R.E.M. The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987 And I Feel Fine...
 

R.E.M. release new anthology and DVD


Out today (Tuesday, September 12th) are a new two-CD anthology and a DVD from R.E.M. that reach back to their early days. The album is called And I Feel Fine: The Best Of The I.R.S. Years 1982-1987, and it features rarities, live tracks, and previously unreleased songs, while the DVD titled When The Light Is Mine includes a mix of music videos and live TV performances.

With the band's early history on display through the new releases, bassist Mike Mills told us that it's interesting to see the changes they went through, including the loss of drummer Bill Berry: "It's a different band because of Bill, but it's also a different band because, you know, people change so much over 20 years. We're all still essentially the same people, but so much around us maybe is what has changed, and so it's a walk through a different land when you go back that far."

Berry quit REM back in 1997, though he's stayed friendly with his former bandmates.

Berry will perform with Mills, lead singer Michael Stipe, and guitarist Peter Buck when REM is inducted into the Georgia Music Hall Of Fame on Saturday (September 16th) in Atlanta.

http://www.therockradio.com/2006/09/...y-and-dvd.html

courtney will be excited.

http://www.remhq.com/irs/index.html

I watched the DVD with Alsex the other day and is was wonderful. I love early REM the best. Didn't buy it yet, since I had to buy the new Police dvd that Steward Copeland compiled of old super 8 tour footage. I already have the Succumbs video that has most of it, but it's awesome seeing the early tv appearances.

If one explores the remhq link all the tracklistings can be viewed.


The 2nd cd rarities disc isn't all that exciting to me because I have much of it. It was also perplexing to see that nothing from either of the excellent pro-shot shows that I have or others that are out there are included on the dvd.

The dvd is still a must-have even though I have some of it already, so I'll be getting that...probably tomorrow, although part one of the Andy Warhol documentary narrated by Laurie Anderson is on PBS tomorrow too, so I may just wait until the weekend.

Yeah, most collections leave me wanting material that isn't included - the Letterman TV debut would be kickass.

I have everything on disc 2 in one form or another. I have tons of REM bootleg tapes.

I only have that as an .mp3, but I do remember watching it the night it happened. It was the first I had ever heard of them.

It's really mainly the earlier material that interests me too.
Usually, there's a new one from early on dime pretty regularly, but unfortunately, they are mostly from the past few years. Also, www.murmurs.com has torrent listings now and I've gotten one earlier show. It's worth taking a look at over there.

R.E.M.
Carnival of Sorts
Chronic Murmurings (outtakes) x2
DIY various & live compilation x2
Documentary (1987 concert)
Green Demos John Keane Studios Athens, Ga
The Complete Green Demos Upgrade
Hitting the Note American Acoustic Tour 1991 sbd
It's the End of the World...As we Know It!! sbd ??/??/??
R.E.M. Succumbs vhs (video collection)
So Much Younger Then/Georgia Peaches---Ripe! (Tyrone's OC Athens, Ga 1981 show)
The Peter Buck Tape (Tyrone's OC Athens, Ga 1981 show) x2
Time of Outtakes (outtakes from Out of Time)
Tourfilm (Warner Bros.,1990) vhs
5/30/80 40 Watt Club Athens, Ga
6/06/80 Wuxtry Records Atlanta, Ga
1/10/81 Tyrone's O.C. Athens, GA
5/12/81 Tyrone's O.C. Athens, GA That Beat in Time
??/??/81 Tyrone's O.C. Athens, GA
9/22/81 Tyrone's O.C. Athens, GA sbd
9/23/81 Tyrone's O.C. Athens, GA sbd x2
1/22/82 Friday's Greensboro, NC File Under Kudzu
4/24/82 Merlyn's Madison, WI sbd
7/02/82 The Strand Marietta, GA Do the Strand
8/24/82 Old Waldorf San Francisco
9/22/82 First Avenue Club Minneapolis, MN
10/21/82 I & I Club Athens, GA
7/09/83 Larry's Hideaway Toronto, ON sbd Rising
9/30/83 Stichcraft, Athens, GA sbd
11/18/83 The Tube London (from When the Light is Mine dvd)
4/17/84 Exo-7 Rouen, France
6/??/84 I.R.S. Studios Holywood I.R.S. The Cutting Edge (acoustic from When the Light is Mine dvd)
6/09/84 The Capitol Theatre Passaic, NJ (pro) vcd x2
6/27/84 Music Hall Seattle sbd Rock and Roll Stars
7/16/84 The Playpen, Wildwood, NJ
9/26/84 Duke University Durham, NC We Are Having A Heavenly Time
10/12/84 Capitol Theatre Passaic, NJ x2
11/21/84 Rock City Nottingham, England sbd x2 Old Man Kensey
11/26/84 Birmingham UNiversity Birmingham, UK
4/28/85 Busch Student Center Rutgers University x2
7/07/85 Werchter, Belguim FM sbd
8/28/85 Tower Theatre Philadelphia, PA x2
10/02/85 Rockpalast Die Zeche Bochum, Ger (pro) vcd x2
10/25/85 The Tube London (from When the Light is Mine dvd)
11/09/85 CMJ Music Awards Beacon Theater NYC
9/27/86 Santa Barbara County Bowl Santa Barbara, CA x2
10/12/86 Kiel Opera House St. Louis, MO x2
11/24/86 Fox Theater Atlanta x2
11/31/86 Patrick Gymnasium University of Vermont Burlington x2
5/24/87 McCabe's Guitar Shop Santa Monica, CA
9/14/87 Red Rain Utrect, NL x2
4/30/89 Orlando, FL Songs for a Green World
5/15/89 Pink Pop Festival Landgraaf, NL FM
4/31/91 KCRW studios Morning Becomes Eclectic FM sbd Half A World Away bootleg
8/31/99 Chastain Park Amphitheatre, Atlanta 99X WNNX-FM sbd x2
5/05/01 Nulle Part Ailleurs show sbd (incomplete)
Canel + studio, Paris
5/07/01 studio 105 la maison de la radio, Paris, May 7th, 2001 sbd
10/08/05 Kingpin's Bowling Alley, Athens, GA sbd (with Bill Berry)
9/16/06 The 28th Annual Georgia Music Hall Of Fame Awards Show Georgia World Congress Center Atlanta sbd (with Bill Berry)

I like REM. Never been a huge fan, but they definitely have some solid stuff.
I found Automatic For The People at yard-sale down the road. I snagged it
I just might buy this.

Could you tell me a bit about this show? Setlist if you can? I may have it, but I don't remember having this early of a show. I need this if I don't. I have a good chunk of the same shows you have. You can find the Letterman video on Youtube.

that song shiny happy people pisses me off.

My Georgia Peaches - Ripe (1/81 Tyrones) lp is my favorite bootleg ever. My band covers Dangerous Times sometimes.

My favorite is the same one! You have amazing taste. I have it listed as "So Much Younger Then." I've written about this show before on the board.
Ripe! is more complete. It was a dime torrent "upgrade" of 1/10/81 that gave me the tracks I was missing.
I sometimes regard it as my favorite bootleg ever by any band.

It's so damn great.

I'm gonna go dig that '80 show out for the setlist.

Shit dude, you not only have impeccable REM taste, you guessed my Devo avatar - impressive. -end asskissing-

I didn't have to much digging at all.
I found it right away, but I still have to type in the tracklisting.

01 Baby I
02 Route 66
03 Scheherezade >
04 Lisa Says >
05 Mystery To Me
06 Chappaquiddick (She Said)
07 All the Right Friends
08 A Girl Like You
09 Dangerous Times
10 Mediocrity
11 Shakin' All Over
12 I've Got A Charm
13 Body Count
14 A Different Girl
15 Dangerous Times
16 All the Right Friends
17 A Different Girl
18 Narrator (for the Jacques Cousteau Show)
19 Just A Touch
20 Baby I
21 Mystery To Me
22 Permanent Vacation

tracks 1-14 40 Watt Club, Athens 5/30/80
tracks 15-22 Wuxtry Records Atlanta (this could actually be Athens) 6/06/80

The torrent came with cover art and the torrent notes explain that these were among their earliest performances. The only one I know of that is earlier is the show they played at the old church they all lived in for a time. That church is now kiddie condos, but when they were being built back in the '90s, they preserved the steeple and called the apartments "Steeplechase", if memory serves. I once knew this cool girl who had all these large drawing pads full of charcoal drawings she made of the interior of the old church.
There are a few train tressels in Athens, but the kudzu-laden one featured on the cover of Murmur is just a block or two from the church.

Actually, I just googled and 5/30/80 is their earliest known recording, concert or otherwise.

I've been to athens and did the dork rem fan tour with alsex my bandmate. haha. i took some rubble from the steeple. haha. we saw everything and even went to Philomath!

any way you can yousendit that show??? I don't know how to do torrents! I dont' have that! I remember a book having video grabs of rem playing in wuxtry at that time. I wanna see that! Someone had posted a complete 82 show video on a website for a limited time that was awesome.

It doesn't sound as great as 1/10/81, but yeah. I'm hoping you could peruse http://orangefox.svs.com/rem/bootdiscog.html or a similar site and find one of your tapes there that isn't on my list or just pick one I dont have that's really good and upload one for me in return.

By the way, I have proof positive that Mark Prindle is a goober. People that like him are too, no doubt. He gives the bootleg we are both raving about a 1 out of 10.

http://www.markprindle.com/rema.htm#so
So Much Younger Then - Bootleg





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 (I also first had this on cassette...I was so glad when I got the torrents) 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 (wrong!) , 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!!!! Reader Comments
spectre316@email.com (Matt F.)
Wha..?
Mark, tell me this doesn't exist! TELL ME RIGHT NOW! I thought the earliest stuff was "Chronic Town"! WTFFff?!111111oenoenoen
Well, I guess every band starts nowhere and ends up somewhere eventually. Or they just stay on the same shitty level throughout their entire career.
Seriously, I had always thought R.E.M. started out fucking amazing and then only recently went downhill (don't you ever mention "Around the Boring Adult Alternative Sun" around me, EVER! I FUCKIN MEAN IT!). The only other bands I can think of that started great were.. um.. They Might Be Giants (shut up), some punk bands, and... well, nevermind. A lot of fucking bands. Damn those amazing debut albums/EPs/singles/funni stuf.
Anyway, wow. I want to hear this amazingly bad piece of shit so much right now! CaN u SeN it 2 mE oN aOL????
No, but seriously! Where do I find this thing? I MUST HAVE IT!
dumpster@compulsoryarts.com
'So Much Younger Then' was recorded at Tyrone's O.C. in Athens January 10th, 1981, (thank you) and was just one of many. It was all about having a good time and (if you asked) Michael didn't mind if you plugged a tape deck into the sound board and helped yourself to the show. I myself have several tapes from those early days. Tyrone's was the place to go in the late 70's & early 80's until it burnt to the ground in January of 82. On any given night you could dance to bands such as The Tone Tones, The Method Actors, Pylon, The Side Effects, Love Tractor, The Squalls, Little Tigers, Men in Trees and Limbo District, to name but a few. Another REM bootleg from Tyrone's is the 'Do You Remember? - Dead Giveaway Office' LP.
Add your thoughts?
Yeah, just one...Mark Prindle can fuck a duck.

haha, I haven't read his page in a while. I disagree with much of his reviews, but they're pretty amusing. A friend of mine found a homemade bootleg tape at a thriftstore containing the 'down south' bootleg and green demos. I have it now.

I'll dig through my tapes and offer you somethings you don't have. I'm getting internet this week at home then I could trade with you. I have a soundboard of REM's thanksgiving 81 first ave minneapolis (first show here) show, for example.

I've never been to Philomath. Haha. I've always wanted to at least pass through though.

I lived across the street on the corner from the steeple in a house right next to the Amoco station on the corner of Oconee & Peter St. If you go down Peter St. and look to your left, that's where the cover of Murmur is taken.

For over a year, I lived on Hill St. right down from Peter Buck's yellow house, but he had already moved to Seattle. His ex, Barrie, still lived there & she used to walk her dog when I was walking mine and we talked a bit a couple of times.

Also, I lived directly across the street from Stipe on Grady Ave. for a few months before I left Athens to move here.

The merlyn's 82 madison show is quite awesome too - didn't see it on your list. Also have the Smokin' in the boys room and We're having a heavenly time boot lps. Also a cover compilation that's awesome. Oh, and the Green Tour show where they play Green and Murmur in sequence. I'm sure I have a few things you may want is my point. I'll try and find my bootlist tonight.

I have We're having a Heavenly time & I think We're having a wonderful time...Merlyn's sounds like the ticket!
I have Smokin' in the Boy's Room by its other title, Rising. It's a really good show at Larry's Hideaway.

It's crazy how we keep having different titled boots of the same shows here.


Best case: The guy doesn' t know jack about early R.E.M. and mainly knows them through their mediocre Warner Bros. catalog.

Worst Case: He's a total fraud as a music reviewer for not undeniably recognizing that the show simply sizzles.

1/22/82 Greensboro, NC File Under Kudzu at a Friday's restaurant & bar, no less, is another really good early one that finds them playing mostly Chronic Town and Murmur material.

I've begun ripping that disc and will have a link for you by sometime tomorrow.

yeah, I got that one. listened to it recently. i used to have a tape trading page and got a bunch of primo rem boots from this dude in canada. There's a great meshing of Stumble and Skank on the Merlyns show.

Oh you may appreciate this:

We played a show on tuesday and the man who did our sound has been doing sound a First Avenue/7th street entry since the early 80's.

He told me he was at the first show REM played there and wanted his Radio Free Europe single signed. He went up to Peter Buck to ask for his autograph on it who in turn recognized him from his band and asked for his autograph before he had a chance to ask for Peters. I thought that was pretty cool.

People say he's very sociable and affable. Cool story.

Did you ever see the Pete Buck comics that Jack Logan did?

Jack Logan became a singer/songwriter after that and has a good stripped-down 2-cd album called "Bulk" among other releases. He's a great guy.

Yeah, I've seen pics of the comics, but never read them. I used to have Bulk. I have a really good Jack Logan 7" that was released on a label here a long time ago.

REM have a lot of ties to the Police I've noticed. Bill and Mike were in a punk band before REM with Stewart Copeland's brother Ian when he lived in Macon. I hoped a boot would surface of them when they opened for The Police in Atlanta in 80.

Jack Logan shared his drugs with a complete stranger...me. I was with someone that went to high school with him at the time though. After that, he was always really cool when I'd go to his shows.

You know, this is no bullshit, but the in the review that Prindle writes he mentions a TDK cassette, & I swear to you that the So Much Younger Then I had was on a TDK cassette. Side 2 also had some stuff from an '81 show at Georgia Tech. I copied the cassette from someone's records. In an homage to the "Mine" & "Yours" sides, I titled the sides "ASide" & "BeSide," and the side labels were printed with an electronic typewriter ai used to have. This tape was stolen from me by a guy that moved to Washington, D.C. Do you know if Prindle is by any chance in D.C.? If he is, he has my old cassette.

What's worse is that the jerk doesn't even appreciate the music.

Oh, more stories here. I hung out with Mitch Mills, Mike's younger brother, who is immensely talented as well, (he later played in Atlanta band Three Doors Down, not to be confused with Three Walls Down) one weekend in Statesboro when he was visiting this total madman I used to know named Tom G (last name removed). A few months after that, Tom and he and my girlfriend and I went boating together down in the Georgia Marshes in Glynn County near Brunswick. That weekend was the first time I ever saw cocaine in the flesh, although neither I or my girlfriend did any of it.

Years later, I was doing it in the Ga. Bar after hours with Mike, Michael and the bar owner.

He's on the east coast Im pretty sure. It's possible!

Alsex's girlfriend went to college in athens, and told me there were some unflattering things written about Mike Mills in the ladie's room at the 40 Watt!

I knew this girl that went home with him. Her name is Robin. She was married to a friend of mine (at that time) named Jeff Stoner, but everyone called him Stoner like it was his first name.

Anyhow, while their marriage was on the rocks, she went home with Mike after the bars one night after being plied with coke. So, she gets to his place, plops on the couch in front of the table with the rails, and Mike excuses himself to "slip into something more comfortable" (like he's a starlet or something hehe). She's sitting there and patiently waiting for him to return, wanting to do some of the stuff, but being polite and counting the moments until he comes back. Mike comes back wearing nothing but a cowboy hat and cowboy boots. She says she thanked him, left right then and there and walked to a payphone to call a cab home.

haha

Are you trying to ruin my love of REM? haha. that's pretty funny.

Those "unflattering things" on the wall at the 40 watt she read were, I'm guessing, about his size. Thing is, he probably had little hanging because he's a huge cokehead and the rumor grew from there most likely.

shrinkage

no, it had to do something with his groin area though. never knew he was a cokehead.

They all are or at least were. Like I mentioned, I've witnessed it myself with Michael & Mike. I've never seen Bill or Peter do it, but it's a known thing. I once went to a party in a house where they used to hang out and they told me stories. Mills has a hair weave. The rumor is that Stipe is now into strange bloodletting and paganism actually after falling into a weird crowd out in L.A.

I'm sure he's still out at The Globe bar nearly every night when he's in town like he used to, and he still has the house in Athens and spends a good bit of the year there, as far as I know, although I haven't been in Athens since 2000 and I didn't ask Andrew Reiger about that when I saw him last time. I really should send him an e-mail because it's been too long.

That link only has about an hour left.

Gotta love the picture they used for the covers....my friend picked up the DVD and he said it was great as well. I'm not in a hurry to pick up the cd because I have most of that action on there like you guys as well. I have that 1980 40 Watt Club boot too.....great shit. I only have like 7 of their boots, but am always on the prow for more. I registered on murmurs.com a few months ago, but have never posted there.....the madness here is more than enough for me. REM is easily in my top 5 favorite bands ever......their music gets me right in the gut.

Ha ha.....Mike rules.

Oh Christ.

Well, he's always been heavy into alchemy. It's in a lot of their lyrics.

I registered there too a long while ago, but only posted a few times.
Like I mentioned before, there's now a torrent tracker over there, where shows that don't make it to dime (right away at least) are seeded.