New Music & Stuff I Recently Acquired

[5laky]

If you don't like REM's IRS years, then I have no idea why you listen to music at all.

This.

I guess I hate music. Ugh, what is this noise coming out of my speakers. It's so irritating!

Vampire Weekend, it sounds like.

You know me so well. Worst band ever.

It's not like I hate REM. I know Radio Free Europe, but I never got into any of their older stuff at all. As in, never listened to it.

There's a huge difference in hating a band and just not being familiar with or indifferent to their catalog. I can say, without a doubt, that I have absolutely no interest in listening to any REM from the 90s and beyond.

They're seriously your least favorite band?

Yes. I never exaggerate for effect.

[JD]

If you don't like REM's IRS years, then I have no idea why you listen to music at all.

This.

I guess I hate music. Ugh, what is this noise coming out of my speakers. It's so irritating!

Vampire Weekend, it sounds like.

You know me so well. Worst band ever.

It's not like I hate REM. I know Radio Free Europe, but I never got into any of their older stuff at all. As in, never listened to it.

There's a huge difference in hating a band and just not being familiar with or indifferent to their catalog. I can say, without a doubt, that I have absolutely no interest in listening to any REM from the 90s and beyond.

And that's the opposite of love, my internets friend. 

[bocaj]

If you don't like REM's IRS years, then I have no idea why you listen to music at all.

This.

I guess I hate music. Ugh, what is this noise coming out of my speakers. It's so irritating!

Vampire Weekend, it sounds like.

You know me so well. Worst band ever.

It's not like I hate REM. I know Radio Free Europe, but I never got into any of their older stuff at all. As in, never listened to it.

There's a huge difference in hating a band and just not being familiar with or indifferent to their catalog. I can say, without a doubt, that I have absolutely no interest in listening to any REM from the 90s and beyond.

They're seriously your least favorite band?

Yes. I never exaggerate for effect.

What can I say, Slak? Your hate is a tough thing to gauge.

By the way, did you check out those links I sent you? (Not to annoy you.)

[flannj]

[


There are others, but I don't have all day.

You can learn me at Shitty's tomorrow night.

[williams]

If you don't like REM's IRS years, then I have no idea why you listen to music at all.

This.

I guess I hate music. Ugh, what is this noise coming out of my speakers. It's so irritating!

Vampire Weekend, it sounds like.

You know me so well. Worst band ever.

It's not like I hate REM. I know Radio Free Europe, but I never got into any of their older stuff at all. As in, never listened to it.

There's a huge difference in hating a band and just not being familiar with or indifferent to their catalog. I can say, without a doubt, that I have absolutely no interest in listening to any REM from the 90s and beyond.

I always found their stuff to be kind of dull, repetitive and self-important. Almost like if Sting were from Georgia.

As for any great run REM had, best runs by artists that far exceed REM start with: Bob Dylan (Bob Dylan to Blonde on Blonde), Beatles (A Hard Day's Night to Sgt. Pepper), Beach Boys (Everything up to the "Good Vibrations" single), The Jam (All Mod Cons through Sound Affects), and Stevie Wonder (Fulfillingness' First Finale through Songs In The Key Of Life).

There are others, but I don't have all day.

I started to post a Style Council clip to argue this point, but then remembered the Jam are pretty bad ass.

But to say they far exceed R.E.M., that's just crazy.

[Tonker]

If you don't like REM's IRS years, then I have no idea why you listen to music at all.

This.

I guess I hate music. Ugh, what is this noise coming out of my speakers. It's so irritating!

Vampire Weekend, it sounds like.

You know me so well. Worst band ever.

It's not like I hate REM. I know Radio Free Europe, but I never got into any of their older stuff at all. As in, never listened to it.

There's a huge difference in hating a band and just not being familiar with or indifferent to their catalog. I can say, without a doubt, that I have absolutely no interest in listening to any REM from the 90s and beyond.

I always found their stuff to be kind of dull, repetitive and self-important. Almost like if Sting were from Georgia.

As for any great run REM had, best runs by artists that far exceed REM start with: Bob Dylan (Bob Dylan to Blonde on Blonde), Beatles (A Hard Day's Night to Sgt. Pepper), Beach Boys (Everything up to the "Good Vibrations" single), The Jam (All Mod Cons through Sound Affects), and Stevie Wonder (Fulfillingness' First Finale through Songs In The Key Of Life).

There are others, but I don't have all day.

I started to post a Style Council clip to argue this point, but then remembered the Jam are pretty bad ass.

But to say they far exceed R.E.M., that's just crazy.

Nope.  FORK IS RIGHT.  Without exaggeration, The Jam were one of the most important bands of the twentieth century.  REM made some very clever, very enjoyable, very memorable music but they never pushed boundaries or created their own culture in the way that The Jam did.  Paul Weller's lyrics alone were life-changing - not so the (self-admitted) nonsense that Stipe writes.

Go and listen to "That's Entertainment" or "Down in the Tube Station", compare that to, well, anything that Stipe ever wrote, and tell me again that The Jam don't far exceed R.E.M.

I would also agree with all the other bands that Fork mentioned - and it's not even particularly close.  Those people all changed the World, R.E.M. just made the World a nicer place to live in.  And there's nothing wrong with that.

Fucking good list, that, Fork.

[Quality Start Machine]

If you want a run of albums by a group that made the world a better place to live, start with "Cool for Cats" and end with "East Side Story".

[Tonker]

If you want a run of albums by a group that made the world a better place to live, start with "Cool for Cats" and end with "East Side Story".

You won't be at all surprised to hear that I fucking love "Squeeze".

[Tonker]

The Indians send signals from the rocks above the pass
The cowboys take positions in the bushes and the grass
The squaw is with the Corporal she is tied against the tree
She doesn't mind the language it's the beating she don't need
She lets loose all the horses when the Corporal is asleep
And he wakes to find the fire's dead and arrows in his hat
And Davy Crockett rides around and says it's cool for cats, it's cool for cats

The Sweeney's doing ninety 'cos they've got the word to go
They get a gang of villains in a shed up at Heathrow
They're counting out the fivers when the handcuffs lock again
In and out of Wandsworth with the numbers on their names
It's funny how the missus' always looks the bleedin' same
And meanwhile at the station there's a couple of likely lads
Who swear like how's your father and they're very cool for cats, they're cool for cats

To change the mood a little I've been posing down the pub
I see in my reflection I'm looking slightly rough
I fancy this, I fancy that, I wanna be so flash
I give a little muscle and I spend a little cash
But all I get is bitter and a nasty little rash
And by the time I'm sober I've forgotten what I've had
And ev'rybody tells me that it's cool to be a cat, cool for cats

Shake up at the disco and I think I've got a pull
I ask her lots of questions as she hangs on to the wall
I kiss her for the first time and then I take her home
I'm invited in for coffee and I give the dog a bone
She likes to go to discos but she's never on her own
I said I'll see you later and I give her some old chat
But it's not like that on the TV when it's cool for cats, it's cool for cats

[Quality Start Machine]

To expand on Tonk's song quoting, while there is beauty to be found in a really good album, there is nothing as enjoyable to me as a perfectly crafted single. Phil Spector was capable of doing more in 2 minutes 30 seconds than Pink Floyd could do in a double album.

Neither Nirvana album could capture the disenfranchisement and alienation of youth as perfectly as "Blitzkrieg Bop".

No number of books about Beatlemania could explain what the fuss was all about as neatly as everything from the drum roll to the ending harmony of "She Loves You".

[5laky]

To expand on Tonk's song quoting, while there is beauty to be found in a really good album, there is nothing as enjoyable to me as a perfectly crafted single. Phil Spector was capable of doing more in 2 minutes 30 seconds than Pink Floyd could do in a double album.

Neither Nirvana album could capture the disenfranchisement and alienation of youth as perfectly as "Blitzkrieg Bop".

No number of books about Beatlemania could explain what the fuss was all about as neatly as everything from the drum roll to the ending harmony of "She Loves You".

Ever hear the way The Twilight Singers crafted "She Loves You" into their song "Forty Dollars"?

http://www.last.fm/music/The+Twilight+Singers/_/Forty+Dollars

Pretty awesome. Greg Dulli is definitely a bad ass.

[Oleg]

To expand on Tonk's song quoting, while there is beauty to be found in a really good album, there is nothing as enjoyable to me as a perfectly crafted single. Phil Spector was capable of doing more in 2 minutes 30 seconds than Pink Floyd could do in a double album.

Neither Nirvana album could capture the disenfranchisement and alienation of youth as perfectly as "Blitzkrieg Bop".

No number of books about Beatlemania could explain what the fuss was all about as neatly as everything from the drum roll to the ending harmony of "She Loves You".

I don't disagree; however, your point is generational.  I would disagree about your conclusions, however.  I'm not about to argue against Phil Spector (or anything that was done in Detroit at the time).  Nor am I going to take anything away from The Ramones.  However, to dismiss Nirvana so brazenly shows nothing except that you came of age about 13 years before I did.

There's no way you can tell me, that as a 19 year old kid going away to college that the angst I felt about what was going on around me, and to me, was somehow less valid than what you went through.  You had The Ramones; we had Nirvana.  One is more relevant than the other because one came earlier.  Teenage angst is a crazy thing, and we may make fun of it in our thirties, but God damn we felt that shit and it made us who we are.

The funny thing is that you didn't even mention what may be the most influential angst in our lifetimes, the hip hop/rap movement.  The evolution of that genre and the voice it gave to millions of youths who had no voice before is completely overlooked.  Granted, as with any sub-genre, it gave rise to a load of crap, but Afrika Bambata and Public Enemy and The Roots are as important to our culture as The Ramones and (putting on the flame suit) The Beach Boys.

Rock N Roll has proven to be an ever-evolving art-form.  We have moved from 2 minute AM singles to wall of sound, record-side length "songs" of the Dead to teenage anger punk to an inner city voice with rap and hip-hop.  And everything in between and back again.  Nothing in rock music is linear, and that's what makes it so fucking awesome.

Arguing about REM vs The Jam is splitting hairs.

Holy shit, do I love rock-n-roll!

[Kermit, B.]

Granted, as with any sub-genre, it gave rise to a load of crap, but Afrika Bambata and Public Enemy and The Roots are as important to our culture as The Ramones and (putting on the flame suit) The Beach Boys.

Intrepid Reader: Fork
I didn't know they came in child sizes.

[Jon]

I prefer the Jam to REM, myself (by a wide margin), but I still say that REM from Chronic Town through about Document should not be judged for the sins of later REM.

[RV]

The funny thing is that you didn't even mention what may be the most influential angst in our lifetimes, the hip hop/rap movement.  The evolution of that genre and the voice it gave to millions of youths who had no voice before is completely overlooked. totally ruined the white man's ability to enjoy his tailwind in peace.

Irish Yeti'd