U Talkin’ U2 To Me? - R U Talkin' R.E.M. RE: ME? - Fanclub Singles (1999-2011)

Episode Date: August 29, 2018

Adam Scott Aukerman are back again to discuss R.E.M.’s Fan Club Singles (minus the Christmas songs) from 1999-2011. They’ll open up the R.E.M. mail bag, hear about Adam’s new business, and check out a few previously omitted R.E.M collabs before diving into part two of their adventure through the Fan Club Singles.

From Chronic to Collapse, Town and Into, respectively, that is. This is Are You Talking R.E.M. ReMe, the comprehensive and encyclopedia compendium of all things R.E.M. This is good. What is this? This is good rock and roll music. Yeah. Love that song, huh? What if that ended up being our number one R.E.M. song just because of this show?

Love it. Welcome to the show. This is a very special episode of Are You Talking R.E.M., Remy? It's the sequel to our previous episode that dealt with the fan club singles of R.E.M. Today we are going to be discussing R.E.M.'s fan club singles of REM. Today we are going to be discussing REM's fan club singles. Every year they would put out a single that they would mail to their, you know how the mail works, I don't need to describe it for you, but they would send this out to their fan club and we're going to be discussing, we left off in 98 last time, we're going to be discussing their fan club and we're going to be discussing we left off in 98 last time we were going to be discussing

their fan club singles from 1999 through 2011 when apparently they discontinued not only the band but their fan club. That's weird. You would think they would keep the fan club going. People can still be fans. Not only the fan club but the tradition of

making fan club singles. Yeah, you think like, but the tradition of making fan club singles. Yeah, you think like, okay, we're not a band anymore. Let's get together once a year and do a dick around single. Let's get together and work for a couple days. Do you think they really spent a couple of days on these things? You're trying desperately to figure out how to open that. I believe it goes from the top down. I had it open.

Yeah, it's like, but yeah, just tear that away. I don't want to there you go no there you go uh welcome to the show uh my name is scott ackerman we were referring to my pants just from the top down this is literally that's all you gotta do just unbuckle that do that little button at the top from the top, they just come right down. I was wondering how these things worked. There you go. Now you're in your tighty-whities. Oh, finally. Welcome to the show. Scott Aukerman here. And across from me, of course, is my co-host with the mo-host. Hey!

Yeah. What's up? Why are you so far away now? Scott. Adam, you... Are you... Scott. Are you you... Are you... Scott. Are you down the street now? I'm across town. What?

How did you get across town so quickly? Can you hear me? Let me send a car for you. Can I send a car for you? Lyft, please. Lyft, not Uber? Yes. What is it?

Is it Elon Musk? What do you have against Uber? I'm totally neutral. I just like their logo. You like Lyft? What about the pink mustaches? Are you sad they got rid of them? Yes.

Okay, I'll try to find one with a pink mustache. Thanks, guys. Any specific car you need? Like type of car? Toyota Tercel. Okay, so I'll find a Toyota Tercel. All right, let me get into this app. Lyft.

Is that L-Y-F-T? I think so. All right. And sending. Oh, look. Okay, it looks like there's three drivers in his area across town. Yeah. I need a ride.

Okay, I'm sending one to you. Thanks. You're across town, right? I'm across town. Okay, let me put in the address here. 1122 Boogie Woogie Avenue. Scott. Yeah, Adam.

Just to get more specific, I'm at 1122 Boogie Woogie Avenue. Wait, that's where we're at! What? We're at 1122 Boogie Woogie Avenue. Hold on! Hey. Oh, hey! I wasn't across town.

Oh, wait, you were just over there. Do you ever get that feeling that you're across town? And then you're like, oh, wait a second. Wait a minute. I'm not across town. I'm just literally in the corner of the room. I'm right here. Yeah, sometimes I do.

I look out the window. I go, wow, I'm across town. Am I across town? New York City, just like I pictured it. And then you're like, wait a second. Wait a second. I haven't gone anywhere. I'm here.

I'm here. Good shit. What are we talking about? Oh, the fan club singles. Yeah. Yeah, we're going to be talking about oh the fan club singles yeah yeah we're gonna be talking about all those also um as has been pointed out uh over and over on twitter over and over we missed by the way i missed you missed it and people keep sending this to me and i almost want to write back

yeah i wasn't in charge of the music this week uh missed some big big collabs on Collabs Into Now. Glaring emissions. But, at the same, I, we did kind of put a little bit of an asterisk

next to the episode saying, Yeah, we couldn't get to the mall. Yeah. But there was a couple glaring emissions, I have to admit.

we talked about the replacements last episode. Uh-huh. The end. But there's, like, a Billy Bragg that was a single with them in the video that I was really into. Do you want to get to these? Is that what you're saying?

I don't care. We're also going to do, we're going to open up the old mailbag. Oh, there's a mailbag here? People have been sending us some stuff, and this is the last episode we can read mail. So please do not send us any more unless they're gifts. episode we can read mail so please do not send us any more unless they're gifts wait is there a a decree from on high that we cannot read mail from here on out no i just don't i think next week is probably our last episode i think and maybe for a while at least and uh we i don't think we want to waste time reading mail on that i I don't know. I like it when people send us mail.

It's nice. Well, sure. Send us mail. I'm just saying. How about send me mail? I guess is what. I guess what I'm saying is ever since we started reading mail on the show, we've gotten a massive influx of mail. Because people want to hear their name on the show.

That's true. And we will no longer be reading the mail on the air is what I'm trying to say. I understand. But please send us mail. Yeah. I'm also eating something, so if you could take over a little bit of the talking here for a second. Well, should I play these songs we omitted?

Yeah. Or accidentally left out? Accidentally? Accidentally on purpose. Why is that ringing a bell for me right now? Accidentally on purpose. Nancy Travis and... You ever meet Nancy Travis?

Pat Travis. The whole Travis family. All the Travises. Never met Nancy Travis, but I know she was on Accidentally on Purpose maybe was a movie with Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Pollack. Let's check this out.

Engineer Cody Ryan over here. Or a sitcom with Nancy Travis. Oh, I bet it was a sitcom. Accidentally on purpose. That's ringing a bell to me. Okay. Yeah. But who's the man in it, along with Nancy Travis?

The important character? Yeah. Who's, okay, first of all, look up who's the man. Yeah. The most important of all questions. I'm saying just literally in Google type, who's the man? Who is the man? What if it came back, someone just saying, you da man.

Okay, what do we got? I'll allow you to be on mic this one time. Okay. Wow. This is exciting. I'm on the edge of my seat. Listen to the charisma in this voice, by the way. On the edge of my seat. Listen to the charisma in this voice, by the way. The man is a slang phrase that may refer to the government or to some other authority in a position of power. Okay, great.

It's weird that they didn't immediately answer our question about accidentally on purpose. I bet that's number two, but we only have time to read whatever the first result in Google is. And then accidentally on purpose. What did you want to know about it again? What is it? It was a sitcom with Jenna Elfman and John Foster. result in Google is. Okay. Okay. And then accidentally on, what did you want to know about it again? What is it? What is it is? It was a sitcom with Jenna Elfman and John Foster.

John Foster? Jenna Elfman and John Foster. I was way off. I know who Jenna Elfman is. I believe it's Danny Elfman's sister-in-law. Yeah.

But John Foster? John Foster. It sounds familiar. Hey, what about just finding out what the Nancy Travis sitcom was called? That's good. And maybe there wasn't a guy in it.

Maybe it was just the Nancy Travis. Maybe it was just her alone. It would be better than a show with her and having to deal with male storylines. Just write stories for Nancy Travis. Yeah, exactly. Okay, what do we got? Type in, okay, here's the fewest words possible to get a result. I think

Nancy? You gotta put Nancy in. Just Nancy, I think, might do it. Just do Nancy, and we'll see whatever the first result is. Okay, there's a Wikipedia page for Nancy. Oh, this is just where it has Nancy France. The disambiguation

or whatever? Yeah. Nancy France. The disambiguation or whatever? Yeah, Nancy Kentucky. Oh. Hmm. What if you were like, where are you from? You're like, Nancy. Nancy, of course. That would be cool to just say that out loud.

Yeah, like I'm from Nancy. Yeah. That's where I grew up. Can you imagine saying Nancy that many times if your name wasn't Nancy or you didn't have a daughter named Nancy or what if your name was Nancy Nancy Nancy wait wait wait let me break this down you're asking me what if your name was Nancy Nancy Nancy Nancy Nancy okay so three Nancys so if your last name was Nancy and your mom and dad thought it was pretty funny to call you Nancy Nancy for your first and middle name. First and middle name Nancy.

And then your last name Nancy. You grew up in Nancy. In Nancy. And also the United States is called the United States of Nancy. So what if that? Yeah. I love it. I'm on board.

You'd be saying Nancy quite a bit. What about Nancy Comics? Do we got any of those on there? Have you been reading Nancy Comics lately? Nancy Drew? No, the Nancy, the comic strip Nancy. It's been really good lately, right? Because the new writer took over.

Yeah, they've been shredding it up lately. No, it's honestly been really, really good. You're not familiar, but look up Nancy Comics. Well, wait, let's find out hold on wait wait wait i gotta go no but we gotta find it is did nancy travis pop up when you just googled nancy uh not when i googled nancy but i what have you googled googled nancy travis and so she did pop up when you googled nancy travis that's good and she was in Last Man Standing is that the one you were thinking of

oh the the Tim Allen show I think yeah oh yeah I believe she was on a sitcom like in the 90s yes can you

can you just get her filmography for us that would be great too just to remember the movies yeah she was in a lot of movies yeah Married to the Mob

as I recall Duckman oh Duckman you say well yeah Duckman first and foremost she was in a lot of movies yeah married to the mob as i recall oh duck man you say well yeah duck man first and foremost she was in duck man yeah of course almost perfect oh that's that might be what wait but is was that jamie lee curtis as well almost perfect no i think that's nancy travis but the man in it i believe and don't tell me they have very similar male But the man in it, I believe, and don't tell me. They have very similar male first name, last names.

Who? Jamie Lee Curtis and Nancy Travis. Yeah, they rhyme, first of all. Yeah. Those two names. Perfectly. Yeah. Iambic pentameter-wise.

Yeah. They measure out. But they're like you. They have a male first name as their last name. That's true. You know? Yes. Mm-hmm.

What did your forefathers do? Were they from Scotland? Is that why you have the name Scott? What is it? I wonder. Do you not know these things? Yes, Scotland. It's from Scotland.

Because usually it has to do with whatever their job was. Oh, well, yeah, they happen to be from Scotland, from the Macintosh clan. Okay. Did someone change their name along the way? Like just whittling it down finally to Scott? Was it longer ever? Do you know any of these kind of things? All right.

But Nancy- You ever do a 23andMe? Yeah. What do you got down there? It's interesting. What do I got down there? What do you got swimming around in those balls? Wait, I can't let this-

I have to know. You gotta know what? Almost Perfect is the sitcom from like 96, 97. Who's in that? Is that the right date? 95, 96, 97? Yeah, 95 to 97, yeah. Okay, and the male on that show,

the male lead was Patrick... What if it turns out to be you? And you're just like... Wait, what? He has to compliment you and you're just like, wait, what? He has to compliment you. Was it the guy from Dallas? Patrick? Not Ewing.

No. Patrick Ewing from Dallas. Oh, wait. I'm thinking of the wrong name. Patrick Duffy is who you're thinking of. Patrick Duffy. No? Nope.

Don't keep us in suspense. Chip Zien and Matt Letcher. What? I don't know those guys. Who are these people? Okay. Chip Zine, if you're out there, and Matt Letcher? First of all, Chip Zine, he has the name of...

Oh, he was Howard the Duck. He was the voice. Okay. And he was the dude on almost... Perfect. Now, you're cheating because you're looking up something on your phone, Adam. Yeah. Because you're not getting the answers quick enough from Ryan.

How do you think that makes Ryan feel? We've asked Ryan to look up all these things. He's been dutifully turning down his mic in between answers. I thought for sure the husband from Almost Perfect was someone from like 80s hour-long drama. But it was essentially the Nancy Travis show and then they kind of

cast her out. And you got Chip Zine involved. Sure, you got the Zine backing her up. The Zine man. So yeah, so interesting. We got to get those episodes and watch them. Yeah, and do the next show we do should We got to get those episodes and watch them.

Yeah, and the next show we do should be about all of those episodes. Almost perfect. Because it sounds like it was three seasons, is that correct? Or two seasons? I would say one and a half, two. One and a half, two. So, how many episodes, Ryan, and don't you look it up, Adam, because this is what Ryan's for. How many episodes in total are we going to be doing?

Okay, there is... We don't need the preamble. Just say the number. It's 24 in season one. Wow. All right. All right. Put on a pot of coffee.

10 in season two. Wow, was I right about one and a half seasons? Wait, 34. Did I say four? Oh. You said 32. You said 24 in 10. Yeah. And then you said 32.

That's okay. All right. All right. So 34 episodes. That's good. Yeah. And we should do two episodes per episode of television just because it'll take a while to break them up. Yeah, exactly.

So we'll be doing 64, no, 68 episodes. 68 episodes. 68 episodes. Okay. that'll be over a year almost perfect yeah why not yeah okay i've never seen it me neither you've never seen it how do you know so much about it because i remember it being around from the tv guy i'm sure i auditioned for a guest spot on it at some point you ever do one of those cast photos and tv guy remember those like and i would see them when I would go to NBC or whatever when I had writing deals.

And they would line the hallways with these, like, cast photos that would be, and they would always be in the TV Guide

whenever you'd receive the fall preview one. And it would always be like, you ever, were you ever in one of those? Totally. They do those when you make a pilot,

whether it gets picked up or not. So they have those for, or at least least the pilots I made, they did that. And so you're in this, they call them the gallery shoot, and you're doing the gallery shoot, and it all feels really fancy, and you're like, oh, we are getting picked up. I mean, check this out. But you've also just met these people that you're supposed to be all chummy with.

Yeah, yeah. Hey, look up Nancy cartoons now. You've also just met these people that you're supposed to be all chummy with. Yeah, yeah. Hey, look up Nancy cartoons now. You're not going to distract me from Nancy cartoons. Nancy cartoons are hitting their stride right now. Yeah, they are. Do you have today's or what are you? Okay.

17th? Yeah. Yeah. What do we got? Don't say the 17th because this isn't coming out on the 17th. Today's. Well, they'll be able to figure it out. Okay.

All right, fucking Sherlock Holmes. So Nancy is saying to her friend, I don't know what her friend's name is. Sluggo maybe? Is it Sluggo? I can't remember. It's a girl with kind of a punk looking haircut. Like a punk looking haircut? Yeah. Okay.

Nancy says, I missed you while I was away. Did you miss me? And her friend says, I was pretty busy hanging out with my other friends. And then it says, earlier. She's looking at an empty chair. Oh, no, there's a can of soup in the chair. And she says, what do you think the answer is, can't see? Yeah.

I mean, see, that's, it's like peak Nancy right now. I actually think it's better than that maybe. Wait how can you get better than that? What do you mean? I read one yesterday that I thought was very clever. Wait so do you you get the newspaper delivered? No I don't. I read an article I believe it's about Nancy about how the person who originally did it, and it was pretty square when they originally did it, passed on, I believe. Passed on what?

Passed on doing a multi-episode arc on Friends. I get it. But I believe that person's descendant took over doing the strip, and now it's modernized and very clever and surreal sometimes, and people are upset about it. I don't remember the comic strip at all. It's a little girl, I believe, with maybe a bow in her hair. Does she have a bow in her hair?

Yes. Oh, right. Okay, read this one for us. It's like an old-fashioned. It's very old-fashioned, but now they're writing it with a modern flair, and older people are upset because it's like, I don't understand these references anymore.

How could you get upset about a comic strip in any way? How can anyone get upset about Star Wars? How can anyone get upset about anything? Alright, read today's Nancy. Or whatever one you have up there. This was yesterday's. Alright, so people are going to be able to figure out when we tape this episode. Okay, go ahead.

Nancy's holding a notebook and she says, a blank notebook holds so much potential. And then it's a panel of her holding the book open. There's empty pages. She says, just think of this. Wait, just think of the brilliant thoughts this page will someday hold and all the doodles that will go on every single other page.

That's it. What? That's it. Oh, think of all the. Oh, she's it. What? That's it. Oh, think of all the Oh, she's saying, think of all the Are you sure there's not like one more panel? One more panel that you're No, I think the joke is she's saying think of all the brilliant thoughts that are going to be in this journal

and then think of all the doodles that are going to be on every other page. Is that what she's saying? Yeah, I think that's the joke. By the way, can you read these beforehand to yourself silently so that you don't bungle the cold read on these? I'm not sure that it's Ryan's interpretation that's ruining these. Do one more.

Do one more. Razor sharp comic strips. That's better, though, than your normal drabble. I don't know. Is it? Maybe. All right. One more.

Okay. All right. Now read it to yourself silently, and we'll watch you. So you understand it, and you can sell it. Okay. He's pointing at it. Okay. He's got it.

Okay. He's got it. All right. Now really hit us. All right. I really want you to sell this. All right. This time I'm going to do it.

Nancy's walking with her friend. She's asking her friend, why memorize anything anymore? We can look up everything we need online. Her friend says, you're right. Ingenuity really is more important than knowledge these days. Nancy replies, yes, exactly. Meanwhile, is typing into her phone. What does ingenuity mean?

Definition. Not bad. It's not bad. Yeah, that's at least discernible as far as like a joke goes, right? Well, it's not like that. Or maybe I just wasn't really listening to the other ones.

It's entirely possible. It's not like the other cartoon that Nick Weiger was showing me where they've gone crazy, where they don't make any sense anymore. It's Heathcliff, I believe, now doesn't make any sense anymore, right? Oh, really? Yeah, like there are certain recurring jokes't make any sense anymore. It's Heathcliff, I believe now doesn't make any sense anymore, right? Oh, really? Yeah. Like they, they, there are certain recurring jokes

that make no sense that, that Weiger I think is fascinated with. I was working with him recently and he showed me a whole bunch of them and they're, they're just bizarre. My son has gotten into the Farside. Oh, great. That's, it's so fun. The band, the Farside. Oh, great. It's so fun. The band, the Farside. Yeah, the Farside. PH? Yeah. Yeah, those are great. It's so fun reading

the books that all the band members wrote. You got Fat Lip. Yep. Is there a guy in that band named Fat Lip? I believe Fat Lip

is from the Farside. Can you look up his fat, just look up Fat Lip. So we're doing the podcast on Farside, the band. And we will also read cartoons from the Gary Larson Farside as we listen to the music. To the tune of their biggest hits.

Yes, of course. And then we're doing the podcast on Almost Perfect. The first thing that shows up is a Sum 41 song. Okay, you put a space in between fat and lip, I think, is the issue here. Let me try it. One word. All right, try one word and we'll see. I do want to hear that song, though.

The Farside song? The Sum 41 song. Oh, yeah. Do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do. Is that Fatlip? Is that Fatlip? Yeah, I think so. I didn't know that.

Yeah, one word, Fat Lip musician, Los Angeles-born hip-hop musician, started his career in the hip-hop group Farside. Great. Yeah. And what is the Farside's biggest hit, according to that whatever website you happen to be on? It's Wikipedia. Is Gary Larson in the band? Just to be clear, he's the DJ in the band? Yeah, he was sort larson in the band just to be clear he's i think he was the dj in

the band yeah he was sort of like the in the mighty mighty bostones the guy who would dance oh okay he's he's like they have like a 64 year old guy dancing what does gary larson look like i don't know but i heard that like for a while he did stand-up what someone told me that recently i wasn't aware of that yeah it's either disappointing, meaning like, was he famous already and he started doing stand-up like, I'm going to branch out? After he finished the Farsight. But I don't know if that's true. But then didn't he start another comic strip eventually? I don't know.

Why start anything else? Farsight was perfect. But maybe you just run out of ideas. How many of those could you really do? I mean, so many. He did so many. What percentage are good? Like high?

Is it high? Is it like, you mean reading it now? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's incredibly high. How do you do that? I don't know, but those big,

like, anthology books, we have like three of those where it's like the entire year. You're miming all of this. It's really brilliant. Well, you're like, I really feel the weight

of these books. I wasn't sure if you knew what a book was. I think I do. Okay. Can you look up book? Seriously, Google book and let's just see what happens. Let's just see whatever the first book that comes up, be it the Bible or John Book, Harrison Ford's character from Witness. Sure.

His name was John Book. Because wait, he was a cop and he would book suspects? Yeah, and he loved reading books. You ever notice how, like, most of the TV detectives from the 70s and the 60s— I'm just going to say yes. They're all named after guns. It's true. In the 80s, Remington Steele.

Yeah. Who else you got? Mike Hammer. Yeah. Well, that's part of the gun, the hammer. Yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah. You got Bill Trigger. Yeah. Well, that's part of the gun. The hammer. That's what I mean. Yeah. You got Bill Trigger.

Yep. James AK-47. You got Persephone Explosion. Yep. All right. What do we have for book? Do you want the top stories or the top links that showed up? I don't want a real Sophie's Choice here.

Let's just read a link, I don't think. Yeah, what do we want? What do you think we want? I think you want the link, which would be the Wikipedia page for book. No, we don't want that. Okay, so the first top story is, this simple change made it easier than ever for me to complete my reading list. Yeah, I see that's the kind of stuff I'm looking for.

Yes. When I say I don't know what a book is, I want that. Thank you. Thank you. Finally. Oh, boy. All right, so we have determined Nancy is great. Nancy Travis has a great sitcom we're going to be doing a show about.

And now I believe, what do you want to do first, mail or your stuff? Why don't we do mail? Yeah, let's do mail first. Let's do mail. Okay, let's open up. Sorry, did we Google just the word mail yet? Yeah, we should look up the word mail. Both spellings, please.

The first thing that shows up for mail, mail, mail is mail.com. Mail.com. Mail.com. Yeah. Okay. I prefer stamps.com, but hey, to each their own. Is mail.com a postage type service or is it an email service? That's my question. Yeah.

It's an email service. It's an email service. So people need help with mail these days. Where do I send email? Now look up M-A-L-E. Do you have any people i can send email to look up mail.com m-a-l-e and see what pops up literally okay mail.com yeah yeah um advertise on mail.com your personal email and news what not mail.com what wait you wanted mail.com

m-a-l-e.com oh m-a-l-e oh oh sorry oh god mailed now for the first time ever mail.com is available you can stake your claim to this highly recognizable and easy to brand piece of internet we gotta get this we gotta get this. We got to get this. No matter what. Okay. Look, I'm not reading. We got to get this by the time that this episode drops. Yeah.

Because if, if this goes out without us securing it, everyone's going to have it literally, whatever it takes. I want mail.com. Like whatever it takes. Let's just give him a blank check. Yes. Get us mail. No, whatever it takes let's just give him a blank check yes get us mail.com

no honestly like tell Kevin tell whoever is out there we want mail.com by the time that this comes out and we want it to be the RU Talk at REM

website okay or we walk or we fucking walk Squarespace can do the website whatever we need. I mentioned two sponsors who don't even sponsor the show.

I know. But whatever it takes, I want mail.com. Okay. I'm emailing Kevin right now. Let us know how much it is. Let us know how much the company pays for it. I like how I slipped that in there, so I'm not doing it personally. Whatever it takes, though, we need this.

Whatever it takes. We need mail.com. All right. Speaking of mail.com, let's read some, let's open up the old mailbag. What do you say? Okay. Okay. We've been getting a lot of letters and a lot of gifts,

so let's talk about it. Oh, this comes to us from Nate. He works for Saddle Creek, a record label based out of Omaha, Nebraska. A bunch of great stuff. Sent us a ton of great stuff sent us a ton of great records they're known for Bright Eyes Cursive

and The Faint in recent years they've released albums by Big Thief Land of Talk Hop Along Rural Alberta Advantage

and they sent us just a giant box full of records we got Hop Along I think Jason mentioned them last week. Yeah, and then we opened it. And then we opened it. Records from them. Yeah, and they

were all there. So this was great. Thank you so much. And sent a really nice long handwritten letter. So thanks to Nate from Saddle Creek. No question. Appreciate that. One of the best labels out there.

Definitely. Always putting out great stuff. I don't know why they don't have REM. That seems like an oversight. Yeah. But, you know, better luck next time. Maybe we make that happen right now. Yeah, well, I mean, honestly, okay, we haven't talked about this in a minute.

Okay. REM, if you're listening, and we know you are. Look. We know you have a Google search. I know that you probably got very excited when Ariana Grande released her song R.E.M. Is it about the band, right? Oh, definitely. Yeah, it's a lot like Unseen Power of the Picket Fence by Pavement.

She seems like she would be pretty into R.E into two things pete davidson and ariane um but uh we know you have a google search so we know you're listening here are our demands okay and this has not happened by our final episode at this point, but I'm not giving up hope. I mean, it will happen at some point. It will happen at some point. It's just like when or whatever. We need you to reform. Right. That's number one.

That's non-negotiable. Okay. Like if that doesn't happen, things are going to go bad. Yeah. Things are going to go south from there. Yeah. Need you to reform. All four members are going to go south from there. Yeah. Need you to reform all four members. Bill Barry is part of this,

or else this isn't going to work. Right. This ain't going to work, REM, if Bill Barry ain't involved. Right. Even though Bill Rieflin is incredible. Sure, Joey Warnaker. You keep saying Warnaker, by the way. I think it's Warnaker, isn't it?

Warnaker. Warnaker, is saying Warnaker by the way I think it's Warnaker isn't it Warnaker Warnaker is that how it is it's definitely there's an O before the N I think yeah Warnaker

Warnaker Warnaker Warnaker what was I saying Warnaker Warnaker Warnaker Warnaker

that's cool Elvis Costello that's another potential yeah he's great anyway look they're all great Veronica! That's cool. Elvis Costello, that's another potential podcast. Yeah, he's great. Anyway, look, they're all great, but we need the four. We need the classic four or else bye-bye. Yeah.

We're going to turn you away at the door. Yeah. Can you just imagine them? Hi, guys. We're here. We're here. We open up the door. It's the three of them, and we're like, hey, where's Bill?

Bill couldn't make it. Slam. You know what? Bill's running just a little late. Slam. No. No deal. No REM.

No dice. That's a lot like what Nora Dunn wanted on SNL. No dice. Okay. Nora Dunn wanted on SNL. No dice. Okay. So we need you guys to play a backyard barbecue

at one of our houses. Whose house do you think is better for it? Well, I mean, our backyard is in kind of weird shape right now, but soon, you know, we'll be ready. Ours could be good. We got the

nice long driveway for it now yeah so back a couple trucks in yeah they're gonna have equipment sure we know maybe lights smoke machines we have a nice long driveway now so you can get your tour bus on there the smoke machines the uh the the false bottom of the stage yeah the trap door for when you guys like disappear right like the you know during end of the world, the trap door for when you guys like disappear, right? Like the, you know, during End of the World, as we know it, the rest of the band drops through when he goes, Leonard Bernstein. And they all just, they're gone. And he just goes, Leonard Bernstein.

And then Leonard Bernstein, the hologram of Leonard Bernstein. And then you hear, da-da-da-da-da, from West Side Story. I mean, all the- Is that Leonard Bernstein? All the REM fans already know all this, but we're just going through it. That's...

I think Leonard Bernstein did West Side Story. Stephen Sondheim did the lyrics. I know that. Anna Bernstein did it. Ryan, what do you got? Ba-na-na-na-na. Ba-na-na-na-na-na-na. I'm looking.

I'm looking. Ba-na-na-na-na-na-na. Dun-dun. Boy'm looking. I'm looking. Ba-na-na-na-na-na-na. Dun-dun. Boy. Boy. Crazy. Boy. Stay cool, boy.

Did I tell you that? Gotta rock. Yep. Let me break this thing. Thank you. Did I just watch that movie for the first time? I think we talked about it maybe last week. On the show?

I believe we did. Oh, okay. And how'd you like it, by the way? It's an incredible movie. Oh, we talked about Romeo and Juliet and all that? Yeah. Okay. The Immortal Bard. Juliet and all that? Yeah. Okay. The Immortal Bard.

Yes, William Shakespeare. Yeah. So, okay, that's non-negotiable. We want you to play two sets, two 90-minute sets. They have to be different songs. All our requests. All of our requests. You can probably repeat a closer.

That's about it, it though we want them to be different also kira sedgwick uh the closer yes is and tom selick needs to get involved both of them are coming out kira sedgwick introducing set one tom selick set two and then also non-negotiable also non-negotiable we need at the end of the show we we need you to replace some of the lyrics of It's the End of the World, as you know it, to be Kira Sedgwick, Tom Selleck. They rhyme. So that's, you know. The other night I dreamt of knives, continental driftified, mountain sit in a line, Kira Sedgwick, Tom Selleck. And then it's Leonard Breznev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bang's birthday party cheesecake, jelly bean, Tom Selleck and then it's Leonard Breznev Lenny Bruce

and Lester Bang's birthday party cheesecake jelly bean Tom Selleck Tom Selleck exactly and we want both of them

to come out from either side of the stage and we'll I mean I'll do a makeshift stage it'll probably be some milk crates

with like some some you know wood on top some two by fours or something well Tom Selleck has his own like special effects team that he travels with.

We want them to come out from opposite ends of the stage while you guys are on and they need to look at each other like, what are you? You're the close. No, you're the close. And then they look out and smile and say, two closers, guys. Two hands up. Just a little bit of visual description here. When Scott said, two closers, guys.

His hands are up in the air as if to say, oh, well. Who could have expected this? Yeah. And then everyone applauds, standing ovation. Yeah. And then you guys launch back into the song. But before you launch back into the song, we need two full minutes of silence. Yes.

For whatever's going on. For whatever is happening. We don't want to predict whatever's happening whatever month. Something for sure will be going on. Yeah, definitely.

And that's all we need. That's all we need. And we like- But each set is at least 100 minutes long. Oh, 100. Yeah, I was going to say 90, but 100 is better. 100 minutes. Because it's a nice- It's a round number. It's a round number. Oh, 100, yeah. I was going to say 90, but 100 is better.

100 minutes. Because it's a nice... It's a round number. It's a round number. You can divide into it. So if we're saying each song is five minutes. We want two minute songs.

Oh, two minute songs. We want you to play the songs fast. That's the other thing. Yeah, like your longest song is probably Leave from New Adventures, right? Probably, yeah. I think it's like seven minutes.

We need you to play it three times as fast, so it's two minutes long. But the full song, just super fast. Yes, exactly. Don't cut out any verses. Don't cut out any instrumental parts. No, no, no, no, no. But two minutes. That's how long we need it.

Non-negotiable. Non-negotiable. So anyway, guys, that's what we need from you. And hopefully it'll happen by next week, because next week, I believe, is our final episode. Yeah, that would be great. That would be great. Thanks, guys, that's what we need from you, and hopefully it'll happen by next week because next week, I believe, is our final episode. Yeah, that would be great. That would be great. Thanks, guys. All right.

Continuing in the mailbag, we have Adam Miller sent us something under the nom de plume of Carlson Jr. Sent us a nice little trophy for best domestic REM-themed podcast. I don't know why you got to throw domestic in there. Why so many qualifiers? Multiple host category. Oh, another qualifier. Second quarter of 2018. This is a lot.

Second quarter? Yeah. Oh, and wait, you won, Adam Quadrero. Can I say that? Yeah. It's not even to me. It's actually Cordero. Oh, is it Cordero?

It's not a big deal, but just pronounce itero. Oh, is it Cordero? Not a big deal, but just like pronounce it right. Well, thank you to Adam for that. Wow. This is, I mean, you definitely spent upwards of $2 on that. So thank you so much. This is the most qualified of honors I've ever seen. Yes, exactly. Best Domestic REM-themed podcast, multiple host category, second quarter 2018, Adam Cordero.

And I didn't even co-win it. You're the winner of it. You're the sole winner. This will be displayed prominently. All right. Who sent this to us? Adam Miller. Adam Miller, thank you.

Do you have one as I lean over to pick up another one? I have a letter here. Let's see here. This letter is from Rachel Gillingham. Oh, cool. I think she's written to us before. Yeah.

Dear Scott, comma, Adam, thank you so very much for taking this. Do you think she's saying just you? Dear Scott, comma, Adam, as in like, oh, yeah, put your finger wherever you left off. As if this is a letter from an insurance company. Yeah, dear Scott, Adam. No, she probably means both of us. Okay. I'm going to start again.

Dear Scott, Adam, thank you so very much for taking the time during your show on the Man on the Moon episode to read my letter. I can't tell you how much that meant to me so i just wanted to show you my appreciation by writing you this thank you letter also wait a minute hold your place holding my place are we going to get into a big cycle here where now we've read this one and she's going to write us another one like we don't have time to read all of these letters this is the end of it that's not what this is about okay good uh okay i'm gonna start again dear scott no i'm not gonna do that uh by writing news thank you letter also to say That's not what this is about. Okay, good. Okay, I'm going to start again. Dear Scott. No, I'm not going to do that.

By writing this thank you letter, also to say thank you for all you do for your fans and how you take the time during the show to read the letters and to say hi to them. You're both very kind. I really appreciate... There's no punctuation here. It's all one sentence.

Oh, cool. I appreciate all you do. That's how Christopher Walken likes to mark up his scripts. Apparently, I read an interview with him. He gets rid of all the punctuation. He literally gets rid of all punctuation because he thinks that's like an acting

note from the writer to him and he doesn't want them. So he gets rid of all periods, all commas, all like, you know. Hyphens. All hyphens, all anything that's like a parenthetical, like bravely or, you know, he gets rid of all of that so he can just like say the words however they come out. I'm kind of the opposite of that. I need.

Extra punctuation. Adjectives and verbs written in front of every line. Every word almost. Yes. So if it says the, you need like a brave way. Yeah. Yeah. The.

Then frightened cat. Cat. Okay, can I continue? It's almost done. Mm-hmm. How you take the time during the show to read the letters and to say hi to them. You're both very kind. I really appreciate all you do for your fans.

So thank you to you. Both enjoy your summer. Hello to you and Adam. But she wrote my – she said dear Scott, Adam, but she said hello to you and Adam. Maybe this is a play on how you would say hello to your fans, which, by the way, you haven't done in a long time, I have to say, and they are hungry for it. Sincerely, Rachel Gillingham. Hello, Rachel, one of our biggest fans, I believe.

Yeah, and thank you for thanking us. We appreciate it. Yes, but it ends now. Don't send another letter. We're not going to read another letter. This has got to be the cutoff. If she does, we have to read it. I know.

So that's why I'm saying please don't send us another letter it's got it this has got to be the cutoff if she does we have to read it i know but please so that's why i'm saying please don't send us another letter because we will be forced to read it if you send one but she's sending this from don't give away your address i'm not okay from but is it out of the country i believe it is oh wow great all right i have I have one. Oh, no, it's not. You seemed like you were sort of beautiful-minding, like, Sherlocking here, where, like, stuff was appearing. Wait a minute. She's sending this from. Oh. It's down the street. Did you think it was across town? That would be a great, like, two-minute episode of Sherlock.

Oh. No, no, never mind. Never mind. I was Sherlocking for a second. Okay, this comes to us from Corey Stage. Corey sent us a nice letter and then also sent us a laser disc copy of the Jeff Bridges, Tommy Lee Jones movie,

Blown Away, because it features two songs by U2, and they discuss the band U2 in a scene. What? Yeah. And he also sends us the cassette tape of Stain's Break the Cycle. Wow.

So you can listen to it in your paseo, it says. That's great. So thank you to- Can I see Paseo, it says. That's great. Can I see the blown away Laserdisc? Yep. Here you go. I went to see this in the movie theater, I remember. Did you? Yeah, I sure did.

And Lloyd Bridges is in it as well, as well as Forrest Whitaker. This was a big movie in the summer of 94 if i'm not mistaken for you i think that is prime movie going years well i had had one of my first auditions in town was an audition with jeff bridges where i read opposite him did you have like the titular line of, I gotta tell you, I am blown away? No, it wasn't for this movie. It was for Wild Bill. And it was one of my first auditions. Who were you playing?

His son. Stupid Joe? Yeah. It was his son that was out of control. Every single character in this movie has an adjective before a regular name. All right, so if you- Anyway, I didn't get the role.

David Arquette got it. David Arquette got it, yeah. Cool. He's a nice dude, right? But I was, wow, 40 bucks for a LaserDisc. That's how much they would charge for this. Can you imagine spending $40 on a film? Yeah, 1994, that's when this came out.

I mean, when you think about it, that's like two tickets to it. If you go see it at the Arclight. To see Blown Away? Or any film, you know? So $40 to own one is like a better value. We should watch this together. Okay. This comes to us from, this is great jason baxter who's in a and r publicity

and social media at hardly art records um and he sent us a big box of uh records and cds from hardly art he says that uh everyone at hardly art are big fans of the show, have been listening since the You Talking U2 to Me days. They are a subsidiary of the Sub Pop label. And some of the bands on the roster love the show. And Dude York like to listen to the show on long drives between stops on tour. Awesome. And Chastity Belt are friends of Edgar, who was on the show. Oh, yeah.

And so sent us a lot of records. So thank you so much. That's great. So a lot of stuff for us to listen to. And you have one last one over here, right? Yeah, this is from a guy named Chris Bickley. He's writing us from across the pond. Bickley.

Do you know what I mean when I say across the pond? Like in Minnesota? Yeah, there are a series of ponds in the United States, and I'm not sure which one, but he is riding from the other side of one of those ponds. So Chris feels that Green and Document are great records, but they're both flawed. So he thinks they should be put into one super record. Take the great songs from both of them. Which ones?

Green and Document. Document and Green. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I would maybe agree with that. I don't at all. I love both of those albums. Of course.

He thinks that the second half of Document is weak. I agree. And the first half of Document is weak. I agree. And the first half of Green is weak. I don't know if I agree on, well, I mean, it does have stand in the first half. I don't. I mean, Document, the second half, contains the one I love.

Yeah, but as we talked about in the episode devoted to it, I think it goes a little downhill after the one I love. Yeah, you do think that. But I would agree that it's a bit front-loaded, but King of Birds is great. Like, there's great stuff. Okay, that's... And it closes great with Untitled.

No, wait, I'm talking about Green right now. Yeah, it closes with the Oddfellows 151, which isn't essential. Oddfellows 151. Yeah. Okay. So this is the working theory. Okay, so what's he...

Okay, so side one, the green side. Track one, how does it feel when you're in REM? Great. That's the opener. We should probably play that while we listen to the rest of this track listing, right? Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Yeah, here we go.

All right. It came out to me because I wrote it when I came out of a very bad... Track two, Finest Dwork Song. Okay. Track three, Orange Crush. Those are a little samey to be back-to-back for me. Yeah, maybe this guy isn't as good at re-sequencing as we are. Track four, World Leader Pretend.

Good. Track five, You Are the Everything. Great. Both first half of green songs. Yeah. Track six, End of the World as We Know It. Okay. Side two, Document Side, opens with The One I Love.

Mm-hmm. Second song is Disturbance at the Heron House. Mm-hmm. Third track is Hair Shirt. Fourth track is Turn You Inside Out. Mm-hmm. Fifth track is King of Birds. And sixth track is

the untitled... Eleven song. You don't like King of Birds? And then a hidden track, Strange. Oh, yeah. From Green, right? From Green. Yeah. No, from Document. Oh, Strange is from Document. I wonder if it's a hidden track because

it's a cover of the Wire song? This is by the way troubles afoot um with how does it feel to be in rem guest vocals by us obviously do you and then he gave us his top 10 rem songs do you wanna i don't care okay um and then we have one last note, and Adam was fascinated by this. We opened it before we went on air. This is Craig Harris from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, sent us the three-inch single of Stand by R.E.M., which has the second track, the B-side. One of the B-sides is Memphis Train Blues, which apparently—

Three-inch CD single. Three-inch CD single, yes. Apparently we didn't play all of it on the green episode because we didn't like it or something, but there's something at the end of the song, he says, that apropos of nothing, his buddy and he will say it to each other and chuckle. And then it also has the third track. The third B-side is the 11th untitled song,

but apparently it's an instrumental of it and an extended version, which we didn't know about. We don't have the equipment to play this mini CD, but I Googled it, and apparently that's what it is, but I can't find it online anywhere either. Yeah, so we're going to try to figure out how to play that, and we'll upload it to Mail.com. So thanks to Craig Harris for that. Yeah, thank you.

Mail.com, by the way, is going to be our repository for just everything. We're going to put all of those green demos that Lance put up there. We're going to put all of those reveal alternate versions, all that stuff. We're going to put all of those reveal, you know, alternate versions, all that stuff. We're going to put it up on mail.com. And all of our stuff about our militia we're building. Yes, of course. Yeah, our manifestos, everything is going to be up there. All right, we need to go to a break.

When we come back, Adam has some omitted collabs into now songs, and then we are also going to be playing the songs from the fan club from 1999 to 2011. We will be right back with more Are You Talking R.E.M. after this. Oh, yeah. The guitar. Oh, yeah. The guitar. Oh, baby. Hey, everyone.

New T-shirts are in the store. Our Utah Ganarium shirts are there. What kind do we have these days? We have stained glass, which are pretty incredible. That's Todd Glass, Adam, and myself. And it looks like a concert t-shirt. And a third of the profits go to Todd Glass. So if you love him, put a little coin in his pocket. We also have the classics that we started off with the uh uh monster style and then the out of time style yeah love them both mm-hmm and uh so those are in the store and we're what's your favorite scott my favorite uh shirt of these three oh of these three i like the stained

glass one okay what's your favorite shirt of all time of all time and we're not even counting your shirt yeah one not even ones i've worn there was um a uh a tank top t-shirt featured in i believe the uh the the great film it happened one night where they pull the curtain uh in between uh the man and the woman who are staying in the same room so they can divide the room and have a little privacy and he was in a tank top t-shirt oh my god it was the first time ever that a man's arms had been exposed on film and uh historic moment and historic moment and i loved it i loved it it's great so that's your top t-shirt that's my number one with a bullet top t-shirt what about you my favorite t-shirt is probably a t-shirt that Andrew McCarthy wore in Pretty in Pink. And he wore it underneath a kind of a blazer, sort of an unstructured blazer.

But I think there were some shoulder pads in there. Yeah, it was the 80s. Pretty loose. There had to be some shoulder pads in there. He had a t-shirt on under there. It was pretty great. Did it have any kind of markings on it or was it plain? Just plain color. Solid color. I think it was white there. It was pretty great. Did it have any kind of markings on it or was it plain? Just plain color.

Solid color. I think it was white maybe. Off white. Something like that. Yeah. Uh-huh. Have you tracked

down that t-shirt ever? Is it in the Smithsonian or anything? That's the thing. It's in the Smithsonian and so... Lying on Archie Bunker's chair.

Every two days I have to go to Washington D.C. to see it. If you want to see our t-shirts, go head over to podswag.com slash REM

and you can buy those. And we're looking to get new T-shirts in the store hopefully by the end of the show. So check them out. Yay. welcome back get up getto

um welcome back to are you talking r.e.m. remi and now uh adam over here uh has me bro has been uh taking the brunt of the um abuse from fans of the show who say great episode they always by the way they start off saying great episode the three words or they say great app yeah the three words that we have gotten the most since the collabs into now episode are great episode but almost every tweet starts with great episode but um i would prefer if they just sent tweets with like great but yeah i know that's my attention

that's uh first of all it's a terrific compliment. Yeah, either complimenting me or you're sending me a picture of a great butt. Either way. Sure. Or just acknowledging that there's a such thing as great butts. Right, sure. That should be our next show. On Mail.com, I want a section for great butts.

Do you think if they remade? That may actually be the most popular section on Mail.com. Back to the Future, if they remade Back to the Future now the most popular section on Mail.com. Back to the Future. If they remade Back to the Future now, instead of Great Scott, he would say Great Butt. Great Butts, Marty! Yeah. Look at these...

Look at these Great Butts, Marty! I'm not saying for sure that's what they would do. I'm just saying it's an option. 99%. 99.9%. They're probably going to do it. Yeah. They've always said

that they that everyone has to be dead before they can make remake that movie the whole cast are like

they just said it they got back together by the way I get why would they ever remake that movie they can't I look at

a news story that pops up and it's like Back to the Future cast reunites for the first time since 2015 I know it's happening a Back to the Future cast reunites for the first time since 2015. I know.

It's happening a lot. What, three years ago? Who gives a shit? I know. Well, they had the Breaking Bad. That's ridiculous. Them on the cover of EW. The show just ended.

They always do the 10th anniversary of when it started, not when it ended. I know. It ended like four years ago. Yeah, four years ago. Come on, guys. Come on, guys. Come on, guys. Come on, guys.

All right, Adam, we need the dongle, right? That's funny to me. We need the dongle. By the way, let's put a section on mail.com for just dongles. Also very popular. Oh, mail.com is going to- Bye, Ryan. Bye, Ryan. dad to take off what if we never saw never saw

him again what if he got hit by a bus in the lobby here like a bus just crashed through i will say walking you you wouldn't think so because we're what on the fourth floor? Yeah. And he left the door open so we can hear him shouting for it. There are buses just teeming through here. All the time, just narrowly, almost side-swiping us here. Okay, Ryan, you went outside. They didn't have any kind of dongle, is that what you're saying? And now you're looking for one? Apparently they're under the table here somewhere.

They're under the table. Is this some sort of practical joke on us? What kind of outfit are you're saying? And now you're looking for one? Apparently they're under the table here somewhere. They're under the table. Is this some sort of practical joke on us? What kind of outfit are you guys running? Can we just hook it up Bluetooth? Under the table? Bluetooth? They're under the table? That's where we're storing things now is under the table?

You also, by the way, Adam, could just hold your phone up to the microphone. I could do that. And we would get some sort of a- Did we do Glitter in Their Eyes, the Patti Smith song? Did we have that as one of the collabs? I think we did because I sent it to you, so it seems to me like we did. Ryan left again.

He really wants to get this done. So I only have like four songs here. I have a lot of air time for Ryan today. Ryan's going to be a star coming out of this episode, don't you think? Huge. Huge star. He's got something. What if this episode comes out, you and I just go

about our business with our lives, and then... What is your business, by the way, that I go about? Yeah, that you go about. I mean, I've got so many side businesses going right now. It's crazy. I know. What do you have these days? I have a greeting card business that I have to keep afloat. Yeah.

So what type of greeting? Like for holidays? Or what type of cards do you do? Well, the first thing I do is I create a holiday and then try to just kind of sell merchandise around it. Yeah, yeah. Which holidays do you have nowadays? Right now, we're trying to get this holiday going called Christmas.

Okay. Wait, Christmas? Christmas. Can I ask you when this takes place? Well, we're still figuring that out because we've got a couple. Well, we're just kind of doing a survey or two, just going to like a shopping mall. Sure. But not in town here.

We try and go like out of town. Out of Pasadena. You don't want to do it in LA. Arizona is a great place. What dates are you looking at though? We're in the realm of like late December. Can I ask you a question? Are you looking at December 25 by any chance?

Well, I don't want to put the dates out there right now like publicly, but that's in the area. That's in the area? That we're exploring right now. It's just kind of exploratory at this point. Can I tell you that? And I don't think it's you stealing an idea. I think it's just parallel thought.

Uh-huh. But there is a Christmas that occurs on December 25th. Well, we might want to take this convo off air. We can continue it later because I've got some – I don't want to put too much out there, like I said, so. You have some details about it? I have some details about what makes ours different.

Is there a mascot at all? There's going to be kind of a symbolic person. Not person because it's not human, but, you know, I guess he looks human. Oh, okay. But he's technically an elf

of some sort. Can I ask, is he sort of overweight? He's a big guy, yeah. Again, I don't want to get into too much detail right now. Can I ask something about his belly? Does it look akin to a bowl full of jelly? Okay, well, the belly that this particular elf would have, if indeed that's the way we went would be round, rotund.

You could say bowl full of jelly. Yeah, jiggles around. Sure. Yeah. It's different than a distended belly, which was one way we were going to go because a distended belly is like hard as a rock. That's Santa Claus. Listen, again, I don't want to go into too much detail, especially with names, titles, all of that. Is the name of – wait, Santa Claus is the name of your mascot?

I'm not – again, I'm not going to jump into detailed comment. Okay, now I'm starting to think that maybe you saw something to do with Christmas and you're just like – That's part of the reason I can't jump into too detailed comment. Okay, now I'm starting to think that maybe you saw something to do with Christmas and you're just like- That's part of the reason I can't jump into too much detail. Sometimes I'll write a scene in a script or something and be like, I swear maybe I'm writing this based on something that I saw in a movie. Yeah.

Can I ask what your favorite movies are? My favorite movies? Yeah. Off the top of my head, like Miracle on 34th Street, Santa Claus the movie, Elf. Those are just my top three. Okay. I think that you're sort of like through osmosis creating something that already exists. Okay.

I mean, I'm aware of that. That's why if we did go with this character, Santa Claus, if that was the name of this character, it would be spelled with a C instead of an S. A C? Where is the C? At the end of Santa Claus? No, at the front of the word Santa. Oh, so it looks like Canta? That's one of the kind of roadblocks. Would it have an apostrophe after the N and in between the N and the T it may be a C and then an S

for Santa so it looks like Cassanta that's what about Cassandra well because that's at least different

like Cassandra Claus we explored that we brought it out people were a little turned off with the idea of Cassandra Claus I think there's something there though

Cassandra Claus it's like Santa's something there though. Cassandra Claus, it's like Santa Claus has a brand new attitude and also it's her niece and she's a woman. Yeah. Well, having Santa Claus be a woman is one of the things that's going to make ours a little different. It sort of modernizes it like the Ghostbusters. Yeah. But it's just the name Cassandra is too long. It's too many syllables. There's kind of a rule in advertising and holiday production that your mascot can't be more than two syllables. Two syllables, really? Like Easter Bunny. Right.

If you think of any of the mascots of holidays they're always two syllables or less tooth fairy tooth fairy exactly that's less than two syllables right there yeah that's less than two okay yeah okay so cassandra claus was just a little too much yeah um so anyway santa claus with cs i think is cassanta claus yeah okay great no but you don't say cassandra you just say it's santa we're figuring it phonetically we're figuring it out. Okay, okay. All right. Well, good luck to you.

Welcome back to Are You Talking REM, Remy? We're talking about REM pretty much exclusively. And by the way, we're going to have all these details about the new holiday and your- It'll all be ironed out by the time this episode drops. It'll all be up on mail.com. Don't worry. Just go to mail.com and sign up. So what do we got?

Also, it costs $19.95 to participate in the holiday. By the way, let's get Andy Daly to pay $80 to be on mail.com. He can pay all our registration fees for setting up a website. All right. Adam, do you have some? We found the dongle. Ryan came back in here. He gave you the dongle.

It's attached to your phone now what are these songs that you want to play? Okay once one glaring the most glaringest of omissions was a song called

You Woke Up My Neighborhood by Billy Bragg it came out in late 1991 Out of Time came out in spring 91 so around I believe it came out

fall Christmas 91 Billy Bragg put out this record and uh i believe peter buck plays all over the album but this single you woke up my neighborhood i think the entire band was in the video oh as far as i remember and i could have looked it up on youtube before we did the show today typical uh typical Adam, zero research, but at least brought a song. But I believe they all play on it. They're in the video, and Michael Stipe certainly sings on it.

It's a good song. Here it goes. All right, here we go. Here we go. As I wait for sleep to drag me under In the evening gloom I sit and wonder The words I should have said to you The things I always meant to do The bad dreams that all came true

You woke up my neighborhood Night after night we would row You woke up my neighborhood Things are pretty quiet around here now When I think I'm... Billy Bragg, of course, was a member of Bingo Handjob, their band. Right, that did Tom's Diner, right? They did Tom's Diner, they did some gigs at the Borderline in London.

And also Billy Bragg, a friend of April Richardson. Oh, is he really? Yeah. He's awesome. Cool. That sounded good. Is that Michael Stipe on backing Vox? Yeah.

Or is that Mike? It's Michael Stipe for sure, but I think Mike Mills might be in there too. Yeah, that sounds like in more of Mike Mills' register. This next one is called Future 40's String of Pearls. It's a Sid Straw song. And on tour film and the whole green tour, he intros, I believe, with the chorus from this song. He sings it a cappella before they... He sings it a cappella.

Oh, okay. When did it come out? I believe this is like 85, something like that. Okay. And do they play on it? No, it's just he, Michael Stipe sings on it. Oh, Michael Stipe sings. Yeah, great.

Here we go. Okay, let's hear it. I think that's a guitar, right? That's a guitar playing right now. Okay, let's hear it. I think that's a guitar, right? That's a guitar playing right now. Okay, great. Oh, 1989. Oh. Hey man, I'm making moves And I am so much stronger than you

I am so much stronger I am so much stronger than you. Everybody thinks the way that we thought. We thought ahead and look what we got. Well, I did not invent this world Call my words a string of pearls But you will find that she Soon loses her sight So there's that.

Cool. I actually always really loved his acapella version of this. Because what does it sound like? Can you give an impression of him? I think it's like something like... Did you hear that? No, that was pretty quiet. Oh, I did it.

Yeah. I think it might be something like... A shiver came quick, grabbed me up by the back of the neck, and shook me down to the floor, through my shoes, to the floor, to the core of the earth. I muttered something, swallowed some air, science, miracles, monkeys, or prayer. I'll believe in anything when I'm there.

I'm certain I've said that before. I'll believe in anything when I'm there. I'm certain I've said that before. Hey man, I'm making moves and I am so much stronger than you. I am so much stronger than you. I am so much stronger. I'm much stronger than you. Everybody thinks the way that we thought. We thought ahead and look what we got.

I did not invent this world. Call my words a string of pearls. But you will find the sea. It loses all its luster. Wow. That was great, Adam. Thanks. That was really good.

I mean, I've heard it so many times, I feel like I can just kind of spit it out. That was crazy. Thanks. You sound really, really, you have a beautiful voice. Thanks. Kind of a crooner. Yeah, I didn't even know that you could, you've never, we've never brought this up. I had no idea you could even sing.

Yeah. I'm a good singer. Next glaring omission was the band Tired Pony. They put out two records. That makes me sad. What? The idea of a tired pony? Yeah. Well, ponies, if they work- Get some sleep. If they actually get off their ass and do something, they're going to get tired like the rest of us. Oh, man. Peter Buck, Scott McCoy. It's kind of a super group.

Those guys, Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol. Jack Knife Lee is in the band. The producer of the last two REM records and one of the last U2 records. Yeah. Am I forgetting anyone in Tired Phony? Are you in it? Because you're such a good singer I might be

but I have a weird memory sometimes when it comes to this stuff like which bands I'm in I'm so busy Gary Lightbody Peter Buck oh Ian Archer

who's that Richard Colburn Ian Archer is he was in we'll put this information on mail.com don't worry

anyway Tired Pony they put out two records this is I believe they're single all things all at once

2013 I believe In those days we were lions In those days we were lions In those days we were kings It's not one thing or the other It's all things all at once Oh, I will love you better than him. Oh, I will love you better than him.

Oh, I will love you better than him. Oh, I will love you better than him. All right. So that's their second album, The Ghost on the Mountain. I Love You Better Than Him. Ghost of the Mountain. Who do you think he's talking about?

I don't know. See, that's the thing. You just, you don't know. Maybe it's the ghost that they're talking about on the title of the album. Oh, I Love You Better Than That Ghost Loves You.

Yeah, it's a scary song. This is scary. I mean, it's perfect for Halloween in about a month or two months from now. It's the spookiest holiday of all,

and I have kind of another holiday I'm thinking about in that same time. The same vein? Same time of year. Oh, yeah? Yeah.

What do you got? Right, it's a little early to talk about it, so. Yeah, it's still a couple of months out, but you want pre-holiday hype going, don't you? Yeah, but it also might be good if this one's kind of a secret. Oh, okay. So can you say what day it's happening on? We haven't settled on a day, but it's probably somewhere early November, late October, like super late October. Yeah.

The latest you can go is probably October 31st. Yeah. We're thinking about somewhere around there. Somewhere in there? Yeah. Somewhere on that day. Yeah. Somewhere right on that day.

Okay. The last one that we have here, I'm sure there's more. Oh, yeah. It seems like we were sent hundreds. I know. But we can't get to them all. The baseball project seemed like one of the biggest omissions. That's right.

Because it's Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Scott McCoy. Was the dude who, when we went up to Portland, who was playing organ, is he part of this? Because didn't he play organ at a baseball stadium? Do you know who I'm talking about? Yes, but he was playing with one of those other bands, wasn't he? Yeah, I thought he was playing with the Decembrists, but I wondered if he was maybe part of this. Maybe. Who knows?

We'll never know. There knows? I'm not sure. We'll never know. There's no way to find out. What is the baseball project? Do they sing songs about baseball? Yeah. Steve Wynn is also in the group. From the casinos?

From Dream Syndicate. Oh, okay. They're great. I mean, they sing songs about baseball, obviously. Right. But their songs are really good, really fun pop songs. They put out a few records. Songs can be about baseball.

They even had an album called Down With Wilco that Wilco plays on the whole record. No, wait. That's the Minus Five. Oh, Minus Five. Sorry. Wait. Minus Five is another one. Yeah.

We never brought up the Minus Five. I have a bunch of their records. Down with Wilco's great record. Yeah, because Wilco plays on that, yeah. Anyway, this is From Nails to Thumbtacks is one of the Baseball Project songs. Okay, let's hear it. And it's about baseball. Yeah.

I wrote my autobiography when I was 24. Not about baseball yet. If I only had known how much was still in store. Not about baseball yet. I think this is their last, most recent record. I can't Hear You. You gotta fly high to fall this far. So he's talking about a baseball? Maybe, like, if you hit a baseball really hard, it flies up into the air.

Yeah, I mean, it's gotta be pretty hard, though. Yeah, you have to really crack it with the bat, with the baseball bat. What's the furthest you've ever hit a baseball? Pretty far. I played baseball for a few years. Did you really? Yeah. So, like three, four feet.

And you were on a team? I was on a baseball team. Here is another song called 13. This is a really good one and this is about the number of people on a baseball team if you have four alternates yes or the number of people in the audience at a really unpopular game. Audience. Anyway, Baseball Project's awesome.

That's cool. And I can't believe... Oh, wait, turn that back up. Yep. I thought it was a cover. Maybe it's not. It sounds like another song. All right, turn it down. There's a really Mike Mills-y song here.

There we go. Anyway. Great. Good shit. Well, the minus five, you will go untalked about. Unfortunately,

I don't need the dongle. Thank you very much. No, but you just take it. Nope. No, thank you. Great.

Good shit. We're going to take another break and when we come back, we are going to be discussing the fan club singles. Are you excited? Did you get all of these fan club singles? I'm sure I did. Okay. Well, this is going to be a trip down memory lane for you. Oh, boy.

When we come back, we'll be discussing all the fan club singles from 1999 through 2011. We will be right back. Welcome back. All right. You ready for it? We're going to be, this is Fan club singles. Fan club singles. This is exciting.

This is, these are exclusive to the fan club. They have not released these commercially. And this is starting in what year? Okay, well, let me tell you. We did an episode a few episodes back where it was from the early years, so 88, I believe, through 1998 when Bill Barry left the band. But apparently I stupidly left out a year. I left out 95, I think.

So I'm going to do 95 as well, if that's okay. And then 99. Then 99 through 2011. 2011, yeah. And we're, by the way, here are the rules again. We're not going to play the Christmas songs because those will do on a holiday episode at some point. So we're not going to play

any of those. I have, a lot of these, by the way, are like live just for a while. They got kind of lazy and just put out live versions of songs that already exist.

I have them. We can hear them if we want, if they're of interest. But, Oh, there is a really good one they put out

as a fan club single, Country Feedback with Neil Young. Yes. Well, thank you because that's coming up. Okay.

Thanks for spoiling it. I was there, by the way. You were there at the Bridge School benefit? Uh-huh. Very cool. I want to hear all about it. Let's first, though,

go to 95 because I totally skipped over this. I don't know how it happened. In 95, what was the record out around then? It must have been Monster?

Monster came out in late 94 and then 95 was the big out around then? It must have been Monster? Monster came out in late 94 and then 95 was the big tour. Okay, so at the end of 95 for the fan club single, they put out an A-side and a B-side. The A-side, let's hear it. It is a cover of Chris Isaac's Wicked Game.

Wicked. Wicked. Okay, yeah. Wicked. Okay, guys. Cynhyrchu'r ffordd y byddaf yn ei gwneud pethau i'w gweld Dwi ddim yn fathu bod yn unig fel chi Dwi ddim yn fathu bod yn unig fel chi I need somebody like you Oh, I want to fall in love This world is only gonna break your heart Oh, I want to fall in love

This world is only gonna break your heart So pretty sloppy, but that's what these fan club records were. It's not like they're doing overdubs and stuff. It's basically them in a studio goofing around a little bit. Do you like that song generally? I do. I love that song. I loved it when it was on the Wild at Heart soundtrack. I love that movie.

And it's become a bit of a, I don't know. Overplayed song. Overplayed or sort of a cliche of like, ooh, sexy song or whatever. Yeah, but it's a great song. At the time. Actually, it came out in 89. Wicked Game came out in like 89 or whatever. So this is pretty late.

Yeah, but it was a huge hit in like 91 sure but 95 yeah it's a few years kind of a weird uh but they were playing it live a lot at the time i think strangely enough i read i read people going like oh yeah i didn't expect them to play that play it at this concert and they did um the b-side is a song called java which is a cover of uh alan to saint is it it Toussaint or Toussaint? I can never remember. Toussaint, I believe. Toussaint?

Okay, this famous New Orleans jazz pianist, this is Java. Cool. Yeah, it is cool. Yeah, anyway, start playing. Super cool. jesus it's what excruciating no i said jesus jesus anyway you get the idea kind of fuck around sometimes these records would i'm sure that when you would receive them you'd be very excited and then you'd hear something like that would it

be like getting a sweater that didn't fit no it was always it was always cool you kind of yeah it was always cool and it was a record so it was it was a collectible yeah more than like a thing you enjoyed listening to over and over yes some sometimes though like some of these are unreleased songs that are are actually really good yeah so it was just kind of like you never knew what you're gonna get and it was always records up until i think like 99 ish i believe they became cds but then sometimes they would go back to a record from what i read okay so let's let's jump ahead to 99 um and this is uh they put out a cd single of two songs from the bridge school benefit the benefit that uh neil young does

up in san francisco is that where it is and you were at this you say yeah they do it at the shoreline which is actually a mountain view but right in that you know bay area and i used to go a lot in when i was in high school my friends and i would go and we'd see like crosby stills nash and young and i remember sammy hagar did it once and he just went out and did an acoustic set by himself and he was amazing really what do you sing van halen songs or I Won't Drive 55? He did some of his solo stuff and then he did Finish What You Started.

Wait, that's a David Lee Ross song, isn't it? Oh, no, he did. Oh, you're right. Come on, finish what you started. It was amazing. But then we saw Tom Petty.

We saw, I can't, it was like countless. I would go every year and it was all these artists doing acousticty. We saw, I can't, it was like countless. I would go every year and it was all these artists doing acoustic sets. Tom York, I know, was out there doing it a couple of times. Tom York did it, yeah. All the kids from the school, the Bridge School, are out there on stage with the artists for the whole show. Oh, wow.

Watching. What is the Bridge School again? Because I've heard about it so much. It's a school for kids with special needs, handicapped kids. It's an incredible place, and what a great show every year. I'm not sure if they still do it. Do they? I don't know.

I'm not sure, but what a great cause, and great concerts came out of it. And what REM did in 99 was they did they must have played it that year it was 98 and

is when they played it and then they put this out in 99 okay great thank you Rayman it was right before Up came out

so they played some Up songs that had never had never been heard yeah and were you stroking it? Um, but they played a couple of songs with Neil Young.

The first one is country feedback, which is an REM song. And, um, uh, you have, uh, basically all of the band REM,

uh, and then Neil Young on guitar and then Michael Stipe singing. Uh, so let's hear a little bit of that. Please welcome to the stage, Neil Young. It's nine minutes. You know, I'm going to fast forward just a little bit of that please welcome to the stage neil young it's nine minutes you know i'm gonna fast forward just a little bit it's nine minutes his guitar solo at the end is

really long that's pretty neil youngish guitar right there do you want to what part do you want to hear do you want to hear the some of the guitar solo or. Do you want to, what part do you want to hear? Do you want to hear the, some of the guitar solo or? Um, whatever you want to. Street alone, the only right thing I've ever known. What if I fast forwarded to the guitar solo? Because how long would you say the guitar solo?

I didn't make it through all of this when I was compiling everything. Yeah, I'm not sure. I mean, it's what, a four-minute song that's nine minutes? That's nine minutes? Okay, so let me drop you into six and a half minutes in. Let's see what's happening. It's exactly the same. Yep, got it.

Thanks, guys. Yeah. The next, the B-side is Ambulance Blues, which is a Neil Young song, I believe. This is great. He is singing. Also nine and a half minutes, so let's see what this is all about.

There's a cue sheet down here. I have to be honest with you about this. Thank you, Neil. I have to be. Okay, we'll give it away. We'll raffle it off. Good idea. Peter and Mike are on this with Neil Young and his band, I believe.

I've seen the video. I think it's all. Oh, is it? Yeah. I'm not sure. Oh, maybe it is. Oh, yeah. video i think it's all isn't it oh is it yeah i'm not sure well maybe it is oh yeah it is he plays this with rem that's right because he let them choose the song oh great Back in the old folky days The air was magic when we played

The riverboat was rockin' in the rain Midnight was the time for the rain Oh, Isabella Proud Isabella They tore you down is how could i see you How could I see you And stay too long All along the Navajo Trail Mm-hmm.

Cool. I don't really know that song. Yeah, it's a really obscure... I mean, I think it's from On the Beach, but even on the record, I think it's like eight minutes long. It's a... Yeah, cool.

More of an obscure song it's great what's on the beach one of his albums from what like 70s late 70s late 70s

cool I only have a few I have Decade or is it it's called Decade what is it yeah his best of

yeah yeah which is great but I you should get it after the gold rush I have after the gold rush I can't say that I've listened to it oh it's

that's my thing I have like his like I have I have After the Gold Rush. I can't say that I've listened to it. Oh, that's my thing. I have like his, I just got the Buffalo Springfield records and then I have like probably his first four records, but I've never like sat down to really listen to them. Yeah. But I do like the best of. You have Harvest Moon?

Yeah, I do have that. And I have the sequel to it as well, whatever came out recently. Yeah. For some reason. Harvest Moon's pretty great. Yeah. I should listen. I mean, I like all the songs from it. Let. Yeah. For some reason. Harvest Moon's pretty great. Yeah. I should listen.

I mean, I like all the songs from it. Let's see. So, okay. So next year, 2000. In the year 2000. Anyway, I'm kidding. That's a famous bit from the Tonight Show. So 2000,

um, we might be back to vinyl. I can't remember, but, um, the a side is Christmas time is here again. Oh yeah. And, but then we're going to play the B sides.

We have two, uh, REM instrumental songs are the B sides. So let's first hear two of them. Two of them. Yeah. A B and a C side. This is Hastings and Maine.

Yep. If you can imagine Christmas morning. Just playing this for your family, for your loved ones. Time to open presents. down here get down here kids like why would santa came why would you put this out at all i mean it's what do you think it's an abundance of confidence? Or, I mean, literally, they had nothing else? Kids! What about just do a cover of Satisfaction?

You know, like, whatever. Get the fuck down here and open your presents! Your mom and I bought these for you! Santa King! Santa Claus! Okay, this is ending. Wow. Okay.

The next one is called Take Seven, which implies that it was literally Take Seven of this song. All right, well, this makes a little more sense. This is four minutes. Yes. I like that. But the mind wanders a bit during it. Sure.

But a little better than the previous one. My goodness. Okay, so the year 2001, Space Odyssey. I'm kidding, of course. Come on, guys. Yeah, that's a movie. They just did two live songs, Let Me In and Find the River. Okay.

But let's hear them because you it may be a long time since you've heard these and I remember one of them being sort of sounding a little different this is Let Me In

2001 2001 yeah all the stars stripped down like butter 2001 2001 This sounds good A little faster Drink them up, up, up, up. Hey, let me in. Wasn't this the song on Monster that I loved the melody to, but it found it a little abrasive? Yeah, and they played it acoustic on the Accelerate Tour, which I played for you.

You played for me, I liked it better. I didn't know they played it like this the Accelerate tour, which I played for you. You played for me. I liked it better. I didn't know they played it like this this early in 2001. This must be from the from the Up tour, because they didn't tour for Reveal. Maybe it was from

some one-off show they did. Yeah, yeah. That's great. Cool. And then they did find the river from uh automatic Kind of a weird recording. Yeah, did they say where this is from? They did, but for some reason I didn't write it down because I didn't think it was germane to...

I wonder where this is from. It didn't pop out at me as being interesting. All right. So, yeah. So that year, you know, you get those. I mean, you know, let me in. It's pretty good. So, yeah.

Yeah. Thanks. Thanks, REM. Yeah. Now, 2002. This is great. Wow. First of all, we're not going to play it.

We'll play it on the holiday episode. But you get a cover of Big Star's Jesus Christ which you talking to to me fans will remember that I thought U2

U2 has a song called Jesus Christ I thought it was the cover of the Big Star song so we played it on their holiday record and it ended up not being

no that was a that was the Woody Guthrie one yeah so egg on my face then but as far as I know it is the cover of the Big Star That was the Woody Guthrie one. Yeah, so Egg on My Face then, but as far as I know, it is the cover of the big star Christmas song,

Jesus Christ, so we'll play it on the holiday one. But then the B-side. Wait, we're not playing Jesus Christ, but it's a big star song. It's not a holiday song. But it's a holiday song because the lyric star Jesus Christ was born today. Really?

Yeah. Okay. I mean, these fan club singles are usually holiday songs, aren't they? They would sometimes be holiday songs. There's 15 ones that are Christmas specific that we'll play on a holiday. Okay. But the B-side is a Bad Finger cover. This is the song No Matter What.

Do you know this song? Mm-mm. Jellyfish actually did a great version of this, which is how I got into it. Not to keep bringing up Jellyfish, but they did a great version of it back in like 91. This is Badfinger's song, This Is No Matter What.

Oh, yeah, I know this song. No matter what you are I will always be with you Doesn't matter what you do, girl Ooh, girl, with you Mike Mills. No matter what you do I will always be around.

Won't you tell me what you do? Do, do, do. That's me, by the way, doing the backups. Tell me all that I want. Not a little. That's me, by the way. I can see why you were almost in no doubt. Shut up.

I love that song. Yeah, that sounds great. They also... Is the Jesus Christ cover awesome? Well, you'll have to find out. In six months? Yeah. There's also...

We'll play... Just for completeness sake, I'll tell you that there are also Michael Stipe reads from Martin Luther King, which we'll play on the holiday episode as well. Okay, now moving to 2003, we have two live songs. Right, because they were touring around. They were touring, and they're two live songs both done with the band Wilco, mentioned quite frequently on this program. And

the first one is Country Feedback. They love playing Country Feedback with alt country-ish kind of artists, so let's hear a little of that. You guys come into the spotlight part. Don't be so shy. I think this is Hollywood Bowl. Leroy, John, Glenn, and Mike, and Jeff.

Wilco. Wilco. By the way, he's bragging he knows all these guys' names. Yeah. He can remember names. Big deal. Yeah. I mean, if I knew seven people's names, I would say them.

But as far as I know, I only know about five. I can just go one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Yeah. I know Jeff. I know Ler know about five I can just go one two three four five six seven yeah I know Jeff I know um Leroy Candy Candy um Phyllis Phyllis I know Adam obviously because you're Adam my name um I know and Ryan Ryan yeah so that's what is that five or six that's about all I got I don't know anyone else bread Bread. Bread. Definitely bread. All right. Go in the house.

You got it. Yeah, we heard it anyway. But this is, it's the end of the world as we know it with Wilco. Oh, thanks, Peter. I forgot. I forgot. Kira Sedgwick, Tom Selleck. It's five and a half minutes long, so I don't know where the extra time is going.

Well, it's usually the last song of the night, so they fuck around. So they'll just jam around? Yeah. Let me try to skip ahead to that section, because that's probably where we would hear Wilco the most, right? All right, we got about two and a half, two minutes left at this point. And I feel

It's the end of the world as we know it It's the end of the world as we know it. It's the end of the world as we know it. It's the end of the world as we know it. And I feel alive. It's the end of the world. All right. Cool. Yeah.

So if you have five and a half minutes to spare, go track that down and listen to it. It's worth it. Okay. So 2005, we have two live tracks from Belgium. Wait. Wasn't that- Oh, sorry.

Sorry, 2004. 2004, we have two live tracks from saint james church in london okay uh i wanted to be wrong is the first one uh this is 2004 what were they doing there this was oh this was uh they just put out uh around the sun right and i will say i listened to i wanted to be wrong and i was like oh yeah i like this song yeah it's a good song and they're live versions of all the around the sun songs are great so uh let's listen i wanted to be wrong by the way it sounded like two people clapping I know where I come from You know what I feel

You're your banner westward Reporting from the field But through that ender reverse Made a motion to appear You knocked my legs from under me And tried to take the wheel I like that song. Yeah. I don't know why I...

You liked it when we went through Around the Sun. I did like it when we did. Oh, okay. Great. This is She Just Wants to Be from Reveal, right? Yeah. You don't like it. I don't love this song.

Oh, yeah, I don't love this song either. You liked it when we went through the record, yeah. Oh, let me hear it then. Oh, I do like this. And she walked away. Her world got smaller. I like you're an R.E.M. expert and what I think of REM expert as well. Yeah, I know.

I remember everything that you said about it. Yeah, I remember getting the fan club single this year and just being like, hmm. All right. Fine. Okay, so then we go to 2005, and these are live from Belgium. And the first one is Turn You Inside Out, which is, I mean, that came out on, what was it? Is it Document or Green? What's Turn You Inside Out?

Green. Green. So, I mean, it's been an interesting choice to put on the fan club single. Let's hear that. Their tours were huge, though, the greatest hits and around the sun. Oh, this is on the fan club single. Let's hear that. Their tours were huge, though. The Greatest Hits and Around the Sun. Oh, this is from the Greatest Hits circle. Probably, or the Around the Sun tour.

They did not play this very often in the later years. It's cool. They did not play this very often in the later years. It's cool. Divide your cultured pearls of paste I'm looking for too late a waste Of all the things I cannot taste And this is not the race they spoke of. I believe in what you do.

I believe in watching you. I believe in what you do. I believe in watching you. I could turn you inside out. What I choose. Where did they play during this tour that you went to see?

Greatest hits tour? For greatest hits I saw them at Hollywood Bowl. That was the one with Wilco. Wilco opened too? Yeah. And then for Around the Sun

Greek. Greek, yeah. They did two nights at the Greek I think. Yeah. Okay. And then this is the B-side. Greek, yeah. They did two nights at the Greek, I think. Yeah. Okay, and then this is the B-side. This is The Great Beyond, which I believe sounds faster. Uh-huh.

Thank you. I've watched the stars fall silent from your eyes All the sights that I believed I wish that you could see There's a new planet in the solar system. There is nothing up my sleeve. I'm pushing an elephant up the stairs. I'm tossing a punch like I would never have. Open my shoulder, a piano falls. Crashing to the ground. Got a little pep in their step on that one.

You know, we should do an episode on REM Live, that live album they put out, because they're reexamining all the around. I don't have any more time. We got to end. Okay. Okay, 2006. All of these tracks were performed live at the 40 Watt Club.

I think it's one of these nights where maybe they were unbilled or something because there's some other bands doing REM songs and then REM doing songs. Is this the night they went up with Bill Barry maybe? Maybe, yeah. I don't know. But this is at 40 Watt. This is at 40 Watt in 2006, and there's four tracks. The first one is performed by Tin Cup Prophet,

E-T-T-E, Prophet, and this is Tongue. The halls with boughs of junks. La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. Boughs of honey. You can stop that. You can stop. You can probably just go right into the song now.

Hey, quit doing that. We're on. We're on. We're on stage. Taking the long way around. Taking the scenic route. Adam's putting all of his stuff in his backpack to leave. I'm kidding. No, I'm not. As I recall, once they start singing, I liked it.

Ow. Okay, a minute in, and we're doing these, like, almost Japanese scales. Oh, here we go. It sounds like the crowd is talking about something else. Yeah, that sounds good. I kind of wish that REM had put out a more relaxed, easygoing version of it

because it's on Monster, right? And it's a little abrasive. No, no, it's all, it's piano and... Yeah, okay. I remember liking it. Okay, next is South Central Rain, but this is by REM. monster right and it's a little abrasive no no it's all it's piano and yeah okay or i remember liking okay next is south central rain but this is by rem you've heard this before. Yeah, not from this evening, though.

Yeah. Where did you find this? Oh, this was their fan club. Where'd you find this? We've been here a bit of time doing this. Okay. Okay. Next is a band called

The Observatory with These Days. Oh, that's cool. So to me, this kind of sounds like what we went up to go see in Portland. Like, R.E.M. was there, but other bands were there. I don't know what the occasion was. Just a celebration of their songs. Celebration of stuff.

And then the last one is Begin to Begin by R.E.M. Begin to Begin by R.E.M. Ah. This is 2006? Yes. Or put out in 2006, so... Was this around when they were doing the stuff in Ireland? The Live at the Olympia? Like a year...

That was 07. That was 07, okay. Speaking of 07, let. That was 07. That was 07, okay. Speaking of 07, let's go to 07. We have, first of all, the A side we're not going to play. That was

Merry Christmas Everybody, the Slade song. But the B side is, I believe, the last R.E.M. original that they would put out on these

fan club singles. This is a song called Magnetic North. One, two, three, four. It's a Tokyo street, see fast action jump, cut in your head. Action jump cut in your head And you'd sooner dream it than Live right here I'm facing instead While you pace to your family and friends I cannot make amends

As I sit in your car And try to tuck you in to stay here guitar solo What do you think? I like it. Will you send that to me? Yes. If you say please. Please. Yes.

Okay. So then we go to 2008, which is when they put out Accelerate, right? Wait, so that was 2007. That was 2007. We didn't hear the A side. Okay. So 2008 was when they put out Accelerate. So it's basically just three live songs.

Okay. Do you want to hear any of them? Yes. Living Well is the Best Revenge. Yeah. Okay. From where? Sounds like one of their big shows.

They're all over the place, yeah. I think all three from different sources. Yeah, they sounded good. That was a great tour. So pretty, but pretty similar to the recorded version. Next is Let Me In. Oh, yeah. You know that song.

This is similar to the one that you played before. Right. This is good recording. Will you send these to me as well? Yeah. Please. Okay. And then just a touch oh wow that's cool What is this song from? Life's Rich Bad.

Right. Of course. They're all getting mixed up in my head. Yeah. Great. Yeah. Okay, so three more years left. We have 2009.

The A side is Santa Baby. Mm-hmm. Okay, so three more years left. We have 2009. The A side is Santa Baby. But the B side is a song originally by Cromwell and the Zoo. It's a song called Crazy Like a Fox. And this is Mike Mills with Bill Barry and John Keene. I don't know. Who's John Keene? They've recorded his. They do all their demos at his studio.

Oh, okay. So this is the three of them. I don't know what Bill Barry is doing around. Sounds good. Yeah. That's awesome. Mike Mills, put out a solo record. 36, feeling crazy. That's awesome. Mike Mills, put out a solo record. I know, man.

What are you doing? I know. Like that Baseball Project song I played? The guy is, everything he sings is catchy. Okay, let's go to 2010. The A-side, we will not play. It's Christmas Baby Please Come Home obviously the that's a Christmas song right?

yeah it's a lot like your favorite movie Santa Claus the Movie remember that movie? Dudley Moore but the B side is something called IHT is greater than U is greater or it's probably 2

IHT to U to EDIYTW parentheses dub mix. And this was also on Stereogum. If you look up this, it's on Stereogum. What it is, is an instrumental mix of It Happened Today, Uberlin, and Every Day is Yours to Win. Oh, yeah. And sort of a weird dub mix of all three of them blending into one another. And this is 2010? This is 2010, yes. So this is before the album came out.

This is before it came out, and this was on Stereogum before the album came out. I can remember this. As a bit of hype for the album coming out. So let's hear a little bit of it. I remember this. I remember trying to glean anything I could from this. Any sort of clues, trying to Sherlock the shit out of this. 2A 3.30 3F 5.30

3F 5.30 3F 5.30 3F 3.30 3F 5.30 3F 5.30 3F 5.30 3F 5.30 so This is still It Happened Today, right?

Yeah. But then it segues into Uberland. Main Street Electrical Parade. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Oh, this is every day as you're still in. Oh, what happened to Uber Lynn? Anyway, trippy, man. You send that to me as well? Yes. Apparently I have a full-time job now sending you shit.

Okay, this is the last year. And may I say, I think it kind of went out with, you know— A whimper. A bit of a whimper because we just have two live tracks. We have—the first one is Perfect Circle, though. I will say that they're live tracks of two great early R.E.M. songs. And maybe there's something in that that's the last fan club song they put out because this is the end of the band. Meaning Perfect Circle?

Yeah. Well, it was the A side, not the B side. Okay. But here we go. Put your hair back. I mean, these are great songs. Yeah. Fuck.

Eleven gallows on your sleeve. Shallow figure, winner's fate. Eleven shadows. Was this from the tour, Collapse Into Now tour? They didn't tour that, but maybe it was for Accelerate. Hmm.

Did they play any shows at all after Collapse Into Now? No, because I think for all intents and purposes, maybe they were already broken up. Yeah. And they didn't play the video where they were singing. Remember the video where Mike Stipe

kind of like started crying at the end? Was that the last time they played together or something? Do you know what I'm talking about? Oh, yeah. That's when they were recording it. So that was at Hansa Studios in Berlin. And they just like, while they were there recording, I think they got together and just played

like a bunch of songs. But wasn't that, I feel like that was him announcing, because they cut out the part where he says, and that's it wasn't that i feel like that was him announcing because they cut out the part where he says and that's it for the band or something like that they didn't put that on the video yeah but he said something like that that they cut out so that might have been one of the last times they like literally played i think in the room together it definitely was the last time they ever actually played yeah so i think they knew they weren't gonna go and do promotional stuff uh let's hear the last one.

This is Life and How to Live It. Showing up on a lot of people's top 10 lists. This is a great song. The dee-nee-nee-nee is so good. How fun is it to play like that? I know. Good shit. Yeah. And that does it for the fan club singles.

All right. All right. Hope everyone enjoyed that. All right. So what do we- I think we have more than one episode left, but maybe only one more for a while, right? Yeah, yeah. No, there's other stuff we can talk about.

It's just time is running out for all of us on this earth. Hmm. Hmm. Okay. So let's talk about what we're going to do next week. Okay? So we're going to, because here's the stuff that's still outstanding. We have to,

we've said we're going to do our top 10 REM songs from the first five albums, the middle five albums, and the final five albums. Yeah. Then we will make a top 10 of all overall. Yes. Okay. And then we have to rank all of their albums.

Then we have to rank all of their albums. We also have said we are going to do our top 10 albums of the year 2000 until what? Until now? 2010. Until 2010. Do you also want to do 2010 to now or? Not really. Not really. Okay. So you just want to do from 2000 to 2010. Yeah, but I think that's a different episode than this because I think our top 10 REM episode, we should also go through Part Trash. Well, we're going to do Part Trash well we're gonna do Part Trash we're gonna do the final three songs that they put out but I think we should also go through

Part Trash because it's an overview of their whole career and see what we think about how they okay so so we'll do the the best of the 2000s

some other time maybe we'll do it in the Christmas episode okay who knows but that's what's gonna be next week but then we also have

Olympia and REM Live. Sure. We'll maybe do those down the line. Also, there might be a few other surprises that we do at some point. Sure. But for all intents and purposes, next week will be our final episode, and I hope you enjoy it, just like I hope you enjoyed this episode because we put a lot of work into it. Just like I hope you enjoyed this episode because we put a lot of work into it

and I went and searched for all of those songs for a really long time. And please send me those ones I wanted you to send me. I did not remember which ones you wanted but I will try to remember. So that's going to be it for us

on this episode. We'll see you next week for our final episode. And until then, we hope that you have found what you're looking for. Bye. Hey, Queeros. It's me, Cammie Esposito. And I'm here to tell you about my podcast, Queery. You can sit in on hour-long conversations between me,

Cameron Esposito, and some of the brightest luminaries in the LGBTQ family. Queery explores individual stories of identity, personality, and the shifting cultural matrix around gender, sexuality, and civil rights. Plus, it is fun. We have had some incredible guests. Emmy winner Lena Waithe? Yes, definitely. Congressman Mark Takano? You bet. L Word creator Eileen Shakin? Yes. President and CEO of GLAAD, Sarah Kate Ellis? We definitely have. We've got celebs.

People like Trixie Mattel, Evan Rachel Wood, Tegan and Sarah, the band, and the people, separately, on two different episodes. We also have activists and changemakers in our community. I think it's a one-of-a-kind show full of chats you have never heard before. It's identity, it's community, it's query. You can find Query every Monday on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts,

and Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.