walker (AKA Skarth Vader) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 22 September 2011 21:56 (twelve years ago) link
Was Morrissey really a star-in-need at that point though? Iirc that was when he was doing really well (relatively) with his solo singles
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Thursday, 22 September 2011 22:01 (twelve years ago) link
Kill Uncle?
― Anakin Ska Walker (AKA Skarth Vader) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 22 September 2011 22:03 (twelve years ago) link
mozzz could always use a hug.
― tylerw, Thursday, 22 September 2011 22:04 (twelve years ago) link
Okay fair point, but to be fair most of his 1990-1992 singles charted higher in the U.S. than any of the late 80s stuff did.
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Thursday, 22 September 2011 22:05 (twelve years ago) link
i saw 10ooomaniaks open for them in arena. that sucked. but saw feelies open up for them and arena rock feelies was heavennnnnz.
― scott seward, Thursday, 22 September 2011 22:05 (twelve years ago) link
Time For a Witness is a great record.
― Anakin Ska Walker (AKA Skarth Vader) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 22 September 2011 22:06 (twelve years ago) link
10ooomaniaks
Is this another one of those goddamn ghostwave bands?
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Thursday, 22 September 2011 22:07 (twelve years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wESkX_ehgA
― tylerw, Thursday, 22 September 2011 22:09 (twelve years ago) link
Busted out Monster from storage and am listening for the first time in yoinks...forgot Thurston Moore did backing vox on "Crush W/Eyeliner".
― The Man With The Flavored Toothpick (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 22 September 2011 22:48 (twelve years ago) link
Michael Stipe played with a punk/new wave band called Bad Habits who were from St Louis, before moving to Georgia
The Minutemen were already on the REM tour and had completed it when D Boon died.
― Master of Treacle, Thursday, 22 September 2011 22:54 (twelve years ago) link