REM: Classic or dud?

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).

i don't think people were saying the words were inaudible; just indecipherable. stipe didn't really start enunciating until lifes rich pageant, a rumored concession to their label.

That rant above is kind of ridiculous, though. R.E.M. were a power pop band who liked Gang of Four and Fairport Convention. If other bands were influenced by them in crap ways, it was their own fault.

Tell me they don't look more kick-fucking-arse here than at any point since pre BINGO HAND JOB.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRVxOmu87MA

staring sideways at a laptop while singing pretty much removes all "kick-fucking-arse" from a performance

fuck is Stipe's problem? You don't see a goddamn music stand in front of Peter or Mike.

It is a good song, though.

I would be 'anticipating' Accelerate in this thread if only I could listen to their watermarked promo on my computer or in my car. I may need to borrow a discman.

L£ak£d.

So the weather in the UK has turned at last and out of the blue I have some strange and nostalgic feeling toward the first four or five REM albums. What gives?

You can see yourself at 30?

Ha, well I'm 38

I still haven't worked up the courage to listen to Accelerate, not to mention the two recent live albums either. Soon! I've been enjoying a lot of 80s-era REM bootlegs recently; "Baby I" is such a hot song.

yeah i'd say it's more "you can see youself at 40" for early REM nostalgia.

i get that feeling in early summer, too.

you know what sounds especially good as summer really begins to swelter? fables of the reconstruction.

Daniel, don't you live in Florida? It's always swelter there!

lol, yeah. we actually had a cool -- sometimes cold -- winter. but the swelter has returned now.

i used to have about five rem bootlegs on cassette. they had some of my favorite rem songs. i can't find them, and if i could find them, i couldn't play them (it's all discs and mp3s now, sadly).

and by "favorites," i mean unreleased stuff.

Lots of o/w unreleased material floats around out there, if you're inclined that way. The one I love the most is called So Much Younger Then, from 1981. Evidently there's a fuller version of that set, called Georgia Peaches—Ripe!, but I've never managed to track it down.

i had so much younger then! i can't begin to describe how much i adored that cassette. i wish they would somehow make these bootlegs available.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXdrz1AHXJE

is that the set that so much younger then was taken from? i've heard the entire muti-video set on youtube. i think this is part one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pq2kTRR1YJo&feature=related

Your link seems to be from a month later, but there shouldn't be any essential difference otherwise.

here's a bootleg list. i had so much younger then; bodycount; that beat; and maybe more, but all from around 1981.

just checked ebay and amazon. sadly, no sign of anyone selling the bootlegs (i realize you're not supposed to, but i took a chance).

I'll just say that it's trivial to get So Much Younger Then via your search engine of choice, and if you're willing to pay for a boot, this is just as sketchy & has the benefit of not having to pay a possibly shady dealer $20+ for it.

i'll look into it.

a different view, from the guy who hated most of miles davis' discs, i think. anyway:

On a foggy Monday in September, I hapt upon a miracle at the thrift store. In the dollar bin of cassette tapes filled with garbage and pish-posh rested a gentle TDK featuring the lilting handwriting of a young girl or "girly man," as popular political figure Hans and Franz might say. But this was no ordinary lilting TDK: this tape featured illicit tapings of two already illegal REM bootlegs -- which actually brings up a point I hadn't considered. We know bootlegging is wrong, but how about if you bootleg a BOOTLEG, as this enterprising human bean had done? Is it considered a good deed to take money out of the bootlegger's pocket? I don't know the answer. I can't even fathom how such a moral conundrum might be resolved. As our discussion continues, my mind is spinning with the possibilities, slowly tearing away at the delicate brainstem attachment. OW!

(*rests lazily in chair like Christopher Reeve*)

(*laughs uproariously at such a biting irreverent jab at a well-loved public figure*)

(*reads this week's obituaries; squirts intestinal bile out of nose*)

To cut to the quick chase, REM used to be a hellaciously rotten new wave/punk rock band. All the right instrumental elements were there from the beginning -- Peter Buck's clean jangly guitar tone, Michael Stipe's light Southern drawl, Mike Mills' excitable backup vocals and presumably bass playing of some sort, the drummer's peppy 4/4 beat later utilized in folk-punk classics like "Radio Free Europe" and "These Days" -- but one key element of the band's sound had yet to come to fruition. I'm speaking of course about the ability to compose anything remotely suggesting that the band members held even an ounce of collective common sense. Presumably they were going for some sort of Ramonesy beachpunk feel with the constant speedy 4/4 rhythm and simplistic chord sequences, but the "riffs" are just -- I mean, just TERRIBLE! Absolutely TERRIBLE! Straight out of 1958 A-E-D simplistic crap -- like the worst Buddy Holly outtakes of all time played fast on a clean guitar. It's not beachy, nor punky, nor Ramonesy in any other way, no matter how many times they rip off the "Blitzkrieg Bop" riff (which is PLENTY). It's just BAD! Even when they try to take a darker approach with minor chords and pessimistic lyrics, the songwriting remains clueless and the songs hookless. It's truly astonishing to think that this band would soon become one of the greatest songwriting teams in rock and roll history (I mean have you heard Reveal? It fuckin' TEARS!!!).

The bootleg was recorded at a live "gig" in 1980, and features the following tracks: Body Count (not an Ice-T cover), A Different Girl, Action (not a Paul Revere & The Raiders cover), Narrator For The Jacques Cousteau Show, She's Such A Pretty Girl, Baby I, Permanent Vacation (not an Aerosmith cover), Wait (not a White Lion cover), Scheherezade, Lisa Sez (probably a Lou Reed cover, though I didn't compare the two songs to check), Mystery To Me (not a Fleetwood Mac cover), I Don't Want You Anymore (not a Ramones cover), Little Girl (indeed a Syndicate Of Sound cover), Dangerous Times.

Do you recognize these rare REM songs? From b-sides, later album appearances, mixed artist compilations, rarities collections, box sets and any of the other many outlets that a band of REM's stature would naturally have for stray tracks? No, you don't. AND THERE'S A GOOD GODDAMNED REASON FOR THAT!!! Here I am all excited thinking I'm going to get this all-new collection of great REM tunes that nobody's ever heard, and what do I end up with but stereo speakers so filled with shit that everything I play now is completely muffled. Aside from the Syndicate of Sound cover, there is not a single good -- or even DECENT -- song on this bootleg. Okay, "A Different Girl" has a couple of good parts. But that is IT. REM's earliest material is shockingly bad. Horrifyingly bad. Dip your balls in a blender bad.

Oh, I'm sorry. Do you not generally dip your balls in a blender when you hear a bad record?

Wait, now I'm really confused. If I'm the only one who does this, where did all these "women" come from? THEY certainly must have dipped their balls in a blender after hearing a bad record at some point!

So basically what you're saying is that I'd might as well give up sending Billy Joel tapes to Steve Guttenberg. I knew it! I shall die alone!!!!

this enterprising human bean

"I mean have you heard Reveal? It fuckin' TEARS!!!"

lol

sadly, yes, i have heard reveal.

So Mark Prindle is now known as "the guy who hated most of miles davis' discs." LOL

should he be known as something else?

No, it's just interesting that those reviews have completely overshadowed the rest of his output. Well, that and his review of AC/DC's Ballbreaker.

http://victoriansquidmusic.blogspot.com/2010/04/rem-so-much-younger-then.html

yeah, i read that earlier. i liked that post. it's a bit overly-harsh on monster, which is an underrated disc (but by no means in the upper-tier of REM's discography).

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.