R.E.M.

Sorry - I don't think they're that great.

R.E.M. is a special and important part of my life, and I cannot imagine a world without their records. I can think of few bands who have sustained a level of excellence, innovation and integrity that matches R.E.M., and they continue to release fantastic records that delight and surprise me.

Here are my favorite R.E.M. records (excluding compilations) in descending order, as well as my favorite song from each record:

Document ("Disturbance At The Heron House")
Reckoning ("Little America")
Automatic For The People ("Find The River")
Murmur ("Pilgrimage")
Reveal ("Beat A Drum")
Lifes Rich Pageant ("Fall On Me")
Chronic Town ("Wolves, Lower")
Out Of Time ("Country Feedback")
Up ("Parakeet")
New Adventures In Hi-Fi ("Electrolite")
Fables Of The Reconstruction ("Kahoutek")
Green ("You Are The Everything")
Monster ("You" or "Tongue")

brad, i think r.e.m. is crap on the whole, but your sustained devotion to them is inspiring

i am not being sarcastic

i can't think of a single band
who was making music while i was in high school
who is still making music
about whom i was truly crazy
about whom i am still truly crazy as a whole

i still appreciate and sometimes still love large swatches of the oeuvres of these groups, but none of these bands or my feelings about them cohered completely over time

the contemporary part is important--i've always loved the velvets and the stones for example. the stones don't really count as i was listening to old records.

wait...neil young. neil young makes it. but that seems different somehow.

tmidgett wrote:i can't think of a single band
who was making music while i was in high school
who is still making music
about whom i was truly crazy
about whom i am still truly crazy as a whole

What about Silkworm (counting in Ein Heit)?

that doesn't count

...

Something really scary and universe – overturning happened to me regarding REM recently. I’ve never aired this publicly before.

In the Spring of 1989 I could listen to only one record. White Light White Heat. There has been only one other album in my life whose excellence garnered that treatment and I’m sure we all know what that is.

My friends, on the other hand, counted White Light White Heat as the lowpoint of the Velvet Underground’s output. The band they rated most highly was REM. I spent many, many nights in a room suffering through that band trying to figure out how people could be made so differently.

A few months ago I found an old cassette of Murmur and played it. It was really good. The highpoint was 9 – 9, which possessed a fast and loose, downright flailing guitar style that I had never associated with Peter Buck. The world shattering quandary raised by this re-appraisal is whether I have become old and a hopeless relativist in my tastes or the more troubling alternative—did my friends’ tastes back then possess a refinement I hadn’t detected? Or can an affinity for certain music arise simply from repeated exposure? All of these scenarios suck.

Nevertheless I’ve heard more recent REM songs since then and they remain unmitigated dreck. And Michael Stipe just might be the single most mannered, annoying person I’ve ever witnessed.

I too admire Brad for waving the REM flag. He has found something he truly loves, and it hasn't let him down. That's really cool.

Unfortunately, the thing itself, REM, is one of many manifestations of The Enemy.

Wait. First, let me list the things I like about REM:

Michael Stipe is an intelligent, entertaining person in conversation and attitude. I think he is okay.

They liked Andy Kaufman.

REM has been very supportive of Athens, Georgia, it's arts community and its music scene. They are true fans and genuine guys. I respect them.

The music, unfortunately is crap. Has always been crap. Dinky-dinky college pop (with a few trappings of "eclecticism" as dictated by the times) with some mumbling. It's not for me. REM represent a conformist, non-confrontational, self-absorbed streak in the music scene that I find unappealing. There isn't anything about their music that might stimulate thought. Wait... I thought of something:

REM is crap.

Tim....Neil Young and AC/DC. I can not think of any others....