Animal - A liner note from the Special Edition of R.E.M.'s Greatest Hits album 'In Time' - written by Peter Buck: Animal

30 April 2008
A liner note from the Special Edition of R.E.M.'s Greatest Hits album 'In Time' -written by Peter Buck: Animal

Animal, from the R.E.M. greatest hits album, In Time

"This is the newest song on the record. It is also the most spontaneous. It was recorded in about 15 minutes. Within a couple of weeks from first hearing it, Michel had written and sung the vocals (including that creepy robot backing vocal). Mike then out on his Arabic-type vocal, I added lead guitar and it was finished. Now all I have to do is convince the guys eveything should be done this quickly. Who knows? It could happen?

-

Yeah and its probably the weakest song on the In Time album, a good album filler, but it aint no killer. Any way, see if you agree with me by watching the youtube of the Animal promo video.




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Stand - A liner note from the Special Edition of R.E.M.'s Greatest Hits album 'In Time' - written by Peter Buck: Stand

A liner note from the Special Edition of R.E.M.'s Greatest Hits album 'In Time' -written by Peter Buck: Stand


Stand, from the R.E.M. album Green.

"Without a doubt, Stand is the, um, how shall I put this? It's the stupidest song we've ever writen. That's not necessarily a bad thing. A lot of my favourite rock and roll records have been extravagently dumb, and while Stand doesn't reach the god-like heights of inspired stupidity as a song like Louie Louie by The Kingsmen does, we're at least in the same ballpark.

The listener might want to note the guitar solo; I'd just bought a wah-wah pedal that morning, The first thing I used it on was the solo on Stand. When I looked around to see what everyone thought, I was met with gales of laughter. I assumed that anything that could inspire that kind of reaction must be good. I hope I was right. "

-

Interesting that Peter Buck refers to Louie Louie - it was written by a guy called Richard Berry....

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A liner note from the Special Edition of R.E.M.'s Greatest Hits album 'In Time' -written by Peter Buck: Animal

29 April 2008
A liner note from the Special Edition of R.E.M.'s Greatest Hits album 'In Time' -written by Peter Buck: Animal

"This is the newest song on the record. It is also the most spontaneous. It was recorded in about 15 minutes. Within a couple of weeks from first hearing it, Michel had written and sung the vocals (including that creepy robot backing vocal). Mike then out on his Arabic-type vocal, I added lead guitar and it was finished. Noe all I have to convince the guys eveything should be done this quickly. Who knows? It could happen?

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A liner note from the Special Edition of R.E.M. Greatest Hits album 'In Time' written by Peter Buck: Day Sleeper.

A liner note from the Special Edition of R.E.M.'s Greatest Hits album 'In Time' -written by Peter Buck: Day Sleeper.

Day Sleeper is totally one of R.E.M.s er... sleeper hits!

"On on an album (Up) not exactly chockful of top pop smashes, this was the first single. Although not at all representative of the Album, I've always liked this song. After all, when was the last time that a song in 3/4 time was a hit single?

Lyrically, what can I say? I relate. After all the years we've been a band, the one thing I know we have in common is that we stay up all night and sleep in the day. Also, we're all incredibly stubborn, So I guess that's two things. Anyway, I think this song perfectly captures that woozy, sea sick feeling you get during the daylight ours when you haven't slept."

Here's the Daysleeper video from Youtube. Like Micheal Stipes lyrics, the video captures the woozy ride Peter Buck refers to.

Its also in like this green shade. I like green.




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A liner note from the Special Edition of R.E.M.'s Greatest Hits album 'In Time' written by Peter Buck: Imitation of Life

A liner note from the Special Edition of R.E.M.'s Greatest Hits album 'In Time' written by Peter Buck: Imitation of Life

Imitation of Life

 "This song was the poppiest thing on Reveal, and hence the first single. The title, of course, comes from the Douglas Sirk film about and African-American woman passing for white in the south in the fifties, a movie which I don't think any of use have actually have seen.

I thought at the time that the title was a perfect metaphor for adolescence. Unfortuntately I have come to believe that it is a prefect metaphor for adulthood too. But that's another story.

Funnily enough we had written, recorded, and released this song before I realised that the first four chords in the verse are the exact same chords as the verse of Driver 8. Oh well."
-
In case you were inspired, here's the guitar tab / chords for R.E.M.'s Imitation of Life.

Intro: Em C
G Em Am C-Dsus4 D Dsus4 D
Verse: Em Am G D
Em Am G D-C
Chorus: G Em Am C-D
G Em Am C-Dsus4 D Dsus4 D
Solo: C D Am D C D

e---------------------
B--13-12-8----5-8-10s5
End on: Em

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It's too late, tonight

24 April 2008
Here's Automatic Baby playing U2's 'One'.

Micheal Stipe on vocals
Mike Mills on guitar
Larry Mullen jr on bongos
Some bass player on bass...



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Automatic for the People

Surfing the net at work today I found this fairly knowledgeable article which, at the time, celebrated the 15th Anniversary of R.E.M.'s masterpiece Automatic for the People.

Some key points from the article:

Automatic for the People is R.E.M.'s most successfully commercial album "With six singles, the record has been certified U.S. platinum (1 million sales) four times, and certified U.K. platinum (300,000 sales) six times....it spent 75 weeks on American charts, ....179 weeks listing in the U.K."

A great song nearly didn't make it on the album "Guitarist Peter Buck often has referenced the group's hesitation to include the track "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite" This song taught me about Black Eyed Peas!"

Wikipedia has some intersting tidbits as well:

"In 1997 Automatic for the People was named the 18th greatest album of all time in a 'Music of the Millennium' poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM. In 2006, Q magazine readers placed it at number 7. In 2003, the album was ranked number 247 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time."

"Winged Mammal Theme" was a rejected theme song for a Batman movie. I better down load it! I do recall that a song called Revolution eventually made it on to a really sucky Batman movie soundtrack. How do I know this? I have the movie on DVD and my lil bro had the soundtrack! I think it was an outake from New Adventures. The Smashing Pumpkins' song wasn't tooo bad...

-

I also recall reading somewhere that Ignoreland was really tough to record and nearly broke up the band? Sheesh let's rename it Yoko!

All this reminds me that I once lent Automatic for the People to a mate's younger brother. Never saw it again and had to buy another copy when I realised I really missed it!

Here's the video for Every Body Hurts (live), which is arguably once of R.E.M.'s finest work(ed) songs. Bill Berry wrote the chords. Which reminds me, what did the drummer from Motely Crue get on his IQ test?

Dribble.




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A liner note from the Special Edition of R.E.M. Greatest Hits album 'In Time' written by Peter Buck: Orange Crush

22 April 2008
A liner note from the Special Edition of R.E.M. Greatest Hits album 'In Time' written by Peter Buck: Orange Crush

I must have played this song onstage over three hundred times, and I still don't know what the fuck it's about. The funny thing is, everytime I play it, it means something different to me, and I find myself moved emotionally. Noel Coward made some remark about the potency of cheap music, and while I wouldn't describe the song as cheap in anyway, sometimes great song writing isn't the point. A couple of chords, a good melody and some words can mean more than a seven hundred-page novel mind you. Not a good seven hundred-page novel mind you, but more say, a long Jacequline Susann novel. Well alright, I really liked Valley of the Dolls.

I guess I've found a good way to not talk about a song that means something dark and mysterious to me.

Selah.

-

Thirsty? The Noel Coward quote in full is "“Extraordinary how potent cheap music is.”
Valley of the Dolls was a very famous roman a clef - the Dolls in the title were a reference to mood altering drugs. Selah might mean "stop and listen".

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A liner note from the Special Edition of R.E.M.'s In Time written by Peter Buck: E-Bow the Letter

A liner note from the Special Edition of R.E.M. Greatest Hits album 'In Time' written by Peter Buck: E-Bow the Letter

E-bow the Letter from the album, New Adventures in Hi Fi

"I first saw Patti Smith perform in 1976, and I remember thinking that I would gladly give 10 years off my life to to be the bass player for her group. I know Michael was equally as inspired by Patti, and when he came up with a Ronettes style vocal chorus, it was obvious who we had to call.

It was such an incredible experience watching Patti sing this sing-a song we wrote! I had all the cliche reactions; chills ran up and down my spine' the hair stood up on the back on my neck etc. My life did not flash before my ears, but it was a close thing.

When the session was over, I walked out into the night, completely imported."


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A liner note from the Special Edition of In Time written by Peter Buck: Losing My Religion

A liner note from the Special Edition of In Time written by Peter Buck: Losing My Religion

Losing My Religion from the Out of Time album


"If you think about, our career can be divided into the two parts; pre Losing my Religion and post-Losing my Religion.

Before Religion, R.E.M. was a large cult band touring ten months a year. Respected and successfull, we were still considered minor league, Afterward, we had hit singles, platinum albums, we were on the covers of all kinds of unlikley magazines, and, at least for a couple of years, were one of the biggest bands in the world. All of which is irrelevant.

When I think about Losing my Religion, I think about the process of writing and recording it, and how dream like and effortless it was. The music was written in five minutes; the first time the band played it, it fell into place perfectly. Micheal had the lyrics within the hour, and while playing the song for the third or fourth time, I found my self incredibly moved to hear the vocals in conjunction with the music. To me, Losing my Religion feels like some kind archetype that was floating around in space that we managed to lassoo. If only all songwriting was this easy."

-

I recall reading a while back that 'losing my religion' was some kind of Southern (American) expression of being fed up. I took it literaly (and probably most listeners) as that applied theme suited my mindset at the time I discovered the song.

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A liner note from the Special Edition of In Time written by Peter Buck: All the way to Reno (you're gonna be a star)

A liner note from the Special Edition of In Time written by Peter Buck: All the way to Reno (you're gonna be a star)

All the Way to Reno

Before this had an official title it was called "Jimmy Webb on Mars". From the six string bass intro, to the semi-rococo chord changes and through the bridge to the outro, this was musically a kind of sick tribute to a songwrite who we all admire.

Michale's lyrics add that little frission pf irony; any one who goes to Reno to get famous is either naive in the extreme, or is seriously deluded.

-

Jimmy Web wrote 'Witchita Line' man.....

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What's the Frequency Kenneth? A liner note from the Special Edition of In Time written by Peter Buck: What's the Frequency, Kenneth?

A liner note from the Special Edition of In Time written by Peter Buck: What's the Frequency, Kenneth?

What's the Frequency, Kenneth?, track one off Monster

"As for those who might don't know (as Mike would say) the title of this song is not original to us. Apparently in the eighties, Dan Rather, network news honcho, was assaulted by a gentlema, who between beatings, shouted "What the frequency Kenneth?" at him. Nobody ever fiugured out what that whole scene was about.

Now let me make this completely clear: I like Dan Rather. He's a fine newsman, an interesting person to talk to, and quite a bit nuttier than most of those media types (I consider that a good thing). That said, nothing in my rich and varied life prepared me for the experience of performing behind him as he "danced" and "sang" What's the Frenquency, Kenneth?"

-

Wiser men than myself have reasoned that "Kenneth" might be Ken Schafer, an electronics expert with whom Rather had worked in connection with Soviet TV broadcasts.

Since the beating of Dan Rather, "What's the frequency?" and calling a person who is clueless a "kenneth" became a youth culture catch-phrase. This was probably why lyric writer Michael Stipe chose to use it, rather than having a particular interest in Dan Rather.. And in a truly orginal thought of my own, this idea is possibly Easter Egged in the liner notes of the Monster album with the yello cartoon with the fellow in a "I'm with stupid" t shirt.

I actually think What's the Frequency is one of the great R.E.M Lyrics - "turning away in digust is not the same as apathy" is brilliant commentary, even if it is regurgitated from a film called Slacker. And so here it is.


"What's the frequency, Kenneth?" is your Benzedrine, uh-huh
I was brain-dead, locked out, numb, not up to speed
I thought I'd pegged you an idiot's dream
Tunnel vision from the outsider's screen
I never understood the frequency, uh-huh
You wore our expectations like an armored suit, uh-huh

I'd studied your cartoons, radio, music, tv, movies, magazines
Richard said, "Withdrawal in disgust is not the same as apathy"
A smile like the cartoon, tooth for a tooth
You said that irony was the shackles of youth
You wore a shirt of violent green, uh-huh
I never understood the frequency, uh-huh

"What's the frequency, Kenneth?" is your Benzedrine, uh-huh
Butterfly decal, rearview mirror, dogging the scene
You smile like the cartoon, tooth for a tooth
You said that irony was the shackles of youth
You wore a shirt of violent green, uh-huh
I never understood the frequency, uh-huh
You wore our expectations like an armored suit, uh-huh
I couldn't understand
You said that irony was the shackles of youth, uh-huh
I couldn't understand
You wore a shirt of violent green, uh-huh
I couldn't understand
I never understood, don't fuck with me, uh-huh

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Bad Day - A liner note from the Special Edition of In Time written by Peter Buck: Bad Day

A liner note from the Special Edition of In Time written by Peter Buck: Bad Day

Bad Day, from the In Time collection

We started writing this song in 1986. We finished writing it in 2003. The sad thing is, between those years, nothing much has changed.

-

So just a short and sweet liner note this time. The song was pretty popular (in New Zealand anyway!) and had a great video clip of R.E.M. being news reporters covering odd weather events. Not sure I actually agree with the sentiment as Bad Day has classic R.E.M written all over it.


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A liner note from the Special Edition of In Time written by Peter Buck: The Great Beyond

21 April 2008
A liner note from the Special Edition of In Time written by Peter Buck: The Great Beyond

The special edition of In Time comes with a cool orange book in which REM guitarist Peter Buck has written some history of the songs on the album.

The Great Beyond

"When asked to contribute a song to the movie Man on the Moon, we acceded with alacrity (I just love that alliteration, don't you?) Because of our love for Andy Kaufman, it seemed only natutal that we should write the theme song to a movie about him. The probelm, of course, was thad we had already written that song, namely, Man on the Moon. So what to do?

Rather than trying to write some kind of biography of Andy, Michael concentrated on encapsulating some of Andy's philosophy; that to keep creating you have to push forward, go beyond, attempt the impossible, in life as in art.

This is also the first song Joey Waronker played at his audition. We gave him a list of five songs to learn, and then threw a new one at him to see how quickly he thought on his feet. Very quickly as it turns out."
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A liner note from the Special Edition of In Time written by Peter Buck: Man on the Moon

So like REM are one of the few bands whose second best of was better than their first. Die hard old school work fans will argue the toss, but seriously does anyone own Madonna's secondbest of? OK you might own U2's second one but you are in all likihood to own In Time 1988 - 2003 The Best of REM. Why, because it rules and had why more publicity that that IRS one...

A liner notes from the Special Edition of In Time written by Peter Buck

Man on the Moon

"If I were to pick one song as the quintessential REM Song, this would be it, which is kind of ironic because it came within tow hours of not being on Automatic for the People.

With five days left before the record was mastered, we had the track, completely finished except for the lyrics. Micheal was completely stumped, and was getting quite irritated with all of us leaning on his shoulder. It was decided that rather than drive each other crazy in the studio we should take a few days off. Micheal spent his time off driving around in his rental car woth a cassette of the track singing along for four days..

When we reconvened, Micheal walked into the studio, sang, Man on the Moon once, and walked out. We were all stunned. It was one of those magic moments I'll remember long after the award ceremonies and the photo sessions have disappeared into the mists of time"

-

Sounds like an Eddie Van Halen moment to me - ala Beat for Micheal Jackson. Mr Van Halen came into the studio, did two takes of the solo, left and they used the first.

I think the slide intro to Man On the Moon is one of the coolest guitar bits on Automatic for the People - every so often if I have a beer when playing the acoustic, I'll pull out a dirty version. Then I pretend to be Ben Harper and it drives the misses insane!

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Pop Songs 08

I've found like what could seriously be one of the best R.E.M. websites ever

Pop Songs 08

This is the writer's mission "The goal of this blog is very simple: I am going to write a post about every song on every R.E.M. album, plus most of their major non-album tracks. "

He's got over a hundred so far, worth checking out!

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The Definition of REMurmur

20 April 2008
So I've realised that REMurmur might not be such an orginal idea. In fact it's a real word..

Commonsense would suggest that to remurmur is to "murmur again" or "utter back" or to make a "reply in murmurs". Kind of like your grumpy old granpa used to I imagine!

And that was actually the intention when I was thinking of a name for this site, I wanted something that reflected REM and also suggested somehting about writing or recording information on the Athens Band - I knew I wanted R.E.M. in the name but all the good ones like 'remarks' were taken so I looked at an r.e.m. discography for inspiration and the result REMurmur ! (which for non old school fans, Murmur was the name of the first REM record).

I've noticed that all the definitions of remurmur on the net use the following line from a poem "The trembling trees in every plain and wood, her fate remurmur to the silver flood" - and its from this poem 'THE FOURTH PASTORAL, OR DAPHNE.' which if the interwebby serves right is by a long dead fellow called Alexander Pope who was an English poet with a strong command of the heroic couplet. The things you learn when you write an R.E.M. blog!

The full verse from which remurmur came from is:

Her fate is whisper'd by the gentle breeze,
And told in sighs to all the trembling trees;
The trembling trees, in every plain and wood,
Her fate remurmur to the silver flood;
The silver flood, so lately calm, appears
Swell'd with new passion, and o'erflows with tears;
The winds and trees and floods her death deplore,
Daphne, our grief, our glory now no more!

Check out the lyrics to Walk it Back, another song off R.E.M.'s Collapse Into Now. Or maybe the lyrics of Blue. Oh, who am I kidding? We both know you have a secret crush on Lady Gaga's Born this Way song!
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Adventures in Hi Fi: The Complete R.E.M.

19 April 2008
When I was in Melbourne for New Years I scored a copy of "Adventures in Hi-Fi: The Complete R.E.M." by Rob Jovanoic and Tim Abott.

I finally started to read it it four months later ( I got soooo many non - r.e.m. books for christmas). It begins with an interview with Peter Buck and he got to talking about set lists and seeing as REMurmur has lots of REM set lists I thought I'd share.

R.E.M. Guitarist Peter Buck was asked how by an author how he arranged setlists:

"There's four things I have to keep in my head when I do the setlists, that I have to remember - what we played last time we were in that city, what songs everyone is sick of, the emotion and key of the song so, so that we don't do five slow, sad songs in a row.

I'm pretty good at it, so almost 100 percent of the time I do the set list and then Xerox the copies and pass them round."

That's not the end of it though, "Everyone goes, "I really don't want to play that song" or haven't we done those three songs in a row for the two weeks?" So that's my job."

So the inference I take from Adventures in Hi Fi is if you go to an R.E.M. concert and they leave out your favourite song, you can blame Peter Buck!

Source: Adventures in Hi-Fi: The Complete R.E.M." by Rob Jovanoic and Tim Abott.
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REM Accelerate suffering from Clipping?

18 April 2008
Does R.E.M. 's album Accelerate suffer from clipping because of over compression at the mastering stage? A most excellent article by Drew Crumbaugh on 'Loudness Wars' explains everything except why Around the Sun wasn't too flash.

I say just turn it up to 11!
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David Belisle: R.E.M. Photographer

Hello REMurmur fan!

R.E.M is going to be the focus of David Belisle's new book of photography, R.E.M.: Hello. It's due to drop in June. The book includes 175 hereto unseen black-and-white and color photos of the band on the road, at home and in rehearsal. Michael Stipe has provided handwritten captions.

Here's the official REM site that promotes R.E.M.: Hello

Now some1 get my Christmas oder in will ya?
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SXSW Concert Festival REM Setlist

16 April 2008
Fans of REM will have been stoked with this Setlist from the REM concert at Stubb's Bar-B-Q Bar which is part of of SXSW Festival. They played 10 songs of the new album!

In case you were wondering the The SXSW Fesival showcases hundreds of musical acts from around the globe on over eighty stages in downtown Austin. Not that REM need show casing!

Here's the 12 March 08 Setlist:

01. Living Well’s The Best Revenge
02. Man Sized Wreath
03. Second Guessing
04. Drive
05. Hollow Man
06. Animal
l07. Auctioneer (Another Engine)
08. Mr Richards
09. Fall On Me
10. The Great Beyond
11. Houston
12. Electrolite
13. Accelerate
14. Until The Day Is Done
15. Final Straw
16. Bad Day
17. Horse To Water
18. Walk Unafraid

Encore

19. Supernatural Superserious
20. Imitation Of Life
21. I'm Gonna DJ
22. Man On The Moon
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REM setlist Auckland

14 April 2008
REM Auckland Concert 1995

28th January 1995

Venue: Western Springs
Country: New Zealand

Playlist
01. What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
02. Circus Envy
03. Crush With Eyeliner
04. Try Not To Breathe
05. Turn You Inside Out
06. Me In Honey
07. You
08. Orange Crush
09. Revolution
10. Tongue
11. Near Wild Heaven
12. I Don't Sleep, I Dream
13. Country Feedback
14. Man On The Moon
15. I Took Your Name
16. Losing My Religion
17. Pop Song 89
18. Finest Worksong
19. Get Up
20. Star 69

Encore

21. Let Me In
22. Everybody Hurts
23. Bang And Blame
24. Drive
25. It's The End Of The World As We Know It

Source
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REM playlist Big Cypress Indian Reservation

11 April 2008
Big Cypress Indian Reservation, Florida

Venue: Langerado Music Festival

8th March 2008


01. What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
02. Living Well’s The Best Revenge
03. Bad Day
04. Drive
05. Hollow Man
06. So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)
07. Fall On Me
08. Imitation Of Life
09. Man Sized Wreath
10. Begin The Begin
11. Orange Crush
12. Accelerate
13. Electrolite
14. Houston
15. Losing My Religion
16. Horse To Water
17. Walk Unafraid
18. The One I Love

Encore

19. Supernatural Superserious
20. Auctioneer (Another Engine)
21. I'm Gonna DJ
22. Man On The Moon

Source
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Accelerate is #1

10 April 2008
R.E.M.'s amazingly awesome album Accelerate has entered the charts at #1 in the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Czech Republic and Switzerland after its first week of release.

The record also claimed #2 chart positions in the United States, Austria, Holland, Germany, Italy, and Israel.

Accelerate also jumped in at #5 for the New Zealand chart.

Not a bad effort that!

wiki
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R.E.M. Official Setlist Apple Store London

Apparently this is a picture of the setlist from the R.E.M. concert at the Apple Store in London



The Murmur

Who knew Mike Mills ate so many apples?
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REM setlist Austin

REM show at Stubbs at SXSW, Austin

Setlist

Living Well's the Best Revenge
Mansized Wreath
Second Guessing
Drive
Hollow Man
Animal
Auctioneer (Another Engine)
Mr. Richards
Fall On Me
The Great Beyond
Houston
Electrolite
Accelerate
Until the Day Is Done
Final Straw
Bad Day
Horse to Water
Walk Unafraid

Encore:
Supernatural Superserious
Imitation of Life
Happy Birthday -- to Dewitt Burton
I'm Gonna DJ
Man on the Moon

Extra for Experts: Youtube

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R.E.M. and Steve Jobs: BFF

07 April 2008
R.E.M. did some Accelerate album promotion at an Apple Store. I wonder if they got free Ipones from Steve Jobs?

Here's the concert set list:

Bad Day / Auctioneer (Another Engine) / Supernatural Superserious / Fall On Me / Man-Sized Wreath / Hollow Man / West Of The Fields / Houston / Living Well Is The Best Revenge / Man On The Moon / I'm Gonna DJ / Walk Unafraid / Horse To Water

26 March 2008, Apple Store, Regent Street, London, England

Source
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Liner notes from R.E.M.'s Accelerate

Liner notes from R.E.M.'s Accelerate

After becoming comfortable with placing his lyrics in the liner notes of the last few R.E.M. albums, Micheal Stipe appears to have taken another step and added some quotes before the lyrics of three songs.

Living Well is the best revenge

"Living Well is the best Revenge - george herbet (1593 - 1633) english clergyman and metaphysical poet"

Supernatural Superserious

"My brain is the key that sets me free" - harry houdini, 1874 - 1926"

Until the Day is Done

"When Facism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag amd carry the cross. -- Sinclair Lewis"

"thanks for the last and greatest betrayal of the last and greatest of human dreams. thanks for the american dream to vulgarize and falsify until the bare lies shine through -- willaim s. burroughs"

The Sinclair Lewis quote suggests George Bush and his public reliance on the Bible belies that he is the fascist bring his extreme (un) socially bent right wing views to America. Sinclair was an American novelist known for his satire of commcercial culture.

The last quote and the most appealing one to me, quote is Burrough's 'Thanks Giving Prayer' which is a cynical, hyperbolic bitch about things/crimes/tragedies that have befallen America.

See "thanks for the KKK, for nigger-killing lawmen feeling their notches, for decent church-going women with their mean, pinched, bitter, evil faces" and "thanks for vast herds of bison to kill and skin, leaving the carcass to rot". Its pretty scathing.

Stipe uses the quote to preface 'Until the day is done'. It can easily be read into this song as an another Stipe indictment of both the American Presidents that were named Bush. He's bascially counting down the days - when Bush is gone and all he represents is gone, the day will be done.

Its no suprise really that REM quoted Burroughs as he did a 'cover' of Star Me Kitten (originally from Automatic People, Burrough's version on the X Files sound track) where he spoke the lyrics over the orginal. And when he sang Fuck Me Kitten, he really meant it.

wikipedia
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REM Accelerate Album Review

05 April 2008
Are there actually any bad reviews of Accelearate by R.E.N. out there? Even tough aussie critic Bernard Zuel seems to like the album.

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The standard critical wisdom on R.E.M. is that since drummer and vital songwriting contributor Bill Berry left in 1997, one of the few great American bands of the '80s and '90s has been in accelerating decline. The standard critical wisdom on R.E.M. with this, their 14th album, is that they have rediscovered their mojo and returned to their late '80s pomp.

You would be wise to be wary of such collective wisdom for a couple of reasons. One is that Berry's last R.E.M. album, New Adventures In Hi-Fi, and the first post-Berry album, Up, were hardly universally loved, though they are fine albums. On the other hand, the most recent R.E.M. album, 2004's Around The Sun, was easily their weakest, with too many half-baked and/or half-alive songs showing the band stuck in a rut.

The first thing to say about Accelerate is that Peter Buck has fallen in love with his electric guitar again. For the first time in a long while that instrument is charging, slashing, jangling and serenading. The second thing to say about Accelerate is that it is faster, louder and their most decidedly "rock" collection in more than a decade, while the renewed, bright backing vocals and big hooks also make it their most "pop" album in more than a decade.

The third and, in the end, most important thing to say about Accelerate is that the band seem energised once more. I don't mean because they are playing louder and faster - after all, making more noise can only obscure weaknesses for a while and, anyway, the ballads Until The Day Is Done and Houston are two of the best tracks. But because the songs and playing have drive, there is palpable freshness to the tunes. They are also being silly again, with the album closer, I'm Gonna DJ, continuing the tradition of Shiny Happy People and Superman.

Almost all of Michael Stipe's lyrics are touched in some way by the reign of George Bush - from the self-explanatory Hollow Man and Living Well Is The Best Revenge to the self-referencing slow burn of Sing For The Submarine. The lyrics are direct but not predictable and have a strong streak of defiance. His singing is once again alive with possibilities, too.

I don't know that Accelerate is R.E.M. returning to greatness. But I do know it shows them returning to being a band you can think of in a future, and not just historical, context
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Subury Star Reviews Accelerate

The Sudbury Star* gives Accelerate a shiney happy four starsout of five.

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By John Law

R.E.M. has promised plenty of comebacks these past 10 years. "Accelerate" may be the first one that sticks.

Let's be clear - this isn't an essential R.E.M. record. They just don't have another "Murmur" or "Automatic For the People" in them. But after a dreadful decade, it's the record they needed to make to convince fans they still matter.

"Accelerate" starts with a rugged rocker called "Living Well is the Best Revenge," and in three minutes they reclaim everything they threw away on the last three records (so that's what Peter Buck's guitar sounds like again). The good times continue into "Man-Sized Wreath," a buoyant pop song plucked from the band's "Document" days. But then comes the blissful "Supernatural Superserious" - the best R.E.M. song in, God, forever - and it'll hit you how much you've missed them. It's all here: Michael Stipe's typically weird lyrics (what does "humiliation of your teenage station" mean, anyway?), some neat touches by Buck that recall the band's jangle pop roots, and a rock hook that'll send chills. Where have these guys been?

On one hand, they could be accused of dwelling on the past - not one song here sounds like it was made past 1995 - but R.E.M. has ignored its own legacy for so long, nostalgia is a relief at this point.

If it's not classic R.E.M., "Accelerate" is at least classic-sounding R.E.M.

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* Yeah, I'd never heard of it either.
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R.E.M. promo setlists

04 April 2008
Some r.e.m. promo setlists from this fellow

26 March 2008 - BBC Studios, London, England
set: Supernatural Superserious / Munich

28 March 2008 - Taratata TV show, Paris, France
set: Supernatural Superserious / Hollow Man / Losing My Religion / Interview

29 March 2008 - Wetten, dass..? TV Show, Berlin, Germany
set: Supernatural Superserious

31 March 2008 - Rockline Radio, New York, NY
notes: Interview with Bob Coburn who was in Los Angeles

1 April 2008 - Today Show, Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY
set: Losing My Religion / Supernatural Superserious / Hollow Man
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REM WORLD TOUR DATES

03 April 2008

REM WORLD TOUR DATES.

No NZ sadly... :(

2 April 2008 - The Colbert Report, New York, NY

23 May 2008 - Deer Lake Park, Vancouver, Canada

29 May 2008 - Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles, CA

31 May 2008 - Berkeley Theatre, Berkeley, CA

3 June 2008 - Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Denver, CO

6 June 2008 - United Center, Chicago, IL

8 June 2008 - Molson Amphitheatre, Toronto, CA

10 June 2008 - Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, Raleigh, NC

11 June 2008 - Merriweather Post Pavilion, Washington, D.C.

13 June 2008 - Tweeter Center for the Performing Arts, Boston, MA

14 June 2008 - Jones Beach Theater, Long Island, NY

18 June 2008 - Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA

19 June 2008 - Madison Square Gardens, New York, NY

21 June 2008 - Lakewood Amphitheatre, Atlanta, GA

2 July 2008 - Westerpark, Amsterdam, Netherlands

3 July 2008 - Werchter Festival, Werchter, Belgium

5 July 2008 - Bilbao Festival, Bilbao, Spain

6 July 2008 - Doctor Loft 05.00 Festival, Castello d'Empuries, Spain

8 July 2008 - Le Nuits de Fourvieres (Theatre Romain), Lyon, France

9 July 2008 - Theatre De Verdure, Nice, France

12 July 2008 - Oxygen Festival, Dublin, Ireland

13 July 2008 - T In The Park Festival, Balado, United Kingdom

15 July 2008 - Elbufer, Dresden, Germany

16 July 2008 - Waldbuhne, Berlin, Germany

18 July 2008 - Moon and Stars, City Square, Locarno, Switzerland

20 July 2008 - Umbria Jazz Festival, Parco Guiliana, Perugia, Italy

21 July 2008 - Arena, Verona, Italy

23 July 2008 - Neapolis Festival, Mostra D'Oltremare, Naples, Italy

24 July 2008 - Villa Manin, Udine, Italy

26 July 2008 - Arena Civica, Milan, Italy

14 August 2008 - Frequency Festival, Salzburg, Austria

16 August 2008 - Sziget Festival, Budadpest, Hungary

17 August 2008 - Slavia Stadium, Prague, Czech Republic

19 August 2008 - Ehrenhof, Stuttgart, Germany

20 August 2008 - Loreley, Rhine, Germany

22 August 2008 - Marienfeste, Wurzburg, Germany

24 August 2008 - L.C.C.C., Manchester, England

25 August 2008 - Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, Wales

27 August 2008 - Rosebowl, Southampton, England

30 August 2008 - Twickenham, London, England

3 September 2008 - Ullevaal Stadium, Oslo, Norway

4 September 2008 - Koengen Stadium, Bergen, Norway

6 September 2008 - Parken Stadium, Copenhagen, Denmark

7 September 2008 - Stadium, Stockholm, Sweden

9 September 2008 - Finnair Stadium, Helsinki, Finland

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REM concert setlist Milan

REM gig - Milan, Italy

Set list

Living Well Is The Best Revenge # Man-Sized Wreath # Drive # Second Guessing # Accelerate #Animal # Hollow Man # Electrolite # Houston # Supernatural Superserious # Bad Day # Final Straw # The Great Beyond # Losing My Religion # I'm Gonna DJ # Horse To Water

Encore was:

Imitation Of Life # Until The Day Is Done # Man On The Moon
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R.E.M Paris Setlist

R.E.M. Play Paris France

Gig Set list


The Set -

Living Well Is The Best Revenge Accelerate / Drive / What's The Frequency, Kenneth? / Man-Sized Wreath / Animal / Hollow Man / Electrolite / Houston / Supernatural Superserious / Final Straw / The Great Beyond / Losing My Religion / I'm Gonna DJ / Walk Unafraid / Horse To Water

The Encore -

What's The Frequency, Kenneth? (again) / Man-Sized Wreath (again) / Until The Day Is Done / Man On The Moon

21 March 2008
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REM concert setlist Royal Albert Hall

24 March 2008

Venue: Royal Albert Hall, London, England

Living Well Is The Best Revenge
Accelerate
Drive
Man-Sized Wreath
Electrolite
Houston
Hollow Man
Supernatural Superserious
Final Straw
Losing My Religion
The Great Beyond
I'm Gonna DJ
Horse To Water

Encore

Imitation Of Life / Until The Day Is Done / Man On The Moon
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Death is pretty final, I'm collecting vinyl - 'I'm gonna DJ' Lyrics by R.E.M

02 April 2008

I've listened to Accelerate like 3 times today and I'm Gonna DJ by R.E.M. is fast becoming an all time favourite. So here's the lyrics.

'I'm gonna DJ' Lyrics - by R.E.M.

If death is pretty final, I'm collecting vinyl

I'm gonna DJ at the end of the world
Cos if heaven does exist with a kickin' playlist
I don't want to miss it at the end of the world
Hey steady steady, hey steady steady
I don't wanna go till I'm good and ready

It's on my mind, it's in my mind It's what I found, it's what I find
It's on my mind, it's in my mind It's what I found, oh my my my

When I spin my way right through it grates enthusiast Jack Pruett
As the moths circle the moon, as you're circling the room

Music will provide the light you cannot resistyou cannot resist, you cannot resist
And the weblogs that get tangled as you bully and you wangle
When you walk up in Seattle, where you fought the nascent battle

You threw the thread and throttle let us raise another bottle
Raise another bottle, raise another bottle

Because death is pretty final, I'm collecting vinyl
I'm gonna DJ at the end of the world
Hey steady steady, hey steady steady
I don't wanna go till I'm good and ready

It's on my mind, it's in my mind It's what I found, it's what I find
It's on my mind, it's in my mind It's what I found, oh my my my

Hey steady steady, hey steady steady I don't wanna go till I'm good and ready
Hey steady steady, hey steady steady I don't wanna go till I'm good and ready

Music will provide the light you cannot resist
You cannot resist, you cannot resist

Yeah
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I'm gonna blog

This blogger's review of R.E.M.'s accelerate, song by song.

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1. Living Well is the Best Revenge

Nice jangles intro, its a clear fast rocker. Kind of sounds like the Not Your Academy but without the chorus. Seems to have I Could Turn You Inside Out guitar effects going on in the back ground. Christ, this sounds like R.E.M. letting of steam with methampthetamine but on total oldskool vibe. Best intro to an R.E.M. album since Monster (how hard can that be - Airport Man anyone?)

2. Man-Sized Wreath

Another fiddly intro. Back to (can't read my notes). Its clear Stipe is bitching at someone. Has a busy baseline and its fantastic to here some full on Mike Mills Harmonies mixed in to the front(ish) Missed those.

3. Supernatural Superserious

A rocker about teenage self esteem issues. Or something. Nice chords.

4. Hollow Man

Piano. A softer start. Some jangles Yay!Bang into some quick fire chords... piano..

5. Houston

Starts off slow 'a fast lumber?' Houston, you have a problem.

6. Accelerate

Another lil jangly / rifftastic thing (Mr Buck clearly had his way on the direction of this album) and then straight into it. Again hints at the Academy Fight Song sound - a great thing.

7. Until the Day is Done

Acoustic opening, briefly reminds me of Aerosmith's Living on the Edge plus the feel of the Around the Sun album. Nice acoustic number.

8. Mr Richards

This song sure aint about Keith. Slowly meanders and then abruptly changes beat and tells Mr Richards what's going on. Not the greatest song ever but could have been (notes unreadable)

9. Sing for the Submarine

Yay more jangles, fna. A reference to gravity. Losts og guitar noodling. Buck doing his classic string thing (B,C#,A,E? Longest song so far.

10. Horse to Water.

Stipe plays on leading a horse to water and making it drown. He's almost fast talking it and the chorus too. Probably about the Bush Administration.

11. I'm Gonna DJ

R.E.M. played this when I saw them in New Plymouth in 2005, it was a kind of silly fun song. It works when recorded. Its kind of zany like shiny happy people and just as fun. Death is pretty final, I'm collecting final. Often the band so kind of sombre album closers to sleep to (Find the Water, Electrolyte, Falls to Climb) but this left me wanting more.

Closing R.e.m.arks!

Kind of like Pearl Jam's Riot act - stark but chock full of the essence that makes both bands great. This is a pure rocker album and it works. This is Monster's older wiser cousin who the family didn't really tell you about. It's what New Adventures In Hi Fi should have been. There's no time for moping or introspection, its turn the guitar on and knock them out faster than the Ramones. Can't read notes, something about EMO bands and how they should just move along, move along.

And there you have it.
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Just one more review of Accelerate

01 April 2008
Just Add Rock. REM Accelerate Review

By Hugo Lindgren

If you can’t be right, be wrong at the top of your lungs. That’s a Charles Schulz nugget, expressed by Lucy, and it translates into rock terms as, When in doubt, crank the amps. This is the philosophy behind R.E.M.’s new album, Accelerate, their best, and certainly their loudest, in years. But the songs are something less than free-wheeling. Like Bruce Springsteen’s Magic and the last two studio albums from U2, Accelerate is a conservative play, a record that is extroverted and un-complicated and attempts to reestablish a classic sound. After driving themselves bonkers in the studio trying to outdo their back catalogue and significantly winding down their once-massive popularity in the process, R.E.M. wants to be loved again.

The band’s long, agonizing slide toward has-been-dom dates to 1998, when they released the first of three fussed-over, downbeat albums. The music on the first two, Up and Reveal, wasn’t so much bad as simply uninviting, oblique songs that depended on a level of intense curiosity from their fans that just wasn’t there. But whatever people thought of it, they had to admire the band’s perseverance. Both records seemed like honest mid-life attempts at reinvigorating the youthful, collaborative friendships that the band had been founded on. Their lives had diverged; they had all left Athens, to one degree or another, and drummer Bill Berry had dropped out. But they remained intensely loyal to one another. They weren’t merely a corporate entity that kept going for the sake of T-shirt sales; nobody went out and recorded a solo album. Though they’d lost something of their chemistry, their faith in sorting it out together was noble, and an old fan, even one who never forgave them for that 1991 MTV stink bomb “Shiny Happy People,” couldn’t help but root for them.

Then came the crisis. Eclipsed by Radiohead as the reigning art-rock band of the era, R.E.M. went about mimicking Radiohead’s fanatical recording techniques—studying each song, dissecting it, reconstituting it, doing it over and over again, more like mad scientists than musicians. The joyless and tuneless result, 2004’s Around the Sun, was the lowest point in their career; worse, the process almost fractured the band. Guitarist Peter Buck, a self-styled rock aficionado who writes three-minute songs faster than it takes to play them, had had just about enough.

So in the name of self-preservation, R.E.M. turned Accelerate entirely over to him, or at least to his passions. Many of the songs are built around Buck’s garage-rocky chord changes, a big, unyielding sound that forces the rest of the band to make adjustments. Holding his own against Buck’s wall o’ guitars, Stipe hews to the lower registers of his range, using his voice bluntly, threatening at times to bust into full Eddie Vedder mode. The lyrics are his usual mish-mash of opaque existentialism, but they lose a bit of their appeal when he barks them. Mike Mills, meanwhile, whose gentle vocal harmonies are the real hooks of the band’s classic songs, gets sidelined. He’s always in the mix—when you hear him on the peppy single “Supernatural Superserious,” it’s like, “Ahh, yes, that is R.E.M.”—but every song is so crowded sonically that his contributions end up buried. Not so the contributions of their non-member drummer, Bill Rieflin, who is front and center, pounding away feverishly on every track.

Full article here
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Another "back in classic form" review for Accelerate

by Mark Brown, Rocky Mountain News

You can say Accelerate is R.E.M.'s best album in years (and many already have), but that's not setting the bar very high. Even band members admit they've coasted lately: According to Spin magazine, guitarist Peter Buck won't even utter the name of the most recent disappointment, Around the Sun.

Fans will be pleased today when Accelerate hits the stores and enters the upper echelon of the band's catalog. It's not a stone classic like Document or Automatic for the People, but with echoes of those great discs, Accelerate has enough strong R.E.M. songs to make it a return to classic form after the mushy, meandering albums of late. Plus, these songs sound great live; most were road-tested in concert.

The single Supernatural Superserious has been all over the radio and sets the tone for the 11 taut, mostly high-energy, laser-focused rock songs on the disc.
When the band is completely in sync, the results soar. Living Well's the Best Revenge jump-starts the album, with Mike Mills providing a frantic but melodic bass line as singer Michael Stipe sings with abandon, warning, "Don't turn your talking points on me."

Mr. Richards is a warm, melodic guitar song confronting a wrongdoer about taking responsibility for his criminal actions, sternly warning him, "We know what's going on." A government official? A CEO? It's never made clear. Mansized Wreath sneers at the political scene and the culture at large: "Turn on the TV and what do I see? / a pageantry of empty gestures all lined up at me." Houston deals with the aftermath of the displaced victims of Katrina, a cause that Stipe has long embraced.

The political is here, but so is the personal. "I've been lost inside my head," Stipe confesses in Hollow Man. Sing for the Submarine is a bit subpar, and I'm Gonna DJ is a piece of satire aimed at the end of the world that just misses its target.

After a flat concert here back in 2004, I wrote, "Fans are sure that R.E.M. has another classic inside itself." It finally got here.
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Review: R.E.M. returns to greatness with 'Accelerate'

Review: R.E.M. returns to greatness with 'Accelerate' by Glenn Gamboa


The secret to success for R.E.M., like all great rock bands, is balance.Great front men only take you so far - same goes for great songwriters or great guitarists. One may get you a good band, but all of them are needed for greatness."Accelerate" (Warner Bros.) marks R.E.M.'s return to greatness, a return to singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck and bassist-singer Mike Mills all pulling hard in the same direction.

By road-testing all the songs and honing them to pack maximum punch in two- or three-minute bursts, R.E.M. eliminates the filler and sometimes meandering flourishes of their recent work.The opening one-two-three punch of "Living Well Is the Best Revenge," "Man-Sized Wreath" and the first single, "Supernatural Superserious," puts any doubts to rest. This is the best the band has sounded in 10 years, since 1998's "Up," their first album as a trio after drummer Bill Berry left for health reasons.

"Living Well" features Stipe spitting out taunts ("Don't turn your talking points on me, history will set me free") and insults ("The future's ours and you don't even rate a footnote now") as cranky as Buck's revved-up guitar, while Mills' soothing harmonies try to tame the snarl.R.E.M.'s regained balance shows up in song selection as well, with the apocalyptic party-starter "I'm Gonna DJ" and the catchy pop of "Supernatural Superserious" offsetting more superserious concerns in the defiant, post-Katrina prayer "Houston" and the chiming, mourning folk-rock of "Until the Day Is Done."

The political interests are like those of the downtrodden guitar ballads of "Around the Sun," but the tone is completely different. It's as if Stipe, having tested all the songs out on various audiences, knows that these particular calls will bring reinforcements - not just his bandmates, but the legions of R.E.M. fans who have been waiting for a reason to come home to the college-rock pioneers."Accelerate" offers plenty of those reasons and throws in a little extra swagger to ensure everyone has a good time.

Source here
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After all these years, R.E.M. still relevant

After all these years, R.E.M. still relevant

By Mike Celizic

Any suggestions that R.E.M. had lost its rock n roll roots and its focus after 28 years as one of the music industry’s iconic bands have been laid to rest with the release of Accelerate, the groups first studio album in four years.

Its more than good, according to Rolling Stone, which called the release, the best record R.E.M. has ever made. And the crowd that turned out on Rockefeller Center Tuesday to hear Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills play a trio of songs seemed to agree, greeting the pioneers of alternative rock with enthusiastic cheers.

We kind of knew from the first couple songs that we wrote that we were on to something, but to get this kind of enthusiastic reaction from the critics and the fans is really great, he said.
Its especially great after their last album, Around the Sun, failed to break the top 20 lists. Lauer asked what made the new album so good.

The communication was really good between us to figure out what we wanted to do, what we wanted to accomplish " keep it short, accessible, sharp, kind of energetic, said Buck.
The energy is apparent in the selections. After going 10 years without releasing a genuine rock single, R.E.M. came up with seven for their new album.

They also broke new ground by becoming the first major group to release a new album entirely online through the website ilike.com. They’ve also set up a website, supernaturalsuperserious.com, where fans can put together their own music videos using clips the band has provided.

The technology is out there and the best thing you can do is to break down the barrier between yourself and your fans, said Mills in explaining why the band decided to take the album straight to the Internet. Its just a way to remove the middleman and connect directly with the people that like you.
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R.E.M. Is Back in Gear on 'Accelerate'

By David Malitz

Special to The Washington Post

It's a familiar story. After a long string of successes, beloved band loses its way, along with critical acclaim and hordes of fans. Soul-searching ensues. A back-to-the-basics collection of straightforward rock-and-roll follows and is hailed as a "return to form," "best album in a decade" or some other phrase that fits comfortably on a sticker on the upper right corner of a CD case.


And so it goes with "Accelerate," the 14th studio album by R.E.M., which is, to be sure, the band's best effort in more than a decade. That says plenty about the three middling, lackluster albums that followed 1996's "New Adventures in Hi-Fi" and set the bar so painfully low for the best American band of the 1980s. But there's more to offer here than backhanded compliments.
"Accelerate" is an album true to its name. It speeds along for 11 mostly punchy, succinct songs built around Peter Buck's thick guitars, Michael Stipe's memorable vocal melodies and bassist Mike Mills's gorgeous harmonies. The band (officially a trio since drummer Bill Berry's 1997 departure) has rarely sounded more focused or aggressive, with songs like "Living Well Is the Best Revenge" and "Horse to Water" bursting from the speakers, resulting in that rare R.E.M. album that begs to be turned up to 11.


That R.E.M. succeeds at this predictable career-rescuing gambit is encouraging, but in an odd way, also a bit depressing. The high points on "Accelerate" -- and that would be the first three and final two tracks -- are riveting, yet the band can't sustain the momentum for even the brief run time of 35 minutes, falling back into preachy, mid-tempo rock habits on songs like "Sing for the Submarine" and "Until the Day Is Done." (Sample lyric: "The business-first flat-earthers licking their wounds/The verdict is dire, the country's in ruins.") There's also a feeling of deja vu: R.E.M. first played the "rock card" with 1994's "Monster," that time in a response to the grunge/alt-rock boom. With "Accelerate" the band seems to be comfortably going along with that reliable resurrection narrative, but at least they brought a handful of great songs with them.

Full Article here
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The Outsider Lyrics (rap only)

The Outsider Lyrics (rap only)

A man walks away when every muscle says to stay
How many yesterdays - they each weigh heavy
Who says what changes may come?
Who says what we call home?
I know you see right through me, my luminescence fades
The dusk provides an antidote, I am not afraid
I've been a million times in my mind
This is really just a technicality, frailty, reality

Uh, it's time to breathe, time to believe
Let it go and run towards the sea
They don't teach that, they don't know what you mean
They don't understand, they don't know what you mean
They don't get it, I wanna scream
I wanna breathe again, I wanna dream
I wanna float a quote from Martin Luther King
I am not afraid
I am not afraid
I am not afraid
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R.E.M. New Plymouth Concert Set List

This is what R.E.M.’s manager, Bertis, had to say about the New Plymouth Concert. Note the setlist, I think it was a pretty sweet deal we got! Taken from remhq.com

Tonight’s show, just completed, was one of the best of the tour. I don’t know why...something in the air--(the moist air due to the daylong rain that greeted our arrival and stayed with us pretty relentlessly through the show); great support sets from Bright Eyes and The Checks, a wonderful setlist including rarities of "Turn You Inside Out," "Disturbance at the Heron House," "Life and How to Live It," and "New Test Leper." Whatever it was, it was tremendous--amazing crowd, huge energy, and all at a place we had been told was a lot of fun but we had our doubts...it has about a 60-foot shallow pond between the stage and the front row (definitely the first time we watched swimmmers in wetsuits and boats ready to fish people out of the pit...with ducks too!), but despite all that, or maybe because of all that, it was a memorable and resonant show for everyone there, especially the kids who decided to make their own private (wet) front row when the rain really started to come down, and the band obliged with a rousing, longer-than-usual version of "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?", with Mike and Scott handling most of the vocal duties...the last time we visited New Zealand, Auckland was generally thought to be one of the very best concerts on that whole year-long tour; something about this place (and i am pretty sure it rained like crazy that night too back in Auckland).

Our arrival at the airport here today was also something pretty unique as the band received a high honor...a warm, spiritual, musical welcome by some of the native people from the area...quite moving for all of us, and it seems to have inspired the guys tonight or something did!

From here we go to Australia for the last part of this far-flung part of the world tour; first stop: Byron Bay above Brisbane, for the East Coast Blues and Roots Music Fesitval, where R.E.M. play a show with Sarah Mclachlan, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Gomez, Bright Eyes and other artists, then shows in some of the major cities before heading home for our spring break in a couple of weeks.

Take Your Vitamins,

Bertis

P.S. During the encore, as the band played a poignant and uncommonly timely "Nightswimming," the waders in the front row slow danced and swayed in waist-high water; now that was quite a scene.

Setlist:
I took your name
Bad day
Turn you inside out
Outsiders
Animal
New Test Leper
High Speed Train
Great Beyond
Disturbance at the Heron House
Orange Crush
I wanted to be wrong
Final Straw
Drive
Leaving New York
Have you ever seen the rain? (2 verses, sung by Mike Mills)
Imitation of Life
One I love
Walk Unafraid
Losing My Religion

Encore
What's the frequency Kenneth
Everybody Hurts
Life and How to Live it
Nightswimming
I'm gonna DJ (at the end of the world)
Man on the Moon


Note:
"Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" was before "Imitation of Life" and "Nightswimming" replaced "I’ve Been High" in the encore (heavy request action from The Checks and their families...).
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R.E.M. concert Austin, Texas set list

R.E.M. concert setlist, Austin, Texas


Austin City Limits, Austin, Texas

13 March 2008

Setlist:

Living Well is the Best Revenge
Man-Sized Wreath
Drive
So. Central Rain
Accelerate
Fall On Me
Hollow Man
Electrolite
Houston
Supernatural Superserious
Bad Day
Final Straw
Losing My Religion
I’m Gonna DJ
Horse to Water
Walk Unafraid

Encore:

Imitation of Life
Supernatural Superserious (2nd Take)
Until the Day is Done
Man on the Moon
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Rolling Stone Reviews R.E.M. Accelerate

Rolling Stone Magazine Review of R.E.M. Accelerate


By David Fricke*

When their original drummer, Bill Berry, quit in 1997, R.E.M. became more than "a three-legged dog," as singer Michael Stipe famously put it at the time. Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck and bassist Mike Mills actually turned into a pair of trios, two very different bands, for the next ten years. One was the studio R.E.M. of Up, Reveal and Around the Sun: wounded but determined, making a stately, reflective pop rich in psychedelic luster and heavy with ballads about faith and doubt. Then there was the concert R.E.M. Armed with longtime second guitarist Scott McCaughey and, in recent years, ex-Ministry drummer Bill Rieflin, Stipe, Buck and Mills charged the musical exploration and internal debate on those records with the dirty-silver jangle and get-in-the-van surge of R.E.M.'s quartet-era classics, such as 1986's Lifes Rich Pageant and 1987's Document.

Accelerate is the first studio album by that post-Berry stage band, and it is one of the best records R.E.M. have ever made. Much of Accelerate was cut in live-band takes and even tested onstage during a run in Dublin last summer, and it shows. Guitars are front and center, in slashing-chord and rusted-arpeggio crossfires, as if you've got R.E.M.'s 1982 EP Chronic Town and the Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks spinning in your CD tray at the same time. "Man-Sized Wreath," "Supernatural Superserious" and "Horse to Water" rattle and zoom like buried treasures from an old club-tour set list. And there is nothing soft or shy about the slower darkness either. In "Houston," a stark snapshot of post-Katrina exile ("If the storm doesn't kill me/The government will"), crude fuzz drones and ham-fisted organ chords roll over Buck's acoustic guitar and the fighter's will in Stipe's voice ("I was taught to hold my head high. . . . Make the best of what today has") like lawnower oil filling a  floodwater.

But the R.E.M. on Accelerate is also the one I saw at New York's Madison Square Garden right after 2004's Vote for Change Tour and two nights after Bush's re-election. Bummed but unbowed, they opened the show with loud, fast defiance "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" and they do the same thing here, with "Living Well Is the Best Revenge." "Don't turn your talking points on me/History will set me free/The future is ours, and you don't even rate a footnote," Stipe sings in a rapid, ecstatic near-shout over flying fists of guitar and racing bass and drums. And that's just the start of the blowback. "Nature abhors a vacuum/But what's between your ears?" he snaps in "Man-Sized Wreath," a bitter laugh at empty pomp and sound-bite patriotism, aimed at sheep and herders alike. And whoever "Mr. Richards" is, he gets his just desserts "Mr. Richards, your conviction/Had us cheering in the kitchen" served with Buck and McCaughey's bristling-glam guitars.

*He's actually a pretty well known writer so you know he'll at least have given the album a decent listen.


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