Friday, April 04, 2008

And some music ramblings!

I never manage to watch the Colbert Report when it airs, but I normally catch it a day late. Jerome occasionally watches it when it airs, and so he mentioned to me that R.E.M. had been on it on Wednesday night... meaning that I watched it last night.

Now I was a HUGE R.E.M. fan in high school. In fact, I think R.E.M. is a lot of the reason why I became this strange part hippie, part grunge type person (later supplemented by goth and punk). The first time I heard R.E.M. was 1989, when I was a freshman in high school. The song was "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" (oddly enough, in the movie Dream a Little Dream). And so I was hooked.

Of course, I became a fan of the band right as they were finishing up the tour for Green, and then they opted to not tour for several years. I finally got to see them live when I was a senior in college, in 1995. I have very distinct memories of that show--it was September, it was colder than St. Louis had any right to be, and the show sucked. A lot. We missed seeing Radiohead open for R.E.M. because we were running late, and I dropped my new R.E.M. T-shirt at some point during the trek back to the car.



Now I was already on the decline of being an R.E.M. fan by that point. Out of Time was fabulous. Automatic for the People was pretty good, but I was beginning to have my doubts. I hated Monster (1994), though I think if I gave it another listen now, I might change my mind. But basically, by the fall of 1995, I was disillusioned.

And stayed that way, for 13 years. Jerome had been trying to convince me to give the new R.E.M. a listen, but I was grumpy about it. But when I saw them on the Colbert Report, I told Jerome to go find the album (Accelerate) online and buy it. And it's good. It's really good. So it would appear that I have four albums to catch up on, and am going to have to give Monster another listen.

+++++

And, in other news, End of the Work Week Wisdom:

"I love living vicariously through the pain and suffering of others."
--Joe (Andy Griffith) in "Waitress"

Because that single line had us rolling when we watched the movie. :)

9 comments:

Anandi said...

@Dawn - I heard the first song from the new REM album on the radio and loved it (can't remember what it's called). I think I need to buy the album - it sounds like 'old' REM.

Also, thanks for the tip on Apocalyptica. I'm trying to convince my concert buddy Dave that he wants to go. I vaguely remember hearing one of their songs on 'Some Kind of Monster', the Metallica documentary. I think I would *love* them. And with Cristina Scabbia??? Holy crap.

Anandi said...

Also, yes, Monster gets better with time. also the one released after Monster has one or two really awesome songs. I saw them in 1995 too!!

Dawn said...

"Supernatural Superserious" is the new single, and yes, I am totally hooked on that song. That's the one they did on the Colbert Report. :)

And yeah, Apocalyptica will be awesome, regardless of who the "Special Guests" are. But I would LOVE it if Jerome is right. :)

' said...

I actually saw the Colbert Report that night too. I was excited to learn that they would be on the show and really enjoyed their song. I will probably also be looking to by their new album.

Dawn said...

Totally worth it, and buy it through Amazon if you don't care about the physical album. It's around $9 at Amazon, vs. $13 at iTunes! :)

jeffdav said...

I was at thAt rem show in stl. We missed radiohead too. We left early because it sucked so much. I remember thinking "I would rather be in the car listening to my cure CDs than sitting here watching this crap"...

Dawn said...

You know, I think I remember running into you there, and you telling me it was going to suck. I chalked it up to your teenage angst. *bows head in shame*
:)

jeffdav said...

Never underestimate the power of my teenage angst. You should have know, even then, that I'm always right. :)

Anandi said...

Amazon MP3 rocks my world. No DRM and it works on my ipod and *anywhere else*. Yay Amazon.