R.E.M. announces they're breaking up

Count me among the few who prefer Monster to Automatic for the People (too pretentious by half IMO).

And, yes, Life's Rich Pageant ranks as one of my five favorite records of all time.

 

I can listen to Flowers of Guatemala over and over.

 

You and me both.

Not be an anal prick, but no apostrophe in "Lifes Rich Pageant."

 

I'm glad I wasn't the only one disappointed in the 1995 tour. I was really looking forward to it--had gotten into R.E.M. in 1991 and built the catalogue on back--but just left feeling vaguely disappointed. It wasn't the worst show I ever saw by any stretch, but it wasn't the frenetic, unforgettable experience I'd been led to believe. The most bizarre thing is how rote the band sounded. It was like listening to CDs with 18,000 people.

I'd lost contact with them too over the years (though I have "Accelerate" unopened somewhere) but it's still a bit melancholy to read this news. I loved "Automatic For The People." Some incredible songs on there, most notably "Ignoreland." I know "Monster" got knocked around but "What's The Frequency Kenneth" is a fucking perfect rock and roll song.

That said, they overstayed their welcome by almost 12 years: One of the band members said in an MTV Rockumentary in 1991, back when Out Of Time was just exploding, that they'd quit at the turn of the century and/or if any of the original guys left.

They'll be back. As someone noted, it's rock and roll. Everyone comes back.

 

very cool, john

i met Peter Buck at a phillies game a couple months ago -- he had just sung Take me out to the Ballgame during the 7th-inning stretch with Steve Wynn and the other Baseball Project guys -- and he couldn't have been nicer.

also saw Buck and Mills at a Robert Pollard solo show in Athens at the 40 Watt Club in 2006, and, yeah, they just hung out in the crowd like anybody else. was cool to see.

the last few REM records were uneven at best, but not many bands have ever had a run like they did from Chronic Town up through Document. brilliant, inventive, groundbreaking, melodic stuff.

 

I don't remember where I read it now, but I saw a link today that basically changes are happening at Warner Brothers and they were going to be treated the same as an up-and-coming band, with album demands like every 18 months, etc. And the idea of "paying dues" was not something they were interested in.

I loved Automatic for the People more than any album of my lifetime.

 

OK, which joker logged in as IJAG?

 

I'll always have a fondness for "Monster," perhaps because the first time I listened to it I was under the influence of certain substances. "Star 69", like the Pixies' "Broken Face", will always be a song that gets me cranked up no matter what the circumstances. Not much of a fan of some of the songs at the end of it.

Evidently David Foster Wallace was sort of borderline obsessed with "Strange Currencies." He brought it up several times in David Lipsky's account of his tag-along road trip with Wallace.

 

I know the powers that be frown on "favorite songs by X" thread, but I'm going to lay out my favorites anyway. Automatic for the People was the first CD I ever owned, and "Out of Time" wasn't far behind. This news makes me so sad, even if I'd fallen a bit off the R.E.M. train a few years back.

In no particular order: Monty Got a Raw Deal, Man on the Moon, Gardening at Night, Welcome to the Occupation, Wendell Gee (I love that there's a poster here by that name), Pop Song 89, Fall On Me, Strange Currencies, Talk About the Passion, Shaking Through, The Wake Up Bomb, Leave, Bittersweet Me, Be Mine, Low Desert, Belong, Country Feedback, Me In Honey, (Don't Go Back to) Rockville, Imitation of Life (probably my favorite "late-period" R.E.M. song).

Looking at this list, I really like New Adventures in Hi-Fi more than I would have guessed.

(As an aside, I saw R.E.M. on the Monster tour (in Greensboro) and had a ticket to the Radiohead show at Bull Run Park that got rained out...think that one was in 2000 or so.)

 

I first heard R.E.M. in 1986, the fall of my freshman year of high school, and they've been my favorite band ever since.

I'm disappointed in the fact that they put out a good album last year, and seemed to be headed in a pretty good direction.

Of course, they always said they would break up if one of them ever left the band or after 1999. Neither of which happened, obviously. I agree, they weren't as good as they were before Berry left, but they still had some good music.

This band helped shape my musical tastes from 1986 on, and got me into The Replacements and lots of other great 1980s bands. In my opinion, they are maybe the most important band — along with the Pixies — of the last 25 years.

If they did a reunion tour, I'd totally be in. I saw them twice, on the green tour and Monster tour, and both shows were incredible.

Just kind of sad news for a band I grew up with. But, as they say, there is always the music.

 

Jealous!

 

Some of their stuff after Berry left was OK, but it always sounded dry, lifeless, sterile.

The original band had a warmth and organic feeling they never really recaptured after he left.

I always thought they should have brought in another drummer to replace Berry (not as an employee, as an actual band member). I've read in several random places that when Berry left, they considered asking Dave Grohl to join.

Boy, what an alternative universe THAT would have been.

It would have been R.E.M., but a very very different R.E.M.