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MissMaceo
= Cult of Ray =
USA
388 Posts |
 Posted - 07/31/2006 : 23:34:52
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[url=http://murmurs.com/story/r_e_m_to_release_i_r_s_years_cd_and_dvd]IRS years CD/DVD release[/url]
quote:
On September 12th, EMI will release the first comprehensive CD and DVD anthologies of R.E.M.'s 1980s I.R.S. Records catalog. The CD will be called And I Feel Fine…The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987 and will be available in 2 formats: a 21-track single-disc collection of hits and band/fan favorites and a 2-CD Collector's Edition with a second 21-track disc of rarities including alternate takes, demos, previously unreleased songs, mixes, and live recordings of classic R.E.M. The DVD, When the Light Is Mine The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987 Video Collection, includes the music videos from Chronic Town through Document, as well as live television performances and James Herbert’s short film, Left of Reckoning. DVD extras feature early interviews and rare acoustic performances.
Bertis Downs had the following to say about the upcoming release: This will be a noteworthy package of R.E.M.’s early years, which a lot of people don’t know very well. The guys themselves picked the songs to be included and sequenced the records, had some fun with the liner notes, and Michael and Chris coordinated on a lot of key aspects of the package (actually all key aspects of the package). As for “Why Now?” Well, for one thing, there has never been a real great retrospective of the 5 year/5 album period of R.E.M.’s history known as the I.R.S. years. For another, after 25 years (or 26 but who’s counting?), a recognition of the specialness of these recordings seemed a fine and appropriate thing, and we figured if the band and HQ staff here in Athens had some input, the world would end up with a package that truly has “something for everybody.” For the R.E.M. aficionado, there are some surprises and true rarities here that are sure to delight and amuse; for the uninitiated, or those who first came into the R.E.M. world during Stand or Losing My Religion or Daysleeper or Imitation of Life or Bad Day or Leaving New York, whether by factors of geography, or age, or siblings, or whatever reason, this is a good history lesson on the days of yore when the band first started out and were writing sometimes 2-3 songs a day, many of which became classics, and some of which were lost in the mists of tape and time and vault. So…with those sorts of considerations as the guiding lights and impetus, Berry, Buck, Mills, Stipe and the rest of us are pleased to participate in this exercise of re-releasing the “hits” of their early years, accompanied by some great things that we had forgotten about, if we ever remembered them in the first place: And I Feel Fine- the Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982- 1987. The bonus disc is especially chock full of material for the experienced, discerning fan and the newcomer alike.
And I Feel Fine...The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987 (CD)
1. Begin the Begin
2. Radio Free Europe
3. Pretty Persuasion
4. Talk About the Passion
5. (Don't Go Back to) Rockville
6. Sitting Still
7. Gardening at Night
8. 7 Chinese Bros.
9. So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)
10.Driver 8
11.Can't Get There From Here
12.Finest Worksong
13.Feeling Gravity's Pull
14.I Believe
15.Life and How To Live It
16.Cuyahoga
17.The One I Love
18.Welcome To the Occupation
19.Fall On Me
20.Perfect Circle
21.It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
And I Feel Fine...The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987
Collectors' Edition (2-CDs)
(Contains Disc 1 + Rarities Disc)
1. Pilgrimage (Mike's pick)
2. These Days (Bill's pick)
3. Gardening at Night (slower electric demo; previously unreleased)
4. Radio Free Europe (Hib-tone version)
5. Sitting Still (Hib-tone version)
6. Life and How to Live It (Live at the Muziekcentrum, Utrecht, Holland 9/14/87; previously unreleased)
7. Ages of You (Live at the Paradise, Boston 7/13/83; previously unreleased)
8. We Walk (Live at the Paradise, Boston 7/13/83; previously unreleased)
9. 1,000,000 (Live at the Paradise, Boston 7/13/83; previously unreleased)
10.Finest Worksong (other mix)
11.Hyena (demo; previously unreleased)
12.Theme From Two Steps Onward (previously unreleased)
13.Superman
14.All the Right Friends (previously unreleased)
15.Mystery to Me (demo; previously unreleased)
16.Just A Touch (live in-studio version; previously unreleased)
17.Bad Day (session outtake; previously unreleased)
18.King of Birds (last song cut from the Best Of…)
19.Swan Swan H (live, acoustic from Athens,GA-Inside/Out)
20.Disturbance at the Heron House (Peter's pick)
21.Time After Time (annElise) (Michael's pick)
When The Light Is Mine
The Best Of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987 Video Collection (DVD)
1. Wolves, Lower
2. Radio Free Europe
3. Talk About the Passion
4. Radio Free Europe (Live, The Tube, 11/18/83)
5. Talk About the Passion (Live, The Tube, 11/18/83)
6. So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)
7. James Herbert's "Left of Reckoning" (20-minute film)
8. Pretty Persuasion (Live, The Old Grey Whistle Test, 11/20/84)
9. Can't Get There From Here
10.Driver 8
11.Life and How To Live It
12.Feeling Gravity's Pull
13.Can't Get There From Here (Live, The Tube, 10/25/85)
14.Fall On Me
15.Swan Swan H (Athens, GA-Inside/Out)
16.The One I Love
17.It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
18.Finest Worksong
DVD extras include rare interview footage and acoustic performances.
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starmekitten
-= Forum Pistolera =-
United Kingdom
6370 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2006 : 00:04:55
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| You know just last week I sat and tried to make a chronolodical REM best of with a track or two from each album starting at chronic town and working through to up (I'm still not on good terms with the last two). It made me happy. All formats look excellent. |
Edited by - starmekitten on 08/01/2006 06:43:55 |
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Homers_pet_monkey
= Official forum monkey =
United Kingdom
17125 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2006 : 05:13:27
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I forgot to tell you about this last week Kitty. Sorry.
I am gonna buy both I think.
 I'd walk her everyday, into a shady place
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starmekitten
-= Forum Pistolera =-
United Kingdom
6370 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2006 : 06:45:01
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| Nay problem lad, I don't think I'll be able to buy it for a while but it'll stay on my radar. |
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Carl
- A 'Fifth' Catholic -
Ireland
11546 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2006 : 07:11:08
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Hmmm, thanks for the info MissMaceo! I'll keep an eye out for that.
Join the Cult Of Pob! And don't forget to listen to the Pobcast! |
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HeywoodJablome
* Dog in the Sand *
USA
1485 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2006 : 07:59:11
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DEATH TO STIPE
_______________________________________________________________________________________
Wait a minute, strike that. Reverse it. |
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starmekitten
-= Forum Pistolera =-
United Kingdom
6370 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2006 : 08:01:55
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| What? loser. |
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MissMaceo
= Cult of Ray =
USA
388 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2006 : 09:05:34
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to commemorate the event, here is my favorite (right now anyway) bootleg of their early years: http://rapidshare.de/files/15779553/remury.zip
* Recorded: 9:30 Club, Washington DC, March 18, 1983
* Quality: very good (somewhat bass-shy)
* Format: CD
* Notes: Great looking glossy 4-fold thick cardboard sleeve from Australia.
* Tracks
Gardening at Night/9-9/Catapult/Pilgrimage/7 Chinese Bros./ Laughing/Wolves, Lower/Romance/Sitting Still/1,000,000/ West of the Fields/Radio Free Europe/Last Date/Ages of You/ We Walk/Carnival of Sorts
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El Loco
- FB Fan -
206 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2006 : 09:42:36
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cool
they sucked after 87 |
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Carl
- A 'Fifth' Catholic -
Ireland
11546 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2006 : 10:49:00
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Thanks a million, MissMaceo!
Yeah, I much prefer early REM, generally speaking.
Join the Cult Of Pob! And don't forget to listen to the Pobcast! |
Edited by - Carl on 08/01/2006 10:50:01 |
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whoreatthedoor
> Teenager of the Year <
Spain
2873 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2006 : 12:27:37
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You only say that because it's cooler to say that you prefer the pre-Warner R.E.M.
But there are stunning songs in the Green-New Adventures era.
This time we ride roller coasters into the ocean
We feel no emotion as we spiral down to the world |
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El Loco
- FB Fan -
206 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2006 : 12:39:15
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shiny happy people
nuff sed |
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whoreatthedoor
> Teenager of the Year <
Spain
2873 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2006 : 12:41:46
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Shiny Happy People was fine the first three times.
This time we ride roller coasters into the ocean
We feel no emotion as we spiral down to the world |
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Carl
- A 'Fifth' Catholic -
Ireland
11546 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2006 : 13:50:32
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quote:
Originally posted by whoreatthedoor
You only say that because it's cooler to say that you prefer the pre-Warner R.E.M.
No, it's just that some of the WB-era stuff you just getr tired off, the more obvious single-stuff. I think some of there earlier albums are more interesting, but no less melodic.
Join the Cult Of Pob! And don't forget to listen to the Pobcast! |
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El Loco
- FB Fan -
206 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2006 : 13:57:13
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or
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whoreatthedoor
> Teenager of the Year <
Spain
2873 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2006 : 14:18:00
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Why R.E.M. has never reached the status of "Greatest Band Ever"?
I mean, I've never heard someone saying that. And we have even heard it of U2.
I'm not saying that they are (it's clearly stupid), but I think they deserve some recognition.
This time we ride roller coasters into the ocean
We feel no emotion as we spiral down to the world |
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starmekitten
-= Forum Pistolera =-
United Kingdom
6370 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2006 : 16:01:23
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Fuck me it's like 1992 all over again.
Pre 87 REM was very slow in transition, post 87 REM took more risks because I suppose they were more free to do so. Sometimes this paid off (I'll take Country Feedback over any pre 87 track you could offer me) and sometimes it didn't work (Shiny Happy People/Stand) but I admire them for doing it. New Adventures is an amazing album. Any other band would kill their grannies at a chance of making something that great. I stand by REM both pre and post 87 being amazing. I think sometimes people get too familiar with them and forget what they're listening to. Screw the singles, every single gets tiresome after a while. |
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starmekitten
-= Forum Pistolera =-
United Kingdom
6370 Posts |
Posted - 08/01/2006 : 16:04:06
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quote:
Originally posted by El Loco
or
If we're making lists I'll take this one:
over this one:
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Homers_pet_monkey
= Official forum monkey =
United Kingdom
17125 Posts |
Posted - 08/02/2006 : 05:03:24
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I agree with Kitty. Both Green and New Adventures are excellent. Hell, I even think Up is a very good record.
I'd walk her everyday, into a shady place
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coastline
> Teenager of the Year <
USA
3111 Posts |
Posted - 08/02/2006 : 08:25:24
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I felt like they ran out of steam after Out of Time ... and then, after it seemed like they'd never make another truly great album, Around the Sun came out. I'll take that one over even much of the early stuff.
=-=-=-=-=-=
Look, a pony! |
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KimStanleyRobinson
* Dog in the Sand *
1972 Posts |
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Carl
- A 'Fifth' Catholic -
Ireland
11546 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2006 : 06:26:25
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http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,14932-2336733_1,00.html
The Times September 01, 2006
In the corner, in the spotlight
As R.E.M. revisit their Eighties, Stephen Dalton talks to an open but prickly Michael Stipe
Download Times Online's free Michael Stipe podcast here
The roof terrace alone in Michael Stipe’s ultra-deluxe Knightsbridge hotel suite is bigger than most luxury flats. Boasting its own sauna and dining hall, the R.E.M. singer’s penthouse pad feels distinctly presidential. Annoyingly, even though the room is already paid for, he plans to leave it empty overnight after our interview.
“No, you can’t stay here,” Stipe deadpans, anticipating the obvious question. As ever.
Slightly unshaven and clad in a battered leather jacket, at 46 Stipe is cordial, articulate but quietly edgy company. Punctuating his mumbled musings with nervous barks of mirthless laughter, the overall effect is like meeting Andy Warhol in the body of a bootboy biker.
After a year-long hiatus, the massive R.E.M. machine is lumbering back into action, beginning with a newly compiled retrospective album entitled And I Feel Fine.
Spanning the years 1982 to 1987, when they were signed to the IRS label, the album captures the period when these romantic young Kerouac fans served as the advance guard for the “alternative” rock explosion that would define the 1990s.
Although superficially traditional in style, with a keen ear for jangly 1960s melodies, the early R.E.M. functioned like a Trojan horse for all the spiky noise and arty rage of the Pixies, Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails and their ilk. The Georgia quartet were “the acceptable edge of the unacceptable”, as the guitarist Peter Buck once claimed.
“There were lots of bands in the US who helped spearhead what became known as alternative rock,” Stipe argues. “Black Flag, Husker Du, Sonic Youth . . . a lot of bands playing very small places in the early part of the 1980s, being largely ignored by pop radio but championed by college radio.”
But it was R.E.M. who opened the mainstream floodgates with their crossover hit The One I Love in 1987. Taken from their final IRS album, Document, this was the song that rocketed them to multi-platinum, planet-conquering superstardom. And the rest, of course, is hysteria.
“Looking back with rosecoloured glasses, we didn’t really change ourselves to fit radio; radio finally came around to us,” Stipe nods proudly.
The IRS years also closely mirrored Ronald’s Reagan presidency, when R.E.M. were one of very few American bands writing political pop songs such as Welcome to the Occupation and Exhuming McCarthy. Stipe’s lyrics were initially opaque, but as the decade progressed they became increasingly biting.
“Living in the 1980s as an American, there was no way you couldn’t address what was happening under the Reagan-Bush administrations,” he says.
In late 2004, R.E.M. joined Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam and others on the Vote For Change tour in support of John Kerry’s presidential bid. “I always refer to the Reagan years as the Dark Ages of American politics,” he says glumly. “I never felt it could get worse. I’ve been sadly proved wrong.”
Another facet of R.E.M. in the 1980s was Stipe’s veiled sexuality. It was only around the millennium that he finally seemed comfortable admitting publicly that he had relationships with both men and women. He prefers to describe himself as “queer”, rather than bisexual or gay, as it is “more inclusive of the grey areas”. But this revelation has had little effect on his work, he insists.
“I’ve been outed in the UK press more times than Frank Sinatra sang My Way,” he says with a dry chuckle. “Every time there’s a slow news day they pull me out of the closet again. But within the band and my family and close friends I was never closeted in terms of sexuality, it was just a little more undefined. For me it was more a matter of privacy than anything else.”
Stipe has a long-term partner, who he playfully calls “The Mister”. Rumours about his identity abound but, of course, the singer is not offering any clues. “Well, he’s a man,” he smiles. “He’s an artist . . . that’s all.”
He turns visibly more frosty when we touch on other personal matters. Superstar friends such as Thom Yorke, for example, who credits the R.E.M. singer with helping him to cope with the horrors of huge success and global acclaim. Poor sensitive soul. Surely the Radiohead frontman just needs to get a sense of humour? “You’re playing that game which I hate so much,” Stipe groans, “but I will answer you, just out of respect, to say that Thom in person is not as cheerless as the media like to portray him. I suffered under the same weight, just because I go very solemn when I am trying to answer a question in order to articulate myself well, and my band’s music leans towards the darker emotions. We have suffered the same thing for years.
“I’m happy to report that Mr Thom Yorke is a very happy and very well rounded and very smart person.”
The temperature plummets again at my mention of the guitarist Peter Buck’s headline-grabbing “air rage” rampage in April 2001. Stipe eloquently defended his friend in court, as did Bono of U2, and charges were eventually dropped. But the singer is less forthcoming in our interview, responding with an icy blue-eyed stare that says: We Are Not Amused.
“Let’s just raise the bar a little,” he finally scowls. “What do you say?” Two weeks from tomorrow R.E.M. will be inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, taking their place alongside James Brown, Little Richard, Gram Parsons, Isaac Hayes, the opera singer Jessye Norman and dozens more. They will mark the ceremony by playing a short set with their original drummer, Bill Berry, who suffered a dramatic onstage aneurysm in 1995, quitting the band for good two years later.
“That was a difficult time for all of us because he was walking away from something he loved a great deal,” Stipe recalls. “But he had had enough and decided to become a gentleman farmer.”
Straight after their induction the remaining three members will begin work on their next album. But diehard fans will undoubtedly compare the fresh-sounding tracks on And I Feel Fine with their last album, Around the Sun, in 2004, which received some of the most lukewarm reviews of their career.
It must be a struggle for any band not to become complacent and stale after so long.
“Complacent and stale? Complacent about what . . .?” Stipe says after a cool pause. He launches into a feisty defence of R.E.M.’s relevance in the 21st century. “I don’t think we’ve ever coasted on the glories of our past,” he argues. “I feel as a band we’re vital and moving forward and finding new ways to take our very limited talents to other places. If I didn’t feel like that was the case I would break the band up. I don’t ever want to become a caricature.”
Above all, Stipe insists, he remains a music fan as much as a musician. And maybe this is what links the multimillionaire in the penthouse hotel suite with the hungry young Kerouac fan who signed to IRS 25 years ago.
“When I buy music, I want something revelatory, something emotional, something real,” Stipe says. “I guess that’s how we’ve done it.
We’ve kept it very real.”
And I Feel Fine . . . The Best of the IRS Years 1982-1987 is released on EMI on Sept 11
Check out the Times' Michael Stipe podcast here:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,27052,00.html
http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003087174
R.E.M. Plots One-Off Berry Reunion, New Album
September 05, 2006, 10:30 AM ET
Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.
R.E.M. will perform three songs with original drummer Bill Berry to celebrate its induction into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, to be held Sept. 16 in Atlanta. Berry has only played three times with his longtime colleagues since exiting the band in 1997, most prominently at the October 2005 wedding of R.E.M. guitar tech Dewitt Burton.
At that performance, the foursome played a seven-song set of classic early material, including "Sitting Still," "Radio Free Europe" and "Wolves, Lower." In April, Berry joined vocalist Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck and bassist Mike Mills to perform R.E.M.'s "Country Feedback" at an Athens, Ga., show by Buck's side band, the Minus 5.
While the group rehearses for the Hall of Fame ceremony, it is "considering recording something for a yet-to-be-announced charitable project," according to a post from manager Bertis Downs on R.E.M.'s Web site.
Following the induction, R.E.M. will end a year-long hiatus and hit the studio to begin work on the follow-up to 2004's critically maligned "Around the Sun." That album debuted at No. 13 on The Billboard 200.
In the meantime, the band's first five years will be celebrated with the CD/DVD package "And I Feel Fine," due Sept. 12 via I.R.S./Capitol. The collection includes the first authorized release of a number of long-bootlegged rare tracks.
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REM fans rejoice
