You Might Have Succeeded In Changing Me

Word on the street is that R.E.M. are putting the finishing touches on a great new record. To tide us over until it comes out, we have a new CD/DVD, R.E.M. Live, to look forward to. It's the band's first live CD & DVD package, and it comes out October 16. Featuring 22 songs, it's a document of a February 27, 2005 concert, when the South's favorite sons played a show at The Point Theatre in Dublin, Ireland on their tour in support of Around The Sun.

Frank has already waxed eloquent on the meaning of this band to good post-punk Southern boys (and will do so again soon), so I will not attempt to repeat him here. Suffice it to say that R.E.M.'s sense of mystery and Southern mythology, in a time of great and exciting upheaval in popular music, gave us in the American South something of which we were so proud. They were every bit the equal to that awe-inspiring band from Ireland that emerged at approximately the same time, and against whom they were often favorably measured.

I will never forget my best friend Kenny, who at the time lived about 160 miles away, calling me on the day that Reckoning was released. The phone rang. I picked up and said hello. Kenny sang into the phone: "Seven Chinese brothers swallowing the ocean . . ." Naturally, I tunefully responded, "Seven thousand years to sleep away the pain." "Oh good! You bought it," he said. That's devotion, people.

YouTube: Trailer for R.E.M. Live

Talk About The Passion

A quick note (and shameless personal plug) for readers in our part of the world:

On Sunday, October 21, 2007, the Athens Historical Society will present “R.E.M. in Perspective: An Athens History.” The event will be held at 2:00 p.m. in the historic Seney-Stovall Chapel at 201 N. Milledge Avenue in Athens, Georgia. The program will feature two previously unscreened vintage videos of R.E.M. and two panel discussions. The featured videos include an R.E.M. practice session recorded at Wuxtry Records in Atlanta, prior to the release of their first record, and an early performance at the 688 Club in Atlanta.

Biographer Tony Fletcher, author of Remarks Remade: The Story of R.E.M., will open the session with his observations on Athens’ place in R.E.M.’s history. A follow-up panel will discuss R.E.M.’s Athens musical and artistic roots. Among the participants will be artist and filmmaker Jim Herbert, producer John Keane and Wuxtry owner Dan Wall. Oh, and unbelievably, yours truly. A second panel will examine R.E.M.’s social, civic, political, economic and preservation impact on Athens and beyond. Scheduled participants are former Athens mayor Gwen O’Looney, community activist Tim Johnson, and historic preservation advocate Smith Wilson.

I hope a few of you can make it out to the event. To put you in the mood, here's the 7" single on Hib-Tone Records, recorded in the summer of 1981, that started it all:

MP3: R.E.M. - "Radio Free Europe" (Hib-Tone single - A side)

MP3: R.E.M. - "Sitting Still" (Hib-Tone single - B side)

Classic Bootleg Series Vol. 15: R.E.M. - Rising (Toronto 1983)

I'm almost ashamed that it took me so long to get around to this one. I had the good fortune to grow up in Atlanta, graduate from high school in 1982, and attend college in North Carolina while most of my closest friends were (a) aspiring musicians and (b) going to school in Athens, Georgia. It was the perfect place and time to witness the infancy of one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time, and to this day, I consider it one of the foremost blessings of my musical life.

To tell the whole story of my 80s obsession with R.E.M. would take a book. Suffice it to say that, from the moment I got the just-released Hibtone "Radio Free Europe" / "Sitting Still" single back to my teenage room in 1981 and needle hit vinyl, I knew my life had changed. I saw them live for the first time at a free festival show in Piedmont Park on May 14, 1982, weeks before my high school graduation. There were maybe 100 people on the grass in front of the stage. And it was mind-blowing. By the time I settled in at Duke University the following Fall, I had seen them several more times, the Chronic Town EP was out, and I just knew I was following the start of something very special. This was not just the best band from my hometown, or the best band from the South. This, I was already certain, was a band for the ages. And I was right.

I took it upon myself to become R.E.M.'s advocate on my Yankee campus in North Carolina, telling anyone who would listen that this was the next great American band, the next "best band on the planet". I became a DJ at the student radio station and slipped an R.E.M. track (or two) into every show. Murmur was released in '83 and the word spread more quickly. If they played anywhere near Durham, I was there, dragging the unconverted along with me when I could. I road-tripped to Athens to see them play the old 40 Watt and the Mad Hatter, and through my musician friends, eventually met and spent an evening or two on the town with Peter Buck. (I don't think he ever paid for a beer when I was around.) I bought every 12" import single to get the obscure b-sides, and saved every scrap of memorabilia (including the poster and gig flyer that hang in my study at home to this day). And when the band played two nights at Duke's Page Auditorium in September of 1984 -- shows that, oddly enough, were recorded for an official live album that was never released, and is now widely booted -- I was front and center both nights, like some proud little brother, and did the interview with Peter on the student TV station, even though I didn't work there, because no one else knew what to ask him. (In retrospect, I guess, the cool kids at school really weren't all that cool.) I could go on and on. But by the time I graduated from college in the spring of '86 and headed to law school in -- you guessed it -- Athens, Georgia, the story of R.E.M. was no longer even remotely obscure. Many of you probably have stories of your own.

But, oh yeah, I'm supposed to be introducing a bootleg. Choosing the best early R.E.M. boot is a tall order. Soundboard tapes of many of the very early shows -- at the 40 Watt and Tyrone's in Athens, at The Strand in Marietta, a sloppy '81 bar show in Greensboro, NC, the '82 Piedmont Park show that was my first, and even an '82 show in San Francisco -- circulate widely today, and are uniformly fantastic. And then there is the show at the Seattle Music Hall in June of '84, recorded for broadcast across the U.S., that many regard as the best R.E.M. gig ever. (It's certainly up there, for sure.) But by then the band had graduated from small clubs to theatres, and the experience of seeing them, while still powerful and amazing, had definitely changed a bit from the earliest days.

When I'm in the mood to hear a great early R.E.M. show -- one that best recalls the days of seeing them in a small, crowded, sweaty club, but with a setlist full of original (now classic) tunes and on the very cusp of breaking bigger -- I return again and again to this one, recorded at Larry's Hideaway in Toronto in July of 1983. It's not a perfect tape by any means. In fact -- and be warned -- there are a few brief cuts, some diginoise and other glitches here and there. But even with a flaw or two, this tape is spectacular -- a great band, at a thrilling time in their career, and on a particularly inspired night. From the chiming arpeggios pouring out of Peter's Rickenbacker, to Mike Mills' dextrous, innovative basslines, to Michael Stipe's singular baritone and oblique poeticism, the R.E.M. machine is firing here in all its early, post-punk glory. And, as I always tell people who've come to the band fairly recently, just listen to the mighty Bill Berry on this tape. He is the engine driving this train, and his rapid-fire playing on this night (as usual) is a marvel. I don't know how else to say it -- these guys were, and still are, something else. I may not have been at this particular show, but I was at countless others just like it. How freaking lucky am I?

Special thanks to my teacher and friend BED for blessing this post in advance.

R.E.M. - RISING - live at Larry's Hideaway, Toronto, Ontario, July 9, 1983

Artwork:
Front
Back (track list slightly incorrect, but close enough)

01 Wolves, Lower
02 Moral Kiosk
03 Laughing
04 Pilgrimage
05 Moon River
06 There She Goes Again > 7 Chinese Brothers
07 Talk About The Passion
08 Sitting Still
09 Harborcoat
10 Catapult
11 Pretty Persuasion
12 Gardening At Night
13 9-9
14 Just A Touch
15 West Of The Fields
16 Radio Free Europe
17 We Walk
18 1,000,000
19 Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars)

Odds and Sods

While you await the next bootleg in our series -- which I'll try to get up before I go on vacation this weekend -- there's some great stuff to be grabbed elsewhere:

Heather at IAFYAF offers the first of the five nights of "open rehearsals" that R.E.M. wrapped up in Dublin, Ireland last week. (You'll need to scroll down a bit to her July 7 post.) The band sounds tremendous, and from everything I've read, the more-or-less unanimous buzz on the new batch of songs that were debuted during these shows (sorry, Bertis) is that it's their strongest in years. I am seriously excited about the new record.

Another kind-but-anonymous soul has posted Nirvana's set at the 1992 Reading Festival for the taking. There's one less classic boot that we'll need to cover. (via GoldenFiddle)






And the mighty Stereogum got 12 bands, including the likes of John Vanderslice, Cold War Kids, The Twilight Sad and My Brightest Diamond, to record a tribute to Radiohead's OK Computer to commemorate that record's 10th anniversary. (Jeez, how the time does fly.) Better yet, Scott and co. are giving that collection away gratis, complete with artist commentary and cool cover art. We, and other humble music bloggers everywhere, can only shake our heads in awe.


Finally, you just have to get a load of the new Joe Strummer replica Telecaster about to be released by Fender, with a not-very-punk $900 price tag. Lord knows we worship Saint Joe here at TTT, and don't begrudge the Widow Mellor for making sure her kids are taken care of, but does anyone else think this is just a bit too cheesy? (Thanks to DJ Cayenne at BGB for the heads up on this one.)

Odds and Sods

NPR has last Wednesday night's performance by The Good, The Bad & The Queen, at the 9:30 Club in D.C., available to stream or download. Excellent stuff from one of my favorite records so far this year.




RollingStone.com has posted (far too few) audio excerpts from the wonderfully freewheeling interview that Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills gave at the magazine's offices last Monday afternoon, hours before R.E.M.'s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I especially enjoyed hearing about the squalid conditions the band was living in when Rolling Stone named Murmur the best album of 1983, over Michael Jackson's Thriller.


A huge, slip-cased coffee table book that details "EVERYTHING related to the Beatles recording sessions, including beautiful, almost-pornographic photos of every mixing board, mic, tape deck, etc. ever used in a Beatles session," and costs over a hundred bucks? Yes, please! (tip from DJ Cayenne at BGB)


Need a cheat sheet on release dates for upcoming CDs, music DVDs and even books about music? Pause & Play has you covered.

Miles Standish Proud

What better subject for the "first real post" than to congratulate local legends R.E.M. and their manager (and my friend and mentor) Bertis Downs on the band's induction this morning into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame, and in their first year of eligibility no less. The boys from Athens join Patti Smith, Van Halen, The Ronettes and Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five in the Hall's Class of '07. To be eligible for induction, this year's class had to release their first single no later than 1981. Although it's hard to believe as I type this, R.E.M. released their debut single, "Radio Free Europe" b/w "Sitting Still," on the local Hib-Tone label in July of 1981. I was 17, and still have my copy. (The photo above was taken about 4 months later, on November 17, at Merlyn's in Madison, Wisconsin.) Since I only recently posted a full-blown gush about how much they've meant to me for the past 26 years, I'll refrain from further hero-worship. But congrats, fellas.

In honor of the occasion, here's "Radio Free Europe" recorded live at Tyrone's in Athens on May 12, 1981.