{"id":9168,"date":"2011-09-22T14:35:47","date_gmt":"2011-09-22T19:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smaggi.us-east-1.derr.space\/?p=9168"},"modified":"2011-09-22T14:35:47","modified_gmt":"2011-09-22T19:35:47","slug":"r-e-m-comes-to-an-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maggipicayune.derr.io\/wp\/2011\/09\/22\/r-e-m-comes-to-an-end\/","title":{"rendered":"R.E.M. comes to an end"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hell, I kept forgetting they were still around and then I remembered them releasing a new album this year with a rather lukewarm response.<\/span><\/p>\n

My stance on them has softened over time. When I was in high school, I thought they were OK despite the boner they seemed to give Rolling Stone <\/em>and Spin<\/em> (critics liking something is always a warning sign). By college, I discovered how annoying their fans were. Many often came off like the Beatles’ jihadists with this attitude of “R.E.M. invented college radio.” My second roommate (Chris) was nuts for them too so he considered the mainstream success they began to experience with Document <\/em>was blasphemous; a natural reaction to initial fans of any band\/artist, I’m equally guilty regarding Sarah McLachlan. I loved Chris’ explanation on why he had to skip a couple days of school to see them on their 1987 tour\u2026before they “sold out” any further.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I have to see R.E.M. now because next time they’ll probably have a horn section.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Unlike other bands, I felt their switch to a larger record label didn’t hurt. Even I was surprised they kept making songs I liked, namely “Try Not to Breathe.”<\/span><\/p>\n

But time marched on and tastes changed which is too bad, I was never crazy for them yet I would take listening to their new material over the others flogging a dead horse (*cough U2). R.E.M. at least shared my attitude of wanting to move forward musically unlike American radio. <\/span>Their retirement seems to match some of their material, it concludes with a mumble and not a loud explosion.<\/span><\/p>\n

I’ll close with an old joke David Lowry (Cracker, Camper van Beethoven) told about them after being their 1986 opening act.<\/span><\/p>\n

How many members of R.E.M. does it take to change a light bulb?
\nTwo. One to do it and the other to put on a Robyn Hitchcock album. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hell, I kept forgetting they were still around and then I remembered them releasing a new album this year with a rather lukewarm response. My stance on them has softened over time. When I was in high school, I thought … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maggipicayune.derr.io\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maggipicayune.derr.io\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maggipicayune.derr.io\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maggipicayune.derr.io\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maggipicayune.derr.io\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9168"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/maggipicayune.derr.io\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9172,"href":"https:\/\/maggipicayune.derr.io\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9168\/revisions\/9172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maggipicayune.derr.io\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maggipicayune.derr.io\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maggipicayune.derr.io\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}