A few months ago, I expressed disappointment with R.E.M.’s release plans for this year. I thought the live disc with the Reckoning re-release would be from the 2007 Dublin working rehearsals. I have since figured out that I was an idiot in assuming that. I haven’t yet bought the new Reckoning, mainly out of laziness […]
I don’t exactly recall how I first heard about The Old 97’s. It may have come from their music appearing on the soundtrack to Scrubs. Someone I know may have talked about them. I’m not really sure. All I know is that, before this year, I had a handful of their songs and enjoyed them […]
The band put out their second reissue this week as a new treatment of “Reckoning” hit the stores on Tuesday. The new disc also includes a concert from the ensuing tour. Strangely, I have not gone out and bought the CD yet. I will. It’s only a matter of time, you know. There’s no real […]
I have procrastinated posting this, but the boys of R.E.M. – well two of them at least – have started the process that will hopefully lead to the follow-up to Accelerate. Peter Buck and Mike Mills got together in Portland last month with Bill Rieflin and Scott McCaughey, who are basically non-voting members of the […]
Several years ago, I met some friends from across the country in Washington, D.C., to watch the U.S. National team play a World Cup qualifier. So I could fully enjoy the experience, I stayed at a downtown hotel. After the game, a bunch of us went to the hotel lounge to have some drinks. That […]
So R. E. M. has a little update on their web site. They apparently are not recording or touring in 09. I didn’t think they would tour, but thought from some stuff I read that recording was a possibility, at least the start of the process. Oh, well. Then they announce they are releasing a […]
Today marks the last day of a place very important in my life, even though I can’t remember the last time I paid it a visit. Record and Tape Traders will close its Catonsville location. If you read here regularly or know me, you understand that I love music. I can’t play it too well, […]
I didn’t intend to go a whole week between posts. Really. I have lots of stuff to write about, but just never took the time. I finished a book this week and can opine on many other topics, but this is Friday so I feel obligated to post about the latest R.E.M. news which has […]
Next week, a very special event will take place in New York as at least 20 artists gather to honor R.E.M. with a tribute concert at Carnegie Hall. This is why the baby Jesus invented things like Bit Torrent and other file sharing programs. I cannot wait to hear what takes place. The lineup is […]
Even if the news crossed the wires where you live, you might not have noticed. Randy Bewley died this week after suffering a heart attack while driving in Athens, Ga. Bewley was the co-founder and lead guitarist in the band Pylon, which inhabitated the same vibrant music scene as R.E.M. in the early 1980s. In […]