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R.E.M succumbs

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nick1985 said:
^

Link?
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I dunno, it was a long time ago. I could be mis-remembering. I'm old, you know.

Also, get off my lawn!


...but seriously, to really appreciate REM for what they were, you kinda had to be around when they took college radio to the masses and dragged a TON of other bands along with them. If you have a moment, pick up a copy of Our Band Could Be Your Life. Not only is in an interesting read, most of the bands in the book talk about how REM became this juggernaut that put "indie" as we know it on the map.
 
Coincidence, I have been listening to this all week:

51e071g1EkL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


Say what you will about their latter albums (especially the post Berry stuff), pretentions, Stipe in general, but their early back catalogue is still stellar and has aged pretty damn well. I could listen to songs like Gardening at Night, etc for hours, and I've never counted myself as a major fan. They were just really, really good.

Here's some trivia: Murmur was Rolling Stone's Best Album of 1983, beating Michael Jackson's Thriller, The Police's Synchronicity and U2's War.
 
Fausto said:
I dunno, it was a long time ago. I could be mis-remembering. I'm old, you know.

Also, get off my lawn!


...but seriously, to really appreciate REM for what they were, you kinda had to be around when they took college radio to the masses and dragged a TON of other bands along with them. If you have a moment, pick up a copy of Our Band Could Be Your Life. Not only is in an interesting read, most of the bands in the book talk about how REM became this juggernaut that put "indie" as we know it on the map.
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this. you had to be old enough to remember how big of a deal they were then, from the early to mid 80's, when they were some obscure college band getting major radio airplay, up through Out of Time dominating mainstream airplay around 1990-91 when Nirvana got more hindsight credit that probably should have been shared with them. I still remember people hearing them on the radio in the 80s and wondering "wtf this band was with the lead singer who mumbles", only to catch them humming along to the songs.
 
Fausto said:
I got to see them at the 40 Watt in Athens years and years ago. One of the better live shows I've seen. They were a great band before they signed the Warner deal and became insufferable.
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This. They got very full of themselves (or, at least Stipe did) after signing with Warner.

Their 80s stuff was awesome (Murmur-Green). Then they went mainstream in the early 90s and were pretty much a different band after that, with the occasional semi-throwback to their roots (Monster).

What I really loved about R.E.M. was the superb musicianship of Buck, Mills and Berry. I think that, ultimately, Stipe was unnecessary.
 
qliveur said:
This. They got very full of themselves (or, at least Stipe did) after signing with Warner.

Their 80s stuff was awesome (Murmur-Green). Then they went mainstream in the early 90s and were pretty much a different band after that, with the occasional semi-throwback to their roots (Monster).

What I really loved about R.E.M. was the superb musicianship of Buck, Mills and Berry. I think that, ultimately, Stipe was unnecessary.
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In a general sense, I'd say the more you can understand the lyrics, the worse they are.

About the musicianship - Berry and Mills both are supposedly guys who can pick up most any instrument and play it to some degree almost immediately.
 
I didn't know they were still together. I certainly respect them but I was never really a fan. I do like some of their very early songs - Driver 8, for example, is awesome.
 
Fausto said:
http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-music-scene/2011/09/21/r-e-m-breaks-up/



I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, they were a groundbreaking band in their day, but they also went really stale after Bill Berry quit. I feel like this should have happened 10 years ago.
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Ahhhh, retirement.... but wait, now they can do reunion gigs. :thumbsup:

"If you believe... they put a man on the moon... man on the mooooon ♪♪♪ ♫♫♪♪♫♫♪♫♫♪♪♫♫♫

Who doesn't like that song?

"Andy Kaufman in a wrestling match...yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪♪♪ ♫♫♪♪♫♫♪♫♫♪♪♫♫♫
 
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