bigideas

http://www.ology.com/music/watch-rems-michael-stipe-jimmy-fallon

 

Stipe on Fallon (at least the third or fourth time Stipe has shown up on Fallon this year alone)

 

"Check out the complete interview and a bonus game of Password with (are you ready for this?) Martin Short, Kermit The Frog, and Miss Piggy. It's hilarious, watch the whole thing if you didn't see it last night."

Mine came from Canada yesterday. The pictures do no justice to it. It really is a cool package. I had no idea. I still haven't opened it though. I almost love it to much to touch it if that makes sense. There are a couple of complaints on Amazon about the vinyl having hiss or being warped. Anyone experienced this?

 

I did listen to BW Presents for the first time in a long time and I liked it more than I was thinking I would. I may have been singing too loud along with it to hear some of the limitations of Brian's voice now. I was really digging the addition lyrics by VDP that I had pretty much forgotten about. Whichever song where Brian goes "sha!" or whatever is just really fun.

 

I watched the H&V video the band put up and I'm not sure I ever remember that song ending with that added string part. Also, that "we-oo-oo" right before "You're under arrest!" surprised me.

Around The Sun is definitely not a popular album.

Someone replied to an REM thread on another board that hadn't been written on since that time and I found an old post of mine.

I think pretty much everyone who even likes ATS would agree that it was definitely bloated - pretty much most of their recent albums were with the exception of Accelerate and I'm still not totally familiar with CIN.

I wrote that if you cut tracks 3, 5, & 6 on ATS that it will increase your playback enjoyability.

I listened to that sequence on the way to work and found it to be quite enjoyable. I didn't even listen to the others to see why I thought it would make a better flow without them, but i do know one is the track with Q Tip. I'm sure they're all fine songs, but maybe they would have been best served on an EP with any other b-sides of the era.

 

Anyone that can stand ATS have an alternate tracklisting they think makes it more enjoyable for them?

 

Any plans for an REM b-sides collection? I think all these deluxe reissues have been ignoring the b-sides for some stupid reason. Is there even much out there?

I like song cycle. Capital city is kinda reminiscent of it. If you don't like cap city, stay away.

 

I also love marcella. The Carl and the Passions/holland 2fer is really good. There are a couple Dennis songs that were tabbed for a supposed solo record, cuddle up and make it good that I think are fantastic.

 

Yeah, I love Capitol City. It most reminds me of The Beatles "Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite" with it's chopped up circus-esque organs, etc.

I take it that type of song is more or less referred to as Tin Pan Alley? Songs like When I'm 64 or Honey Pie fit in with that, as well as songwriters like Harry Nilsson (who I only have 2 albums of) and Randy Newman (who I really have heard very little of).

 

I think John Lennon called these types of songs 'granny music.'

It was then funny that he did a similar thing imo with Crippled Inside on Imagine.

 

Concur. For a lifelong waif this guy seems to line his pockets atany and every opportunity.

 

Speaking of VDP. I saw him mentioned in the music credits for this $3 DVD I bought of Goin' South - a Jack Nicholson directing/starring comedy western (the film he did right before The Shining).

 

Does anyone have an opinion on VDP's solo albums? I have long wondered about Song Cycle.

It's on the Carl and The Passions - "So Tough" album.

 

The Smile box is down to 133 now on Amazon. I hope I can get the bread together to buy it.

 

It is much cheaper on Amazon Canada even with the $10 shipping to the US. The exchange rate is pretty close and it is $103.xx right now. I have pre-ordered at both and will delete the higher one when it gets close to November 1st.

I have seen them on their last 3 American tours - Amnesiac, HTTT and In Rainbows.

The last was still great, but they played a lot of the same songs so I questioned if I wanted to go through the hassle for their next one.

Looking at the setlists for the two NYC shows, I think I definitely want to see them.

Of course, with my luck they will revert back to their more 'hits' type setlist, but they had a nice change on these.

Glad to see Myxomatosis was played.

I really really love that song.

We Suck Young Blood is another that I can't believe is not more popular with fans and a live favorite.

Basically these new sets were IR and TKOL heavy with a couple new songs and just a few old favorites, but not the overplayed like Paranoid, etc.

I still haven't seen Airbag live and I really want to.

Breaking out Subterranean Homesick Alien was cool.

The National Anthem is pretty fun, but it has been overplayed imo.

the little films make the music so great.

 

The little films?

 

I streamed it while surfing. There were music videos playing along with the stream?

I only saw

DSOTM, The Wall, WYWH, Animals, and whatever the Stonehenge like one is.

I ended up getting Animals at Best Buy along with The Whole Love Deluxe (which they price matched to their online price of $12.99).

I probably would have bought Meddle, too, but that seemed to be the only album not in stock.

 

My main surprise were the Beatles 7" single recreations at Target right beside all the Floyd stuff. They must not have advertised these in the paper ad.

They can leave that other drummer behind though.

 

Why?

I got into her after streaming Actor at a listening station and buying it. I thought it was one of the best records of the year. She performed on several late night TV shows and Austin City Limits (TV show) and all sounded great. I liked it so much I eventually ordered Marry Me, but never really felt compelled to listen to it. I haven't had the chance to listen to the new one a lot yet to form an opinion.

 

The coolest thing to me is that she is from Dallas and has recorded her last two albums in a Dallas recording studio.

 

I have wondered how her career started. From what I understand in the new Under the Radar interview she posted music to Myspace, which My Brightest Diamond heard and started corresponding with her, which led to a spot playing with Sufjan. Then she also got a spot with The Polyphonic Spree (who are out of Dallas) and at some point got a record deal.

 

This is a heavy 'indie' female time for new records. I think St Vincent, Feist and Bjork are about the biggest right now and all are releasing records.

I thought The Shins did pretty good.

Cool that Richard Swift is in their band for this tour.

 

I see Target has where you can buy 2 of the albums for $10 a piece and then get a $5 Target gift card.

I think I will get Animals and Meddle. Hopefully they have these 2.

When Lennon's remasters came out they had a similar deal. I was going to finally get Mind Games, but I guess it was not popular enough to even carry it.

Target may only have Dark Side, Wish and The Wall, but here's hoping.

Yeah, I agree with someone that's it's kinda weird that on their only TV appearances in promotion of TKOL, they play 2 songs you can't even purchase. On SNL they had 2 spots and they only paid one song from their half a year or so old album?

Someone brought up National Anthem on SNL 10 years ago - weird that when they played it on Colbert at the end (thought it was cut off on air) Thom had a guitar on even though he wasn't playing. I remember on the SNL performance he was jumping up and down to cue the horns and he didn't have a guitar then. I don't remember if he started with one or not.

 

Pitchfork had a story last week that they plan to tour next year and that the Atoms For Peace project with Thom/Flea/Nigel Godrich is getting close to being finished.

 

I can't remember them ever officially announcing who or why the second drummer was playing with them. I've read he's Portishead's drummer. He didn't play on National Anthem last night, so I guess he only plays on TKOL and newer material?

 

Just so many unanswered questions with the TKOL record cycle. Very strange, even for them.

 

I thought it would have been funny if Colbert talked about the down economy and then asked them why they released an album with 8 trks/37 mins (not that it bothered me) - charging higher per tracks costs or something like that and how they would react to it.

Looks like they're mostly sticking to the singles for their Greatest Hits, compilation, which makes sense. But I'm still a bit surprised that "Bang and Blame" and "Daysleeper" didn't make the cut but non-singles "Alligator..." and "Sitting Still" made it. And do FOUR songs from Collapse Into Now belong on that thing, but only one song each from Monster and Up?

I thought that is only 3 from CIN, right? I wondered that, too, but it's what they did last, so it's probably a little more precious than it should be to them. I thought it was weird that Bad Day is on there - wasn't that one of the "new" tracks/recordings for the last compilation? I would think at least Daysleeper would be in it's place. I'm with you on Bang, too. I wonder how much time is left on each CD?

 

I saw some of the videos pre-Monster, especially Religion, and Everybody Hurts. I didn't think it sucked, but I wasn't interested until seeing the Kenneth video. Then I thought Blame was cool, too. 94 was when I really got into rock/grunge music, so Monster is my REM starting point.

 

Not saying that era is better overall. Like I said earlier, I haven't heard most of the pre-Automatic albums. It's not that I don't want to even. It's just finding a way to choose which of the multiple versions and then fitting it in between new music, old music, reissues (which there seem to be a ton of this year) and the right price.

 

I have thought about getting the library to track them down if they can on inter-library loan.

Probably not this fall, there is just too much going on...unless someone just wants to give me their collection. I'll take it. =)

I wish they would have just termed it "indefinite hiatus" instead of saying it's completely over.

 

The other 2 have guested and been with other bands all the time. Where does this leave Stipe?

 

Will he do the inevitable front man solo record?

 

Has Stipe ever written a full song by himself?

 

I have always taken it that the rest of the band presents him with the backing tracks and then he writes lyrics and melody on top of them.

 

I still need to get their pre-Automatic catalog.

 

Do you recommend I get the new reissues or just go for the old CD's?

 

Now with this news, probably all the cheap used ones will get bought up. =(

Yeah all three songs are good. The first two songs, "It" and "What a Strange Day" are solo Scott songs. "It" has become one of my favorite Dr. Dog songs, the lyrics are brilliant.

 

"Oh Man" is also great, with Toby on vocals. I think it should have been on the CD.

 

I have some MP3 credit so I thought about this and now there are 7 Bonus Tracks on the Shame Shame Deluxe Digital?

The 3 you mentioned above and 4 more.

Heard these?

Yeah, I am aware of the mastering loudness wars.

I actually studied music recording in college, though I never got to the point of mixing and mastering stuff and only had the first few studio courses.

 

The thing that pisses me off most about any remasters is when they actually cut vital stuff out or dialog that was on the original album purposefully. I think Ziggy Stardust had some stuff cut out, as well as, Mind Games on some remasters. I finally bought a bunch of the Kinks remasters with all the bonus tracks just to hear they are re-releasing them again.

 

My WYWH CD sounds pretty good to me, but then again, I don't have anything to compare it to. I bought it used in the early 2000's and it looks pretty old. It may be the first CD release.

Wow, just finished my first listen on headphones.

I was surfing too and wasn't paying complete attention, so I can't go too in depth, but what I heard was a pleasant surprise.

 

Unless I am delusional, I think this will easily get their best reviews since AGIB and maybe even YHF.

Should have no problem at least scoring an 80 on MetaCritic (AGIB=81, YHF=87).

I don't really agree with your assertion that it is an ep's worth of material stretched, shine on is a pretty well crafted song, just because it is long and there are long parts with no vox, it dosent mean they were just noodling, the instrumental passages are very well written and arranged. The other 3 are pretty concise.

 

I didn't quite mean it that way, because I enjoy the passages. I especially like that moment around the 4 min mark when the 4 note guitar comes in and then the drums kick in.

 

Thanks for the feedback. I definitely need to get Animals. I guess I should wait for the remaster that will probably be on sale first week. I kinda think records like these that have long recouped their costs many times over should sell at lower prices than newer material, but then I'm sure there's the cost of remastering and the general 'worth of one piece of music compared to another' defense.

I listened to Wish the other day for the first time in a while. From a songwriting standpoint, it is really interesting that you could look at that album as a template on when you have an EP's worth of material (in this case 4 songs) and how to make it translate into an LP well. It looks like they kinda did that with Animals, too, though I've never heard it.

 

I have had DS, WYWH, and The Wall for years. I have yet to fully get into The Wall, but I like the other two.

 

What is your opinion on Animals?

 

The other 3 you will hear songs on classic rock radio every day probably, but Animals didn't have a single to my knowledge so I don't have the slightest idea what it sounds like. I've wanted it for years, but have kept putting it off for some reason.

 

I had no idea about the remastering until today when looking to see if I could find a cheap copy of Animals used. I'm sure all CD's I have are pre-2000 so I have no opinion on various releases and how they sound.

The box is up on Amazon.ca for $124 (plus all our Ontario taxes). Checked the .com site and it's listed for $170 right now. Does anybody remember when a new record was $3.99?

 

It looks like it's about $135 or so in USD with shipping - no Free Shipping out of country - so I pre-ordered from there from the time being. I'm guessing my bank will charge some kind of fee for currency conversion, but I wouldn't think that would be more than a few dollars. From what I understand I can always Cancel the order as long as the item hasn't shipped, so if the US price equals that or lower I'll go with that. I would hope the Canadian manufactured product would be virtually identical.

The price has already gone up $60?

I thought it usually goes down until after the first week of sale.

 

I don't know what to think, but I definitely want the cheapest 5 CD configuration. Not sure of the need of bonus 7". Is that H&V supposed to be the famous long cut since it's cut across 2 sides?

 

Not sure about the Vega-Tables/Surf's Up single - are these supposed to be different mixes or something?

 

Looking at the back of the BW version released a few years ago - it looks like pretty much only one section is moved around.

 

An old version I had someone put together had Good Vibes as the kinda middle biggie song and then Surf's Up as the ultimate finale, which that Child Is the Father of the man vocal section is just incredible, not sure how anything can follow that. It's been too long since I listened to the BW version to remember how I felt about it then.

Did he and Bolme ever have a relationship?

 

I don't know if some of it is her looking at him semi-lovingly or if he's kinda going off track and she's having to watch him to see what he's doing - or maybe both. ha.

Also, despite the hate it gets, Stuck In a Moment still gives me chills.

 

I think they performed this live on Late Night TV recently, just Bono and The Edge with an acoustic while still sitting in the interview chairs.

 

(I may have already mentioned this earlier)

No Texas dates?