How The West Was Won And Where It Got Us: An REM Thread

[EJ]

And we're live. Please let me know if you can see the forum and if you can post in it.

wow, this is great. thanks, stip!

[stip]

I'm excited for this because I love REM almost as much as pearl jam (sometimes more), but I don't have the same carefully ordered preferences and invested opinions. No dogs in this fight. Just love.

[chewm]

I feel pretty much the same about this.

[washing machine]

It's good to hear this voice doing new things again, if only for a few minutes.

http://pitchfork.com/news/64471-michael ... l_facebook

[Norris]

It's good to hear this voice doing new things again, if only for a few minutes.

http://pitchfork.com/news/64471-michael ... l_facebook

I'm pretty sure that's Charles Darwin.

[Mike]

That was lovely. He sounds great.

[Rangi Guy]

http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/listen/r-e-m-reveal-radio-song-demo/

[matt reeder]

http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/listen/r-e-m-reveal-radio-song-demo/

This has been circulating for a long time on bootlegs. It's nice to see it get released.

[Self]

Be Mine is one of my favorite REM songs. Such a great guitar groove.

[tragabigzanda]

Michael Stipe's interview on Here's the Thing is pretty good. Probably not a lot of new stuff if you're a dedicated fan, but it was interesting for a casual fan like me.

http://www.wnyc.org/story/michael-stipe

[Norris]

Be Mine is one of my favorite REM songs. Such a great guitar groove.

Same

[tragabigzanda]

Be Mine is one of my favorite REM songs. Such a great guitar groove.

Same

Any idea how the band themselves regard NAIHF now? My sense is that it's considered a minor album, but it's definitely one of my faves.

[PHATJ]

Be Mine is one of my favorite REM songs. Such a great guitar groove.

Same

Any idea how the band themselves regard NAIHF now? My sense is that it's considered a minor album, but it's definitely one of my faves.

No idea how they feel about it, but I think it might be their best.

[Norris]

New Adventures in Hi-Fi is really fucking good, but definitely a bit overrated around these parts.

[chewm]

I agree.

[Kevin Davis]

Hey, a favorite's a favorite. And "Hi-Fi" is my favorite.

[digster]

Yeah, same.

And I'm pretty sure each member of the band has said Hi-Fi is either up there or their favorite; it's Stipe's favorite record by the band: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/15/arts/ ... rview.html

We were really stretching ourselves, trying really hard to push what we did. Looking back, it makes sense that the next record would be “Automatic for the People,” that it’d be a radically different step. And the next would be “Monster,” a record that nobody liked. But everyone expected another version of “Automatic” and we weren’t about to give them that. So in a way we shot ourselves in the foot. But it turns out, 20 years later, that’s not a bad record, “Monster.” And then we released my favorite album of our entire canon, which is “New Adventures in Hi-Fi.” It’s a band at our very peak. And then, of course, Bill [Berry, the group’s original drummer] left the band.

[surfndestroy]

here's a link to some really great write ups about each album. They're very well done and place the albums under the environment they were recorded and of the political era.

http://www.udiscovermusic.com/essentials/r-e-m

[Coach]

Question: I was going to order the Out of Time 25th anniversary package and want that live album as part of it. But my understanding is that I need to order the CDs, as there's no digital download. Really? iTunes has just the remastered album plus the demos, but not the live show....

[Norris]

I'm just gonna steal it once waffles goes back up.