Oh man...I am so psyched to see these guys in Atlanta. Their new album is supposed to revert back to their older sound. Our buddy here in Atlanta used to work with REM, so maybe I can get ridiculously good tickets, we'll see. Here is a video of Michael Stipe & Chris Martin doing "In the Sun". Oh man, oh man, beautiful harmonies on this one.

Electrolite. Don't like stipe's face paint scare you--this is a Beautiful tune.

EDITED by user on 2008-02-29 08:45:09

Country Feedback. This is not only stipe's favorite REM song, it is mine and my wife's. Great version too--

Hmmm... all this R.E.M. lately and then, today, another occasion for musing on them and Athens from a lifetime ago. Actually, a more theological and spiritual rather than musical memory runs through my mind as a result of events of today. I'll make a long story short. Today, I find myself, through duty and deference rather than any choice of my own, at a Shoney's lunch buffet. It's a Grand Re-opening, Re-decorating, floorwaxing occasion. Of course, quicky enough it is evident that we've been invited to a spitshine of the same old shoe. The "salad" bar is full of baked sugar, fried meat fat, murdered vegetables and scaly soup bowls. It's not my scene. The place is crowded, the aisles only hold one Southern Sumo buffet eater at a time, the service people are in a fog, the company I am with are in a state of medical breakdown that has left me more than grumpy - it has left me blaming this certain segment of southern culinary culture as capital "E" Evil, and I've been mentally condemning everything associated with this place since I walked in the door. Diabetes, heart-attacks, and death swirl around my head like the smell of fatback turnip greens. God, was there ever a time when these oppresive sensations weren't a part of my mental landscape?? Yes, Athens many years ago. And R.E.M was a large part of that kudzu psychodelic idyll. "Murmur" was a seismic event if you were in the right headspace. But, not long after, a Grace awakening showed me that music scenes make bad idols, every idyll is a lie, and sin must be dealt with. Back to the present, and I notice that Shoney's Musak station seems to be a little updated. No more Carolina shag soundtrack, but more 80's college-lite. Bananarama comes on. Wow, maybe they'll play The Style Council or something. Beware, if you think today's fave's won't be tomorrow's office background, you're mistaken. The capitalist machine will co-opt your mental soundtrack soon enough. Even Perry Ferrell sings for Monday Night Football, and yes, I'm shocked. I'm pondering all this, and then the famiiar Rickenbacker jangle settles down from the overhead speakers - R.E.M. At one time it was thrilling and invasive all at the same time to hear R.E.M in "normal" channels, but that was long ago. I've heard them many times in elevators and shopping malls. But, still it grabs my attention because of the song choice: Shiny, Happy People. I suddenly stop looking around and turn inward. I certainly don't feel shiny and happy today. The world doesn't seem shiny and happy today. As a matter of fact, I feel downright judgemental, selfish, slimy and utterly sinful. Yes, sinful. The dividing concept in our cultural wars. There's something wrong with me, and by God's grace, I know it. And the rest of the world is falling apart, too. Death and disease walk right with us. Shiny and Happy is where I parted ways with my music scene idols. And I'm now stewing in these truths again, all these years later, feeling the weight of my own filth and spiritual fatback, when another signature guitar line wafts down from the overheads - reverb and delay saturated cathedral guitar. And then "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" begins to smother all the blackness in a melancholy longing for the now and not yet, a determined affirmation of the hope beyond just music, a four minute divine signpost to the true Eden to come. Today, the benevolent providence of a certain Person blessed me with a two-song Gospel reminder. Yikes, forgive my indulgent post. I'll let it fly anyway ...

EDITED by user on 2008-02-29 12:27:31

The new REM CD, Accelerate, just came out, and I think it's amazingly good. I hadn't bothered with the last few CDs as they got leaden and boring, in my opinion. A good article to check out.... http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/arts/music/30ligh.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=music&pagewanted=1&adxnnlx=1206907317-Gn0/FHMNWxtcjW/xN5PAeQ

Yeah, Accelerate is a good effort. It's likable b/c the band does everything we like about REM of old: Buck plays guitar w/ a likable abandon, Mills is doing his background vocal thing (which is oh so excellent), and there's a real drummer. So, I really like how they decided to "rock out" on this disc. There is still something to be desired I think. The band's performance is superb...I think the songwriting itself is a little uninspired.

Yeah, the lyrics on Accelerate aren't that great. A little too didactic and political...and predictable. That approach almost never works for any artist. The mumbled obscure lyrics of their earlier stuff is better. It's a song! Be poetic. Be timeless. But musically, first reason to hope in a long time.

Yeah, the lyrics on Accelerate aren't that great. A little too didactic and political...and predictable. That approach almost never works for any artist. The mumbled obscure lyrics of their earlier stuff is better. It's a song! Be poetic. Be timeless. But musically, first reason to hope in a long time.