Chris Suellentrop ponders R.E.M. at the crossroads. From the concert the other night, it’s plainly evident that many people do see R.E.M. as a nostalgia act these days [A good two-thirds of the Garden crowd got up twice – for Losing My Religion and ITEOTWAWKI (AIFF).] Still, I thought Up — their album before last — was brilliant stuff (with a lousy single, “Daysleeper.”) I’d much rather hear Stipe, Buck, Mills continue to play with their sound than to churn out instant-classic-REM stuff like “Imitation of Life” and “Bad Day.” More Bowie, less Eagles.
Category: Music
All this Useless Beauty.
A long-time Elvis Costello fan sours on North. “Now he’s a navel-gazing romantic who apparently let all those Gershwin comparisons go to his head.” Well, I haven’t heard Costello’s latest yet, but I dunno if this is really fair. As the article notes, Elvis was superb on tour last year, and he still seems miles away from Billy Joel country.
Life and How to Live It.
So R.E.M. came to town Saturday night and played probably the best show I’ve seen by Athens’ finest. (This is my fourth over the past decade.) First the setlist:
1. Finest Worksong 2. What’s The Frequency, Kenneth? 3. Driver 8 4. Drive 5. Animal 6. Fall On Me 7. Daysleeper 8. Bad Day 9. The One I Love 10. World Leader Pretend 11. (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville 12. The Great Beyond 13. Country Feedback |
14. Losing My Religion 15. Find The River 16. She Just Wants To Be 17. Walk Unafraid 18. Man On The Moon 19. Life And How To Live It |
So all in all, a truly excellent show. There were other R.E.M. songs they’re playing on this tour that I’d have loved to hear (Exhuming McCarthy, Feeling Gravity’s Pull), but they played my two favorites (and my top two requests) — Fall on Me and Country Feedback — so I left happy. I was particularly impressed with Walk Unafraid and She Just Wants to Be, two songs off Up and Reveal respectively that really came into their own tonight, when Peter Buck chose them to show off his considerable guitar mojo. And the band wisely skipped some of their more saccharine moments — Everybody Hurts or Strange Currencies, for example — to showcase old hits (Rockville, Gardening) and political tone poems (Final Straw and World Leader Pretend, a special treat.) In sum, Stipe, Buck and Mills still got it, and I’m very much looking forward to their next swing through the area.
Cash is King.
Bobby Dylan remembers Johnny Cash: “If we want to know what it means to be mortal, we need look no further than the Man in Black. Blessed with a profound imagination, he used the gift to express all the various lost causes of the human soul. This is a miraculous and humbling thing. Listen to him, and he always brings you to your senses. He rises high above all, and he’ll never die or be forgotten, even by persons not born yet — especially those persons — and that is forever.“
New Morning.
Sent to me via All About George, writer Hannah Griffith discusses how she learned to stop worrying and love Dylan.
Red Skies and Bluegrass.
Hey y’all…busy weekend over here in these parts. Aside from a final orgy of TIME-reading to put an end to my summer research work, I also went to go check out the Creative Time fireworks show, where I spent most of the 4-and-some-odd minutes trying to prevent Berkeley from having a coronary (Lousy judgment on my part bringing him…I thought he might enjoy night in the Park, but he clearly thought he was back on Hill 243.) And I got to see St. Felix Station, my friend’s great bluegrass band over at Pete’s Candy Store in Williamsburg (and was delighted to find said candy store has a weekly trivia night…booyah.)
Long Black Veil.
“‘Til things are brighter, I’m the man in black.” R.I.P. Johnny Cash 1932-2003.
(What with Warren Zevon and John Ritter too, it’s been another terrible week for entertainers.)
This Just In…
R.E.M. ready their new song “Bad Day” (off In Time, the Greatest Hits for the Warner years, due out next month) for release by creating MorningTeam.Com. I guess now we know what Buck and Mills would’ve been doing if the Athens Fab Four had never taken off.
Siren Calls.
In a similar vein to this January 2003 New Yorker piece, Salon pauses to appreciate Bjork, the other white meat.
I Hope You’re Happy Now.
Via Pearls that are his Eyes, the Guardian talks with Elvis Costello on his new album and newfound love. While I’m glad the guy’s feeling peachy, I must say the jury’s still out for me on the idea of a blissful Elvis…I prefer my Costello lacerating, verbose, and irreconcilable.