Yeah, I am repeating myself, from R.E.M. month back in April. 20 years later, I’m still not sure how this song relates to Texarkana. “20,000 miles to an oasis” is kind of fitting when you’re traveling between cities in west Texas/east New Mexico, but Texarkana is about the farthest east you can get in Texas…
Browsing Posts tagged R.E.M.
Saving my all-time favorite for last… Driver 8. I know I said that Good Advices was the final Fables, but I lied. There is something very Southern and haunting about this. Add to it the great train video and you have something of a perfect song. Or a perfect memory of a perfect song. Somehow […]
The REM cover: The original version by Wire: I head the REM version first, but I far prefer the Wire version. Both songs are great, though. And that video above is funny enough to justify its inclusion here (though I still think it’s the weakest song on Document).
Awww, cute video. Sad song, which makes the video kind of melancholy.
I usually have a policy against posting live videos, but gat dang it… 1985 REM live! And it sounds pretty good. Great, in fact.
The album version, 7 Chinese Bros And the outtake where Stipey reads the liner notes of a gospel album (!) to the same music track. This version just screams for a William Shatner remake.
Unfortunately the sound on this video sounds kind of harsh and distorted, but you get the idea.
Final song from Out of Time. I love songs that use a bass to carry the melody. Most people seem to forget that bass guitars can actually play notes (gasp!) as well as go “bomp bomp bomp bomp” every measure, but, of course R.E.M. is much smarter than that. Mike Mills is a helluva great […]
Usually I think politics and music is a bad mix, but this one has a haunted feel to it, and unlike Rage Against The Machine they don’t hit you over the head with the message. Really, it’s obscure enough to have multiple meanings, but I think is about commie Catholic priests fighting to overthrow legitimate […]
Awwww, this month’s final song from Fables. It’s a gooder. Somehow the advice of “When you greet a stranger/look at his shoes” had somewhat deadly implications in the later 80s. Or maybe I’m the only one who remembers those stories.
R.E.M. doesn’t write enough dirges (see also Low and Country Feedback from earlier this month).
No matter what anybody says, Up was a really good album. It can’t touch the stuff they did in the 80s, but most music can’t…
One of those little heard songs from Out of Time. When I was younger the harpsichord thing kind of bugged me, but now I think it’s one of the better things R.E.M. has done.
