From: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org (loud-fans-digest) To: loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Subject: loud-fans-digest V7 #380 Reply-To: loud-fans@smoe.org Sender: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-loud-fans-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk loud-fans-digest Saturday, April 19 2008 Volume 07 : Number 380 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [loud-fans] Murmur / Chronic Town ["Larry Tucker" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Murmur / Chronic Town It was their since of mystery from those early recordings that drew me in. I was over at Fred Mills apartment one day and he pulled out the "Radio Free Europe" Hib-Tone single and said I had to hear this, that there was nothing else like it - also dropping that Mitch had worked on it. I was immediately taken by their murky jangle sound and unintelligible lyrics. I also recall an earlier strange show at The Station in Carrboro, NC which I think was their first show out of the Athens area. This might have been around '80 or '81 and was my first exposure to the band. As I recall Stipe performed nearly the whole show huddled over his mic staring at the floor, a lot of the time with his back to the audience. There was definitely something different about this band but I wasn't really snared until I heard that 'Radio Free Europe" single. There's some really great clips of some footage from The Pier in Raleigh on YouTube from a later show in '82 and by this time Stipe was much more engaging with the audience. I think the dB's opened this show. http://www.youtube.com/user/REMdave Overall I think that the one REM album I go back to and listen to the most is LIFE'S RICH PAGEANT. Larry On Thu, Apr 17, 2008 at 4:56 PM, Jenny Grover wrote: > Brian Block wrote: > > > my fondness for Chronic Town, which > > I > > strongly prefer to the three LP's following it, is mysterious even to > > me. How is > > it actually different from Murmur/ Reckoning? What am I responding to? > > Anyone? > > > > It's really hard to describe, or to put my finger on, but I suspect it's > the same sorts of things I respond to there. It's something subtle, > something more dreamlike (in particular Wolves, Lower and Carnival of > Sorts), and something about the production, I think. There's something a > bit more subconscious and organic, maybe less thought out. I don't know. > But it's that "doesn't sound like anything else" thing I was getting at. > > Jen ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 12:04:27 -0400 From: "Larry Tucker" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Murmur / Chronic Town It was their since of mystery from those early recordings that drew me in. I was over at Fred Mills apartment one day and he pulled out the "Radio Free Europe" Hib-Tone single and said I had to hear this, that there was nothing else like it - also dropping that Mitch had worked on it. I was immediately taken by their murky jangle sound and unintelligible lyrics. I also recall an earlier strange show at The Station in Carrboro, NC which I think was their first show out of the Athens area. This might have been around '80 or '81 and was my first exposure to the band. As I recall Stipe performed nearly the whole show huddled over his mic staring at the floor, a lot of the time with his back to the audience. There was definitely something different about this band but I wasn't really snared until I heard that 'Radio Free Europe" single. There's some really great clips of some footage from The Pier in Raleigh on YouTube from a later show in '82 and by this time Stipe was much more engaging with the audience. I think the dB's opened this show. http://www.youtube.com/user/REMdave Overall I think that the one REM album I go back to and listen to the most is LIFE'S RICH PAGEANT. Larry On Thu, Apr 17, 2008 at 4:56 PM, Jenny Grover wrote: > Brian Block wrote: > > > my fondness for Chronic Town, which > > I > > strongly prefer to the three LP's following it, is mysterious even to > > me. How is > > it actually different from Murmur/ Reckoning? What am I responding to? > > Anyone? > > > > It's really hard to describe, or to put my finger on, but I suspect it's > the same sorts of things I respond to there. It's something subtle, > something more dreamlike (in particular Wolves, Lower and Carnival of > Sorts), and something about the production, I think. There's something a > bit more subconscious and organic, maybe less thought out. I don't know. > But it's that "doesn't sound like anything else" thing I was getting at. > > Jen ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:40:34 -0700 From: "Steve Holtebeck" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] R.E.M. (a brief burst of contrarianism) On Thu, Apr 17, 2008 at 8:55 AM, Miles Goosens wrote: > It's always interesting to hear that somebody out there loves the later stuff the most. I remember seeing a Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers > show in the mid-'90s that was about evenly split between the 15-30 and 30-up demographics, and through the regular set, everyone seemed > to be enjoying things about the same. Then one of the encore sets led off with "Refugee," and the 30-and-up set stood and cheered... and > the younger folks *didn't know what it was.* Turns out the young'uns had all come on board no earlier than FULL MOON FEVER, and their > Tom Petty was entirely '90s material. Speaking of Tom P, does everyone know that he has a new album coming out with Mudcrutch (his pre-Heartbreakers band) at the end of the month? And they're touring as well.. When I was at the Fillmore last weekend for the Nick Lowe/Robyn Hitchcock show, they listed two (sold-out) shows by Mudcrutch on the Fillmore calendar for this week. Mas info at www.mudcrutch.com Re: ACCELERATE -- I like it a lot. Still in heavy rotation after two weeks. My R.E.M. album pecking order goes (1. Murmur 2. Automatic 3. Document 4. Out Of Time 5. Green 6. Fables 7. Reckoning 8. Lifes Rich Pageant 9. New Adventures 10. Up 11. Monster 12. Reveal 13. Around The Sun), so it's interspersed between eras except for their batch of weakness over the last decade. Strangely enough, PAGEANT is probably the IRS-era album that I listen to the least. - -Steve ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 14:23:25 -0400 From: "Michael Bowen" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] R.E.M. (a brief burst of contrarianism) On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 1:40 PM, Steve Holtebeck wrote: > Nick Lowe/Robyn Hitchcock show, I saw them in NYC (second row, dead center!) last week. Unfortunately, Nick was suffering from a throat infection, so he wasn't in his best voice, but it was still a pretty decent show. The two of them sang a Cliff Richard number together as an encore; their voices worked beautifully together. After that was over, the roadies whipped out a third microphone and a short, fat, stubbly guy in expensive clothes came out - it actually took me a couple of moments to recognize Elvis Costello. He's gained almost as much weight as I have since the last time we were in the same place back in 1982. Video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnvMKMKl2B0 And back on topic, my favorite R.E.M. is Document. MB ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:54:56 -0400 From: Jenny Grover Subject: Re: [loud-fans] Murmur / Chronic Town Larry Tucker wrote: > There's some really great clips of some footage > from The Pier in Raleigh on YouTube from a later show in '82 and by this > time Stipe was much more engaging with the audience. I think the dB's opened > this show. http://www.youtube.com/user/REMdave > Thanks! That made my afternoon! (The earthquake made my morning. That was pretty interesting and weird). Jen ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 16:41:39 -0400 From: "outbound-only email address" Subject: [loud-fans] tax day + 3 radio I didn't get a chance to listen to Stewart and Charity's show live this morning, so I've been catching up with it in the archives this afternoon http://wmbr.org/m3u/Breakfast_of_Champions_20080418_0800.m3u Definitely introduced me to some things I want to investigate further, perhaps most notably Joel Plaskett's post-Thrush Hermit career. And Stewart, you mentioned that the Rheostatics tribute is available for download? Whereabouts? Googling turned up a few playlists featuring it, and not much else. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 22:25:46 -0400 From: "Stewart Mason" Subject: Re: [loud-fans] tax day + 3 radio > And Stewart, you mentioned that the Rheostatics tribute is available > for > download? Whereabouts? Googling turned up a few playlists featuring > it, and > not much else. From Zunior Records, as mp3s or a FLAC file: http://www.zunior.com/product_info.php?products_id=930 The Weakerthans song is definitely the best of the lot, but there's some good things there. S ------------------------------ End of loud-fans-digest V7 #380 *******************************