| Author | Message | ||
     Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 308 Registered: 01-2005 |
http://www.aikenpromotions.com/event.asp?eid=386 Pretty intersting article by Robyn himself! | ||
| Matt Ellis Member Username: Matt_ellis Post Number: 121 Registered: 11-2004 |
I like your style Michael. I had forgotten until now that I somehow found this article in a freebie magazine I picked up from record shop in Eastbourne (didn't the Go-Bees record there once?) about 3 months ago. I saw The Minus 5 in London in July. Guess who was special guest...Robyn Hitchcock. Buck played bass on every song! Fantastic gig, although there was a very low turn out. So low in fact that when I shouted 'Nice once Robyn!' when Hitchcock arrived on stage - the whole band heard it and looked towards me! | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 312 Registered: 01-2005 |
Matt, Buck played bass on "Aw Shit" last Thursday when I saw Robyn & The Venus 3. The very next song, which was the last song of the night, Buck played drums on "Listening To The Higgsons". Peter is a nice guy, answering questions while signing autographs after the show. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 876 Registered: 04-2005 |
Since Buck stills talks to fans, maybe someone can gently suggest to him to not sleepwalk through the next R.E.M. album, as he has for at least the last three. Sorry, I shouldn't be so negative, but I lost a lot of respect for him because of his airplane rage episode a few years ago. He seemed to have turned into the spoiled rock star jerk he supposedly was an antidote to back in the '80s. | ||
| kevin Member Username: Kevin Post Number: 1138 Registered: 05-2005 |
Kurt, just 100% speculation on my part, but I reckon Buck would make another Murmer, Reckoning or Fables in a heartbeat. Its the two Mikes that are the problem imo, they are the ones who have allowed this fantastic band to slide into an MOR abyss | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 968 Registered: 05-2005 |
I reckon its Berry's fault! | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 969 Registered: 05-2005 |
Tell you what his drumming on Life's Rich... is amazing, always sounds like he's gonna lose the tempo... | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 880 Registered: 04-2005 |
Kevin, I certainly don't hold the two Mikes blameless, but somewhere along the line, Buck's once inventive and interesting guitar playing disappeared. Compare his playing on Murmur or Reckoning (anything they did in the '80s, really) to the desultory fuzzed-out/delayed heaviness of Monster and New Adventures and then the "where's the electric guitar?" sound of much of the post-Berry work. Perhaps he just got bored with playing guitar, which is valid, but he hasn't replaced it with anything nearly as interesting. | ||
| spence Member Username: Spence Post Number: 971 Registered: 05-2005 |
Wasn't it with Monster that they tried being grunge like? Was that the real pivotal moment in Buck's geetar playing? | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 881 Registered: 04-2005 |
That's true, Spence...which is kind of the sign that R.E.M. was a little detached from the musical zeitgeist by the mid-'90s (to be pretentious about it). They were about two or three years late with their grunge move. To me, Buck seemed to lose interest in guitar after "Green." Notice how on albums and tours after that, there were usually additional guitarists playing with him onstage and in the studio? | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 872 Registered: 05-2005 |
I read quotes from Buck about 10 years ago where he said he was tired of playing R.E.M.'s '80s type guitar work over and over. Now that the fans are exhausted with his '90s and '00s type guitar work might he consider a return to the classic R.E.M. sound? | ||
| joe Member Username: Dogmansuede Post Number: 10 Registered: 07-2006 |
we can only dream... i walked home in the rain yesterday listening to reckoning. perfection. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 313 Registered: 01-2005 |
Buck probably perfers working as a member of the Minus 5 or Venus 3 these days over working with REM. I bet Scott McCaughy feels the same, although Bill Rieflin probably not as he looked a little pissed that he had to tear down his drum kit after last Thursday's show. I doubt if REM will ever go back to that 1982-87 sound. Too bad as they were my favorite band back then. | ||
| joe Member Username: Dogmansuede Post Number: 26 Registered: 07-2006 |
i actually just got the and i feel fine comp today...mostly because i found it at my local 'every cd is $10' shop. far far far superior to eponymous....21 songs as opposed to 12 or whatever it was and a bonus cd with another 21. ultimately i realise all this is going to do is disengage me even further from the music of 2006. le sigh. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 892 Registered: 05-2005 |
It is a great comp. I didn't think it would make it to the $10 shops so quickly. Which one? The one on Collins St? I'm going down to Melbourne tomorrow. I already have that comp but I might buy some more copies as Christmas presents! | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 758 Registered: 03-2005 |
You need a magpie on your shoulder: "Padraig, you are NOT going to buy more copies of something you have already got. Give some of the things you haven't opened yet as Christmas presents." | ||
| joe Member Username: Dogmansuede Post Number: 27 Registered: 07-2006 |
yeah...collins place. otherwise known as my "it's friday and i require some amazing mee goreng" food court. i think it was actually $15. on account of it being a premiere item. i sadly still can't see it walking out the doors. oh, and has anyone else seen those nasty mid-price cds that sell for super cheap, but just in this naff plastic sleeve with no inserts or anything? i got the james best of just because i never bothered in the past....but the whole thing is just wrong. seriously, who wants their collection filled with rank product like this? rant over...time for weekend beer! | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 893 Registered: 05-2005 |
Thanks Randy. I think I will actually heed that magpie's advice! Thanks too Joe! | ||
| Matt Ellis Member Username: Matt_ellis Post Number: 126 Registered: 11-2004 |
Michael - sorry i just cant imagine Buck playing drums - Hope I see that one day! I agree with Kevin: I think the two Mikes are to blame for the MOR sound over recent albums. I hate to say it (REM being my joint fave band with Go-Bees) but I sometimes wonder how long REM will last. Approaching 3 years since the last record...Buck doing more side projects than ever... | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 319 Registered: 01-2005 |
Matt, I finally picked up New Adventures in Hi-Fi this month after waiting 10 years to get it. I swore I wouldn't buy anyting new by REM after getting Monster when it first came out. One of my favorite REM moments was listening to Chronic Town over and over while packing my backpack before leaving my house for a week long backpacking trip to Isle Royale National Park in the middle of Lake Superior, July of 1983. | ||
| Matt Ellis Member Username: Matt_ellis Post Number: 127 Registered: 11-2004 |
Blimey...10 years Michael! New Adventures to me marks the end of the 2nd phase REM to the MOR territory that they are in now. I suppose it also coincides with Berrys departure. That reminds me that I would like the coffee mug with chronic town on it for Christmas! | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 320 Registered: 01-2005 |
If Bill Berry is on a few tracks on the next REM album, as I thought I read he cut some tracks with them, then I might get the new one when it comes out. Up and Reveal aren't on my short list of albums to get. | ||
| Kurt Stephan Member Username: Slothbert Post Number: 949 Registered: 04-2005 |
I hadn't heard that Berry might be working with R.E.M. again...that would make me interested again too. But will it be enough to kick Stipe's butt so he stops acting like Sting Mk II? The way he's been going, I'm worried that Stipe is sitting at home learning to play the lute for the next album. | ||
| Lawrence Mikkelsen Member Username: Simplythrilledhoney Post Number: 38 Registered: 03-2006 |
I went to the Robyn Hitchcock show at the Kings Arms in Auckland a month back. AMAZING show. I'm not that familiar with Robyn's stuff, but was utterly mesmerised. I had a friend from the US staying with me, and she's good friends with Scott McCaughey, and introduced me to the band. I acted like a 14 year old schoolgirl when I met Peter Buck - REM have been a constant in my life for the last 18 (gulp) years since I heard "Orange Crush" on the radio when I was 13. Anyway, he was the perfect gentleman when I asked him to sign my copy of "New Adventures In Hi-Fi". He even remarked 'that one's my favourite too' (actually, my favourite is "... Fables", but I know all the band hate that) and, when I told him my name was Lawrence, remarked that that was his middle name. He came across as the most lovely, geniune guy, and was very friendly and chatty. I got to hang out backstage with them afterwards, thanks to my visiting American friend. It was funny sitting around in this shitty little room, eathing potato chips and drinking beer, and thinking about the kind of backstage treatment someone like Peter Buck must get in REM. Clearly he was doing the Robyn gigs for love, not money. Listening to The Venus 5, I wondered why the hell Peter didn't play that style of guitar in REM anymore. Whilst there were a few good songs on "Around The Sun" for the most part it sounded like a Michael Stipe solo album, which, I guess, it was in all but name. | ||
| Michael Bachman Member Username: Michael_bachman Post Number: 321 Registered: 01-2005 |
Lawerence, I think Peter stated he was tired of playing his 80's guitar style with REM. His outlet for guitar playing these days seems to be with the Minus 5 and Venus 3. Maybe it's Stipes song writing style these days that also plays a big part in it. |