A LONG DISTANCE DEDICATION
This one's for Tony Alva and Jackson.
60 REM SONGS BETTER THAN TEXARKANA
Radio Free Europe
Gardening at Night
Talk about the Passion
Sitting Still
Windout
Find the River
Driver 8
Sweetness Follows
Oddfellows Local 151
Whats the Frequency, Kenneth?
Just a Touch
Wolves, Lower
Country Feedback
Me in Honey
King of Birds
Finest Worksong
Begin the Begin
Harborcoat
So. Central Rain
Fall on Me
Nightswimming
Try Not to Breathe
It's the End of the World
Flowers of Guatemala
The One I Love
How the West was Won and Where It Got Us
Call me Leper
Shaking Through
Perfect Circle
Cuyahoga
Green Grow the Rushes
Belong
Orange Crush
Get Up
that untitled song from Green
Catapult
Moral Kiosk
Maps and Legends
I Believe
Departure
(Don't Go Back to) Rockville
Crush with Eyeliner
E-Bow the Letter
Try Not to Breathe
Carnival of Sorts
World Leader Pretend
Laughing
9-9
7 Chinese Brothers
Turn You Inside Out
Camera
Feeling Gravitys Pull
These Days
Be Mine
Half A World Away
Bandwagon
Crazy*
Superman*
Strange*
King of the Road*
*covers
60 REM SONGS BETTER THAN TEXARKANA
Radio Free Europe
Gardening at Night
Talk about the Passion
Sitting Still
Windout
Find the River
Driver 8
Sweetness Follows
Oddfellows Local 151
Whats the Frequency, Kenneth?
Just a Touch
Wolves, Lower
Country Feedback
Me in Honey
King of Birds
Finest Worksong
Begin the Begin
Harborcoat
So. Central Rain
Fall on Me
Nightswimming
Try Not to Breathe
It's the End of the World
Flowers of Guatemala
The One I Love
How the West was Won and Where It Got Us
Call me Leper
Shaking Through
Perfect Circle
Cuyahoga
Green Grow the Rushes
Belong
Orange Crush
Get Up
that untitled song from Green
Catapult
Moral Kiosk
Maps and Legends
I Believe
Departure
(Don't Go Back to) Rockville
Crush with Eyeliner
E-Bow the Letter
Try Not to Breathe
Carnival of Sorts
World Leader Pretend
Laughing
9-9
7 Chinese Brothers
Turn You Inside Out
Camera
Feeling Gravitys Pull
These Days
Be Mine
Half A World Away
Bandwagon
Crazy*
Superman*
Strange*
King of the Road*
*covers
posted by stinkrock at 8:36 PM
9 Comments:
Hey, you do love lists!
At any rate, we were very tickled, this may win the Bloggy award for 08.
We were waiting for you to text them to Jackson's phone...
Of course there are some on there in which I concur and others that I don't.
"These Days" (not in list) is better than "Texarkana", but anything after Automatic For The People is not.
What's your beef with Mills other than his Austin Powers dental work?
These Days is in the list. Read it more closely. Rock isn't dead, brain cells are.
Seriously, I have no beef with Mike Mills. Along with McCartney, he's the only bass player I can say influenced my bass playing. And the way his voice meshes with Stipe's is transcendent. His backing vocals on Find the River (and many other songs) are irreplaceable. He's my favorite member of that band.
But as a lead vocalist he does nothing for me. And Texarkana sounds nothing like REM to me; it sounds like a decently written song written to placate record executives because they craved singles.
Oh, and The New Adventures of Hi-Fi is a much, much better record than Out of Time. It's not even close.
Sorry I missed you on your New York trip. As Jackson and Chrispy can attest, I can stay up late arguing about music, and I'm glad you stop by to make your case.
"...Rock isn't dead, brain cells are." You're tellin' me brotha!
I gave up weed decades ago, but a few days at S&M and I'd lose my chance to become a TSA agent. Lucky I work for an ISP who practically encourage it.
Not only do the boys make great sounds, their clientel only smoke top shelf stuff.
I'll go out and get "New Adventures" on your reco, but the post Automatic stuff is like Kiss records after "Rock-n-Roll Over".
Because it is my role, I will throw in my customary comment that I've never liked REM and always found them terribly boring and pretentious. Being forced to endure hour upon hour of REM was one of the worst parts of college in the late 1980s.
I love all of the comments.
"New Adventures in Hi-Fi" is my favorite REM record, maybe 'cause it's so far away from the college REM that scarred Dave so much (and I liked a lot of that college REM stuff). "Be Mine" still drives me crazy - the way the mono synth line (ARP 2600 I believe) plays against the guitar chords at the end of the tune is heavenly. I remember listening to that song over and over when I was first learning guitar and being frustrated that there was something happening that I couldn't grasp. "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight" is another good one from that album, especially if you like Dr. Suess.
I'm a bit surprised that covers were eligible for this list, but that's obviously the editor's call. Still, "Superman" was a great help during Bio 103.
I have no opinion on "Texarkana" either way.
Dave:
Peter Buck is pretentious. No doubt about it. But so is Pete Townshend. He wrote a rock opera, for god sakes.
Anyway, since you hate R.E.M., you might actually like 'Texarkana'.
It's called "New Test Leper".
R.E.M. has made exactly four great songs since New Adventures and they're all better than "Texarkana":
Daysleeper (Mike, please explain the time signature on this.)
At My Most Beautiful
The Lifting (especially the non-album "Original Version", although the album version is also great)
The Great Beyond
I'd also nominate "Airport Man" but I'm not sure if it can withstand the Clinton Attack Machine.
Daysleeper is a waltz beat, right? Don't make me spend 99 cents to find out.
Post a Comment
<< Home