REM: Classic or dud?

There were no replaceable parts in this band. I might even venture that if you had to replace one, they might have still been interesting without Stipe

He's kind of the most interesting thing about the band (who are all interesting).

I might even venture that if you had to replace one, they might have still been interesting without Stipe

Warren Zevon has a plan for that!

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/19/Sentimental_Hygiene_album_cover.jpg

The After Party:

https://defendingaxlrose.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/screen-shot-2012-08-19-at-3-02-11-pm.png

Includes "Battleship Chains"!

Sentimental Hygiene is often my favorite Zevon precisely because of the paces Zevon puts R.E.M. through on "Even a Dog Can Shake Hands."

There's probably an alternate timeline wherein Stipe fucks off in the late '80s, and the rest of the band becomes the Alt-Rock MG's.

Was Stipe an obstacle to people liking the band? I heard that before they broke big, but not much afterward until Berry left.

i can recall, as a kid, hating his voice

don’t remember how or why i came around

Don't forget this one! (Indigo Girls were the opening act when I saw them on the aforementioned GREEN tour.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvIHhYQ8S8E

I never noticed it before last week but my college town record store has a bunch of old show flyers on the wall and one of them is for a house party with a band they were hyping as being from the same as Pylon and the B-52s town

xp I think Stipe was essential to their success ... at the start his manic dancing and yelling were practically the whole show, and when they started doing originals he was the main source of their arty mystique ... he can be pitchy and inconsistent on stage, but his charisma is what made them R.E.M.

Yes, although when you watch the video of him singing his new material, it's cool to hear him writing and singing again, but the music is clearly something other.

my first big rock show was the Green tour, and I don't think I've ever seen that level of charisma matched since

I always loved Stipe's voice. The band was all a cacophony of timbres and jangles that matched my heart. In high school, i would only date people that had that same pull, which was probably a mistake.

Berry is a heckuva drummer.

Berry was always acknowledged to be the primary writer of "Perfect Circle" but were there any other songs that were "his" so-to-speak?

my first big rock show was the Green tour, and I don't think I've ever seen that level of charisma matched since

I saw them at a club in 1983 and even then it was pretty clear that they could easily scale up the show. The year after they played the Palladium, easily 10x the size, and played it like they were in an arena.

xp I know Berry wrote Man on the Moon among others

‘everybody hurts’ was mainly berry’s

Pretty sure Try Not to Breathe and Driver 8 are also Berry's

Buck says:

"I remember Bill came up with the verse to 'Driver 8,' and after he showed it to me he said, 'I need to run to the market, I'll be right back.' I think he went to get some beans or rice or something. In the meantime, I came up with the chorus and the intro riff. Bill came back in about five minutes, and it was done. So I played it for him and he went, 'Alright, that's great!' Bill was totally excited.

“Possibly my favourite band from that era was The Auteurs. Luke Haines and I have just made a record together and I think that’s coming out in the spring. I’d never met him, but we’d just send stuff back and forth and then we went to a show together when I was over in London six months ago. I guess it’ll come out as a Luke Haines / Peter Buck record, it’s hard making up band names, you always have to say who you are!

https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/interviews/r.e.m.s-peter-buck-nine-songs-monster

Hmm.

Michael Stipe 60 years old yesterday. A bit hard to handle.

I can't see myself at sixty, I don't buy a lacquered dixie

I remember years (decades?) ago Stipe complaining in an interview around the time of peak "omg, Michael Stipe must be sick!" rumors (after he shaved his head and was looking kinda gaunt) that he is just four years older than Brad Pitt. So it's a battle of healthy living vs. good genes, I guess.

Yeah, I mean, he looks 60...

He released a new single y’day, btw.

Good little Q&A; he’s definitely still Stipey, after all these years: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/jan/11/michael-stipe-who-would-i-say-sorry-to-everyone-i-slept-with-before-the-age-of-27

There's really not much going on with it, but that new Michael Stipe single is really pretty.

The “Losing My Religion” episode of this new Song Exploder series is neat, if you have Netflix. Bill shows up!

I noticed this old “UK Collector’s Edition” version of the maxi-single showed up on streaming services this week; must have been timed with the show:

"Losing My Religion" – 4:29
"Fretless" – 4:51
"Losing My Religion" (Live acoustic version/Rockline) – 4:38
"Rotary Eleven" – 2:32

They have such great old faces now, especially Bill, how long before he gets cast in a Coen Bros movie?

Fretless is a really good b-side (also on the Until the End of the World soundtrack)

Oh wow i need to see this. They did Try Not To Breathe on the podcast episode. I guess 'for telly' you need to bring out the bigger guns.

I've seen dozens of little R.E.M. "packages" over the years (with retrospective clips, etc.), and this is a good one :)

I rewatched the 'Rough Cut' documentary recently which is the daddy of them all, imho.

Yeah i love that one.

Also this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT1wdva2jbU

This one is also kinda interesting -

https://www.vincentmoon.com/video-view-rem-six-days-and-ninety-nights-2008-97.html

The guys say a few "interesting" things in this Song Exploder interview - (a) they didn't have high expectations for the album/single, and thought they may flop (I don't believe this; I think they knew what they had); and (b) Peter decided to go in a totally new direction, learn the mandolin, write acoustic songs (are they confusing this album with Green? lol).

it seems like like they have at least 3 records where their narrative is "this was us reacting against the smash success of the previous album"

"We didn't want to write R.E.M. songs this time"

Pete didn't want to be a "guitar dick."

This was charming! Glad to know Bill Berry still bros down with them.

that song exploder episode was so lovely yes

they didn't have high expectations for the album/single, and thought they may flop (I don't believe this; I think they knew what they had)

i don't think this is new info, so even if you don't believe them, this is what they've said they thought about it for ages

i was having a pretty bad day and watching that episode really turned my mood around

helps that the REM guys seem like genuine dudes...

i had the in time dvd and i loved all the interview clips they put between the music videos, they're very funny and silly guys. my favorite part was stipe talking about how much the band hates naming albums and they always had a running list of potential album names and that list always contained the title cat butt

Wasn't Cat Butt a noise band in the late 80's? Like around the time of Squirrel Bait and Killdozer?

On Sub Pop no?

i don't think this is new info, so even if you don't believe them, this is what they've said they thought about it for ages

Sure, the story just doesn’t really make sense – “We fought the label hard to make this the lead single, b/c we thought it was a weird little song that wouldn’t likely connect with people.” It would be interesting to hear a different take on the scenario, after all these years. NBD though.

Haha, yeah, those two comments raised an eyebrow from me too.