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Who here likes R.E.M. ?


Jeff Rosso

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Big fan here Jeff.

 

I'd seen them on the Monster and Up tours, both in outdoor venues, but this year I got to see them indoors in Belfast. Absolutely fantastic, Stipe was the most animated I've ever seen him.

 

They did a kickass version of Country Feedback, easily on a par with the "Perfect Square" version. Funny think is, I was discussing my two favourite REM songs with my mate in the car on the way to the gig, saying there's no way they'll do 'World Leader Pretend' or Exhuming Mc Carthy'. It transpired they did 'World...' the night before in Birmingham and 'Exhuming...' the night after in Dublin.

 

While I love the early stuff, I must say my favourite album of there's is New Adventures in Hi-Fi. If ever there was an album due a critical re-appraisal (apart from the entire Rush back catalogue), that's it.

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I LIKE R.E.M ALOT,IHAVE ABOUT 5 ALBUMS.NY FAVORITE IS AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE.
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I'm not a huge R.E.M. fan but I do like a couple of their songs a lot. In the late 80's one of my best friends went to Ohio State University and a lot of his schoolmates worshipped this band. At that time I TOTALLY HATED THEM, I thought the singer was awful and the band played simple music which I didn't like a lot at the time.

 

But he kept playing and playing them, thats all they talked about, it made me SICK!!!........However, 3-4 of their songs or so "grew" on me, OH NO, I started to LIKE this stuff!!! What was going on?? How can I hate a band then start liking some of their stuff? I don't know but thats what happened.

 

"Flowers of Guatemala" is a personal favorite tune of theirs. Pretty neat tune really.

 

To be honest, and I am embarrassed a little to admit this, but "Shiney Happy People" is a song I like because it puts me in a good mood. That's what its all about.

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Me
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I love these guys, but, and it's a big BUT, they really have sucked the big one since New Adventures, honorable exceptions to imitation of life and at your most beautiful.

If you haven't done so already check out the Hindu Love Gods, a one off album by Berry, Mills, Buck and the wonderful, still missed Warren Zevon.

It's great fun.

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I'm not a huge fan.

But I do like their music.

 

They were also my first concert! With my parents and brother. When I was 17.

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Still a huge fan of there older stuff,haven't paid much attention to them lately. Lost interest some time around when Bill Berry left the band. Funny I remember reading article in SPIN Michael Stipe stated he didn't know how the band would continue as a three piece band and how hard it would be to perform live ! laugh.gif 2.gif wink.gif I consider MURMUR one of my all time favorites all those early ones " reckoning, Document and one I consider R.E.M'S Caress of Steel , Fables of the Reconstruction not a fan or critic favorite but I love it. Also Dead Letter Office is good weird b sides kick ass version of Aerosmith Toys in the attic. Last R.E.M. I liked completely was MONSTER . Some good stuff on Out of Time,Automatic For the people,New Adventures in HI-FI. Oh another old one I think is great is Lifes rich pageant (the only time I seen them in concert) Not so good live. no.gif
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schla03.gif

 

well, not completely. i have this to say about U2 and REM - in the vast musical desert that is music from the 1980's through today, at least these two groups are respectable - i mean, they seen to have a lot of integrity and stay true to themselves, and i've always at least admired them for that, even though their music doesn't particularly move me. then again, it doesn't offend me in any way, and as i've said elsewhere, musically that today is a big accomplishment in my book.

 

all that being said, i always loved the song Drive by REM. superman and the end of the world as we know it are also good. a very close friend of mine who i lived with for 1 1/2 years was an REM fanatic and she played them constantly. i almost considered making a compilation tape for myself with those songs and a handful of others until i realized that while i thought they were good songs, i would never really listen to it. to me there's a huge difference between music that if it comes on the radio i won't turn it off and will even enjoy and music that if i own i'll actually listen to regularly. even the best of what i've heard in the 80's, 90's and today falls into the former category very close to 100% of the time. jeez, if billy idol's white wedding comes on the radio and i haven't heard it in a long time it'll put a smile on my face and i'll fondly remember the 80's and the video, but put a billy idol cd in my room with that song and i will NEVER play it. that's how i feel about REM and most modern music. REM just happens to be a decent group even if i'll never go out of my way to play their stuff.

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bumper.gif

 

New album out soon....the track I've heard "Discoverer" is excellent. Totally take back what I said on this thread all those years ago.....

 

"they really have sucked the big one since New Adventures"

 

A silly statement....been playing those albums a lot of late, in particular Up & Around The Sun. I think they weren't what I expected them to be, so I dismissed them. An assclown move on my part.

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I love their early stuff. I have everything up to and including Green. They lost me with the Shiny Happy People thing, though the Hi-Fi album, Frequency, and the Kaufman song were great. I do The One I Love and Driver 8 acoustic.
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QUOTE (Jeff Rosso @ Nov 24 2005, 10:21 PM)
I really love this band. i recently dug out my old tapes of Murmur, Green, and Monster and thought it still sounded damn good. Who else likes THE college rock band?

And the train conductor says

take a break driver 8...

Driver 8 take a bray-eek

We can reach our destination, but we're still a ways away

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First of all, this post was started by Jeff Rosso (who I discovered hasn't been active in over 5 years). If I recall correctly, he was the hippie guidance counselor on 'Freaks And Geeks'. That certainly got my attention.

 

Back to the subject at hand, I kinda liked REM back in '87/'88 which was the time of my life when I was about to turn 16 and some of my slightly older friends were getting their liscences. REM was certainly one of the bands that got a lot of airplay on the casette drives in the cars as us young folks were gaining our freedoms and starting our journeys into becoming adults. It was very appropriate music at the time and I thought it was pretty cool as we drove around looking for adventure. Fast forward about six months, and the two REM tapes I had at the time were stollen out of my car.

 

I've never owned another REM recording since then and certainly don't plan to do so again. Nothing negative against the band, but they were never really my thing.

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They are one of my all-time favorite bands. Murmur and Automatic for the People are among the greatest albums I've ever heard.

 

Back in the 80's I attended their concerts religiously. The last time I saw them in concert, I think, was at MSG during the Monster tour.

 

The band I loved essentially broke up when Bill Berry left, now they are merely okay.

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Yep.

 

From Murmur through Monster, and then they won me back again with Accelerate and the last live album. I hope to dig the new record!

 

 

For me a lot of the real REM gold is buried deep in the album tracks.

 

"Find the River" from Automatic for the People is a desert island song, and I want it played at my memorial.

 

 

 

Other favorites:

 

Perfect Circle (Murmur)

So Central Rain (Reckoning)

These Days and Fall On Me (Life's Rich Pageant)

World Leader Pretend (Green)

Sweetness Follows (Automatic)

At My Most Beautiful (Up)

 

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QUOTE (Enemy Within 77 @ Jan 17 2011, 12:34 AM)
Liked everything up to Green. After that I kind of lost interest as they just weren't the same band anymore(to me anyways). Out of Time was the beginning of the end for me. 062802puke_prv.gif

That's exactly how I feel about them. After Green, their music no longer had any edginess to it. They used to be my favorite band after Rush around the time that Green came out. A lot has changed since then. sad.gif

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QUOTE (ILSnwdog @ Jan 17 2011, 01:46 PM)
QUOTE (Enemy Within 77 @ Jan 17 2011, 12:34 AM)
Liked everything up to Green. After that I kind of lost interest as they just weren't the same band anymore(to me anyways). Out of Time was the beginning of the end for me. 062802puke_prv.gif

That's exactly how I feel about them. After Green, their music no longer had any edginess to it. They used to be my favorite band after Rush around the time that Green came out. A lot has changed since then. sad.gif

trink39.gif

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There was a time I was obsessed by them and they were easily my second favorite band after Rush. But as quickly as the my obsession for them came, it left... about the time that Bill Berry left, right after Monster.

 

I must agree with whoever said the R.E.M. gold is their deep cuts. On Lifes Rich Pageant, that would be, for me, "These Days," "I Believe," and "Superman." On Document, it's "Strange" and "Finest Worksong." On Green, the whole album is fantastic but I love love love the "Untitled" eleventh track. On Out of Time, my favorite is the deep cut "Belong" but the deep cut "Me In Honey" is right up there. And on Automatic For the People, two great deep cuts are "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite" and "Nightswimming."

 

I lost track of what they were up to after Berry left. I know they had at least a couple more albums - New Adventures in Hi-Fi and Up - but then they fell completely off my radar.

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QUOTE (Enemy Within 77 @ Jan 18 2011, 01:19 AM)
QUOTE (ILSnwdog @ Jan 17 2011, 01:46 PM)
QUOTE (Enemy Within 77 @ Jan 17 2011, 12:34 AM)
Liked everything up to Green. After that I kind of lost interest as they just weren't the same band anymore(to me anyways). Out of Time was the beginning of the end for me. 062802puke_prv.gif

That's exactly how I feel about them. After Green, their music no longer had any edginess to it. They used to be my favorite band after Rush around the time that Green came out. A lot has changed since then. sad.gif

trink39.gif

Same here. I was OBSESSED with them up until then, more so than Rush at times. I'd started listening early on, as they were sort of a "local" band and got decent airplay on a local college station.

 

I started getting uneasy with Document and its obvious new direction; it was the first REM album I had to listen to a few times in order to warm up to it. I did end up loving it, though I was not happy about what the future seemed to hold.

 

"Green" bore that out. I listened to it a couple of times and then frisbee'd the f*cker out onto the dorm lawn. I remember being absolutely FURIOUS as well as bitterly disappointed. God, they'd finally tried to go "mainstream", and it sucked. "Document" was the last concert of theirs I attended; nowadays I couldn't be bothered to cross the street to hear them live for free.

 

All in all, I've always preferred their earlier days, when the vocals were unintelligible and sounded like the ramblings of a schizophrenic who is off his meds. Pete Buck's signature jangly Rickenbacker 12-string sound was also a part of the REM I loved.

 

I might give the new stuff a listen, not sure.

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