Let's talk stipe

And in the '80s, he was even cute.

Round and round
the bureaucrats go
the laws about education
just blow

- Guest appearance on Neneh Cherry's "Trout"

https://variety.com/2019/music/news/r-e-m-s-michael-stipe-to-release-debut-solo-single-this-weekend-1203356062/

I love REM and for a while in my teens they were my favourite band but I refuse to believe that anyone was craving a Michael Stipe solo record.

This isn't terrible, but it's kinda lame.

I always remeber back when they got the VMA Video Vanguard Award in 1995, I think. One of the clips showed the four of them sitting on a couch and Stipe saying "if any of the four guys stood up and left the couch, we would not be R.E.M. anymore". Which ended up being so prescient; the moment Berry left the band, they were never, never the same again.

Funny, that, because after Berry left he said the exact opposite. He was quoted as saying "a three-legged dog is still a dog. It just has to learn how to walk differently."

^ Stipe said, I mean

Studio period after Berry quit included some of their best songs and then they picked a great drummer in Bill Rieflin and became a tight band again in that fun period covering the last couple of albums.

good interview in the New Yorker:
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/michael-stipe-wants-to-make-mistakes

That is a good one!

But fuck, I'm not sure if it says more about me or the state of the world right now that I got reallllll nervous for a hot second seeing tow Stipe/R.E.M. threads bumped right in a row. Imagine my relief when I scrolled down to the bottom of each.

"seeing two" dammit

Same

Stipe will prolly live to 100

(C Hundred, to be precise)

“A.I.” was the worst film ever made

hmm

Fun interview, mostly about clothes and photography:

https://www.blackbirdspyplane.com/p/michael-stipe-blackbird-spyplane-goat-talk-2021

Bumping this because it’s an original interview, if you can get through the house style.