REM
 

Reckoning is a great album, isnt it. I love harborcoat, and second guessing, dont go back to rockville and little america. Its so much better than their recent stuff....is the fist record murmur any good??

Reckoning is my all time favorite REM album. They are easily in my top 5 favorite bands ever!!! I love them to death and still are great live. Murmur is fucking heaven dude....get it immediately. Yeah there last two records were kind of weak, but I loved Up.

uhm and what about Automatic for the people?
I love this album...from the beginning up to the end!

Murmur is great. My favorite REM song is PREETY PERSUASION. My second favorite is WOLVES, LOWER off of the chronic town EP. (I got that one on cassette and vinyl) Chronic Town is from 1981. Murmur is from 1983.

I love the old REM. Everything up to Out of Time. that one is great but everything after left me sad.

Here are my fave REM in order

Reckoning
Life's Rich Pageant
Murmur
Document
Fables of the Reconstruction
Green

I love all those albums, plus I gots dead letter office.

Hello, I saw you, I know you, I knew you
I think I can remember your name

....name.

I love REM. Chronic Town through Fables are my favorites, with Murmur being my most favorite. I like all their stuff though.

monster.

I used to have Murmur but don't have it anymore, it's not my favorite. I have Lifes Rich Pageant, Reconstruction of the Fables, Chronic Town, Document (on vinyl), Dead Letter Office, Eponymous, and one single on vinyl (The One I Love--is that the title?)

One thing i really love about REM is the album artwork.

really endlesslyfuckinghorrible music.

Woaah! Ive just noticed the lyrics to the song "unseen power of the picket fence" by Pavement.

Some bands I like to name check,
And one of them is REM,
Classic songs with a long history
Southern boys just like you and me.
R - E - M
Flashback to 1983,
Chronic Town was their first EP
Later on came Reckoning
Finster's art, and titles to match:
South Central Rain, Don't Go Back To Rockville,
Harbourcoat, Pretty Persuasion,
You were born to be a camera,
Time After Time was my least favourite song,
Time After Time was my least favourite song.
The singer, he had long hair
And the drummer he knew restrait.
And the bass man he had all the right moves
And the guitar player was no saint.
So lets go way back to the ancient times
When there were no 50 states,

And on a hill there stands Sherman
Sherman and his mates.
And they're marching through Georgia,
we're marching through Georgia,
we're marching through Georgia
G-G-G-G-Georgia
They're marching through Georgia,
we're marching through Georgia,
marching through Georgia
G-G-G-G-Georgia
and there stands REM

(Aye Sir, Aye Sir, Aye Sir they're coming, Aye Sir, move those wagons, Aye
Sir, Artillery's in place Sir, Aye Sir, Aye Sir, hide it, hide it, Aye
Sir, run, run.)

YES, That's my favorites in order as well. Long live r..e.m

"Wolves, Lower" is one of my favorite songs too, Rob.

The five (in order) R.E.M. albums every music lover should own:
Reckoning
Chronic Town ep
Lifes Rich Pageant
Fables of the Reconstruction
Murmur

Those five are all pretty equal in how great they are. Oh, and atsonicpark is a tosser.
I bought Fables first, then Murmur, then Reckoning, and then Lifes Rich Pageant came out...they were all haha cassettes...

It doesn't get much cooler than the When the Light is Mind dvd though. Some cool stuff was left out, but plenty of cool stuff is included to more than make up for it.

Along with Green, Automatic For The People is the only current WB-era one that I can strongly recommend. I don't have a whole lot of appreciation for Out of Time which has about three good songs. OoT was the first "alternative" mega-hit album in history, by the way. Nirvana's Nevermind would follow over half a year later. I thought I was going to be sick the first time I heard "Endgame," for instance. In short, R.E.M. broke through the college radio underground into the mainstream by LRP ('86) and then also conquered the mainstream first with OoT ('91). Although, I do have the studio boot from Out of Time, Time of Outtakes, so I must like it a little...and several live shows from the tour and the first Unplugged too which features several OoT songs.

I've never thought of it like that but, yes, you're probably right. I certainly can't think of anything before it that could compete. U2s The Unforgettable Fire maybe? Although I'm not sure that U2 were ever 'alternative' in the same way that REM were - more a grass-roots band that suddenly became titans. Hmm, an interesting one this.

I'm a fan of The Unforgettable Fire (their best, in my opinion), but it only went to number twelve on the US chart. (And I still like the Joshua Tree and War too. War's getting the reissue treatment with extras soon). You can go with '87's The Joshua Tree if you like since it also topped both the US and UK charts. And its critical praise certainly snowballed the Lifes Rich Pageant hype from the previous year ('86) into a movement. And by '88's Rattle and Hum feature film, the transition to the mainstream was complete.


Well, if we examine the question, U2 are, as we know, on Island, a relatively small-but-known label before being sold to PolyGram in '89 (now it's part of the Universal Music Group behemoth and U2 are enjoying megabucks), and R.E.M. started on the truly independent I.R.S. label. Although, it wasn't until R.E.M.'s second effort on Warner Bros. until they went no. 1 on the British and American charts. It's a toss-up really and ultimately it depends on how "slick" one thinks early-to-mid U2 is. We can also think of it this way: R.E.M. got the deal for a multi-album contract in the 100 mil neighborhood from Warner before U2 got their even bigger deal when they re-upped. Thanks for your input.

Yes, but by the time they hit global domination levels with The Joshua Tree they were far too established (a mixture of the success of the single Pride. the release of the Live at Red Rocks video and their quite astonishing appearance at Live Aid). I actually remember the day that The Joshua Tree was released, seeing the queues outside HMV. It was a frenzy of almost Beatlemania-like proportions. Certainly I've never seen any other band grow to that size in my lifetime. People talk about Coldplay being massive should've been around to witness U2s rise. That video for 'Where the Streets Have no Name' is one of my all-time favourite promos, showing a band that imagines itself as being at a certain level of popularity, suddenly confronted with the sheer scale of its fame. Still sends shivers to the back of my neck whenever I watch it. A remarkable time for a remarkable band.

I do still think you're right about Out of Time though. I was thinking maybe The Cure's Disintegration, but no. It can't compete with Out of Time. Although, hold on, now that I think about it, Simple Minds' Once Upon a Time might arguably offer a decent challenge. But even here, I do think we're talking about a quite different reading of the word 'alternative' to the one associated with a band like REM. It's just a shame that Out of Time happened to be such a dull album.

Good points all...I remember the fever.

Sad that Pylon refused to open for U2.
http://209.85.215.104/search?q=cache...&client=safari

Simple Minds - Once Upon A Time!
Man, you're naming my long lost cassette collection! haha
That one didn't even break a top ten though.

Something that strikes me about the meteoric rise of REM is how little it seems to have with anything outside of the music. U2 and (to a lesser degree) Simple Minds absolutely resonated with a certain cultural turn in the mid-80s, as people began to question the values of the era (albeit in a way that it could be argued simply mirrored them). REM on the other hand seemed more like a band that simply became huge on the strength of a strong single that they were then able to follow up with a solid, if ultimately unremarkable, album. In this sense there was a kind of inevitability to the rise of U2, which definitely isn't something that I'd say about REM. In that way REM are one of the more mysterious bands, at least in terms of their success.

What album are you saying is unremakable? Because I consider both Document and Green to be remarkable albums and both represent their immediate before and after breakthrough.

I like both of those too (Document (last for IRS) and Green (first for WB))...
he was writing about Out of Time...

stepping stones to superstardom

"Radio Free Europe" on Letterman '83 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA57Pafq_NU
"So. Central Rain" Letterman '83 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ykp0Vq77IBw

USA channel's Night Flight aired selections from the Passaic, NJ and Seattle (both from June '84) concerts. MTV's I.R.S. The Cutting Edge aired rehearsal and interview segments.

Can't Get There From Here airs on MTV 120 Minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXscBQ9HHKE
Driver 8 MTV 120 Minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCPRsxvCoHU
Feeling Gravitys Pull directed by Jim Herbert MTV 120 Minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfGRijAMkl8
Life and How to Live It had airplay on the 120 Minutes program a handful of times.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qwcib...eature=related

The upstart Spin magazine put them on the cover. Then Rolling Stone hailed them as "America's Greatest Rock 'N' Roll Band" with a cover story. I wish I still had the issues. There's some libraries that have bound volumes in periodicals, I suppose.
Fall On Me was played in regular rotation. and R.E.M. are nowhere to be seen in it; the content featured upside-down footage of a railyard and song lyrics. A purposeful mystery. Stipe and Co. became fairly regular items on MTV News hosted by Kurt Loder. The band were prominently featured in the Athens, GA Inside/Out documentary. The "R.E.M. Succumbs" video compilation appeared in '87 and featured "Left of Reckoning" and their early music videos.

The One I Love (virtual no-show) and It's the End of the World As We Know it (And I Feel Fine) (again the band was a no-show) came out.
Orange Crush was released from Green. Per their new contract with WB, pressure began to be applied that they occupy their videos more. Pop Song '89, and Stand came along. By the time Losing My Religion became a critically-acclaimed smash hit video by Tarsem, they had really arrived.

i love their artwork, and my favourite album is "monster".
(not only 'cause of "Crush with Eyeliner"...!)
Long live r.e.m!

Don't much like the I.R.S. stuff, but the later stuff is good car music.

ack!

I was thinking of Out of Time.

It was a great sequence of singles from The One I Love up to Stand, that saw England's media doing all they could to boost the band via TV slots. Losing My Religion was, of course, their commercial breakthrough - and then there was Shiny Happy People, which became a bit of a perverse anthem for the nation's post Acid House comedown (along with the B52s Love Shack(!)) That was quickly forgotten about (fortunately) and, in the UK at least, it was the arrival of Everybody Hurts (with blanket airings of the video) that really solidified their place (at least in terms of singles - albums are more straightforward.)

Murmur is a freaking masterpiece!

R.E.M. is one of those bands I don't listen to for years, then obsess about them for a few weeks, then go back to ignoring for a few years.

In an R.E.M. phase now.

Hot damn, they were good.

There's a live disc on the Automatic box set that is stunning. They fucking rock, then play the melancholy masterpiece "Country Feedback," then mix the two for "Fall on Me."

I'll be bored of them in a week, but for now I'm in love. Must be Autumn in the midwest.

REM and Neil YOung doing Country Feedback. sad. https://youtu.be/Z4VfQBDoX6E

Wow.

Downloaded as an audiofile to keep forever.

Thanx

Yeah, I go through those too.
My phases mostly surround Murmur, Out of Time, Monster and New Adventures in HiFi (the best REM album by a mile).

Then I forget they existed, or they become boring in my mind, when they’re actually not boring.

I am a Chronic Town EP, Murmur, Reckoning, Dead Letter Office, Life's Rich Pageant, Document, Green guy.

amazing stuff. I love when two similar but different artists from different generations get down with the "younger" artist's music

Their best album is New Adventures In Hi-Fi.

Also, the post-Berry albums are better than you think they are, and I'm including Around The Sun in this statement.

Discuss.

This.

I agree.

They put out a live album shortly after Around came out, and the performances of some songs make it clear there's some good material to be found on their supposed worst album.


I disagree, although it is quite good.

I sort of don't think they ever made a totally bad album. I prefer some over others, or some are better for certain moods, but none really suck. That's pretty fucking rare in any discography.

Interestingly, my top 10 song choices don't really comment on how I feel about the albums. Example: Automatic may be in my top 3 albums, but not one particular song makes my list.

Wolves, Lower
9-9
Pilgrimage
Harborcoat
Photograph* (w/ Natalie Merchant, off the Born to Choose compilation)
Fall on Me
End of the World
Country Feedback
Beat a Drum ("This is all I want, all I need" from Reveal)
Uberlin

This list will change in an hour. Sooner. Yeah, I'm already swapping "Oh My Heart" for "Uberlin."

No love for anything after HiFi, personally.

Up and Reveal deserve your love.

I found Up to be completely unstimulating in every way. It didn’t even have the Pet Sounds vibe I (think) I remember Michael Stipe saying it would. Felt fitting for that early morning VH1 time slot.

(Shrug)

Reveal had a shining moment or two if I recall, but nothing — absolutely nothing — on the majesty of the band’s best records.

REM puttered out big time. And not even in an odd ball, this-is-too-weird-for-me-to-tell-if-it’s-good-or-not like the Cure’s “Wild Mood Swings.” Just super duper boring. Especially after HiFi and the underrated Monster, which knocks pretty hard and holds up to modern scrutiny. Love that shit.. “Tongue,” “Strange Currencies,” etc. Compared to that stuff, late REM is like non-music.

Generally speaking from memory here, as I haven’t listened to any post-HiFi REM album in many years. Maybe I’ll give it another go... sometime.

I must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Rob Instigator again, this time for giving us a link to a TOWERING performance of "Country Feedback" Jesus Christ Mother-FUCK! :eek: