R.E.M.?

Crap
Total votes: 47 (38%)
Not Crap
Total votes: 76 (62%)
Total votes: 123

Band: R.E.M.

21
I have fond memories of REM and a great love for many of their fine records. I am especially fond of Automatic. Always loved Dead Letter Office as well. Didn't hate Monster, but after that it all went downhill for me.

Saw them on that tour (for Monster) and that's when I knew the honeymoon was over. Perhaps I'm old-fashioned, but I expect a band playing in a hockey arena -- and charging hockey-arena prices -- to put on an arena show. Can't put my finger exactly on what they did wrong, but they did it wrong.

And downhill from there, and au revoir Mr. Berry.

Still enjoy the old records. I'll give the new one a chance -- out of respect to young Bradley's unwavering insistence that they're still tits -- but I fear the worst.

What do you think of the new one so far, Bradley?

Band: R.E.M.

22
This is quite timely for me; why, I was just discussing this very matter - nay, this very band - the other day with a friend.

There's a post by Steve where he says how completely and thoroughly baffled he is by the success and popularity of The Rolling Stones. I feel exactly the same way about REM. I just find it to be the most ordinary, middle of the road, reasonable kind of rock. I don't even think they're terrible. I like a few of their songs. I like one or two of their songs quite a bit. But it's the adulation among musically literate, intelligent and friendly people that really weirds me out. I'm not trying to piss on anyone's chips (like anyone would give a shit anyway), but I just do NOT hear anything special about them.

The thing Bradley was talking about, I recognise. I have the ability to notice when I am disliking a band because of (sub) cultural bias and me just being an arse. An example of this would be The Clash. I don't like The Clash, but I'd concede that (at least maybe) it has more to do with a reaction I've had to Clash fans and certain journalistic trends rather than their music itself. So I know this goes on. But I don't feel like this is the case with REM. I just hear a competent blandness in their records that sits very awkwardly with the reverence and love thrown their way by some discerning music makers and fans that I know.

I used to feel similarly about The Smiths, but while I still don't love The Smiths, I have reached a point in my life where I can make some sense of their popularity, largely by taking them in their historical context, and understanding their music and purpose in relation to the culture that spawned them.

And so I think there may well be a point when I can look at, and listen to REM, and say, "Aaaaaaaah. I see."

If anyone can be arsed explaining it to me, I'm always keen to learn. REM bring joy to some very good friends of mine and I can't have too much of a problem with any band that does that. In fact, that just reminded me of a life lesson I learned one day. This is perhaps a digression, but fuck it. It's 3.10 am now and I'm not getting any recording done tonight so here goes.

I used to like dissing bands I hated, and spewing vitriolic scorn over people who liked shit bands. I would seethe with rage about sub-standard bands and the idiots who bought those bands' cds. I still lapse now and again, but I'm much less harsh and far more forgiving than I was. What happened was this. I was watching some documentary on TV, and I had missed the beginning or something. And there was this girl, just hanging about in her room, walking in the park, and her voice over saying about the things she liked to do. This girl liked Bon Jovi. There was Bon Jovi music on in the documentary. Not even classic (if there is such a thing) Bon Jovi, but the later, even more heroically piss poor stuff that came out around, ooooh, '94-ish. The documentary pointedly showed the girl putting Bon Jovi cds on, and looking at the cd box with a smile. I wanted the girl to get trampled on by a horse. She was at best a figure of ridicule; at worst an evil little tyke supporting the most horrible side of the music industry. I did not like the girl. I was making jokes up in my head about the girl and they were not nice jokes. Then it was revealed that the reason why she liked Bon Jovi so much was because her mum had killed herself, and the Bon Jovi music she so loved had helped this poor kid get through it. Then her dad, unable to cope with the suicide of his wife, had also taken his own life. And that's when she REALLY needed Bon Jovi. And, over an unbearably sad shot of the girl looking out of her bedroom window, her voice over quite calmly and humbly said that she honestly felt that Bon Jovi had saved her life. It was this one thing that she could hold on to, and in her darkest hours was the only thing that helped her through. It made me cry.

So. I still think Bon Jovi are shit. I still want to hit people with whatever comes to hand if they tell me they like Robbie Williams (doesn't happen that often, thankfully). I think of people who like Dido as little more than barely educated animals. But boy, I learned a lesson, and that lesson was that somebody loving something counts for more than me hating it. At least where music is concerned anyway.

This really doesn't have much to do with REM but that's where I ended up.

Band: R.E.M.

23
I could have sworn that I had written something on this topic.

Nonetheless, REM:

I had heard the occassional song here or there from mix tapes and friends' older sibs, etc. "Wolves, Lower" was always caught in my head, but it didn't go too much further then that. Until one night in, what, late '86 or early '87 I came home/was up late and turned on one of those old network Saturday night music video shows to sit entranced by the video and music for "Fall On Me."

This to me still remains one of the best songs written in the 1980's.

Within a week, using teenage logic, I had acquired a membership to a Record Club (Columbia House) and dealt with the harsh learning curve of such a company for over a year. However this did allow me to acquire the whole of REM's records, through Life's Rich Pagent & Dead Letter Office.

Can I tell you how fascinating this band was to me then? REM was not the only thing I listened to at the time, but it constituted a hefty percent.

About the same time I had purchased a bass guitar. With the acquisition of these records, as well as Smiths, Husker Du, Minutemen, Joy Division, I proceeded to "learn myself how to play" over the course of several months.

In retrospect, I guess that REM filled that place in time for me where other folks listen to the blues, to country music - songs of impact undiminished by the fact that the same 6-8 chords are being used.
Bored one rainy Saturday, the band that I subsequently joined ended up trying to play every REM song we could think of - this went on for four hours.

Document was a powerful record, and still is, despite the "End of the World..." song that has mutated into an unstoppable cultural monstrosity.

I was blown away (still am) by Green, even on top of the music I was getting into - Scratch Acid, Pussy Galore, Soundgarden, Jane's.

I can honestly admit that I have been disappointed with every record after Green. The closest I got to enjoyment was a full soundtrack experience with UP during a sunny early morning drive, never having heard it before. I purchased that record, listened to it a number of times, but it did not last.

In conclusion, REM maybe are no longer for me, but they certainly are not crap, even if the direction of their recorded output has expanded beyond my appreciation.

Band: R.E.M.

26
Bradley, your unapologetic appreciation of REM makes me happy. Not because I like REM, but because it makes no sense. Especially after following your link – I thought that when music got this shitty it was supposed to do ‘a 180’ and redeem itself via the ‘so-terrible-it’s-great’ phenomenon. No such luck! What tired, terrible, irrelevant music!

Salut, Mr. Moderator!

Band: R.E.M.

27
LAD wrote:Bradley, your unapologetic appreciation of REM makes me happy. Not because I like REM, but because it makes no sense. Especially after following your link – I thought that when music got this shitty it was supposed to do ‘a 180’ and redeem itself via the ‘so-terrible-it’s-great’ phenomenon. No such luck! What tired, terrible, irrelevant music!

Salut, Mr. Moderator!

I could not follow the fractured logic and prose of this post. I really couldn't follow it!

Perhaps you could revise your post to read simply: "What tired, terrible, irrelevant music!"

Now that is clear commentary. I can follow it!

Band: R.E.M.

28
With Bill Berry, R.E.M. was the furthest thing from Crap there was.
Without Bill Berry, R.E.M. has fallen into the shitter Crappy. When he left, so did the chemistry and the band's backbone. Since, they have become a parody of themselvels. I'm sorry, but that new song "Bad Day" proves just how sorry they have become - is that song not just a bastardized version of "It's the end of the world (and I feel fine)" ???
I will never believe that Bill Berry would allow that song to get past the third chord upon hearing it. He would've pissed all over Peter Buck's guitar, Michael Stipes lyric sheet and Mike Mills' bass and quit.
Remember, this is coming from a guy who burned holes through "Life's Rich Pageant", "Reckoning", "Murmur", "Document", "Automatic for the People" and on and on atop my CD player. I remember buying "Out of Time" at a midnight opening at an Auburn University record store with 100 other kids, that's how excited I was to hear the next incarnation of R.E.M.
They were truly the first band that made me think about music, not just listen to it. Unpredictable and grounded at the same time - truly amazing.
I simply will never get tired of their music. I could listen the "Little America" ten times over right now, or "Oddfellows Local 151" "Feeling Gravity's Pull" or "Swan, Swan, Hummingbird" blah, blah...
But since Bill Berry took his sutured head back to the farm, I hate to say it, it's been piss poor.
But alas, this is Crap/Not Crap.

R.E.M. Never shall be the Crap.

Band: R.E.M.

29
Angus Jung wrote:Their drummer wasn't too hot. Peter Buck was born without the 'rock' chromosome.


i have to disagree and say he's a perfectly adequate drummer for the band he's in. he kind of has that rigid "white" drummer thing going, but then, i'm kind of a white drummer supremacist.

i don't know exactly what you expect from the drummer in a band like like rem, but i know they sound alot better with peter buck than they would with the drummer from the dave mathews band.

Band: R.E.M.

30
I have listened to this new R.E.M. record, this "Around The Sun".

I have listened to it many times thorugh various playback equipment.

Man, this new R.E.M. record is really sterile. It's kind of beautiful, but it's an artificial beauty. It's tries to be sweeping, but it's forced and dull. There's a certain weirdness to it, but it's contrived (e.g., low creepy voices).

And "Wanderlust" is the most embarrassing song in a catalog that has a more than a few of them.

People of the Electrical music forum! This new R.E.M. record! It is CRAP!

Oh, terrible day!

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