~ REM appreciation thread ~

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  • Tim SimmonsTim Simmons Posts: 6,865
    Other than Michael Stipe doing Lucky with RH, I don’ t think they’ve covered any songs directly. 
  • Tim SimmonsTim Simmons Posts: 6,865
    I mean, it’s stellar. 

  • Tim SimmonsTim Simmons Posts: 6,865

    Thom Yorke doing Be Mine with REM is a highlight of min as well. Be Mine is a top 3 REM track for me
  • pledgeagrievancepledgeagrievance Posts: 2,786
    I mean, it’s stellar. 

    Thanks. Haven’t seen that in a long time 
  • goldrushgoldrush everybody knows this is nowhere Posts: 7,259
    I've had this song stuck in my all day today

    https://youtu.be/7Gdyd8PX7Oc

    I always liked this version of the video (with late John Giorno) more than the one with Kirsten Dunst. You can tell he's completely absorbing the song.
    “Do not postpone happiness”
    (Jeff Tweedy, Sydney 2007)

    “Put yer good money on the sunrise”
    (Tim Rogers)
  • PapPap Aspra Spitia, Greece Posts: 28,123
    Athens 2006 / Milton Keynes 2014 / London 1&2 2022 / Seattle 1 2024 / Dublin 2024 / Manchester 2024 / London 2024
  • PapPap Aspra Spitia, Greece Posts: 28,123
    Athens 2006 / Milton Keynes 2014 / London 1&2 2022 / Seattle 1 2024 / Dublin 2024 / Manchester 2024 / London 2024
  • GlowGirlGlowGirl New York, NY Posts: 9,701
    Pap said:
    Ok. After this hell we all have been going through, watching that video did make me smile. 
  • PapPap Aspra Spitia, Greece Posts: 28,123
    GlowGirl said:
    Pap said:
    Ok. After this hell we all have been going through, watching that video did make me smile. 
    :plus_one:
    Athens 2006 / Milton Keynes 2014 / London 1&2 2022 / Seattle 1 2024 / Dublin 2024 / Manchester 2024 / London 2024
  • goldrushgoldrush everybody knows this is nowhere Posts: 7,259
    For the first time since its initial release 40 years ago, R.E.M. will be reissuing their debut release “Radio Free Europe (Original Hib-tone Single).” While many fans know the 1983 version of the song from the band’s first studio album, Murmur, only a lucky few have heard this rare 1981 cut. Available to pre-order now, get “Radio Free Europe” on its original format, as an Athens-pressed 45 RPM 7" single: http://found.ee/rem-radiofreeeu

    In addition to the wide 7" release, the band will also be making their early 1981 demonstration recordings available for the first time. An ultra-rare cassette tape collection titled "Cassette Set" offers the some of the band's earliest recordings and will be available exclusively via the R.E.M. store as a bundle with the 7", limited to 1,500 copies. The tape will replicate the original packaging, which was self-assembled by the band, using photocopied cardstock for the J-card inlays and handwritten cassette labels by Michael. 

    Accompanying this, REMHQ.com is also offering a limited custom cassette player to commemorate these special releases. The portable player features R.E.M.'s '81 iconography and comes housed in "Radio Free Europe" branded packaging. Pre-order link above... available July 23rd.
    “Do not postpone happiness”
    (Jeff Tweedy, Sydney 2007)

    “Put yer good money on the sunrise”
    (Tim Rogers)
  • HughFreakingDillonHughFreakingDillon Winnipeg Posts: 35,808
    that's a pretty neat (and surprisingly affordable) set for any big fan. @2feignreluctance
    Darwinspeed, all. 

    Cheers,

    HFD




  • Tim SimmonsTim Simmons Posts: 6,865
    Copped that hoodie. Love the zip ups.
  • PoncierPoncier Posts: 16,172
    goldrush said:
    For the first time since its initial release 40 years ago, R.E.M. will be reissuing their debut release “Radio Free Europe (Original Hib-tone Single).” While many fans know the 1983 version of the song from the band’s first studio album, Murmur, only a lucky few have heard this rare 1981 cut. Available to pre-order now, get “Radio Free Europe” on its original format, as an Athens-pressed 45 RPM 7" single: http://found.ee/rem-radiofreeeu
     
    Really?
    Its on the 1988 compilation "Eponymous"
    I have a cassette copy somewhere in my garage.

    Eponymous (album) - Wikipedia
    This weekend we rock Portland
  • goldrushgoldrush everybody knows this is nowhere Posts: 7,259
    Poncier said:
    goldrush said:
    For the first time since its initial release 40 years ago, R.E.M. will be reissuing their debut release “Radio Free Europe (Original Hib-tone Single).” While many fans know the 1983 version of the song from the band’s first studio album, Murmur, only a lucky few have heard this rare 1981 cut. Available to pre-order now, get “Radio Free Europe” on its original format, as an Athens-pressed 45 RPM 7" single: http://found.ee/rem-radiofreeeu
     
    Really?
    Its on the 1988 compilation "Eponymous"
    I have a cassette copy somewhere in my garage.

    Eponymous (album) - Wikipedia
    Yeah, that's a bit confusing.
    They even have Eponymous for sale on their website, including this text:
    Released in October 1988, Eponymous was the first greatest hits album by R.E.M. The compilation album includes the original single of "Radio Free Europe"... 
    “Do not postpone happiness”
    (Jeff Tweedy, Sydney 2007)

    “Put yer good money on the sunrise”
    (Tim Rogers)
  • CarryTheZeroCarryTheZero Posts: 2,035
    I might be wrong, but I think the Hib Tone single is a slightly different take from what’s on Eponymous. It could also just a wording issue, if hasn’t been “reissued since” Eponymous.
  • goldrushgoldrush everybody knows this is nowhere Posts: 7,259
    These are the posts I’ve been waiting for  




    “Do not postpone happiness”
    (Jeff Tweedy, Sydney 2007)

    “Put yer good money on the sunrise”
    (Tim Rogers)
  • Tim SimmonsTim Simmons Posts: 6,865
    Apparently its out at the end of October. 2LP reissue and a 2D/1BR set.


  • Tim SimmonsTim Simmons Posts: 6,865
    I'm like 95% sure its their best record.
  • static111static111 Posts: 4,889
    I'm like 95% sure its their best record.
    You are correct!
    Scio me nihil scire

    There are no kings inside the gates of eden
  • JeBurkhardtJeBurkhardt Posts: 4,450
    Apparently its out at the end of October. 2LP reissue and a 2D/1BR set.


    Heck yeah!
  • JeBurkhardtJeBurkhardt Posts: 4,450
    I'm like 95% sure its their best record.
    Murmur and Life’s Rich Pageant are just so good that I can’t agree with you. New Adventures is a great album, but the energy and vibe of the other two, for me at least, raises them above it. It is all subjective though. 
  • JH6056JH6056 Posts: 2,427
    I'm like 95% sure its their best record.
    Murmur and Life’s Rich Pageant are just so good that I can’t agree with you. New Adventures is a great album, but the energy and vibe of the other two, for me at least, raises them above it. It is all subjective though. 
    I both agree with you, because LRP is (if I had to choose) my favorite REM album for sure.  And... I'm taking this re-issue and this discussion as a reminder that I need to revisit New Adventures since I never really truly dived into it. I've heard it many times and love many songs, but I never really really dug in, listened a few times all the way through with headphones, all that good stuff.

    I'll watch the video above tomorrow, cool stuff when we get new (it is new, isn't it?) videos from back in the day...
  • Tim SimmonsTim Simmons Posts: 6,865
     No, it’s the original video from 96. Just in HD
  • pjpjpaulpjpjpaul Posts: 1,648
    edited August 2021
    I have an original copy on vinyl but will probably grab the reissue as well. One of my favorite albums of all time. Such a cool vibe and flow to this record that is different from other REM releases. It's looser and relaxed but also introspective and deep. I miss this band. 
    Virginia Beach 2000
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  • goldrushgoldrush everybody knows this is nowhere Posts: 7,259
    edited August 2021
    “Do not postpone happiness”
    (Jeff Tweedy, Sydney 2007)

    “Put yer good money on the sunrise”
    (Tim Rogers)
  • goldrushgoldrush everybody knows this is nowhere Posts: 7,259
    The alternate version of Leave was also on the 2CD edition of the 'In Time' best of that came out in 2003.
    “Do not postpone happiness”
    (Jeff Tweedy, Sydney 2007)

    “Put yer good money on the sunrise”
    (Tim Rogers)
  • Tim SimmonsTim Simmons Posts: 6,865
    It’s on the massive digital b-sides company too. But maybe they don’t sell that anymore. But it certainly was available digitally for a few years  
  • goldrushgoldrush everybody knows this is nowhere Posts: 7,259
    edited August 2021
    Preorders are up on remhq.com with a bunch of different bundle options






    Craft Recordings proudly celebrates the 25th anniversary of R.E.M.’s tenth studio album, New Adventures in Hi-Fiwith a special reissue, available for pre-order today and set for release on October 29. The bonus-filled 2-CD/1-Blu-ray Deluxe Edition offers a trove of audio-visual content, including the newly remastered album13 B-sides and rarities, a never-before-released 64-minute outdoor projection film (shown on buildings across five cities in 1996 to promote the album’s original release), and a previously unreleased 30-minute EPK. Additionally, the Blu-ray features New Adventures in Hi-Fi in stunning Hi-Res and 5.1 Surround Sound audio, plus five HD-restored music videos including “Bittersweet Me,” “Electrolite,” and “E-Bow the Letter.” Housed in a 52-page hardcover book, the collection includes archival photographs—many of which have never been published—plus new liner notes from journalist Mark Blackwell and reflections from all four original band members, as well as from Patti SmithThom Yorke, and producer Scott Litt.

     

    An Expanded Edition is also available as a 2-CD or digital collection, including the remastered album along with B-sides and rarities. The 2-CD offers an exclusive 24” x 24” poster and four collectible postcards, as well as a booklet featuring new liner notes and archival photos. Additionally, the newly remastered album will be available as a 2-LP set, pressed on 180-gram vinyl, with lacquers cut by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio. Fans can preview all physical formats via the official unboxing trailer here.  A limited-edition pressing on clear and black marbled vinyl is also available exclusively at R.E.M.’s official store (limited to 1,000 worldwide), along with special New Adventures in Hi-Fi merchandise.

     

    Available via digital platforms today, ahead of the album, is the advance single “Leave – Alternate Version.”Originally recorded for the A Life Less Ordinarysoundtrack, the single offers a haunting, sparse, siren-less version of New Adventures album track “Leave,” for which Michael Stipe re-recorded the vocals. Reflects Stipe, “I actually might prefer this version to the one that’s on the record… Well, I wouldn’t say I prefer it, it just tells a different story with the lyric.” Fans can stream or download the single now, and pre-save the album.

     

    First released in September 1996, New Adventures in Hi-Fiendures as one of R.E.M.’s most acclaimed albums and stands as a favorite among band members and fans alike. The album was a global success, achieving platinum certification in the US and peaking at No.2 on the Billboard 200. Elsewhere, the album went to No.1 in more than a dozen countries, including Australia, the UK, and Canada. Critically, New Adventures in Hi-Fi received wide praise and was named as one of the best albums of the year by such outlets as Rolling StoneSpin, MojoEntertainment Weekly, and the NME. Over the decades, the title has achieved cult status, with several press retrospectives ranking it among the top albums in R.E.M.’s rich catalog of releases.

     

    Recorded at the height of their fame, New Adventures in Hi-Fi also marks R.E.M.’s final album with drummer and founding member Bill Berry, who left the group amicably the following year. Perhaps most remarkable, however, is that the album found the band taking a unique creative approach: writing and recording much of the LP on the road, during their 1995 Monster tour.

     

    While writing new material on the road wasn’t an unusual feat for R.E.M., New Adventures was unlike anything they had done before. As they embarked on tour, the band sought to create an abstract travelogue documenting every emotion and experience as it happened. “We wanted to make a record about being on the road without singing about being on the road,” bassist Mike Mills explains in the liner notes. “The idea was that the feeling of being on the road would come through in the sound and feel of the record itself.”

     

    The band traveled with a mobile recording truck, capturing new songs on an 8-track during soundchecks (as well as in various backstage areas and on the tour bus). “The idea was, ‘Let’s challenge ourselves,’” guitarist Peter Buck tells Blackwell. “My feeling was, it’ll show exactly where we’re at right now in a way that maybe some of the records don’t at all. This record was just an attempt to be who we were at that minute.”

     

    The year-long outing, which began in January 1995, marked R.E.M.’s first tour in six years. As one of the biggest bands in the world, the quartet played to packed arenas across North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan, with support from acts like Sonic Youth and Radiohead. But along the way, the tour was marred by medical emergencies. In March, Berry collapsed on stage from an aneurism and spent the next month recuperating. Mills, meanwhile, underwent intestinal surgery in June. A month later, Stipe had emergency surgery for a hernia (which, he asserts, occurred while performing the song, “Undertow”).

     

    After the band returned from the eventful—yet highly successful—run of dates, they entered the studio with their longtime producer, Scott Litt, to record a few final tracks and put finishing touches on others. Among them was the epic, seven-minute-long “Leave;” “E-Bow the Letter,” featuring backing vocals from the legendary singer-songwriter Patti Smith; “New Test Leper,” which Buck proclaims is his favorite R.E.M. song; and “How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us,” one of several songs on the album inspired by Stipe’s experiences living in Los Angeles.

     

    Upon its release, New Adventures in Hi-Fi marked R.E.M.’s longest studio album, with a total run-time of 65 minutes. Filled with cinematic storytelling, haunting effects, and dissonant notes, New Adventures in Hi-Fi found R.E.M. exploring diverse sonic territories—particularly in songs like “Low Desert,” which, Berry describes, is “just dusty and kind of slow and it’s swampy…I feel isolated when I listen to that song, but it’s a good thing.” Stipe adds that the song offers such questions as, “‘What are we doing in the desert? What are we doing in the American West? What are we doing in this unlivable, uninhabitable place?’” Other tracks, like “Departure” and “The Wake-Up Bomb” deliver classic R.E.M. rock vibes.

     

    The band looks back on New Adventures in Hi-Fi with great pride. Buck, perhaps, sums it up best. “Most records, you go in the studio and you just do ’em. And years later all you really remember is vaguely where you stayed, and the songs and the recording process. But this one I remember every bit of it. It was an experience. It was f**king tough, but we made a record. And it was as challenging as anything I’ve ever done.”

     

    Click here to pre-order New Adventures in Hi-Fi on 2-CD/1-Blu-Ray, 2-CD or 2-LP, or to stream the single and pre-save the deluxe digital album.

     

    New Adventures in Hi-Fi 25th anniversary tracklists:

     

    Deluxe Edition (2-CD/1-Blu-Ray):

     

    Disc 1 – New Adventures in Hi-Fi (remastered audio)

    1. How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us
    2. The Wake-Up Bomb
    3. New Test Leper
    4. Undertow
    5. E-Bow the Letter
    6. Leave
    7. Departure
    8. Bittersweet Me
    9. Be Mine
    10. Binky the Doormat
    11. Zither
    12. So Fast, So Numb
    13. Low Desert
    14. Electrolite

     

    Disc 2 – B-sides and Rarities

    1. Tricycle (Instrumental)
    2. Departure (Live Rome Soundcheck / Rome, Italy / 2/22/1995)
    3. Wall of Death
    4. Undertow (Live / Atlanta, GA / 11/18/1995)
    5. Wichita Lineman (Live / Houston, TX / 9/15/1995)
    6. New Test Leper (Live Acoustic / Seattle, WA / 4/19/1996)
    7. The Wake-Up Bomb (Live / Atlanta, GA / 10/4/1995)
    8. Binky the Doormat (Live / Atlanta, GA / 11/18/1995)
    9. King of Comedy (808 State Remix)
    10. Be Mine (Mike on Bus version)
    11. Love Is All Around
    12. Sponge
    13. Leave (Alternate Version)

     

    Disc 3 (Blu-Ray) 

    1. E.M. Outdoor Projections – Saturday Sept 7, 1996 – 5 cities (64:56)
    2. New Adventures in Hi-Fi EPK – previously unreleased 30 min version (29:13)
    3. New Adventures in Hi-Fi 5.1 Audio
    4. New Adventures in Hi-Fi – Hi-Resolution Audio
    5. E-Bow the Letter (Music Video)
    6. Bittersweet Me (Music Video)
    7. Electrolite (Music Video)
    8. How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us (Music Video)
    9. New Test Leper (Music Video)

     

    Post edited by goldrush on
    “Do not postpone happiness”
    (Jeff Tweedy, Sydney 2007)

    “Put yer good money on the sunrise”
    (Tim Rogers)
  • brianluxbrianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 40,596
    Wish the vocals were better recorded, but anyway, here's a live version by The Baseball Project doing, "Texarkana" with Mike Mills on guitar and vocals, Peter Buck on guitar, Scott McCaughey on bass (he played with REM live and in the studio from 1994 to 2011), Steve Wynn, guitar and backing vocals, and Linda Pitmon on drums.  Such a good song!


    “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man [or woman] who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
    Variously credited to Mark Twain or Edward Abbey.













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