Tag: R.E.M.

Thoughts on R.E.M. as the band calls it quits

Photo from R.E.M. Website: http://remhq.com/photo_gallery_detail.php?id=1586&gallery_id=118

I guess I was 19 or so when I first heard R.E.M. on college radio — most likely WRSU at Rutgers or WPRB in Princeton, though it could have been on the Penn. State station, where I was still in school.

“Radio Free Europe” came out on an independent label in 1981, received more widespread attention in the year that followed and then became the centerpiece (in a more polished version) of the band’s first full-length album, Murmur, in 1983.

The jangly guitar and muffled vocals that created an odd sense of mystery, and a title referring to the U.S. funded radio station piped into communist countries — it was a revelatory sound that, along with the remnants of punk, helped set me on a musical path that I have hued closely to ever since.

Now, 30 years after the song came out on Hib-Tone, the band is calling it quits. I can’t really blame them. The band’s first 15 years were a blur of perfection, a collection of remarkable releases that saw its stylistic pallet grow. Murmur was pure low-fi indie, as were the next few albums to follow. The band’s sound grew to fill stadiums with Document — which I think is their finest, a cross between their low-fi past and stadium present/future.And then it softened with the exquisite Automatic for the People and grew outsized and harsh with Monster. What followed was less consistently good, though had some other unknown or less-well-regarded band had produced them, albums like New Adventures in Hi-Fi, Up and Around the Sun might have been seen as the solid recordings that they were.

Accelerate was somewhat of a return to form for the band, and included songs that looked back at R.E.M.’s heyeday, but Collapse into Now, a solid effort, fell flat and it was clear that R.E.M. had probably run out of gas — a sense that was reinforced by Mike Mill’s comments on the band’s Web site:

During our last tour, and while making Collapse Into Now and putting together this greatest hits retrospective, we started asking ourselves, ‘what next’? Working through our music and memories from over three decades was a hell of a journey. We realized that these songs seemed to draw a natural line under the last 31 years of our working together.

 I feel lucky to have been a fan of the band throughout the career, to watch it grow and change and adapt. And I feel even luckier to have gotten to see them live three times at different points in their career. I wish the members well and hope their new projects are fulfilling for them and produce music that strikes a cord with the listener.

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  • Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
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Speaking of music: Bruce and R.E.M.

I mentioned in my running post that I was listening to some iTunes exclusives — three, in fact, but two that are worth noting:


Bruce Springsteen, Magic Tour Highlights: Four songs w/accompanying videos and proceeds going to the Danny Federici Melanoma Fund.

Consider the track listing:

1. “Always A Friend” (performed with Alejandro Escovedo)
Recording Date: 04/14/2008 (Houston, Texas)
2. “The Ghost of Tom Joad” (performed with Tom Morello)
Recording Date: 04/07/2008 (Anaheim, California)
3. “Turn Turn Turn” (performed with Roger McGuinn)Recording Date:
04/23/2008 (Orlando, Florida)
4. “4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” (Danny Federici’s final
performancewith the E Street Band)
Recording Date: 03/20/2008 (Indianapolis, Indiana)

The $7.99 I spent on iTunes would have been worth it for any of the songs, but all four are gems. Escovedo, for readers who do not know, is one of the great Texas country-rock songwriters and one of my favorites from what is sometimes called the alt-country or Americana movement. Bruce and Alejandro let it all hang out and have a great time on the tune.

R.E.M., Live from London: a nine-song set recorded at the Apple iTunes Store in London includes tracks from Accelerate and several old chestnuts (“West of the Fields” and “Auctioneer” are real surprises, along with “Fall on Me” and “Man on the Moon”). Quite a great listen.

Also, check out the extended version of Accelerate (at Amazon, iTunes or elsewhere), which includes two torrid songs not on the CD (along with some live material): “Redhead Walking” and “Airliner” (a driving instrumental).

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.