English musicians and music geeks extraordinaire Steven Wilson and Tim Bowness have posted a new episode of their podcast The Album Years. They talk about 1985, discussing albums by R.E.M., Neil Young, Steve Reich, Magma, and a whole lot more. This is part #5, the final episode about this year. The pair can be watched on YouTube as well.
Watch Passenger perform R.E.M.'s Losing My Religion. Recorded live in London in 2016. The clip was directed by Jarrad Seng.
Tape Op has posted a new episode of their DISCussion podcast series. They get on the phone with an artist or producer to discuss an album they love. In episode 23 singer and songwriter Conor Oberst talks about the R.E.M. album Lifes Rich Pageant.
Watch Puddles Pity Party, nom-de-plume of singer and entertainer Michael Geier, tackle the R.E.M. classic Everybody Hurts.
Watch a pro-shot early R.E.M. show filmed @ Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ on June 9, 1984. After kicking off with The Velvet Underground cover Pale Blue Eyes they played songs from their first two albums and their debut EP. A couple of very famous guests join them during the second all covers encore. Roger McGuinn nailed his parts, while John Sebastian was obviously having fun, but came up short in the end.
It was broadcast on 17 July 1984 as an MTV special Rock Influences: Folk Rock.
In 1991 R.E.M. performed two shows at The Borderline in London, flying under the radar as Bingo Hand Job. The March 15 show was recorded and made available soon afterwards on bootlegs. It gets its first official released as a 2LP For Record Store Day. The show is mainly acoustic and they were joined on stage by Billy Bragg, Robyn Hitchcock and Peter Holsapple.
Ian Leslie describes four ways for the inner workings of a band in his article A rocker’s guide to management for 1843, The Economist’s magazine of ideas, culture and lifestyle: friends (Beatles, autocracies (Tom Petty, Bruce Springteen), democracies (R.E.EM.) and frenemies (The Stones).
In 1979, Michael Stipe, a college student in Athens, Georgia, was browsing in a downtown record store called Wuxtry when he got talking to the clerk, a college dropout and amateur guitarist called Peter Buck. The two men bonded over a love of underground rock and soon decided to form a band, recruiting two fellow students, Bill Berry and Mike Mills. Thirty-two years later, their band, R.E.M., broke up amicably, ending one of the happiest collaborations in rock history.
