REM=DEAD

[redsock]

This was mentioned elsewhere, but it deserves its own thread.

I realize they were largely irrelevant since the late 90's (or earlier for some of you) but whether you liked them or not, their music and the way they handled themselves (both as DIY'ers and when they moved to a big label) have affected most of the bands we all know and love now. Especially in DC where the ethos in the early 80's directly paralleled what was going on in Athens in many ways, even if the music was very different.

We should pay our respects.

[chaz]

RESPEC!

[K8teebug]

I am so sad.  They are my favorite.  It seemed like it was over when they didn't tour on Collapse Into Now (and some of the songs suggested as such), but it's still sad!

[Thousand Made-Up Loves]

Who?

[Frank Gallagher]

Who?

Didn't know they were still together...

[serpent boy]

I'll forever regret not seeing the Vote for Change Finale show in 2004 at the (then) MCI Center. Instead I went to the Pearl Jam show in Reading, PA a week earlier and decided not to skip grad school class two weeks in a row.

R.E.M. only played 5 songs (The One I Love, Begin the Begin, Leaving New York, Losing My Religion, and Man on the Moon), but it would've been worth it. Plus, the almighty Pearl Jam played "Bushleaguer" at the show, and I've still never seen it.

Great band. I'm gonna spin Monster today in their honor.

[Vas Deferens]

their last good album was Monster.

[hutch]

I'll forever regret not seeing the Vote for Change Finale show in 2004 at the (then) MCI Center. Instead I went to the Pearl Jam show in Reading, PA a week earlier and decided not to skip grad school class two weeks in a row.

R.E.M. only played 5 songs (The One I Love, Begin the Begin, Leaving New York, Losing My Religion, and Man on the Moon), but it would've been worth it. Plus, the almighty Pearl Jam played "Bushleaguer" at the show, and I've still never seen it.

Great band. I'm gonna spin Monster today in their honor.

I was at the Vote for Change Finale.. yeah, we all make mistakes.. that was a great show! Stipe also came out and sang with Springsteen on Because the Night..

[Brian_Wallace]

Putting my baby boomer (TM) nostalgia glasses on.....

Even if some (most) of their later albums didn't meet the standars of their earlier stuff...

A.)  I think history will treat everything after "New Adventures In Hi-Fi" in a better light in a few years.
You know, like "Presence" with Zep.  Quieter, more experimental.  Like Scott Walker albums.

B.) Their only real contemporaries were U2.  And I'd take the worst R.E.M. album over anything U2 ever did except Achtung Baby. 

Brian

[Justin Tonation]

Saw them four times, including the loudest show I ever attended (courtesy mostly of Dream Syndicate). Met them at an in-store at Penguin Feather in Greenbelt between opening gigs for The Police. I kinda lost track of them after Monster but their IRS days are dear to me.

[Frank Gallagher]

Saw them four times, including the loudest show I ever attended (courtesy mostly of Dream Syndicate). Met them at an in-store at Penguin Feather in Greenbelt between opening gigs for The Police. I kinda lost track of them after Monster but their IRS days are dear to me.

The music industry lost track of them after Monster.

This is the biggest non-news music story since the Wombles disbanded

[hutch]

I have to say I never really liked them very much.. could not understand and can't understand why for a couple of years every single college kids listened to them

[ggw]

On a road-trip down to Georgia earlier this year, I listened (in chronological order by release date, of course) to every album from Chronic Town through Document.  It was awesome.  The band started to lose me with Green (which i find kind of hit-or-miss) and completely lost me with Monster.   Haven't really cared for anything they released after that.  Maybe some of it is "good" or "interesting" but I think it all pales in comparison to those first seven albums (five albums, an EP, and a compilation if you want to get technical about it).

[Justin Tonation]

This is the biggest non-news music story since the Wombles disbanded

Trending on Twitter, but you knew that....

[Brian_Wallace]

On a road-trip down to Georgia earlier this year, I listened (in chronological order by release date, of course) to every album from Chronic Town through Document.  It was awesome.  The band started to lose me with Green (which i find kind of hit-or-miss) and completely lost me with Monster.   Haven't really cared for anything they released after that.  Maybe some of it is "good" or "interesting" but I think it all pales in comparison to those first seven albums (five albums, an EP, and a compilation if you want to get technical about it).

I think "Green" and "New Adventures In Hi-Fi" are really underrated.  Especially "Green."  The singles are probably my least favorite songs on that album.  "World Leader Pretend".  How can you declare an album "hit-or-miss" that contains one of the best first lines ever ("I am not the type of dog that could keep you waiting for no good reason/Run a carbon-black test on my jaw and you will find it's all been said before.")  Top THAT lyric, Bono!  You can't!  You just CAN'T.  I don't care if you cure cancer/successfully convince the world you're not bald and 5'4".

Jeez.  I have to listen to "I Remember California."  RIGHT NOW!  That's one of the great lost R.E.M. songs.  You either get that one or not.  So mysterious and evocative.  Like a Steely Dan song, if Steely Dan had surfed.

Brian