Dec 14

R.E.M.

Greatly Appreciated

R.E.M.
 
 
R.E.M.  was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and drummer Bill Berry.  One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. released its critically acclaimed debut album, Murmur in 1983 and built its reputation over the next few years through subsequent releases, constant touring, and the support of college radio.  Following years of underground success, R.E.M. achieved a mainstream hit in 1987 with the single “The One I Love”.  The group signed to Warner Bros. Records in 1988, and began to espouse political and environmental concerns while playing large arenas worldwide.  The band sold more than 85 million records worldwide and became one of the world’s best-selling bands of all time.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
I don’t have to go any further than my hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina to find a band that should have had a lot more success than they did:  The dB’s.  Their fourth and last album, The Sound of Music was released in 1987 during the heyday of I.R.S. Records (R.E.M.’s label), but this one too had lackluster sales. 
 
(January 2012)
 
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Finally, I have a recommendation to go with my confession earlier.  If any of you are still signed up with Netflix, you should add the 1994 film Backbeat to your queue.  It is the early history of the Beatles mostly when they were in Hamburg, Germany and primarily follows Stu Sutcliffe (played by Stephen Dorff), an old friend of John Lennon who was in an early incarnation of the band.  Along the way, you meet Paul McCartney (the two actors who play John and Paul are dead ringers), George Harrison, and even Ringo Starr, who was hanging around the group even though he wasn’t in the band yet.  Actually the words “the Beatles” were only spoken once during the entire movie; John Lennon mostly just called them “the band”. 
 
The idea is that, in those days, the Beatles were the world’s greatest punk rock group, so the band that they lined up to play the music was drawn from the top American alternative rock bands of the day, like the Afghan Whigs, Soul Asylum, R.E.M., and Sonic Youth.  The drummer was Nirvana’s Dave Grohl, who later became the front man for Foo Fighters (sadly, I believe that I read that they have gone on a hiatus).  However, he still hits the skins from time to time for bands like Queens of the Stone Age.  Highly recommended. 
 
(September 2012)
 
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Album labels are one way to help narrow down a search.  If you are an R.E.M. fan, then most of the albums on their label, I.R.S. Records will probably be to your liking as well.  A good punk rock label is Stiff Records; I have scarcely ever gone wrong with them.  A&M Records, the king of American independent record labels, has a wide variety of offbeat acts and some major artists as well (the “A” in the name is Herb Alpert). 
 
(November 2012)
 
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A group of kids from my hometown of Winston-Salem, NC formed a rock band called the dB’s; they were very talented, particularly at songwriting. 
 
Eventually they got a record deal; the critics loved them, and they had decent record sales in England, but not much over here.  Then they got another record deal, and then they got yet another record deal – the last time was with R.E.M.’s label I.R.S. Records (which stands for “International Recording Syndicate”, like the band’s name stands for “the decibels”). 
 
That I.R.S. album, The Sound of Music was a slick pop affair that came out in 1987.  A lot of bands from the Carolinas were doing well nationally, and everyone expected that to be their breakthrough album.  Fame didn’t happen for them though, although Peter Holsapple started playing a lot with R.E.M. for several years after that. 
 
(January 2013)
 
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The proto-punk side of the Velvet Underground is well known, but their music was experimental throughout and also ran the gamut from garage rock (“I’m Waiting for the Man”) to ballads (“Stephanie Says”) to old-fashioned pop-rock (“There She Goes Again”, which was covered by R.E.M. – I learned about the song from the version of “There She Goes Again” recorded by the Crawdaddys).   

 

(December 2013)

 

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While this line-up never recorded another album, the Crawdaddys secured their place in the rock firmament with their next two releases (both on Voxx Records):  the single “There She Goes Again” b/w “Why Don’t You Smile Now” in early 1980, and an EP called 5 x 4 in August 1980.  For my money, “There She Goes Again” is the one Velvet Underground song (written by Lou Reed) that is tailor-made to be covered by other bands.  There is an obscure cover of “There She Goes Again” by the Electrical Banana in 1967 which is mentioned by Wikipedia; this is not the same band as the Electric Banana that was a pseudonym for the Pretty Things over several years.  However, the only other cover version of “There She Goes Again” that I know of is by R.E.M.; and Peter Buck acknowledges that their recording is inspired by the Crawdaddys version.  “There She Goes Again” is included on the Bomp! Records compilation CD Straight Outta Burbank, and that is where I learned about the song.  The “B” side, “Why Don’t You Smile Now” was co-written by Lou Reed and John Cale but pre-dates their involvement with the Velvet Underground; “Why Don’t You Smile Now” was originally released on a 1965 single under the name the All-Night Workers. 

 

(January 2015/2)

 

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Grant Lee Buffalo, Fuzzy (single) – Led by singer-songwriter and guitarist Grant Lee Phillips, the alternative rock band Grant Lee Buffalo was a fave of critics and fellow musicians alike that never broke into the mainstream.  Their music is an infectious blend of roots rock, psychedelia and country; and I sure wish I had more of their music.  “Fuzzy” is the title track of the band’s debut album, Fuzzy (1993).  Michael Stipe, the lead singer of R.E.M. called Fuzzy “the best album of the year hands down”.  This single CD only has two versions of the same song, but I have pushed the “Play” button a second time on more than one occasion.
 
(December 2015)
 
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The B-52’s hail from the fertile music center of Athens, Georgia whence came R.E.M., Pylon, and other fine bands.  Wikipedia notes that “Athens was home to the first and most famous college music scene in the country, beginning in the 1970’s”.  I had an appraisal job there in the early 1980’s and remember well the wealth of record stores and the local radio station that had a “psychedelic lunch” program around the noon hour. 
 
(March 2017)
 
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Before and after their involvement with SS-20, Bruce Wagner and David Winogrond were in a band called Skooshny.  The Allmusic article on the band by Bryan Thomas says:  “Skooshny is an L.A.-based psych-folk-pop trio who originally came together in 1971, a time that singer/guitarist Mark Breyer later said was ‘too late for the Byrds, too early for R.E.M.’”  Skooshny released numerous songs beginning in the mid-1970’s but did not put out an album until Skooshny (1991), a retrospective album that collected their material from 1975 to 1981. 
 
(December 2017)
 
Last edited: March 22, 2021