the REM thread

[loveless]

I know people on this tour (at least one of whom I absolutely consider a friend) and it kills me inside.

[oh oooh]

from another thread:

Jun 8, 2022 3:20:20 GMT quaco said:

To clarify my position, Supergrass were a fine addition to the annals of "good rock music". R.E.M. did more damage to rock than the Sex Pistols could have dreamed about.

[DayoRemix]

And I normally respect much of Quaco posts...not that one..

[adamcoan]

Feb 9, 2024 20:34:27 GMT oh oooh said:

from another thread:

Jun 8, 2022 3:20:20 GMT quaco said:

To clarify my position, Supergrass were a fine addition to the annals of "good rock music". R.E.M. did more damage to rock than the Sex Pistols could have dreamed about.

Sorry, that's utter nonsense.

[Sneelock]

well, I like R.E.M. myself (especially their earlier, mumblier ones)
BUT, I think you could make a case that College Radio changed once R.E.M. were on the scene. it sort of became a known quantity rather than something of a free for all. If you were the Feelies or Camper Van Beethoven then this wasn't too big of a deal but I think a lot of bands lost a way of reaching listeners when College Radio started circling the wagons around "Alternative" Billboard chart type stuff & R.E.M. was certainly part of that.

I don't blame them, mind you. I guess I like the Feelies and Camper well enough. it seems like a lot of stuff went by the wayside though.

[loveless]

Yeah, I don't SPECIFICALLY want to ruin them for anyone...

[Sneelock]

AH, GWAN!

[Stacy Heydon]

Feb 9, 2024 20:42:42 GMT DayoRemix said:

And I normally respect much of Quaco posts...not that one..

Why not? It's an interesting opinion. I'd like to hear more.

[Sneelock]

quaco does not like R.E.M. because of his early toilet training!

[davey]

Feb 9, 2024 21:25:29 GMT Sneelock said:

well, I like R.E.M. myself (especially their earlier, mumblier ones)
BUT, I think you could make a case that College Radio changed once R.E.M. were on the scene. it sort of became a known quantity rather than something of a free for all. If you were the Feelies or Camper Van Beethoven then this wasn't too big of a deal but I think a lot of bands lost a way of reaching listeners when College Radio started circling the wagons around "Alternative" Billboard chart type stuff & R.E.M. was certainly part of that.

I don't blame them, mind you. I guess I like the Feelies and Camper well enough. it seems like a lot of stuff went by the wayside though.

Not just college radio, but the whole music scene.

I was playing clubs a bunch in those years. There was a real discernible sea-change that happened somewhere around the time REM signed that big deal with Warner Bros. It happened almost overnight, and a lot of the folks who lived it know what I’m talking about.

You take your average night in a club circa 1984 or ‘85. There was a real sense of ‘anything could happen.’ I’d get up on stage with nothing but me and my guitar, having just followed a set by some thrash band. Maybe the Del Rubio Triplets or some poet was up earlier in the night, and maybe there was an actual rock star like David Lee Roth in the room, and the rumor was that he was gonna get up and do a few songs before the night was up.

On a night like that, you could get on stage and there was genuine curiosity what you were gonna do once you got there. You could still bomb, of course - but you got a minute or two of good will from the audience when you started. So if you could build a little world with your show, audiences kinda accepted you on your own terms.

Then…somewhere in the late ‘80s it all got kind of consecrated. “Alternative” became a genre. There were rules. Now there was a feeling of, ‘don’t make me sit through any fucking poetry’ in the room. Folks came to see whomever the buzz-band of the moment was and talk through their set. If you were on the bill earlier in the evening, forget it. You’d be announced and most folks in the audience didn’t even bother to look up from their drinks. They weren’t there to discover anything anymore. They wanted to see the band they came for, and they wanted to get drunk, stoned and/or laid.

It was everywhere too. When LA fell into that morass, I wrote it off as an LA thing. But soon after, I hit the road and discovered that the whole thing had transformed no matter where you went.

[Sneelock]

señor davey:

Now there was a feeling of, ‘don’t make me sit through any fucking poetry’ in the room.

so, something good came of it!