Posts Tagged R.E.M.
Archive
December 15, 2020 by Simon Sweetman
Poem: Self Pitying Hindsight IS 2020
The god-awful small affair that Bowie mentioned seems to have lasted a lifetime – this year I turned older than Billie Holiday ever did. I’ll never make as many records as Todd Rundgren could in one year. I’d never dare to try. I wrote a book and no one really had a look – or […]Archive
May 7, 2019 by Simon Sweetman
Poem: A Bed For The Night In New Plymouth After The R.E.M. Gig
We drove to New Plymouth to see R.E.M. It rained the whole way and we had no accommodation booked. We thought we’d just find something when we got there. But everyone else had a similar plan. Or had already planned. So we drove around the town trying to work out what to do – suddenly […]Archive
November 29, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
The Vinyl Countdown # 465
R.E.M., The One I Love [Single] (1987) I loved R.E.M. from when I first heard them – but that was Green and the albums that followed. It was a while before I found Document and from there went back – well, actually I received Life’s Rich Pageant early on, that was a revelation. But something […]Archive
June 14, 2017 by Simon Sweetman
Poem: Mike The Juggler
Mike The Juggler. I met him in my first year here, I was down for university. He was up for throwing tennis balls about. Full of piss I was, as was usual then, and I marvelled as the man – a throwback to some sort of carnival barker, barking mad perhaps, but hey, who’s to […]Archive
December 3, 2016 by Simon Sweetman
Pavement: The Greatest Band of the 1990s
The 1990s had several big bands that staked a claim – obviously Nirvana even though they didn’t last longer than half the decade; obviously many people will want to say Pearl Jam because they started in the 1990s and released a few albums across that decade – and carried on from there. And Smashing Pumpkins […]Archive
November 18, 2016 by Simon Sweetman
R.E.M: The Greatest Band of the 1980s
There’s been a few – well – murmurs about R.E.M lately, and Michael Stipe making the noise that he’s ready to make music again. R.E.M’s career was near-perfect really. I honestly believe that. They only made one dud album. A couple that were maybe not necessary; someone could have called their bumper-boat in 2-3 years […]Archive
November 10, 2016 by Simon Sweetman
Five Songs For Friday: # 2 – The ‘We’ve Been Trumped!’ Edition
My first Friday in a while without Oscar – his first Friday at school. Strange week this week, very strange…lots of cool things happening (I met Robert Forster, new podcast up with Charlotte Yates, got a bit of reading done – tomorrow I’m the MC at one of the LitCrawl events, one showcasing some of […]Archive
May 10, 2016 by Simon Sweetman
Radiohead: A Moon Shaped Pool
Radiohead A Moon Shaped Pool XL Recordings It’s nearly been to the detriment of the music that every Radiohead album for the last decade has been discussed as much for how it came to be – and how you found out about it – as much as there’s been any discussion of the music. Amazing, […]Archive
January 14, 2015 by Simon Sweetman
The Close Readers: The Lines Are Open
The Close Readers The Lines Are Open (Independent) The Close Readers is essentially Damien Wilkins; it’s his words, his work, his world – the line-up is flexible, he builds a band to give shape to his songs. Previously Craig Terris all but one-man-banded his way through a couple of Close Readers albums, creating the frame […]Archive
October 22, 2014 by Simon Sweetman
Lee Ranaldo and The Dust: Acoustic Dust
Lee Ranaldo and The Dust Acoustic Dust El Segell del Primavera Publishing I’ve said it before and I’ll here say it again – whatever happens with Sonic Youth it’s been pleasing hearing from Lee Ranaldo – still the improvisations and experimentation but he’s knocked out a couple of pretty great records already, song-based records that […]Archive
March 3, 2014 by Simon Sweetman