REM: Classic or dud?

the 2001 "Cuyahoga" is gorgeous but he changes the best line to "we are not your allies, we cannot PRETEND". grrrrrr

(talking about the new Unplugged again)

Listening to the first Unplugged right now and realize how much Fretless stands out as one of the best tracks on the whole set.

What's the Frequency, Kenneth? is such a fun song. I'd forgotten.

http://www.salon.com/2014/06/04/michael_stipes_the_cold_lands_soundtrack_his_first_new_music_since_r_e_m_s_disbandment/

“Go fuck yourselves, the lot of you—you sad, attention-grabbing, power-hungry little men,” Stipe said in a quote emailed to The Daily Beast. (He was likely referring to Trump and Cruz, two Republican presidential contenders who spoke at the rally.) “Do not use our music or my voice for your moronic charade of a campaign.”

Mike Mills, Peter Buck and others did "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville" in Norway the other night:

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

feel like old REM vinyl has hit an all time low. you can buy a decent copy of Murmur or Reckoning for under ten bucks online if you look hard enough. you could get 40 bucks for an original chronic town online 5 years ago. now you can find it for ten. i mean you can STILL get all kinds of prices for everything on a good day, just noticeable that if you wanted a complete 80's vinyl collection, now would be the time to buy one. you could probably do it for a hundred bucks if you look around for a month or so on ebay.

(anecdotal, but no 20something or younger has ever asked me if i had any REM...)

some of the first records i bought (in the late 90s) was early R.E.M. Plenty of cheap clean copies around at the time, or so it seemed.

Murmer through Life's Rich Pagent, anyway. Don't remember seeing Document much.

man the pricing for LP copies of Monster is still going strong!

I did recently pick up a very nice West German pressing of Out Of Time for like $12 or so, it sounds great.

20-somethings were still watching Teletubbies when REM last released a good single, so I can't say I'm hugely surprised at their lack of interest.

I got a decent Murmur for $2.50 a little over three years ago.

Wonder if they've also suffered from shifts in the sonics of cool music? Like when I was buying those albums 15 years ago, jangley college rock and the weirder, Wire/Pylonier sound of Chronic Town still seemed, I dunno, relevant to the landscape of where indie rock was at. Lord knows they were in lots of lists. Could imagine that's changed a bit...?

That's too bad if so. But hey, let the bargains flow for those who don't care about the sonics of "cool music."

pylon records have gone up in the meantime. you can get 30 bucks for chomp or gyrate.

That's great! Not parting with either of mine tho.

seems like they were pretty cheap forever.

my 80's shocker of the day: got a nice u.s. copy of substance and was gonna put it out in the store for like 20 bucks. then i decided to look it up just in case and i sold it for 50 dollars on discogs. !!! substance! it took like an hour to sell it. not even a u.k. copy. i saw copies going for 70 dollars on ebay. you can get low-life for like 10 bucks. it must have more sentimental value or something? i had no idea.

even technique sells for more than low-life these days. poor low-life...

50 bucks? My record collection is worth more than I thought. Not selling any of it, though. Listening to them all is how I'm going to spend my nursing home years.

I've seriously only ever seen one copy of Chomp in the wild. Somehow didn't get it at the time and have been hoping to bump into one ever since. But I'm the type who really only *wants* to find things by chance, in the wild.

Man, poor Low-Life indeed. Such a great album. Technique is better though, so. . .

And, out here on the west coast, I've never seen a Pylon album. Ever.

Wonder if they've also suffered from shifts in the sonics of cool music?

Sure, and just normal generational eclipse. Anecdotally from my wife and her millennial coterie, R.E.M. barely registers at all. They maybe know Automatic for the People, but that's about it. To them, R.E.M. has always been a bunch of boring old dudes.

I'm sure there will be some occasion for a renaissance/rediscovery.

Gyrate used to be a bargain bin staple down here (NZ). Never seen Chomp tho. Suddenly realised, at this point I can prob recoup the money I blew on records in the 90s and 00s, kinda plsed

Forget the Beatles/Zep/Nirvana visibility, REM don't even seem to have the cross generational visibility of U2, Metallica, Joy Division, even Sonic Youth (to give examples of more immediate peers)

God knows what it will be like in 20 years

I bought a copy of the first Bangles EP on IRS for like three bucks (maybe four, can't remember) last week. Good record! Produced by Craig Leon.

yes it is! All Over The Place is great too...

Substance hasn't been reissued on vinyl. Low Life is available in hundreds of pressing variations on vinyl. I see it all the time. I've seen Substance in a store exactly 2 times in the last 15 years and New Order is always my first stop.

I ran across a copy of Chomp in Austin at something Ears record store. It was a nice OG pressing for a decent price. Only time i've ever seen it though.

then i decided to look it up just in case and i sold it for 50 dollars on discogs. !!! substance!

this is insane. I have no idea how anything is valued in the vinyl market, it's completely baffling.

To them, R.E.M. has always been a bunch of boring old dudes.

youth of today otm

Substance hasn't been pressed on vinyl for 30 years! How is it insane for that to be that expensive? I'm still looking for a UK gatefold copy. There will be a new Singles Box Set released this year with remastered versions of all the singles, but I think those will be 7" remasters, not the 12" original versions.

if R.E.M. had broken up in 1997, the millennials would be demanding their reunion at the coachella

Were millenials demanding Husker Du? I tend to agree with the premise that it's a sonic thing.

Check out the price on the original pressing of Get Ready. You want to talk about insanity.

the lack of REM on that recent 1980s Pitch4k list was pretty o_0. i mean christ there was more Lionel Richie in it than REM.

Was there really?

That's right embarrassing.

I still hear plenty of REM influence in stuff like Real Estate. Has it really aged that poorly?

No, I think the the biggest irony of all is that those early R.E.M. albums still hold up.

if R.E.M. had broken up in 1997, the millennials would be demanding their reunion at the coachella

dead john bonham ftw

REM don't even seem to have the cross generational visibility of

who cares? why should they? and it doesn't matter.

I think the early R.E.M. albums still hold up but I also hear very little R.E.M. in contempo indie, Real Estate included, and I think that's why they went down the memory hole at Pitchfork.

And yes, that Bangles EP is great -- How Is The Air Up There? especially -- though I think All Over the Place is where they really achieve mastery of what they're doing.

Photos from May 16, 1980

I remember back when they used to say that they would have a gig on December 31st, 1999 and when the clock stroke twelve they would split. Even though it always sounded implausible, my teenager self found that idea so poetic I couldn't help feeling somewhat disappointed when 2000 came and they were still there. The albums they released after that point didn't relieve my disappointment either.

It seems really clear now but, even though Stipe was always the spokesperson, I can't think of any other of the big bands that was less about the individuals and more about the band than R.E.M was. Which I suppose also hurts their marketability in today's landscape: there's no clear charismatic figure with a compelling narrative to sell the band; they also don't belong to any scene that's been rediscovered either.

Anyway, these kind of things happen all the time. Bowie and Talking Heads were pretty much has beens in the late 90's-early 2000's and look at how revered they're now.

there's no clear charismatic figure with a compelling narrative to sell the band

I never thought that'd be much of an issue for rock bands. I know that for pop stars coming out of the tv talent contests the "journey" is a big selling point but it doesn't seem to have any lasting power or have much effect in other countries.

I think REM basically played the game right. They were indie weirdoes from the start and that's what they sort of are now, like a Feelies that convinced millions of people to buy their records. We're talking about a band that didn't even bother touring behind its two biggest records. Possibly their two weirdest, most eccentric records, at that. They always seemed happy keeping it low key, playing clubs, going to house parties/shows in Athens, etc. Pretty private and insular. The nicest thing about them fading back into the ether is their albums have remained vital, viable things ripe for rediscovery.

They were indie weirdoes from the start and that's what they sort of are now, like a Feelies that convinced millions of people to buy their records.

They started out as indie weirdos, but they turned into this shlocky, boring, baroque bands. They're not like the Feelies at all on their last, what, 5-10 records?