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

It's the end of the world as we know it...

 

The rule of thumb for anyone who ever attended UGA was: If you spend four years in Athens and never see Stipe (or Buck or Mills or Berry) around town ... you're doing it wrong.

I saw some local band at the 40 Watt as a freshman, and Stipe came in about halfway through the set and started jamming. I learned later this was quite normal for those guys, but at the time it rocked my world.

Very, very, very sad day.

 

Has Monster's star fallen over the years in critical opinion? I love that album.

I know it was sort of viewed as R.E.M.'s sellout to grunge at the time, but it was also considered a return to rock 'n roll after the non-rock trappings on Out Of Time and Automatic For The People (which has a deserved great rep).

 

Everything I read today blasted Monster. And one of my best friends from college wrote a gushing review of Monster for the school newspaper and then, within a few months, was declaring how wrong he was to anyone who would listen.

I think it was too rock and roll and too happy, at least by R.E.M. standards, for their hardcore fans. You know, like how hardcore Metallica fans swear they hate the Black Album. I'm with you, I thought Monster was a great record--almost exuberant, again, at least by R.E.M. standards.

 

The only song I disliked was Crush With Eyeliner. Circus Envy is a pretty damn good album track.

I definitely think it might have been perceived as too rock after Automatic For The People, and maybe too happy. It also might have been perceived as too fast as those songs on Monster chugged compared to some of the laborious songs from the previous albums, especially Out Of Time, an album I've never liked much at all.

Maybe I'm just committing sacrilege against all that which is R.E.M. because I also think Shiny, Happy People is a good song.

 

Oh God that is just the worst fucking song ever. (No, really, it is)

 

YOU WOULDN'T SAY THAT IF WHAT'S-HER-NAME FROM THE B-52s WAS HERE! Go ahead, do it, SAY IT TO WHAT'S HER'S FACE!

YOU UNSHINY, UNHAPPY FUCK!

(But seriously, I like that song. People take R.E.M. so seriously they can't recognize a simple, enjoyable pop tune when it hits them)

 

One thing I can't find: video of Mike Mills playing bass for a song written by Jim Irsay.

http://www.newspaperarchive.com/SiteMap/FreePdfPreview.aspx?img=109384580

The song was called "Colors," and it was a tribute to Ryan White, written after his death. While the sentiment was sincere, alas, Irsay was as a good a songwriter as he was a GM. (The link above contains the lyrics.)

(Not to turn this into a Ryan Whitejack, but the Children's Museum of Indianapolis has a Ryan White section as part of a Kids-Who-Changed-History exhibit. It is incredibly powerful.)

 

I actually listen to Love Tractor all the time. I love Small Town and I Broke My Saw.

After listing to nothing but Lifes Rich Pageant yesterday, today is all about Automatic for the People. Tomorrow's long road trip will probably be all Dead Letter Office.

 

Sad day yesterday.

I didn't get into R.E.M. until my freshman year of college (91). Out of Time was huge at the time and I remember one of my friends saying "No no no, don't get it. Start with Eponymous. If you like that, you like the real R.E.M." We wound up watching Tourfilm and I loved it. Bought Eponymous a few days later, and then Lifes Rich Pageant (still my all-time favorite album). And it snowballed from there for me.

Saw them four times live, including once with Radiohead in Nashville, and then a few years ago in Atlanta with Modest Mouse (the best show I've ever seen).

My obligatory Athens story: Was at the 40-Watt a few years back to see The Whigs at Athfest. Was standing at the bar with a friend and we started talking to this guy who looked exactly like Mike Mills. My friend and I are looking at each other like "could this really be THE Mike Mills" but the guy was so unassuming and just blended in with everyone else. And he was talking to us like he was just some guy there to listen to a band. After a few minutes, he left. My buddy looked at the bartender, who simply said "Yup, that was him."

 

Really, it is.

But it takes a great band to make an all-time-terrible song.

IIRC, it's the only song from their catalog that Stipe promised to never play live again.

 

I blame Natalie Merchant for the band's break-up.

That bitch was destined to Yoko-Ono them, since the moment Stipe slept on her bus instead of R.E.M.'s when they toured together.