Is Peter Buck still R.E.M.? And do you care?

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I was thinking this just the other day: "My God, my God...whatever happened to R.E.M.?" Not too long ago...am I imagining this?...weren't they industry megastars with durably perceived 'artistic cred'? Did I just dream all of that? What happened? The last thing I heard about them was that ridiculous story about an inebriated Peter Buck on a plane ("I AM R.E.M.!!")...

Not trying to be smug here, I'm being serious:
Does anyone out there still care about what they release? Do you think there will be a comeback album for them that will once again launch them into being taken again as a serious music force? I am having trouble coming up with any other recent band/artist poised for rock/pop canonization who has nosedived from greater heights of public interest in a shorter degree of time...

― Joe (Joe), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 01:51 (twenty-three years ago)

The Cure, circa 1992. That's my answer to every thread right now...

― Charlie (Charlie), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 01:54 (twenty-three years ago)

I thought this said "Is Peter Buck still in REM?" and I did care. I'm a diehard.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 01:55 (twenty-three years ago)

Hmmm...true, The Cure...hadn't thought about that one. Curses, foiled again! :) Though were they = R.E.M. in sales?

― Joe (Joe), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 01:57 (twenty-three years ago)

The Cure, circa 1992. That's my answer to every thread right now...
Diodn't both bands begin to suck at roughly the same time?
OMG! UNDERNEATH ALL THE MAKEUP...ROBERT SMITH IS MICHAEL STIPE!!

― Lord Custos Alpha (Lord Custos Alpha), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 02:00 (twenty-three years ago)

all silliness and snarkiness aside, interesting point you've got there. they really did slip out of public consciousness pretty quickly. i guess the slide started with Monster, which sold well enough, but was kinda the last straw for a lot of fans. and even though I think New Adventures and Up are really underrated, i can see why they got largely ignored, especially since for the former they made pretty lousy single choices. even I can't defend Reveal, though. it just sounds...wrong. and cheap. not lo-fi, just cheap somehow.

― Al (sitcom), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 02:28 (twenty-three years ago)

There's a noticeable weight difference, for a start.

The Cure comparison is pretty good, though. Wish charted high, "Friday I'm In Love" was a pop smash, sold out massive arenas (Rose Bowl here in LA), etc. Then they got tangled up in the court case while the zeitgeist fully and firmly switched over to all things nineties alt. Though I still chuckle over the fact that in 96 they sold out the Forum twice and Irvine Meadows once when most of the big names of the time couldn't even fill the Forum once...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 02:29 (twenty-three years ago)

They've had no intensity since New Adventures. Get a new drummer already!

― B:Rad (Brad), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 02:52 (twenty-three years ago)

Something tells me that if the UGA Stipe had glimpsed the Hollywood Stipe he'd have vomited up that bowl of cherries.

― Aaron A., Tuesday, 24 September 2002 03:07 (twenty-three years ago)

Wish charted high, "Friday I'm In Love" was a pop smash
Which is sick and sad. "Friday I'm in Love" is an awful song. "High" was really really really good. Good enough to almost be in the same league as "Just Like Heaven"...but does the radio ever play it? Nuooouuuuuuu.

― Lord Custos Alpha (Lord Custos Alpha), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 03:18 (twenty-three years ago)

I like pretty much everything up to and including "Up", but "Reveal was a major disappointment. Very underwhelming album, just washes right over me. I do still care, but my hopes will not be high. Maybe it's just a blip, but I fear it's the first step in a descent into mediocrity.

"I am having trouble coming up with any other recent band/artist poised for rock/pop canonization who has nosedived from greater heights of public interest in a shorter degree of time..."

I would have thought "Reveal" revived a lot of people's interest in REM. It's the one that made me start to lose interest, but I thought the popular consensus was that it was something of a "return to form"?

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 13:14 (twenty-three years ago)

'up' - still in my top 3 or 4 of theirs.
because of *fashion* they were coolish again
around the time of 'reveal', despite the fact that
it was mostly rub. typically, they'll get slagged
no matter what they do next time out, and the
album'll probably be great.

can i go on about how great 'up'
is, and how it p*sses all over 'murmur' ?

― piscesboy, Tuesday, 24 September 2002 13:28 (twenty-three years ago)

"can i go on about how great 'up'
is, and how it p*sses all over 'murmur' ?"

Replace "Murmur" with "Reveal" and you have my full support. I'm a big fan of "Up" too. The first two tracks are atrocious, so I always start with "Suspicion", and it's all gorgeousness from there on in. Could a song be more touching than "Why Not Smile"?

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 13:32 (twenty-three years ago)

I wonder how different The Cure's reception would have been if they'd released "Treasure" and "Trap" as the lead singles off of _Wild Mood Swings_ instead of "The 13th" and "Mint Car"...

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 13:45 (twenty-three years ago)

1"High" was really really really good.

FINALLY, someone agrees with me!

― mmesker (mmesker), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 15:47 (twenty-three years ago)

I Am Tuatara!

― blahs, Tuesday, 24 September 2002 16:28 (twenty-three years ago)

For me, I don't think REM was never as good a band after Peter Buck put down the Rickenbacker guitars.

I became a fan with Reckoning and seeing them play on David Letterman, but that "Shiny Happy People" song finally did me in.

They have made some decent songs after that time, but I haven't bought any of the albums.

― earlnash, Tuesday, 24 September 2002 16:35 (twenty-three years ago)

FINALLY, someone agrees with me!

I didn't think that was ever under debate!

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 16:45 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm just getting into REM properly now. I have "Automatic", "New Adventures", "Up" and "Reveal". From what I've read "Reveal" is a return to form, but I don't think I'm yet in a position to say that.

I think cos a lot of people grew up with REM, loving their earlier records, as soon as they got to "Monster" people lost interest, decided they'd grown up and stopped caring. I know a lot of people say that as soon as you could hear the words, and they became mainstream, they went off them.

Luckily, new fans like myself don't have that "grown up with" baggage. Maybe I should start a new thread for this, but can anyone tell me the next album they think I should get (by the band in question), or which songs I don't have that I should download. Thanks.

― Colin Cooper, Tuesday, 24 September 2002 17:13 (twenty-three years ago)

I have "grown up with" baggage, I guess. I do agree that as soon as Buck put down the Rickenbackers and Michael Stipe started enunciating clearly, it became much more boring and predictable. The mysterious/enigmatic part of the band that was always the most interesting to me was jettisoned. So I started to lose interest around the time of "Out of Time" (c'mon, that KRS track is AWFUL, ditto Shiny Happy People (aka The Gay Community of Atlanta). I kinda had hope since there were some good songs on "Automatic For the People" ("Nightswimming", "Everybody Hurts") but they really never climbed back to the heights they'd known. I haven't paid attention to any of their albums ("Up", "Reveal", I think I heard a single from "Monster") in years. Couldn't care less really.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 24 September 2002 17:19 (twenty-three years ago)

I thought Out of Time was alright (Low, Me in Honey) But nothing after that has done anything for me.. New Adventures.. sounded like it might be pretty good - but I only listened to it once. And Up had some moments - again, I haven't really listened to it. Monster bugged me only because Peter Buck found a vibrato pedal at Mark Farner's garage sale and wouldn't stop fuckin with it.

For me it isn't the audible lyrics or lack of Rickenbacker..It's the Stipe whining that has turned me off. Why did all of their songs become slow, whiny ballads? I don't expect them to keep remaking Lifes Rich Pageant or Murmur - but everything they do sounds like "Everybody Hurts" to me, with a few exceptions...

― dave225 (Dave225), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 18:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Re _Out of Time_: It's all about "Texarkana".

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 18:38 (twenty-three years ago)

shiny happy people is like their only tolerable song!!

― simon trife (simon_tr), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 18:45 (twenty-three years ago)

"Near Wild Heaven" was great. Best alb: Green.

"Something tells me that if the UGA Stipe had glimpsed the Hollywood Stipe he'd have vomited up that bowl of cherries"

bbbut wasn't he all Warhol-y?

Bono's "I-had-to-drag-Pete-kicking-&-screaming-to-a-boxing-match-he's-so-gentle-&-compassionate" character testimony: dud.

― g.cannon (gcannon), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 18:59 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah green was a fine effort.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 19:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Decline started after "Life's Rich Pageant", I think. The last few albums have had one or two good tracks, "Reveal" had none. I like the remnants of the mumbling - "Belong", "Airportman" - and "E-Bow the Letter" is one of the best things from any album.

― Andrew Norman, Tuesday, 24 September 2002 19:41 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm certainly looking forward to a new album with or without a new drummer. If they're an example of a band in terminal artistic decline, well I wish there were a few others plummeting too.

I'm not down with the dissing of their 90's albums (Monster excepted). NAIHF I reckon is there best album after Lifes Rich Pageant and Green and pisses over there first 3 albums, great though they are.

As for Reveal having no good tracks, you'll have to excuse me while I splutter in a corner (losing my religion).

Having said that maybe they should ditch their Beach Boys fixation and listen to some Motorhead or Blue Oyster Cult for the next one though.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Tuesday, 24 September 2002 20:33 (twenty-three years ago)

oh colin ! colin colin colin.
go and buy 'green' and 'life's rich..'
at once. now. no, now ! hurry !!

― piscesboy, Tuesday, 24 September 2002 20:50 (twenty-three years ago)

One thing that I found kind of funny about Peter Buck is that back in the day in interviews he would trash upon "rock stars" and then a few years later he pulls a G'n'R and is dragged slag drunk off of an airline for being disruptive.

― earlnash, Tuesday, 24 September 2002 21:03 (twenty-three years ago)

three years pass...

I´m still hoping,as a matter of fact I just bought the exact same Ricky 360 Peter has...
There’s still reason to hope though. ’Imitation of Life’ and ’Leaving NY’ can sit comfortably alongside Losing My Religion, Man on the Moon and aal the others on their live-set.

The Coldplay/Radiohead influence is to blame though. Humorless, angst-filled, cry-baby electro-pop can work perfectly well for mentioned UK betwetters, but these guys are supposed to be Cowboys!!! They used got compared with intense bands like The Clash, Nirvana and The Velvet Underground. C’mon Stipe, get your sense of humour (not to metion your drummer) back!

― Joe Aston, Wednesday, 8 March 2006 16:32 (nineteen years ago)

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