REM Really Was the Shittiest Band of the 80's and 90s

MotoGoalie · Post by **MotoGoalie** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 9:02 pm

So this alternative station I'm streaming at work plays this block of old REM and a horrible memory comes back to me. I gotta say, they have to be one of the worst bands to have come out of the 80s and 90s.
I went to UCSD in the mid 80s and they were boo'd off the stage multiple times at a 'beer' concert once. They didn't even finish the set. They sounded like shit...still do.

Amazing the crap people will listen to.

Dinsdale · Post by **Dinsdale** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 9:04 pm

MotoGoalie wrote:
Amazing the crap people will listen to.

http://www.theoneboard.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=2949

MotoGoalie · Post by **MotoGoalie** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 9:16 pm

Well, I AM going to U2. At least you can listen to that without wanting to shove a broken pencil into your eardrums.

REM is audio diarrhea.

BSmack · Post by **BSmack** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 9:32 pm

MotoGoalie wrote:I gotta say, they have to be one of the worst bands to have come out of the 80s and 90s.

You are talking about the 80s and 90s of THIS century?

The same 80s and 90s responsible for Winger, Warrant, Poison, The Goo Goo Dolls, Creed, Nickleback etc...

??????

MotoGoalie · Post by **MotoGoalie** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 9:38 pm

FOCUS, my good man.

REM is who we are hatin on right now. There's plenty of time for those other fools.

Look REM had it all;

Bad music - dull drums, depressing guitar riffs, 3 note base lines, horrible lyrics, whiny singing, poor harmony. They were the complete, one off turd band of their time.

Dinsdale · Post by **Dinsdale** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 9:39 pm

BSmack wrote: You are talking about the 80s and 90s of THIS century?

I'm kinda thinking he was talking about the last century, but whatever.

BSmack · Post by **BSmack** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 9:44 pm

Dinsdale wrote:
BSmack wrote: You are talking about the 80s and 90s of THIS century?

I'm kinda thinking he was talking about the last century, but whatever.

Fair enough. I guess I'm a 20th Century kinda guy. Give me til 2010 to shed the old century.

Moto,

There is no way in hell REM is worse than any of the thousands of butt rock bands produced in the 80s and 90s. Just because a bunch of drunk kids ata UCSD kegger booed them doesn't mean shit. In fact, it gives them back the shred of credibility they had before 1991.

MotoGoalie · Post by **MotoGoalie** » Mon Mar 14, 2005 9:53 pm

BSmack wrote: Fair enough. I guess I'm a 20th Century kinda guy. Give me til 2010 to shed the old century.

Moto,

There is no way in hell REM is worse than any of the thousands of butt rock bands produced in the 80s and 90s. Just because a bunch of drunk kids ata UCSD kegger booed them doesn't mean shit. In fact, it gives them back the shred of credibility they had before 1991.

C'mon now. Be reasonable.

WE got the Dead Milkmen.
WE got Wall of Voodoo.
Irvine Amp with Boingo on halloween...
New Order, the Cure....whatever

We got all that, but REM. It's shit, was shit, still is shit. Total shit poseur angst music.

You can't sell it any other way.

BSmack · Post by **BSmack** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 12:21 am

MotoGoalie wrote:We got all that, but REM. It's shit, was shit, still is shit. Total shit poseur angst music.

You can't sell it any other way.

But that's not what you said. You said REM was the worst band of the 80s and 90s. Sorry, I just can't roll with that. There are plenty of bands from those two decades that make REM look like the fucking Beatles.

At Large · Post by **At Large** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 2:01 am

I have a few REM albums and I admit that they're a mixed bag at best. However, I saw them 3 times in concert and they were great every time I saw them. Funny how at the sold out concerts I went to the crowd didn't boo them off the stage Must have been a off night for those guys. :roll:

scritti · Post by **scritti** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 3:20 am

they started to blow when they went to Warner Brothers...

RadioFan · Post by **RadioFan** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 4:42 am

scritti wrote:they started to blow when they went to Warner Brothers...

Was that after "Document?" That was the last album I bought by them. 1987, I think. Good record. They actually played rock then.

Funkywhiteboy · Post by **Funkywhiteboy** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 4:46 am

RadioFan wrote:
scritti wrote:they started to blow when they went to Warner Brothers...
Was that after "Document?"

It was when they lost their religion, I think. :P

MuchoBulls · Post by **MuchoBulls** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 6:47 pm

MotoGoalie wrote:WE got Wall of Voodoo.

RACK Mexican Radio

MotoGoalie · Post by **MotoGoalie** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 8:03 pm

MuchoBulls wrote:
MotoGoalie wrote:WE got Wall of Voodoo.
RACK Mexican Radio

I mean, putting Stan Ridgway into the same thread as a group of turds like REM is almost blasphemy.

No comprendo.....

Raydah James · Post by **Raydah James** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 9:44 pm

scritti wrote:they started to blow when they were all born...

Fixed.

What a bunch of pussy fucking bitches REM is.

Terrible music that makes Morriseys whining seem tough as fuck.

Rack Moto.

I'd rather listen to 'See you in Hell' by grim reaper of all bands than fucking REM.

MotoGoalie · Post by **MotoGoalie** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 10:09 pm

Raydah James wrote:
scritti wrote:they started to blow when they were all born...
Fixed.

What a bunch of pussy fucking bitches REM is.

Terrible music that makes Morriseys whining seem tough as fuck.

.

Ai'ght then. I can get with that.

At Large · Post by **At Large** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 2:56 am

I can't believe I'm having to defend REM. Like I said, not my favorite, but were really good live every time I saw them. I hate the songs Stand and Shiny Happy People (their biggest hits), but they have way more better songs than they do bad songs.

Need I nominated worse bands/artists from the 80s and 90s?

Damn Yankees
Warrant
Nelson
Roxette
Escape Club
Bananarama
Wilson Phillips
Vanilla Ice (for crying out loud, the guy got rich off of an Under Pressure ripoff!)
Winger

Those all spring to mind...

King Crimson · Post by **King Crimson** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 7:01 am

i speak not for anything after Fables.

PSUFAN · Post by **PSUFAN** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 7:05 am

REM was a great band until they started getting national mainstream attention after Document. I mean shit - they toured with The Minutemen, for Pete's sake. Unfortunately, they became so fucking bad so quickly that their good stuff is forever tainted. I still like Chronic Town a bit, but that's about it.

{edit} rack KC for beating me to the punch...

King Crimson · Post by **King Crimson** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 7:23 am

PSUFAN wrote: Unfortunately, they became so fucking bad so quickly that their good stuff is forever tainted.
.

i wish that weren't true, but it is.

still, to those of you potentially gardening at night....

MiketheangrydrunkenCUfan · Wed Mar 16, 2005 8:51 am

There was an article in Newsweek several years ago about the Beatles. It was right around the time that the Anthologies came out. The article quoted Michael Stipe as saying something like "I've never understood the Beatles. They've always sounded like elevator music to me." Not sure if that's word for word, but it was something like that. Whoever wrote the article had one of the greatest lines I've ever read when he said "Elevator music? If it weren't for the Beatles, you'd still be taking the stairs."

Classic.

REM wasn't the worst band of the 80s & 90s, but they might be the most self-important.

PSUFAN · Post by **PSUFAN** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 12:58 pm

About Stipe - one of the main reasons the band became dung was the fact that he got the balls together to start talking to people, and to make his singing voice understandable. The more he asserted himself, the worse they became, by far.

In the late 80s, I used to get some chuckles at parties by referring to folks as "Stiper than thou".

King Crimson · Post by **King Crimson** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 2:03 pm

I used to see Stipe in Nashville when they were recording Life's Rich Pag at Nashville's venerable indie club Exit/In....and REM used to play around town then under various pseudonyms like the Stingrays.....and Stipe would sit at the bar...in the open...where everyone could see him. and then complain loudly, to some imagined 3rd person audience i guess, that he didn't want to be bothered in public.

i also think Pete Buck got a little Rock Star in him as well. somehow the transition from "i don't know how to play" (the untrained natural genius) to multi-instrumentalist required some forgetting on the part of fandom. HIs playing on Murmur and REckoning is so interesting....and then it becomes conventional after that...

worst thing that happened to them was they started to take themselves seriously (up and against the myth they had created around them) and began to write conventional pop songs. kind of like the Replacements....once they started to practice, it just wasn't as fun anymore. I also lost repsect for them with the song "what the frequency Kenneth?" which is essentially a Game Theory song of nearly the same title.....and GT is given no credits on the Monster album.

it's listed as Berry/Buck/Stipe/Mills....or whatever.

Game Theory is kind of an interesting, underappreciated band that was honest about it's slavish Big Star homage--before the Star renaissance or Westerberg was writing songs about Alex Chilton. especially the darker moments on 3rd/Sister Lovers--covers of Kizza Me and another (forget) on the LP Real Nighttime. This is like 1984 maybe. Forget. good songwriting, though.

edit: the Star tune on Real Nighttime is "you can't have me". not Kizza me.

scritti · Post by **scritti** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 2:41 pm

PSUFAN wrote:REM was a great band until they started getting national mainstream attention after Document. I mean shit - they toured with The Minutemen, for Pete's sake. Unfortunately, they became so fucking bad so quickly that their good stuff is forever tainted. I still like Chronic Town a bit, but that's about it.

{edit} rack KC for beating me to the punch...

they didn't call Stipe "Uncle Mumbles" for nothing...

MotoGoalie · Post by **MotoGoalie** » Wed Mar 16, 2005 7:40 pm

You guys are good!

I'm still of the opinion that everything they did was ass, but at least you guys know the genre and the history. I'm in awe.

T1B

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