So, Then This Happened

AS you might have surmised, the R.E.M. breakup remained on the forefront of my mind for much of the day. When I first got word, I shared the news with the people around me at work, and one guy said "Well, they are pretty... seasoned."

I stifled an outburst and mentioned that the Rolling Stones have a lot more 'seasoning' and they still entertain a crowd once in a while. The co-worker then said something to the effect of "In my opinion, the Rolling Stones should have pulled a Seinfeld years ago." Meaning that they would have been better off quitting at the top of their game (as R.E.M. appears to be trying to do) rather than dragging on.

Ok. Perhaps. I grant the possibility.

But that didn't really mitigate my mental breakdown when, a while later, another guy from the office came by and asked how I was doing. I said, "Well, R.E.M. broke up, so I'm a little shaken about that."

His response: "R.E.M.?! Man, that is past time! They were the 90s! I was all about them back then though. (singing) Jeremy's spoken..."

I have some regret that I was not able to restrain myself from grabbing my head in my hands and saying "Urggmmphhh! THAT'S PEARL JAM!!!" I was able to restrain myself from literally shouting that exclamation, but just barely.

When I told Cory this tale, she asked "Did that vein in your forehead bulge out?"

Yes. Yes, I believe it did.

I have, very clearly, lived too long.

That said, for today's listening list, I am through Chronic Town, Murmur, Reckoning, Fables of the Reconstruction, and am now almost at the end of Lifes Rich Pageant. It's going to be like this for a while.

It's the End of the World

Well, not really.

But evidently, it's the end of R.E.M.



photographer unknown

And I don't know how to feel.

Fun with Legal Streaming

One little perk of the non-stop "hey, let's remaster and/or re-release our old records and sell them again!" trend in the world of rock and roll is that these little gems do tend to include some new and/or interesting material.

R.E.M.'s contribution to this pattern has so far involved digital remasters of their early albums and pairing them with a bonus disc of live material from the era. But the newest installment, the remastered version of Fables of the Reconstruction, gives us a bunch of demos on the bonus disc. And in a friendly gesture, you can listen to a stream of those demos here (and probably in a bunch of other places too, but that's the place I ran across first.

Fables was about to be released when I saw R.E.M. for the first time, at the University of Wisconsin Stock Pavilion (for all intents and purposes a literal barn, albeit a really really big one). It was a great experience at the time (though I heard somewhere that the band did not appreciate the particular form of "return to your country roots" provided by that venue) and a great music memory now. That album took a critical beating, and even R.E.M. sort of disavowed it at the time, but I was blown away from the get-go: from the ringing minor key hyper-electric guitar opening of "Feeling Gravity's Pull" through the amazing "Driver 8" (still has to be one of R.E.M.'s best songs) and the folky jangle of the whole record.

Love this picture from around that time. For those first few years (till around Green, I think) Michael Stipe would hardly ever look at a camera.

Anyway, sentiment may color my judgment, but enjoy listening to disc 2 if you feel like it, with demo versions of the whole album and a couple b-sides and extra treats as well. Thanks to the good people at KCRW in L.A. for the stream.

And in other news...

How f*cking cool is this??

Sometimes, you gotta love the internets.

[Update: so... I just watched it again and caught the stupid comment bubble. Way to piss on my mood, whoever you are.]