jon_chaisson | [RTS] Hands Down, Calechee Bound (Reply)

REM always popped up at various interesting points in my life. They were one of the few "college rock" bands that got played on mainstream rock radio in the early 80s--I'd hear "So. Central Rain" or "Radio Free Europe" on WAAF and WAQY every now and again, and "Pretty Persuasion" got quite a bit of play. "Can't Get There From Here" was the first thing of theirs I bought, partly because it was a fun song, partly because it had such a silly video.

By the time Document came out, I was watching 120 Minutes religiously and they'd become a staple on the show. That was also the album where I first heard "Strange", the cover of a Wire song--my first introduction to that band. I sat in on an open-mike in college once where two guys did an absolutely gorgeous cover of "King of Birds". It's still my favorite album of theirs. This and Green cemented the post-Nathane sound of the Flying Bohemians and a lot of my solo music, Chris and I inspired by their acoustic melodies and autumnal moods.

When Green came out in 1988, Chris and Ann P. and I woke up one Saturday morning to drive down to Worcester to pick up tickets when they went on sale. We listened to some REM as well as the first Violent Femmes album on the way down, singing along as we drove. Somehow I didn't think of pooling our money to get seats next to each other, so Kris E. and I were a few rows behind Chris. We all screamed out that "One! Two! Three! Four!" section of "Orange Crush" when they played it. Indigo Girls opened up for them, my first introdution to that band as well (aside from hearing "Closer to Fine"). I put "You Are the Everything" on a mixtape for my then-girlfriend Tracey. On a more symbolic level, this album also opened my eyes somewhat to the field of politics; I'd always avoided it in the past, knowing full well that I would be too emotionally attached to my liberal leanings...but this album made it okay for me to take the subject a bit more seriously.

In the three years between that album and the next, I'd dubbed and/or bought all the earlier albums to catch up. Lifes Rich Pageant is another big favorite of mine, filled with energy and perhaps a bit of silliness after the seriousness of the first few albums. I have a copy somewhere of someone's college film project in which they animated a Cold War rocket launch to "Underneath the Bunker." With Fables of the Reconstruction, "Driver 8" is the first song of theirs I learned how to play on the guitar. I realized just how brilliant Murmur is, and I agree with everyone else that "Perfect Circle" is an stunning and heartbreaking song. Just recently I sat through Reckoning and surprised myself at how great that album is as well, making me wonder just why I never listened to it in the past.

By the time Out of Time was released, I'd had my ups and downs with my relationship with Tracey (and life in general), and I was at a low point in my life personally. I didn't know where I was going, what I wanted to do, and felt that I was pretty much wasting my parents' money in college because I wasn't getting the best grades. "Endgame" was on repeat at that time...that was a sort of theme song for me finally accepting that I wasn't going to find the social life I wanted like the one I had junior year in high school. I moved on, grew up, lived life.

I admit I'm more a fan of the band's IRS years than their WB years, as OoT is probably the last one I know well...I have all the other albums, but I don't know them nearly as well. To me, they were always an 80s band that embraced and embodied the 'college rock' sound that I fell in love with and still obsess over. I equate their music to autumn days, and afternoons where I'd listen to their albums while doing homework. I also equate it to when I started learning more about myself, my thoughts and beliefs (personal and political), and not so much what I wanted to do in my life but what I needed to do, in order to move forward.

And, with the video above, their music was also a reminder that it's also good to be silly now and again. :)

Bill, Mike, Michael, Peter...thanks for the memories.