Or, do. Whatever. SPIN goes so far as to call it a resurrection (which I'm cool with, given that it's deemed worthy of a cover story):



Either way, starting today, April 1st, 2008, they're officially back. And nearly everyone (save, of course, for Pitchfork) thinks this one is a pretty damn good album.

Me, I'm absolutely loving it, now two weeks in. I can't wait to go to Amoeba and pick up the vinyl version sometime during the day.

And now, to close this delirious fanboy posting, a few more of the album's choice lyrics that really strike a chord with me: ( click here )

One of the great debates of all time has been started anew this week (why this week, I'm not entirely sure, but whatev): U2 vs. R.E.M.

Witness: Stylus has a feature on which of the two is the superior band, Slate narrows the scope to focus on which was the better band in the 80's...and Stereogum reviews the matter and leaves it up to its readers in a comments section free-for-all.

You already know where I stand on the issue (and if, somehow, you don't, I'll just point out that I took the name for this LJ from an old R.E.M. song). Which means I happen to side with the Slate article, and particularly with this gem near the article's conclusion:

Either you loved U2, or you liked them fine. Either you loved R.E.M., or you hated them. The delicacy at the heart of R.E.M.'s 1980s albums fostered introspection and brotherhood among those of us who loved them in those years: introspection, because the songs pushed the listener inward, finding significance in every line; brotherhood, because we had to band together to defend our heroes against the unfeeling jerks who found R.E.M. precious and maddeningly opaque. I assumed, of course, that those jerks were U2 fans.

I suppose part of my very motivation for posting all of this is to defend my heroes by showing that I'm not the only one that holds them in such high esteem.

Y'know, as if that whole Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nomination business wasn't enough.

R.E.M. has been nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. In their first year of eligibility, no less.

Oh, what I'd give to be at the Waldorf-Astoria on the 12th of March for the induction ceremony.

And so, your intrepid hero narrator whatever loaded up the humongous family wagon that he's been carting around Nashville this past week or so, and made a short trip to Athens, Georgia. Yes, those of you who are knowledgable about college alternative indie whatever rock will know that Athens, GA is the hometown of many a band that came out in the early '80s, the greatest of which is R.E.M. Being the obsessive fan that I unabashedly am, I wanted to see the legendary hometown of my favorite band. Now I'd made the trip with Jules several years back on our 2nd leg of the "Roadtrip to End All College Roadtrips," but we didn't really get a chance to experience Athens.

This time I did, thanks to Meagan, who now lives and works in the fair college town. She was gracious enough to show me around town, including several sites related to the R.E.M. lore. Here now are a few highlights from the trip:
( read about it here )

Tomorrow night I'm finally going to see U2 play Madison Square Garden. It's hard to believe it's almost been a year since I last saw them, at the "secret" show in Brooklyn last November, and, well, the anticipation's obviously getting the best of me. Here's why:

Two nights ago, I had a long, convoluted dream about going to the show (side note: I've been having a lot of vivid, memorable dreams as of late, which is rare for me). I dreamed that after zig-zagging through the concourse of MSG for what seemed like hours, Jonathan (who's not really coming with me on Tuesday) and I finally found our seats. Now, in actuality, I have terrible seats for the show, tucked away in a corner in one of the upper-most rows of the arena, and possibly behind the stage to boot (all the more frustrating because I stood on line for like 2 hours on a cold morning in March, hoping I'd get some decent seats). So in the dream, upon arriving at our seats, I get really excited to find that they are actually on the floor, just a few feet to the left of the stage. Our seats are in a small pen with barriers on every side, so once we're in, we can't leave. This pen seats maybe 20 people, so it makes us feel quite special to be in this exclusive seating area.

But then, just moments before U2 takes the stage, someone turns on a hydraulic lift, and our pen is raised 200 feet into the air. I look over the edge, and I can't even see the stage from this vantage point. Crap.

I think that's when I woke up in a cold sweat.

At any rate, this show's been on my mind a lot, and I can't wait to go. Reading brunerhyme's LJ entries about the U2 shows has certainly added to my restlessness (and made me extremely jealous, as she got to meet Michael Stipe and Anton Corbijn yesterday!).

Speaking of Michael and R.E.M., I read last night that Michael, Peter, and Mike re-united with Bill Berry--the band's drummer who left in 1997--to play for a friend's wedding in Athens. They played seven songs, mostly from their early days.

Seeing the pics and watching some lousy footage of the event made me really happy and wistful. It was as though I were watching a divorced couple as they happily shared a dance during their son/daughter's wedding reception; watching, imagining how things might've been had they never separated, and wondering--though both parties seem happy and content to be where they're at now--wondering why it just couldn't have turned out differently.

I never got to see R.E.M. live in their original form--as Bill, Peter, Mike, and Michael. And though I've really enjoyed the music that the "new" R.E.M. has done since 1997, it's never been quite the same without Bill. I doubt that it'll ever happen, but it really would be a dream come true if Bill re-joined the band.

I'm excited about today's release of Plans, the new Death Cab for Cutie album (and their first on a major label, specifically, Atlantic Records).

I, like countless others, came to enjoy Death Cab at some point in the past two years, through hearing their previous album, the wonderful Transatlanticism, (an album that will forever remind me of my first winter/spring in New York City). So while I admittedly did jump on the DCfC bandwagon late in the game--not long after Transatlanticism was released in Fall '03--I'm proud to say that I didn't discover them from watching "The OC" (and yes, I do say this with a great deal of needless hubris).

With the release of Plans comes all the buzz about Death Cab--arguably one of the biggest names in indie rock band over the past few years--jumping to the "bigs." All of this reminded me of another band, and at least two publications seem to concur; in both Spin and Entertainment Weekly, the leap to a major label that the boys from Bellevue, WA are taking is being likened to the one that another indie rock (sorry, college rock) band, from Athens, GA, made back in 1988. "Death Cab for Cutie is the R.E.M. of our generation," seems to be the theme that many rock journalists are (cynically?) pushing, but with good reason.

And that's probably why I'm so interested right now in Death Cab's ascension to a major record label. I was only 7 years old when R.E.M. moved from IRS Records to Warner Bros., and by the time I actually formed my own pop/rock music listening habits and picked up on R.E.M. seven years later, their popularity in the States had already peaked. So I'm interested to watch (or hear, rather) firsthand how a band that I like evolves from underground to mainstream artist. Time will tell, of course, if Death Cab's transition proves to be as commercially successful as R.E.M.'s (who sold somewhere in the vicinity of 30 million albums in the four years after they signed to Warners).

But let's not get ahead of ourselves here; I'm just looking forward to hearing this new album and seeing them live when they play the Hammerstein Ballroom in October.

I'm actually trying to work on the lousy report for work here at the house...it's shades of college, all the way. This is bringing me back to the long nights when I'd be finishing a paper hours before it was due (the difference being that this report is due at the end of the workday tomorrow, but still, I'm not taking any risks with it).

I have now been sidetracked by a wonderful wonderful blog featuring mp3s of indie bands/artists covering Top 40 hits. If you have speakers or headphones and some time to kill, check it out.

The following statement is about as useful as telling you the sky is blue, but...I LOVE the fact that Sufjan is featured covering R.E.M. in a nice, wispy, and Sufjan-y rendition of "The One I Love." In a strange way, hearing this gave me the feeling that one gets when discovering that two friends who run in different social circles are actually good friends themselves (I know, what a lame comparison--only I could come up with something so sentimental to describe this). Really, though--it makes me very glad to see this musical convergence.

I also highly, highly recommend the Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie/Postal Service) performance of Avril's "Complicated". I'd describe it as "precious" if it weren't so hilarious. Especially Ben's Seinfeldian comment to the crowd: "The thing about that song that I love is...I don't really understand what's so complicated. It seems pretty cut and dry."

Anyway, I best be getting back to the report. Thanks to Stereogum for providing the quality distractions, as always.

Time to share silly pop music lyrics that may or may not speak on my behalf right now!

I think it was bound to happen: Chris Martin mentions in Entertainment Weekly that one of Coldplay's new songs--The Hardest Part--is a "tribute of sorts to R.E.M.," and I end up loving the song. Surprised? I'm certainly not.

It really does sound R.E.M.-ish, though. To the point that my mind ocassionally tricks me into temporarily thinking it really is an R.E.M. original that Coldplay covered for the album. Another article even suggests that the band almost left the song off X&Y because it sounded too much like Losing My Religion.

Anyway, enough pontificating. This song's been rockin' the iPod a lot lately, and I can relate to the lyrics more than I'd like to admit:

( lyrics behind the cut )

Michael Stipe's cameo appearance in The Adventures of Pete and Pete is sooooooo much better than I remember it being.

He's so scruffy, nervous, and just plain odd in his role as Captain Scrummy. His voice cracks, he does these goofy, swirl-y motions with his arms, and his eyebrows even twitch with anxiety as he dons a nervous grin and offers older Pete a sludgsicle. "You look like a bona fide sludgsicle man, son.

WARNING: Obsessed R.E.M. fan posting ahead!

Last week, my favorite band of all time celebrated their 25th anniversary, which is quite a remarkable milestone, especially in the music industry. I read several articles written in light of the band's reaching the quarter-century mark, but namely this article from Flagpole, a list of the 25 best R.E.M. songs of all-time. Inspired by this, I decided to come up with my personal top 25 list--maybe not the "best" R.E.M. songs, per se, but the ones that are most meaningful to me.

I then spent the last week writing a song-by-song commentary for each (kinda like Flagpole's, but more substantial), which was fun, but definitely time-consuming. Here now, for your perusal, is the list, followed by the reflections on each entry. I know this will probably be a wasted post for most of you (my fellow R.E.M. fan phatfhorn excepted), but I hope you might read even a few of my comments. In all seriousness, these guys have written the soundtrack to my life--songs that speak to me and for me in my highest of highs and lowest of lows, and everywhere in between--and for that I am so very grateful to them. Moving right along:

Dave's Top 25 R.E.M. Songs (4/5/05)
25. The Outsiders - Around the Sun
24. Harborcoat – Reckoning
23. Falls to Climb – Up
22. Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars) - Chronic Town
21. Cuyahoga - Life’s Rich Pageant
20. Gardening at Night - Chronic Town/Eponymous
19. Losing My Religion - Out of Time
18. Fall on Me - Life’s Rich Pageant
17. The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite - Automatic for the People
16. Country Feedback - Out of Time
15. World Leader Pretend - Green
14. Man on the Moon - Automatic for the People
13. I’ve Been High - Reveal
12. Let Me In - Monster
11. E-Bow the Letter - New Adventures in Hi-Fi
10. Imitation of Life - Reveal
9. So. Central Rain (I’m Sorry) - Reckoning
8. Pilgrimage - Murmur
7. So Fast, So Numb - New Adventures in Hi-Fi
6. Leaving New York - Around the Sun
5. How the West Was Won and Where it Got Us - New Adventures in Hi-Fi
4. Talk About the Passion - Murmur
3. What’s the Frequency, Kenneth? - Monster
2. Driver 8 - Reconstruction of the Fables
1. The Great Beyond - Man on the Moon Soundtrack

( And now, witness my uber-fan praises mixed with aspiring rock journalist tendencies )

One more thing: like Flagpole's writer says, I realize that this list could easily change on any given day, and looking back over it nearly a week after I came up with it, I'm already noticing some glaring omissions (Electrolite, Begin the Begin, and Nightswimming for starters), but such is the case when the band's catalog surpasses well over 150 songs.

Oh, and if you read even a portion of this post, I salute you. And thank you--as weird as it sounds, these songs mean a lot to me.

Today my favorite R.E.M. fansite--Murmurs.com--just released its Top 20 Albums of 2004 list, as compiled by registered members of the website.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that other R.E.M. fans had picks quite similar to mine for their favorite albums of the year past; the top five on this list were all in my top 10, and there were only two albums on my entire list of 13 that weren't included on this list (R.E.M.'s was disqualified for obvious reasons).

Anyway, if you enjoyed reading my write-ups of my favorite albums, and wanted to hear what others had to say about them, read the Murmurs Top 20. You shan't be disappointed (unless, of course, you were hoping that an album released in 1996 would make the list...then you might be).