U Talkin’ U2 To Me? - R U Talkin' R.E.M. RE: ME? - Murmur

Episode Date: February 28, 2018

Adam Scott Aukerman are back this week to talk all about R.E.M.’s debut studio album Murmur. They’ll discuss getting their first albums on tape, trivia bits from the band’s hometown of Athens, Georgia, and Murmur’s mysterious lyrics. Plus, we’ll hear how the album got its name, the boys’ thoughts on the new Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees, and the story behind Murmur’s melodic bass lines. This episode is sponsored by Merge Records (code: REM).

Hey everyone, Scott and Scott here welcoming you to our new, you too, to our new show, not about you two, Are You Talking R.E.M. Remy, and we want to say that today's episode is brought to you by Merge Records. Yes, Merge. You can check out recent releases by Destroyer, H.C. McIntyre, and Holly Cook, as well as new- Try to get a little more. We need more from you. Sorry, sorry, Can I just... Yeah, just start over. Yeah, go ahead. Check out recent releases by Destroyer. You're killing me.

This sucks so bad. Oh, okay. Let me start. Excitement. You're an actor. Have you ever had to play exciting? Or excited? Yes.

Okay, try to tap into those feelings. Okay. Check out recent releases by Destroyer, H.C. McIntyre, and Holly Cook as well as new albums from Superjunk. And Ought out in February. And Titus Andronicus pronounced tight us and wrong-ick us. Do they know that Merge is telling everyone to pronounce them tight us? Tight us. And wrong-ick us. Do they know that Merge is telling everyone to pronounce them tight-us? Tight-us! And run-ic-us!

Visit MergeRecords.com to listen to and shop for music by these artists and many more, and get 20% off any order using the code REM. And, as always, domestic shipping is free! Again, that's MergeRecords.com. Offer code REM for 20% off. Merge Records, home of independent music since 1989. Oh, I realized you're a bad actor. Yeah.

From Chronic to Collapse, Town and Into Now respectively, that is, this is Are You Talking R.E.M. Re-Me? Huh? The comprehensive and encyclopedic compendium of all things R.E.M. This is good rock and roll music. Huh? Welcome to the show once again. Today we will be talking about Mummer.

Exclusively. Exclusively Mummer. The Hariam album. Hariam. Hariam. Hariam. I would love it if they made

a a version of The Lion King where instead of singing those African chants they just sang Hariam.

Yeah, me too. Hariam. Me too me too. Hariam! Me too. And then all, all, all, and when I say all, I mean all the dialogue in the whole movie, musical, whatever you want to call it. I would call it a musical, but hey.

Musical, fine. Movie, musical, whatever you want to call it. Stage play, staged reading. Theatrical performance. Theatrical performance. Theatrical occurrence. Sure, sure. Why not? Fine.

All the dialogue. Just hurry up. Hurry up, hurry up. Have you ever seen a play like that? I mean, you come from the theater. Did you get a text, by the way? What happened? I did.

What's going on? I heard a little buzzing. You got a little texty-poo? That's fun when you get a text. Isn't it fun? Who's it from? I'm going to check, make sure. All right.

Who's it from? It's not from our mutual friend, which, by the way, on our last episode, and we'll introduce ourselves in a second, we were saying our mutual friend was texting us both, and I thought it was funny just because we'll we'll just say it plainly because she'll adore a shout out yeah but christy smith our mutual manager yes uh i thought it was funny that she called you and then she called me almost like she was going down the line alphabetically or like returning calls yeah just returning calls or something but she literally was

calling us about this show. Was she? She was. She didn't call. I think she just texted me. Or did she call me that night? She called. I think she called us both. Oh, okay.

And then she texted me, and I texted back saying, leave us alone. We're doing the REM podcast. Yeah. And she, I've never had a call returned quicker than about that because she- She wants to know all the, because she's a huge- She's a huge fan. Har-iam fan. Har-iam.

Shout out to her. Welcome to the show. By the way, Christy Smith, terrific person. Okay. I fired her yesterday. Okay. As a person, meaning you killed her. No, not as my manager.

She's still your manager, but you killed her. She was fired as a terrific person. Still my manager. Of course. Let's introduce ourselves. My name's Scott, and of course, sitting across from me, we have from Big Little Lies Part 2, they're lying again. Back to the lion. Back to the lion's den. Oh, boy. We have Scott over here across from me. Hello, Scott. Hi, Scott.

How are you? Do you want to say hello to anyone? I would like to say hello. You know what, Scott? Can I break with tradition here? Let's break it. I'm going to just snap tradition right in two, if you don't mind. Cleave it in half.

I'm going to break it. I'm going to break it, I'm going to snap it, and then we'll see over the next hour or so if we can mend it back together. Boy, we're going to have to go and dream it up all over again. I would like to say hello to you.

Thank you so much. You're welcome. You've never said hello. We established last episode, you've never said hello to me, so I appreciate that. We, in fact, have never met. We've sometimes Skyped, but only voice Skyped. So I'm getting a good look at you for the first time. What do you think? I do not like what I see.

That's fine. I mean, it's too symmetrical. Okay. You know what I mean? Like put some jagged edges in there like I have. You know what I mean? Okay, well, canged edges in there like I have. You know what I mean? Okay, well, can I try putting some jagged edges in there? Sure.

All right, I'm going to break it. Glenn, close it up. I'm going to break. I'm going to Jeff Bridges Glenn. You know, in Jagged Edge, when she's taking a bit of a road trip. She's taking a bit of a shit. In the Glenn Close shitting scene, she drives on the 17 freeway into Santa Cruz. She does.

Was it filmed in Santa Cruz or just a few exteriors? No, it was not, Scott. Shut the fuck up. It was not. I have a question. Shut up. Shut up. God damn it.

Fuck. Always with this. Shit. Glenn Close shit. Glenn Close shit. Glenn Close shit. Wow. Okay. I would pay for a videotape, like a Chuck Berry style videotape of Glenn Close just

shitting on a glass table. Okay. I wouldn't. And I think we should stop this talk right now. Why? This is- Because you're going to work with her sometime, I suppose. This is veering into territory.

I am not comfortable. Big Little Lies 3. Glenn Close gets in on the lion action. Glenn Close in the lion's den. Closely lying. Or maybe you just call it the lion den. I guess. I mean, this is your thing, honestly.

We can figure it out off air. Can you put me in touch with who produced it, Reese Witherspoon? Is she in that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I can get you guys in touch, and you can figure out the tagline. The tagline, yeah. For season three when Glenn Close joined. I had a pitch to her company.

I doubt the person is still there, but I remember it vividly because I pitched a movie idea, and the person in charge of hearing pitches at our company said it was the worst pitch she'd ever heard. Are you serious? The worst idea she'd ever heard. Not the worst pitch. She said that to you in the room? Yes.

Oh my God. Would you mind pitching it right now so we can all hear? No, I think it's a good idea, but so I'm holding on to it. Was she joking? No. Oh, okay. She said it was the worst idea for a movie she'd ever heard oh my goodness please pass that on next time you're in a scene with her did you do you have scenes with her or with reese yeah are you married to someone in the show i've never seen it

of course not we're we're she and i are married in the show you're married in the show and what about off the show in real life no we're both married to separate people separate people yeah different like she has a husband sure she's married to someone but aren't you married to that same person no i'm married to naomi you know naomi my wife she is that who that is the one that we hang out with sometimes who did you think that was i thought that was just one of your groupies. You thought that I hung out with a groupie? First of all, a groupie? You thought I just had groupies and I would just be with one- Exclusively. An exclusive groupie. What else is a wife? Wait, do you think that I only had one groupie? Yes. What else is a wife but a very committed groupie?

I guess you're right about that. In a way. And as husbands, as you and I both are, we're very dedicated husbands, you and I. Oh, we are very, very well-versed in the art of husbandry. We're like almost famous-style groupies for our wives. We love them so much. We're so dedicated to them. I'm a steel

ranger. What does he say on the roof? I don't know. I'm a golden god, isn't it? A golden god. Wait, a steel ranger? A steel ranger. What? Yeah, yeah. You've gone through 20 years of this movie thinking he says I'm a steel ranger? I only saw it once.

I only saw it once, but I know it's not. I'm a steel ranger. Well, it's a very famous line that somehow has passed me by, I guess. Wait a minute. Let's go through some of the other most famous lines in cinema history. Sure. Wait a minute. Is this, I think the other most famous lines in cinema history Sure Wait a minute, is this I think it might be an episode of

Is this I Love Films? Well, yeah Hey, welcome to I Love Films This is Scott And this is Scott And we love films We love cinema Oh, I love film

Not movies Films Movies We love films. We love cinema. Oh, I love film. Not movies. Films. Movies. Wash your mouth out with soap. You know what? Movies. How about this?

How about F movies? Yeah. What do you mean by F movies? Can I turn the mic off just for one second? Let's turn the mics totally off, like all the way down. We are? So they're off now? They're totally off now. But for real, right?

Yeah, for real. We're not doing a bit. This isn't a bit, yeah. I said F movies. Yeah. And I'm confused. Right. F is the first letter in the word fuck, right?

Oh. Okay. So I instead. Fuck. Yeah. right oh okay so I fuck yeah instead of saying the word fuck I was just saying F just for

the sake of our listeners fuck fuck fuck movies right but I didn't want to say that because I do

you know time to time I enjoy just popping some porn you acted what if the mayor of Hollywood was like, did you hear what Adam said? Well, let's not put him in any more movies.

I know, that's why I wanted to. The F was smart. Thank you. That's a smart choice. Okay, can we turn the mics back on? Let's turn the mics all the way up, by the way. Like, all the way up. I want them really loud.

So anyway, Adam. Yeah, Scott. What are you? I think this also might be an episode of Great Bits. I think it might be. Hey, welcome to Great Bits. This is Scott. And this is Scott.

And we're just in the middle of some amazing bits right now. You know what's great about that bit? Deconstructed for me. Well, the thing is, is that first it felt like just a regular bit. We're just kind of going back and forth. It felt like one of our typical bits. Repartee. Yeah, just what people come to this show for.

But quite honestly, it's well-trod territory for us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like we'd been there before in a lot of ways. Been there, done that. But then it went down to a new level. A whole new, I don't think we've ever done that bit before. It's almost like there was a trap door in the bit and we fell through and into a brand new bit. Like the hole in the floor. Yeah.

Yes. Like the hole in the floor. Yeah. Yes. Like Lidsville. Like suddenly we've dived into this hat and we're transported into another dimension or something. It was like, no, just stay with me here. It was almost like kind of an Alice in Wonderland kind of thing. Okay, okay. I'm kind of with you. Do you know what I'm saying?

Reel me in. Make sure I'm really following you. Okay. Remember the Mad Hatter. I love him. Yeah. Johnny Depp played him. He's so crazy. You're repressible. I'm. I love him. Yeah. Johnny Depp played him. He's so crazy.

Irrepressible. I'm a Depp head. Yeah. He has a whole world. Those crazy eyes you look in, you know there's a whole world of knowledge. Oh, yes. It's almost like that. Like there's a trap door into another reality.

And we took it with our bit. We did that in our bit. And that's exactly what you guys heard so congratulations everyone this is amazing and on episode two we're suddenly doing great new bits you're welcome you're welcome all right this has been an episode of great bits bye good up great up so films yeah Back to films. Yeah. Let's go through some of these great lines in films. Sure.

Famous lines. And see how familiar you are with them. Sure. I'm going to start a line and let's hear you complete it. Okay. I'd like a martini shaken blank. Right. James Bond. Bond, James Bond. Right. James Bond.

Bond, James Bond. Okay. And he says, I would like a dry martini shaken and purchased. Close. He does. I think he, you know what though?

To be honest, I've never seen James Bond pull out money in any of his films. Me neither. That's why I figured he always purchased his drinks ahead of time before he even entered the casino. So what do you think James Bond does? He calls up the casinos and the villains' lairs.

Yes. And he says, hey, I'm Bond James Bond. Yeah. I'm going to be coming by. I'm going to probably drink four martinis. First name James, last name Bond. I'm going to be there tonight. But I'm going to say Bond James Bond. Yeah, but when I'm there,

I'm going to say Bond first. I'm going to say Bond first. But right now, I'm just letting you know. I'm just letting you know. My name's James Bond. On my credit card, it's James K. Bond. And I want to pay for these drinks just so I look cool. I'm going to pay for four. I may only drink

two of them, but you know, I'm going to pay for four. Plus, I drink two of them, but I'm going to pay for four. Plus, I'll put on the tip. And if I don't drink all four tonight, I'll be back in a couple weeks with a new bad guy. I'll drink two more of that. Yeah, I'll save those drinks for me and make them and store them in the refrigerator for me. And you can shake them, stir them, whatever you want. Just know that I'm going to say I want to shake and not stir.

Don't necessarily— Don't do it. You don't have to actually do it. I don't care how you make them. Also, if you could keep at the craps table, if you could keep

the volume of the music and all the people around us really low. Really low. Because across the table I need to discuss double entendres with the bad guy.

Sort of hard of hearing and it would be as I hate to shout over these tables. Casinos are loud places, but I need it quiet. Casinos are traditionally incredibly loud. Very loud. The person yelling about craps saying, winner!

Yeah. If you could just tell him to—if someone wins, have them give a wink to the winner and say, like, you did it. They also have, in casinos famously, they have the dice that are super loud when you shake them. Yeah. If it's possible, could you make them just kind of like round Nerf balls? Yeah. Or just take the dice and just lower— And put pillows around them.

Yeah. Tape pillows around each dice. Each individual die. Has two pillows taped to it. Yeah. Easy peasy. Problem solved. Problem solved. Thanks so much.

Bond James Bond. Remember. Again, this is James Bond. First name James, last name Bond. But tonight, Bond James Bond. Bond James Bond. And it's not Bond, middle name James, last name Bond. No, that would be insane for a person to have that kind of name. It would be a confusing life. It's Bond

comma James Bond. I say my last name, then i take a pause and then i i correct myself because you may not know exactly just someone named bond so i say james bond i clarify a lot of modesty involved uh i'm self-depreciating you'll find that he really is by the way james bond is like one of the funniest self-deprecating characters in cinema history. A wonderful person. Just a great guy. A terrific guy that you want to have a beer with.

He's like George Bush. I'd love to sit down. And, I mean, James Bond, you can have a shake and stirred whatever. I don't even care. I just want to have a beer with you, bro. Oh, man. I want to crack one open and watch the game. Let me try one more.

Sure thing. One more famous classic line in cinema. You remember the famous shark movie, Chaws. Chaws, yep.

Chaws. We're going to need a bigger blank. Is this, sorry, is this when they're out on the ocean and they're looking out? Is this – sorry. Is this when they're out on the ocean and they're looking out and they see the shark? Getting very close.

They do see the shark, yeah. They see the shark. And the shark's bigger than they expected? The shark is definitely bigger than they expected. They thought it was – I mean, sharks traditionally are – I mean, they're certainly killers and man-eaters, Charks traditionally are, I mean, they're certainly killers and man-eaters, but they're traditionally not as big as, you know, what they call the nickname for the shark in Chaws. The big guy? The big guy, yeah.

Yeah. So when they see the big guy. Right. They're surprised. They're very surprised at the sheer enormity and size and width and girth of this shark. So they had to come up with a new nickname after they actually see how big he is. So is your answer then, we're going to need a bigger blank? Nickname.

Nickname. Yeah. Because they know that the big guy is- It's not going to cut it. No, it needs to be a longer, bigger nickname. And that's when they come up with the super big guy. The super big guy. For the rest of the movie.

For the rest of the movie, yeah. I'm surprised, honestly, that they didn't call the movie the super big guy rather than Chaz. I know, aka Jaws. Chaz, aka the super big guy. The super big guy. And this has been an episode of I Love Films. Really? Yeah.

We'll see you next time thanks bye I was into it that was maybe our longest episode yet that was one of one of the best

and lengthiest I Love Films really went into a lot of detail and I have to say that the idea of the Chaz poster and instead of Chaz, it says the super big guy.

It made me really mixed. What percentage of people would have gone to see Chaz if it was called the super big guy? Are we talking 90 guy. Are we talking are we talking 90%? Are we talking like even more people would have went to it? I have to

I have to presume 10%. 10% of those people would have gone to see the super big guy. You know

one of the biggest hits in cinema up to that point probably instituted an age of the blockbuster cinema so many people on the afi lists would it have been i mean it's a quality film it's a great movie it's a great movie and and names are important yeah if it were called the super

big guy and the movie is exactly as exactly the same no mention of they never mentioned chas i think they never, look at those Chaz. They never say, oh, we got to go get Chaz out of the water. No, they never say it. So if it were just the exact same film, just the super big guy, I don't think it would have been popular. Oh, my gosh. Oh, God damn it. Oh, God damn it.

So we're going to be talking about the band Hariem today. And if you heard our last episode, you know we talked about Chronic Town, their debut EP as well as their debut hip-tone single. And today we are moving on to their first album, Memor. Memor. And we're going to be going track by track, talking about it, talking about the passion. Hey, that would be a better name for this show. There you go.

Talk about the passion. I'm sure someone has already done it. Isn't there like every R.E.M. article and book is like, talk about the passion. Idiots. Why would they do that? I remember I saw enigmatic for the people a few times like details enigmatic for the people yes what is it i'm not getting it enigmatic as the name of a an article about oh because they're enigmatic well i would imagine so yeah okay interesting um but first we want to really we want to catch up with uh each other a little

bit because we haven't seen each other since the last episode. A couple weeks. It's been a couple of weeks. And since our last episode, I went to a little place that your son may one day be interested in. Harry Potter World? Harry Potter Land. We've been there many times. Have you really?

Yeah. Let's talk about it. What did you think? You hadn't been there before? I've never been there before. I live very close to it. Yeah. I live in the upper tower of that castle. Yeah, you live inside. It's strange that I've never

gone downstairs. So you only use your helipad. You don't actually walk through the crowd. Oh, walk through the crowd. I know. I have a stupid question. So what did you think? I thought it was smaller than what I expected. Uh-huh.

And the ride, the main ride, was one of the more unpleasant experiences I've- Did you get sick? Yes. Yeah, me too. Oh, yeah. I got very sick. Me and Kulop, incredibly sick.

Did it stop at all and malfunction? No. Okay. Is that part of the fun? It's happened both times I've been on the ride. Where they've stopped it in the middle. It just stops and everything goes dark for a minute. Are you sure that you're not having a stroke?

Good. I felt horrible both times. I had to close my eyes. Right. Because if you close your eyes at all, you just feel like you're moving around. Right. The reason that people get sick is because their eyes are not – what they see with their eyes are not lining up to their inner ear. That's right. So that's why you can get sick when you're reading during a car trip because you're supposed to be like looking at everything that's happening.

And it's one of those things where half the ride is one of those things where you're in a simulator where they're just kind of shaking you around. And usually I don't like those types of rides. And I went on the Minions and I went on Simpsons and all that. And usually I've gotten sick on those. But this day I was like past those with flying colors. I was like, wow, I think I'm finally getting the hang of it. So you went on those. I went on those before Harry Potter.

I was like, I think I'm better at these rides, and then I went on Harry Potter, and just miserable. Yeah. I don't like, like The Simpsons made me sick. The one that I was fine on a few years ago was Transformers,

but then I tried it again recently, and I got sick again. Yeah. I think those in general. They say that they're the future of roller coasters. I hate them. I hate it too. And they've tamed down the Harry Potter ride.

That's the other part of it. They have? It used to be even more horrible and got everyone sick on it. Really? So they've had to like tame it down. It's incredible. Why do they do that? Why don't they just make a ride?

I don't know. I mean, it's like we're all, there's enough space in that castle. I have to say, in the last couple minutes talking about it, I'm sick. You've gotten sick again?

I just, it's so, God, you're a pussy. I get like all sweaty. Sense memory? That's great as an actor to be able to tap into

that kind of sense memory. Is this an episode of Talking About Acting? I believe it is. Crack, baby, crack. Show me your real. Smack, baby, smack. It's all that you'll be on. Hey, welcome to Talk About, sorry, welcome to Talk In About Acting. I'm Scott, of course, and this is Scott over here. Hey, nice intro there, Scott. I'm glad we're talking

about acting and not about hosting episodes. It's funny, in the acting world, you would just call that flubbing a line, and you would just have to go back. You call it a flipper flub. Sure, a flipper flub, it's not a big deal. You'd have to call it out to the crew and apologize to every member of the crew. Yeah, you go around, shake everyone's hand and say, I'm sorry. From above the line to below the line. Sure, you have to take a trip over

to wherever the studio head is. Sure. You gotta start with them. Bermuda, wherever. Start there, say, I'm very sorry, I had a flipper flub back on set. Fly back. Fly back. Yeah. Start there, say, I'm very sorry. I had a flip or flub back on set. Mm-hmm. Fly back. Fly back. It's pretty much just like a two-week process.

Yeah, yeah. It's fine. Then you just do it over. But it's what we do in the biz. Sure. Show biz. So acting. It's not show friends.

It's show business. Oh, yeah. It's not even show. It's not even like, you know, business show. No, it's show business. It's show business. Yeah. It's not even like, hey, friends, let's it's show business. It's show business. Yeah. It's not even like,

hey, friends, let's get into show business. No, it's, hey, let's get down to business and make a show. And make a show, exactly. Tell me about acting. Oh, yeah,

in this business we call show. Yeah, acting is complicated. It's a big beast. Can you cry on command? Yeah. I command thee to cry. Oh, my God. That's so touching.

Yeah. Wow. You're an amazing actor. Thank you very much. I'm not good. At what? At acting. I'm terrible at it.

You know what? Just do me. That's fine. Put that aside. Don't worry about that. Just do me a favor. Do one thing. Just one thing for me, Scott.

As a favor for you? Sure. Anything. Tell me, just say Adam and tell me I have a unicorn horn coming out of my forehead.

Just say it to me. Okay. Adam. Yeah. You have a unicorn horn coming out of your forehead. You're an actor. Oh my God, I did it. Listen, that was really good. You felt your forehead in shock. Right. And then in disbelief that there wasn't one there.

And then that's when I realized, oh my God, I've done it. Do you know, because you believed that I had a unicorn horn coming out of my forehead. And I did. I'm certifiably insane. Yes. And that helps with your acting. I could see how that was directly feeding your own truth. My own psychosis.

Yes. Yes. Incredible. Incredible. Incredible. Incredible. Incredible. Incredible.

That's been our show Bye Bye I don't know about that one Yeah me neither I don't know if we'll return to it Was talking about acting something we'd done before? I don't believe so I don't know that we're return to it. Was talking about acting something we'd done before? I don't believe so. I don't know that we're going back to it.

All right. Well, listen, if it's a limited series. Sure. Limited to one. Yeah. Very limited. Extremely limited series. Did I tell you about the time that I got stuck on the Jurassic Park ride, which is a very good ride.

That is a good ride, yeah. I got stuck right when it opened. I went at 6 in the morning because I think it opened at seven and when it's six in the yeah i got there early to make sure that like at seven like left the house at six in order to got it uh opened at seven went right to the jurassic park ride because the lines were enormous for it normally um got on within seconds. Yeah. We're one of the first people on it. Yeah. And going up the big ramp on it where you're sort of on one of these conveyor belts. Yes. It's like a water ride.

You're in a boat. It's a water ride. Yeah, it's a flume ride. A third of the way- Is that what they call it? A flume ride? Flume, yes. A third of the way up, it got stuck.

And for 45 minutes, we were being jerked back and forth because on that ride it like sort of like pushes you up a little bit and then jerks you and then pushes you up and we were just being jerked back and forth for 45 minutes while a dinosaur to the to the left of us was spitting water at us really yeah? Yeah. Wow. Did they give you like free passes or something? Here's what they did. First of all, there was like an older, I think it was a grandfather and his son who were like all excited for the day and the son had been wanting to come here forever. And they were like, all right, Jurassic Park.

And within like 20 minutes, they're sniping at each other. And the grandson is like, I want to get off. He's like, minutes, they're sniping at each other. And the grandson is like, I want to get off. He's like, well, we can't get off. And it just like ruined their day. Right. And when we got off the ride, all they did was they like, there was a guy going, here you go, here you go. And it's a line pass to get back on. Really? Yeah. And so I wrote a letter to the company and they had just had a uh a mishap with this ride where they squirt squirted hot oil on uh no yeah and it was like a big problem with it before it opened up you know officially squirted hot oil on a person on yeah on a on a flume on one of the logs instead of uh water something like i don't know what it was it was some mishap where like jesus some of the riders got hot oil squirted on them so i said so i kind

of took in the letter took the uh company through the whole experience saying yeah at this point uh we wished it was only a ride because that was their tagline at the time you'll wish it was only right and we were just happy that hot oil was not being squirted on us. And they called me personally. Did they? Yeah, and gave me tickets another time. They should have done that for the whole log full of people, flume full of people.

Yeah. Do you call, by the way, when you take shits, do you call what comes out flumes? Yes. Yeah, me too. I had a six flumer. That's what I say. Flume on.

That's what I say, which is a parody of Flame On, which is what the Human Torch says. It's a funny parody. So what does the Human Torch say when he's got to go to the bathroom? Flume on. Flume on. Yeah, exactly what he says. Anyway. I do want to get to one thing before we need to take a break in a sec, but we got some viewer mail.

And this is directed at both of us. I just received this the other day. And this is from Pat. Oh, hey, Pat. Just Pat. Maybe it's Pat. Yeah. Remember from Saturday Night Live?

Yeah, it might be Julius Weenie. Anyway, huge fan of the show, he says, and he sends us a couple copies of his band's debut album that they just released, and they're called Hawkmoon. Like U2, as in U2? That's exactly what he says. As you can tell from the band's name, they are heavily influenced by Bonobos,

the lads from Liverpool. So thank you to Pat. Maybe put your last name in one of these days. You'll get a little further in show business. Their album is called The Saturn Return. There's an R.E.M. song called Saturn Return. Oh, really? Okay.

So there we go, tying it all in. You're opening it. That's great. I don't know what you expect to do with it. Do they have pictures in there? No, but I believe there is a booklet in here somewhere. Okay. I haven't handled a CD in a while.

Really? When was the last time you handled your dick, for instance? The same amount of time as a CD. Same amount of time, really. Which is why. Were you sticking your penis into CD players? That's what I thought you had to do for the longest time. The longest time.

Oh. If you say goodbye to me tonight. His name is Pat Hehir. Hehir? Pat Hehir. Ruben Aptrout and Liam Hehir. I've had it withhir. Ruben Aptroot and Liam Hehir. I've had it with these guys. Get some real names.

Get some real names. I would imagine they're brothers. All lyrics by Pat Hehir except take some time by Ruben Aptroot. Who the fuck is Ruben Aptroot? Produced by Hawkmoon. Mixed by Ruben Aptroot. Recorded and engineered by Ruben Aptrute recorded and engineered by Ruben Aptrute get a GTFO

of these guys did it come from UK I don't know Australia Brisbane why oh yeah they're Australian yes I just said that for fuck's sake you keep saying things as if they're really

interesting and stopping the progress and if they're really interesting and stopping the progress and then they're so stupid you could you could say that about me at any

any time not just we don't have to limit it you're like oh hold on are they from Australia you had already said that yeah

yes um but you have something else Max Greenfield's in this band Max Greenfield yeah amazing um because he looks like Max Greenfield's in this band. Max Greenfield? Yeah. Amazing, because he looks like Max Greenfield. Good addition.

Another episode of Great Bits. So thanks to Pat for that. And if you have viewer mail, send it to... What's our address again, Scott? 1-2-3-4 Jesus Street. Okay. We're going to take a break. When we come back, we're going to continue the REM talk.

So this is us just merely continuing what you've been hearing right now. Which is exclusively R.E.M. Adam's going to be on his phone getting back to this text of whomever. I'm ordering you that R.E.M. book. Oh, are you? Thank you so much. We'll talk about a different R.E.M. book that I got. We'll be right back with more

Are You Talking R.E.M. Remy? We'll be back in just a moment. Hey, everyone. The most exciting part of listening to any podcast, Adam, you know what it is. Of course. exciting part of listening to any podcast adam you know what it is of course realizing they'll put out a t-shirt eventually and i can confuse all of my friends by wearing one and this show is no exception if you like explaining things that you wear to everyone who asks i mean a lot

of people i think through history have had to explain what they wear i can imagine the first caveman who wore pants was like no these, these are pants. And the pants inevitably had the name of some sort of podcast on it. Of course, of course. Well, we have new Are You Talking REM Re-Me shirts available on Podswag. We got, what do we got? We got one that's... One is terrific.

It's like the Out of Time logo. It's exactly, it's black, exactly like the shirt I had in 1991 said Out of time on it. And you've worn all of these shirts and rolled around in them. Yeah, every single one I roll around. So if you want to smell what Adam smells like. Well, I roll around in dinner rolls.

Right. So they smell. But you yourself smell like dinner rolls. Always. So it's, you know, it's kind of like a zero-sum game that's true uh there's also one that has sort of the font that what album is monster a monster font yeah a fonster fonster uh go to pod swag.com slash rem you can get these fucking t-shirts bro they're really good t-shirts why won't

why won't REM just hire us to go they will instead have you ever asked that's true REM hit us up

REM band that is still together hey by the way we were talking about Chronic Town last and hit us up. REM, band that is still together. Hey, by the way, we were talking about Chronic Town last ep, and that song that we were just hearing, A Million, you getting another text, bro? That's a loud-ass

buzz. It is, I'm sorry. That's exactly what I said after seeing Toy Story 3. I mentioned that I was going to bring in the original EP that I have, The Chronic Town. This is the 12-inch EP of Chronic Town that I bought when it came out.

Yes, certainly. Here you go. Is this actually from the 80s? Yeah, it's from the 80s. No, but I mean, this isn't something you bought like 10 years ago. No, this is an original. No, no, no. I bought this at the time.

And what I noticed about it, if you look at the track listing on the back, and this is something I was going to get to when we talked about an album that's a few episodes down the road. on the road but they list the songs in they flip the sides in the what is now the actual what is presumed to be the order where a million is the first song of the track listing because rem would do this thing where you never knew which side was supposed to be side a and side b they would call them different things like water side and and fire side. Yeah, or right side, left side or something like that. So with a few records, as I pulled that out today, I realized I never knew which side was side A or side B. And I had to assume and I was normally assuming the wrong side was side A. But that's one of them where I just was like, oh, I guess A Million must be the very first track. Anyway, you – I think that was Stumble that you were just playing.

It's weird that they're listed. No, it wasn't. It's Stipe Mills, Buck Berry, and from Murmur on, it's in alphabetical order. So maybe they were doing lyrics first? I guess so. I never noticed that. By the way, it was a million. Oh, you're right.

You're right. God, you're so funny. I'm so stupid. I can't believe I'm doing this show with the world's biggest REM fan. And I can't. And you don't even know any of their songs. Name one REM song um

running away running away from no guy no

not running away from the guy I don't know ah what a waste of time anyway I brought that in for you to autograph

so sure give me a do we got a sharpie over here what do you have yeah there we go uh

engineer Cody Ryan do we have any kind of uh you know what I I only autograph with a paintbrush do you have any paintbrush you only do it like George Seurat like pointillism uh

do we have anything that's like uh no I guess not alright we'll do it outside later but um and you got Athens Inside Out there? Yeah. I was going to talk about that on a future episode, but let's talk about it now.

Athens Inside Out, Athens, Georgia Inside Out, which is a compilation of Athens, Georgia bands like Pylon and The Squalls. And you can see for how much I bought it for on this price right here, a little sticker price up on the corner. Ooh, big spender 298 298 that's right now I I did want to talk about this because um we were taught we we were talking about uh how when we started listening to Ari and we started listening to them on record right you you got them on record or did you get tapes i can't recall your your very first one was you got a tape yeah and was there any reason did you prefer albums on tape or did you did you not have a record player or what i never got records you never so you don't you never had any records

growing you just exclusively my parents did and but but me personally i started buying 45s and then tapes because tapes were the thing. Tapes were the thing. Now, I would get records because I could tape them on blank tapes and make compilations, but you couldn't take a tape and then turn that into a tape. Yeah. That's why I got it.

So the ones that were important to me I got as records, but then if I ever got something as a tape, it was because I would find it used and it was like such a deal that I would – But you could – if you had one of those double cassette players. Sure, but I didn't have one. Which became pretty standard. But it just sounded better. Anyway, but the ones that I have here are the ones that I got new as records. Oh, that's cool.

Whereas the very first R.E.M. album that I got, Life's Rich Pageant, I got as a used tape originally. Oh, you did. And that was the one that I was going to talk about the sides because I did not know which side was the first side. And I always assumed that the album was the opposite side was the first side. Oh, that's interesting. Is it?

It's on the verge of being interesting. What do I need to like transfer it into interesting? All the way up till green because green is water and fire, I think. Can I see that one, the document? Oh, document. Yeah. Here you go. Fuck off.

Anyway. Because one side on document is leaf and the other side is page but that one at least if you're looking at the back of document

they're on top of each other so you can assume that side A is side B you know but on the back of Chronic Town

the sides are flipped so who knows who knows but we're not here to talk about all these we're here to and by the way I think and I just couldn't find it today,

but I do believe that I have the record of the album that we're going to talk about today, and that album is Memoir. And you decided just not to bring that one today. I couldn't find it, you fucking idiot. Did you not hear what I just said? I don't listen to anything you say. God damn it. Let's talk about the album.

But let's go down the list of participants. In the album? Of the band. Because look, if people are listening to this REM podcast, they may not know. They need your basic info. Who the guys are. Yeah, okay podcast. They may not know. They need your basic info. Who the guys are. Yeah, okay, let's go through them because there's one I want to adjust a little bit.

Yeah, okay, of course we have, he's on Vokes. Which is an abbreviation for vocals. He shakes his little butt around on the stage. Sure. Michael Stipend. Stipend. Mm-hmm. That's right.

Then you have, of course, on the jingle jangle, on the sixes and 12 strings, you have Peter Dollar Bill. Peter Dollar Bill. And then- Ripping it up. On the bass guitar, I know we got this one wrong last time. We said it was Michael Miller. It's Mike Myers.

Okay. Mike Myers. That's not the one I wanted to adjust. No, it's the next one. Yeah, we got this one wrong too. Who is on drums on the old Poundskins? I think you said it was... Buckberry?

Buckberry. Buckberry. Buckberry. Buckberry, yeah, it's not. No. Who is it? I think it's not. No. Who is it? I think it's Dollar Bill Strawberry. The brother of Daryl Strawberry.

That's right. Some REM trivia that a lot of people don't know. They grew up together. They took very different career paths. Grew up together. They took very different career paths. One became a professional athlete and a semi-professional cocaine user. Yep.

And the other is the drummer of R.E.M. Big rock band. But then he retired at a certain point. But still, made his mark. Definitely made his mark. Especially for a man named Dollar Bill. Dollar Bill Strawberry. You would think he would not be making his mark in a rock band, but this guy did. No, it's a silly name that you think everyone would be like,

especially when Michael Stipend has to introduce him, you think he'd be embarrassed and be like, I'm not going to stand up on this. You know the second to last song when I go around introducing every member of the band? I'm not going to say Dollar Bill Strawberry. But guess what? I saw those guys play a bunch of times. He did it with pride. He did it every song.

Every song. He wouldn't introduce the other guys. He would just say about him, by the way, on drums. In fact, they were known to just introduce themselves over and over again. Over and over again. And never play a single song. Exactly. That's what i'm saying um speaking of and we'll get to the album in a sec but speaking of uh i

was just talking about daryl strawberry doing cocaine i i got this book and i just got it yesterday but it's an oral history of r.e.m and look at it it's called talk about the passion that's why i was thinking of it. Exactamundo. Updated edition. Got it used. And interesting stuff in here, but one of the weirdest trivia bits that I read is that people would come

to Athens, Georgia. We didn't really talk about Athens, Georgia that much in the last episode, but that's where Arium hails from. But one reason so many bands would go through is because they had cheap speed. Really? Yeah. And they say that two, Husker Du and, was it the Fleshtones?

Both allude to it in their land speed record and speed something. Speed was a big thing drug-wise in the early 80s, right? Yeah. And they say that's why everyone in the Athens, Georgia scene played so fast. Now, what is speed? Because it's like not as expensive as cocaine. It's like cheaper cocaine, right? You only take cocaine because you can afford it.

Yeah, well, now I can afford it, so I snort cocaine constantly. Speed is a—it's methamphetamines. Is that what it is? It's basically meth. Yeah, it's an upper. It gets you up, I think. It's like homemade cocaine. Yeah.

Adam and I, by the way, we're joking around a little bit, but the closest I've ever been to doing drugs is I watched the Doors movie. Oh, man. I felt like I was tripping out when I watched that thing. I was fucking like, wait a minute, did someone just dose my drink with a little LSD? Because Oliver Stone has me fucking tripping out on this movie. Anytime I go see an Oliver Stone movie, I feel like I'm going on a trip of some sort.

Which is, quite honestly, a yearly occurrence for me to see an Oliver Stone movie. Oh, yeah. Oh, my gosh. He would have fit in. Why didn't he direct the Flintstones? I know. See, that's the thing.

Oliver Stone, the Flintstones. It would have made so much sense. So much sense. And if he shot it in Flint, Michigan, it would have made even more sense. It would have been amazing. He would have been walking around going, Flint meets Stone. And John Goodman would be like, where do I stand? And he would have been like,

your mark is right there on the floor. Damn shit. You're always green. He would have played his Oliver Stone mind games on the cast of the Flintstones. Mind games. Yeah, but Athens, Georgia is where the band is from and a lot of great bands come from there.

Have you been there? I have. I wanted to ask you about that. Have you been there? Yeah. It's a terrific town. I went there for our mutual friend's wedding. Were you at the wedding?

No. I was in New Zealand, and I couldn't go. What were you doing in New Zealand? Wait. For Schrader's wedding. Yeah. It's odd that you weren't at the wedding. I know.

It was a little weird. I was out of town. I think I was in New Zealand. Wait. For Schrader's wedding. Yeah, it's odd that you weren't at the wedding. I know. I thought it was a little weird. I was out of town. I think I was in New Zealand. What were you doing in New Zealand? A movie. Which one? Do you remember? Krampus.

Ah, well, that's worth it. Yeah. But wait, I'm trying to, do you remember what year? Yes, I was in New Zealand. Okay. Yeah. I watched that on a good old plane in New Zealand. Okay. Yeah. I watched that on a good old plane.

New Zealand? Mm-hmm. I feel like, no, Athens, I was there for a different wedding like 10 years earlier. It's a terrific place. I was there for that, and then I believe we did some of the Mr. Show movie around there. Oh, did you? And so we passed through Athens. Did you go through Wuxstreet Records? I didn't, no. I've never been to any of around there. Oh, did you? And so we passed through Athens. Did you go through Wuxstree Records? I didn't, no.

I've never been to any of those stores. Oh, that's cool. But a great town. And the cover of the album that we're talking about is very Georgian. Georgian? Uh-huh. With the kudzu all over it. With the kudzu all over it, yeah.

Which is a Japanese plant that was imported into the South and used as a soil erosion plant. Oh, you have been doing your research. I have, young man. But it's everywhere in the South. It's everywhere there. Yeah, it's this hanging plant. Go take a look at the album cover of the album of which we are referring to. I'm trying to find a picture of it so I can look at it while we talk.

Oh, that's going to be fun. What's going on with Scott? What's happening? Okay, and now I found it. Everyone can calm down. Let's hear the first song by the way this is uh an updated version of uh one of the songs from that we talked about on the last episode uh this is their first single but this is the new version this is the hit single version this is radio free europe the first track on mummer by rem

it's quite a bit different than the Hib tone version. Sure. Like this isn't even like melodic at all, this part. Oh, there it goes. Whoa. Good shit. This is the version that I heard first. Yeah. So how do you, which one do you prefer?

I think we talked about this last time. I think I prefer the Hibtone version now because it's the one that I, because it was on eponymous, I think it's the one that I heard the most. And so it's the one I'm most used to. But I will say, after hearing this version on the radio so much, the eponymous version I had to get a little used to. But it just has more energy, I think. But I like this version.

Me too. I mean, this is the one I got you. I will say, after getting into REM and then going back, I got into the Round Document and going back, just hearing about Murmur and the fact that it was their first album, I always figured it would be really raw. Yeah, and I mean, in a way it is. I will say that I've been listening to some of the tracks from their first six records on repeat – on random, sorry.

So I put all of the songs into a playlist, all of their songs from the first, you know, six years. The 80s albums, yeah. Yeah, from the 80s. And there is a market difference in sound between the stuff that's pretty much like Life's Rich Pageant and Document and this. For sure. Their sound gets bigger and bigger, but this album is really polished. I mean, they're fully formed in their first album. It's Mitch Easter is back on the boards along with Don Dixon and Mitch Easter from the band Let's Active.

Did you ever listen to Let's Active? No, but I know of them, but I don't know any of their stuff. Everyone Says No is their, that's really the only song

that I'm familiar with. Really? Everything, wait, what is it? Every, everywhere it means now. Do you know that song? No.

Do you want to hear it a little bit? I could find it if you stall for a while. But I don't know. I really – and then the great – we're going to talk about Reckoning on a different episode. But these first two albums – Good stalling so far. This one is – it's still kind of – I was listening to it today.

It's still pretty astounding how fully formed and how good this album sounds. For a first album? I need you to stall just a little bit more. So anyone read the paper today? I read about... This is Let's Active. Is that Mitch Easter singing? I'm not sure.

Let me look it up. I know they used to play with R.E.M. sometimes. Let's get to the chorus. Pretty good. What do you think? It's good. You know, when you listen to Murmur now, does any of it feel dated to you? No. In fact, it is my favorite period of REM.

It is my favorite period of REM. It's the one that I am like, man, I really kind of wish that they continued. Stayed the same? Well, I don't know. It's definitely, I mean, we will on a further episode, I'm sure, talk about the passion. No, we'll talk about The Passion. Hey-oh! No, we'll talk about Rank the Albums and all that, but this is a good one, I gotta say.

It's great. See, listening to that Let's Active song, I'm like, yeah, this is really good. It sounds like a song from 1982. Right. Well, let's hear the second song, Pilgrimage. Oh, man. Which... Oh, boy. It's a good song. So wait, you never saw REM play?

Is that what you said? I saw them on the Green Tour. Okay. Did they play this? I don't know. It was 30 years ago. Yeah, right. Because I saw them play this.

Okay, yes. You saw them play and you saw them play this. Okay, yes, you saw them play, and you saw them play this song. Later on, though. I feel like I want to get to the chorus here, because it's such a good chorus. I mean, I love the verse, but God, the chorus. Let's fast forward just a little bit and hear what we got. It's so great.

Now, you can't really understand what he's saying. No. He's mumbling, which I always wondered if murmur kind of was an allusion to his singing style. Yeah. Then I read something in this book that they were saying it wasn't his singing style as much as his just whole style of talking and communicating. Peter Buck, I believe – I'm sorry, Peter Dollar Bill said that if you got to know Michael Stipend and just like got used to how he talked, then you would be able to understand what he was saying when he was singing. Yeah.

I heard that they called it murmur because murmur is apparently one of the three easiest words to say in the English language or something. What are the three? I don't know. Three easiest? Yeah, murmur. It's not that easy to say. If you have problems with R's, especially.

Well, if you don't have problems with R's, it's a pretty easy word to say. So if you don't have problems with R's, it's one of the top three easiest words to say. I remember hearing that. A lot of qualifications I have to say. So if you don't have problems with ours, it's one of the top three easiest words to say. I remember hearing that. A lot of qualifications I have to say. Mama. Mama. Mama. I guess mama would be,

because that's what babies say. Dada. Do you think babies say mama because it's easiest to say? It's mama, dada, and murmur. Are they trying to say murmur? Are babies trying to say murmur? Babies love this album.

I mean, are they saying mama because they love their mothers or just it's easy? They hear every single word and they're like, psychosomatic? Pass. I'm going to say mama. I think it's well, well documented that little babies do not love their mothers. Document. This was all recorded in 1983, of course. And let's hear track number three.

This is Laughing. This is another terrific song. Listen to that drumming, huh? I know I talk about how loud the drums are, like, almost exclusively, but... What do you think he said there, by the way? It sounds like he's about to say rock and roll is here to stay, but he goes rock and roll... With two sons. With two sons.

Maybe it's Luke Skywalker. He sees two sons at all times. Spoiler alert, it's how he dies. He died as he lived. Looking at two sunsets. Looking at a couple sons. Wow, big spoiler alert. Who cares? For those who didn't

see the movie. This isn't coming out until months after. If you haven't seen it by now, you're a fucking dumb shit. That's right. Let's continue. Precious Stone. Romancing the Stone? Big movie at the time. Motion Bound. Martin and Gina.

You think he's going to say laughing there Because it's a lot And then he turned I mean this is great It's so good I mean the harmonies Mike Mills Sorry Mike Miller Mike Myers I mean the harmonies and stuff. Mike Mills. Sorry.

Mike Miller. Mike Myers, yeah. As a backing vocalist is one of the best. He's groovy, baby. Does he make you horny, baby? Look at this and tell me I'm not horny. Whoa. A one-inch penis.

So great song, laughing. Great song. We can't – do you – and this is a question, look. People who actually are huge fans of R.E.M. are – I'm sure they hate the show because we don't know the basic answers to questions that they've spent their lives dedicating themselves to this. But look, it takes a lot to make a TV show or a movie. Okay, we've spent our lives doing that. Sure. You know, I've dedicated my life to a craft that has gained me four Emmy nominations.

Two of them wins as well as two WGA nominations, including one recently for the Michael Bolton Valentine's Day special. Look, that's what I've dedicated my life to. You guys got WGA nominations for that? Yes, we did. That's great. I had no idea. Yes, but congratulations, by the way. I was a part of it.

You're a part of that. But my question is, are the lyrics to these early albums, they're not included in the albums themselves. Right. And, in fact, you were saying you were a little bummed, they're not included in the albums themselves. Right. And in fact, you were saying you were a little bummed when they started including them in records. Yeah, just because it was kind of part of the whole thing. That's part of the mystery of R.E.M. is,

here's this dude, you don't know what he's saying, he doesn't look like a typical rock star. Rock stars at the time were like the Thompson twins who were all like English looking and wearing goth makeup and using drum machines. This is just like kind of a mysterious guy who has really long hair. For most people who don't know R.E.M.

when they started he had long long curly hair and then I think he started losing it so he started shaving. And he's dancing around. He has more energy than most people. But no one knows what the fuck he's saying. So are those lyrics available now? Yeah, they're all online, but I don't know if they're official.

That's what I mean, the official ones. I think maybe if you go on their website, they might have them from these early albums. In the book, some people talk about like, well, I knew what the lyrics were because he would show them to me in rough draft. So I was able to sing along. And one guy in one band, what band was it? Not the Dream Syndicate, but one of their contemporaries that they were on tour with said, Michael showed me the lyrics to Radio Free Europe once. And so we would cover it because I was one of the only people on earth who knew the lyrics to it. I think that what I heard early on was that they just considered the vocals to be just another instrument in the song.

It wasn't so much that it had to make sense. And honestly, that's – and I've talked about this on other episodes of this show and stuff. I grew up not really paying attention to lyrics all that much. Me neither. I don't really care. Because a lot of the bands that I liked back in the 80s, the lyrics were more impressionistic like this, where they were about the sound or the feeling.

So I've grown up kind of just singing nonsense and gibberish along with stuff. And this is one of those bands that, like, who knows what they're saying. I'm just going, la-dee, la-dee-da, dee, la-dee-da. La-dee-da. Let's hear the next song. Ooh, the titular. Talk about the passion titular of this book, of course. Classic.

This song, it is pretty amazing. This is their first album, and they have a song called Classic. My God. listen to this is Talk about the passion Not everyone can carry the weight of the world Kudos to Mitch Easter and Don Dixon, too, for not dressing this up too much. Yeah, I think they started recording this album with a more kind of Thompson Twins-ish producer for a while. They might have, or it might be the next one. I can't remember. Well, listen to this chorus.

First of all, the verse is as good as the chorus. Oh, you mean playing Catapult like 70 times? No, but I think they were going to make the whole album with this other person. Right, yeah. And then decided. I can't remember if it's this album or the next one. No, it's this one. It is this one.

Okay. Because I remember whoever it was made them play Catapult like 100 times to try and get it right. Whoever it was made them play Catapult like a hundred times to try and get it right. Well, Mitch Easter was saying that his goal was he just wanted to do the follow-up to the single. Like that was important. And so he sort of like pleaded with the band like, come on, let me do the album. Because he wanted to do, you know how I think we talked about with Hue 2, you know,

like why do they ditch certain producers when they've made such good records, you know? And Mitch Easter talks about it in this book of like he was happy that they stuck with him through Reckoning. Yeah. Because he was like, I didn't expect that. So, yeah, if they want to go work with someone else, good. I was busy with Let's Active anyway. Yeah. But what's interesting about their producing style, he was saying, is that they sort of do dress it up in some ways. They added a lot of weird noises.

Yeah, but it just doesn't sound of the time at all. Yep. And Reckoning sounds completely different too, which is weird. Let's hear Moral Kiosk, the next track. A rocker. A rocker. Funny, these songs, like this song, I'm like, eh, it's not really one of my favorites.

But then once the chorus hits, it's amazing. Yeah, I'm like, oh no, this is amazing. This is amazing. Inside the moral kiosk. I could pick out that. Yeah. So great. I could pick out that. Yeah. So great. I mean, they were like 20 years old. You know, I heard that one of the things that kind of point to early success is college students trying to figure out what he's saying and sitting around in their dorm rooms and partying and trying to figure out what. in their dorm rooms and partying and trying to figure out what – like they had just the right amount of mystery to them and they sounded – Where people made a cult about them.

Like, oh, what are they all about? But they also sounded poppy and easy. Well, I also read about – we were talking about the kudzu or kudzu on the record and also the goblin or gargoyle on Chronic Town. Albums didn't look like that. No. But it was also something Southerners, when they saw the kudzu and the gargoyle,

they were attracted to it because it was very Southern. Yeah. But it was something that we, you know, you and Santa Cruz and me in California as well are like, oh, this is exotic. Albums don't look like this. Oh, interesting. Yeah.

Everything was a very interesting choice. Let's hear the last song on side A before we go to break. This is Perfect Circle. So far, every song a classic. Yeah, I mean, this is stone cold classic. Really an

SEC. SC. Normally that stands for Santa Cruz cocksucker, like you. Me. That's me. Bill Barry wrote the music for this song. Don't you mean? Wait, who's Bill Barry?

Dollar Bill Strawberry? Dollar Bill Strawberry. They say that he wrote South Central Rain, but, and then Everybody Hurts, too. Which is different for a lot of bands.

A lot of bands, they're, all the members don't write songs. Queen is famously, I think, the only band where every

member of the band wrote one of their number one hits. Really? Yeah. But, because I think the bass player did another one, Rides the Bus. Rides the Bus. I'm, of course, more familiar with the Weird Al version.

But also famously, REM, from the beginning, they credit all four members with every song. With every song. The U2, the Coldplay method, where it's like, if you want to stay together, don't have your lead singer be driving around in a Lambo while everyone else is driving a jalopy. Look, let's go to a break. When we come back, we'll deconstruct jalopies and Lambos. Side B.

We'll be right back. Such a good song. Quintances and friends. Drink another. Coin of rain. Hey, Adam, are you listening to this show? Which one? The one that we're recording. Yeah, I have headphones on, so I'm listening to it.

So, okay, so if you're listening to this show, you're probably a fan of, what is this word? Som. Sounded out, sounded out. Som. No, som. Som. Som. Som. Som.

Som. Som. Som. Som. Som. Som. Som. Som.

Som. Som. Som. Som. Com. Com. Com. Com.

Com. Com. Com. Com. Com. Com. Com. Com.

Com. Com. Com. Com. Com. Com. Com. Com.

Com. Com. Com. Com. Com. Com. Com. Com.

Com. Com. Com. Com. Com. Com. Com. Com.

Com. Com. Com. Com. Com. Com. Com. King Kong. King Kong. King Konge-de. Com-e-de. Com-e-de. Com-e-de. Com-e-de. King Kong? Com-e-de. King Kong Kong.

Com-e-de. Com-e-de. Comedy? Comedy. Comedy. Comedy! Comedy! Comedy.

Comedy. You're probably a fan of comedy, right? Uh, hmm. I can take it or leave it. Yeah. Quite honestly. But, who doesn't enjoy laughing? Well, you got me there.

I do have you there. I'm grabbing at him, by the way got me there. I do have you there. I'm grabbing Adam, by the way, right now. I'll let you go. Don't worry. Okay. Did you know, Adam and I can only imagine that you have to know, that Stitcher Premium subscribers get access to hundreds of stand-up comedy albums? Yeah, you can hear your favorite comics from A to V,

but not Z because we don't have any comedians that start with Z. Like Ali Wong, Mark Maron, Paul F. Tompkins. Who's a comedian that starts with Z? That starts with Z? Are they doing it by first name? Yeah. What's going on over there at Stisher Premiums? Like Ali Wong would be under A.

A, right. Mark Maron. You got the double M's. They have a double M section. Or maybe it's A. They're giving two examples of A. Ali Wong and Marc Maron. And Marc Maron, yeah.

Marc's second letter for both. Because if you have the second letter as the same for both of your names, then you start with A. If you're looking for Marc Maron, just look up A. You'll get there. Don't worry. Start listening to these albums and many, many more on Stitcher Premium now. For a free month, go to

stitcher.com slash premium and use the code REM. That's stitcher.com slash premium and the code is R-E-M. We're back. This is the first song on side B of Mummer. Mummer! We're back. This is the first song on side B of Mamma.

Mamma. Mamma. Catapult. God, this is great too. This is great. Yeah, I think that other producer, I should find out who that was, wanted to make this a big hit. Oh, right.

And so they had to play it over and over again. So I think it made them hate this song. Were they trying to do it to like a click track and stuff? Yeah, I think he was trying to. They were saying Mitch Easter were saying mitch easter and don dixon they were saying that uh they'd never tried to get it perfect uh-huh Oh, great. So, um... Oh, Stephen Haig. Fuck Stephen Haig.

That's all I have to say. What the fuck has he ever done? That was the, uh... Excuse me, do catapult a few more times for me. I'm Stephen Haig. Hello, mate. He's, uh... Can you imagine this guy?

The fucking audacity of this guy. Okay. Look him up. What else has he done? He might actually be cool. OMD, Public Image Limited, Pet Shop Boys. I mean, these are good records. They sure are.

Which Pet Shop Boys? Oh, that's Stephen Haig. West End Girls. When you're all alone and you're living in the city. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Well, my name is the Pet Shop Boys. I'm here to say. Oh, Peter Gabriel.

He's good, yeah. Forget what I said. Forget what I said. No, but I wonder if their first, he's American, if their first record was all kind of souped up with all those early 80s sounds what would have happened there? Because this came out and immediately it was

It sounded different than anything. Yeah and it was the number one album for Rolling Stone for the first year. That's right we should talk about that. It was Rolling Stone which used to be Awesome. Yeah relatively on the cutting edge relatively but it's not like today where they'll put like Hugh Two

as number one. It's only shitting on our previous show. No, they named this kind of relatively unknown college band as the number one record of the year.

And it got them a lot of attention. Yeah. I still do like a lot, Rolling Stone has a lot of great political writing and also they do have – no, but they do have good music journalism too. What's his name? Why do you bring this show to a standstill? Why do you bring this show up your own butt?

to a standstill. Why do you bring this show up your own butt? Speaking of up your butt, let's go to track number two on side B. By the way, I was going to say, normally seven songs into a record, they're out of ideas. Right, you're just throwing everything. You're like, all right.

You know, like I think we talked about with a Hue 2 record, All That You Can't Leave Behind. After track six or so, they're like, look, we shot our wad all over the wall. Look, we jizzed out what we could jizz out. And now we're just like marking time. But with this record, every song is good.

Let's hear – this is track two on side B. Song eight, Sitting Still. Oh, this is my favorite song on the album. Yeah, this is an incredible album. Or song. Album. Song. Guitars.

Lyrics. In the name of God, we all agree. Secrets don't stop it worrying. We could bind it in the sift. We could gather, throw a fit. Up to par and created bars and kitchen sides, but not me. Sitting top of the big key, a waste of time. They hold the chorus right here. Oh, man.

I want that chorus. We got to hear that. We got to keep playing. All right, let me fast forward. I love that chorus. Up to par in Katy Bar, kitchen size, but not me in. Here it comes. But they hold the backing melodies, too,

until the third time they do the chorus. I heard something about songwriting once where it was like, you want your verses to trick people into thinking that's the chorus, and then the chorus is even better. And that's when you have a good pop song. That's what the Cars recent additions to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, by the way. Well-deserved, man, the fucking Cars. The first Cars record. By the way, I was talking to Colin Hanks about this once.

Colin, you know, fancies himself to be a music. A rock and roll specialist. Rock and roll specialist because he's made a couple of documentaries about things, but... We all know the truth. But we all know

that Colin Hanks is... Pretty great guy. Pretty nice. Yeah. No, he's a great guy. But on Twitter once, he was trying to say, like, is there a better...

I forget what band he was talking about debut album with where the first three songs are amazing than some record and i said yeah the cars debut album yeah and he was like nope what what album was he saying i don't even know what it was i can't even remember what it was but he he shot back such a definitive nope. About the cars? About the cars? Those three songs on the cars. What are the first three songs on the cars? Just What I Needed, Best Friend's Girl,

and, you know, whatever the other big hit on it was. The cars, man. They deserve a podcast. Not from us. No,

absolutely not from us. Fuck them. Fuck the cars. I won't even, I won't even drive a car. The cars didn't last long enough for... Yeah, the cars...

Oh my God. Please pull this out. No, but what's that first album? Which one is the first album? The Cars? It's just called The Cars. Yeah.

Good times roll, best friends, girl, and just what I needed. It's amazing. Like those three songs are maybe the best three songs. I mean, my friend and I used to talk about, what's the best debut album of all time?

We would talk about The Cars. We'd talk about The Pretenders, or Just Pretenders, I guess. This is up there, I think. But I will say none of these became the radio staples that Pretenders or the Cars did. No, they weren't big hits at the time except on college. Because alternative music at the time was college radio. Here's the next track, Nine Nine. And this is about Andy Samberg, which I thought was an interesting bit of trivia.

Andy Samberg. Star of Brooklyn yeah yeah it's I mean it's crazy but they he and Dan Gore

were little babies at the time but REM decided to write a song about them it's crazy but they did it and here it is Thank you. Got a stride Turned his back

All nine yards Turned her back Gave me a call I had pretty much the similar, when I listened to this again preparing for the show, I had a similar reaction as you, where each song would come up and I would go, oh yeah, this isn't quite as good as the previous ones. And then the chorus would hit and I'd be like, oh no, I love this one too. I know. I read something interesting about,

in this book, about Peter Dollar Bill's guitar playing style. Two different things they said. Number one is that normally a guitarist is doing the complicated stuff with their left hand and doing simple stuff with their right hand, and he did it the opposite way, where he couldn't really play complicated stuff with his left hand, so he was doing all these, like he would just do normal chords and do all these complicated picking things. Then the other thing I read was that he couldn't...

How do they phrase it? Because I don't want to say that he's a bad guitarist, but he couldn't do what normal guitarists do so that Mike Myers had to do the melodies in the bass. And so all the melody is coming from the bass, and he's just kind of going. Peter Dollar Bill, Mike Myers, and Dollar Bill Strawberry were all like self-taught dudes who weren't like, didn't know exactly what they were doing.

And I'm self-taught not about music, but I'm just about life. Yeah, I self-taught myself everything. From my first word, murmur. Yep. Up until my most recent word. Word. Word.

Let's go to shaking. Great bits. Shaking through is the next. Listen to this. Another favorite. This is so good. Another favorite. This is great.

This is great. God damn it. Such a deep bench of songs. Fucking awesome. I mean, Jesus Christ, Scott. I mean, fuck you. I mean, God damn fuck. I mean, God, I hate these guys.

This fucking music is good. This is good rock and roll music. Good rock and roll music. I mean, do they pull back on the chorus here? Let's hear it. They sure do. They do. It's aggravating and the best thing in the world at the same time.

They're CTs with the Cs. God damn it. Cock teases with the chorus. Can't play. Wait, no, we got to hear the chorus, but we can't hear it. Here it comes. Got someone pounding the keys back there in a really great way. I'll put you down Got someone pounding the keys back there in a really great way.

I think it's Dollar Bill Strawberry. On the old keys? The old ivories? Radiating on the 88. Damn. Okay. Great song. Those old ebonies and ivories that Steve Wonder talked about.

Remember the cover of the 45 of Ebony and Ivory's that Steve Wonder talked about. Remember the cover of the 45 of Ebony and Ivory where they're just, Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder. Steve Wonder? They're just, they're hanging out on a giant keyboard. Do you remember that? No. You don't really? Oh god how terrible. Why would they

do that? But also. What a fucking shitty song. Ebony and Ivory? I don't know. It's terrible. What do you think? I haven't heard it in years and years and years.

Do you want to? Yes, I do. What would you pay me to hear Ebony and Ivory right now? I would give you, let me see what I have. Yeah, what do you have in your pockets? It's two different things. First of all, I'm fascinated to hear what you have in your pocket like how much money adam scott carries around on a daily basis but i'm also wondering how much of it you'll actually give to me if i can play ebony and ivory for you right now why do you use why do you use that old ipod that has there's not connected to the internet because

it stores way more music. It stores 160 gigs. Yeah, but you can store unlimited on this. It's just streaming. No. Okay, you want to know how much money I have? Why are you criticizing? I love an old iPod. I used to keep one in my car because I didn't want to.

So you love it so much you want to make fun of me and ask why I'm using it? I had a long-standing rule. I will always keep an old-school iPod in my car so I have, no matter what is going on, coverage-wise, I have all of my music. I have all my favorites here. But it kept getting stolen out of my car. Oh, really? I take mine out of my car

because... Did I tell you what happened to my car recently? No. Okay, so I park it outside my house because we have cool up has such a wide car that um only one car goes only one car goes in the garage i i look i relate because it's a lot like my penis and only one can fit into that garage. But so I park outside. Sure. And so about a month ago, I go to my car and I'm like, I feel like someone who's in my car. And then I drive to work and just something's off about it. Like things are in different places or something. And then I realized the coin thing is open, which I haven't opened in years maybe. And I go, oh, okay.

Someone was in my car. So I look through it and I don't keep anything in my car really. And I had luckily been taking my iPod out just in case anything like that had happened. So there's nothing of value in it. anything like that had happened. So there's nothing of value in it. But I was looking around and, oh, man, I need to look up this person's name because I don't want to get it wrong because she's great. Did someone leave a little piece of origami like Edward James Olmos?

So – but I was kind of like, you know, the one thing that I have, none of the CDs I had in there, Tears for Fears had given me, um, when they were on Bang Bang, they had given me, uh, these, uh, uh, their, uh, songs from the Big Chair Deluxe album. And it was still wrapped. I haven't opened it yet. But it was still there. Like everything was. Because it's a CD. It was still wrapped. I haven't opened it yet.

But it was still there. Like everything was – Because it's a CD. But everything was still in there. But I was kind of like the one thing I had in there in the trunk, I believe, that I was like, oh, man. set of these Smiths acoustic – no, these covers of all of their albums done a cappella by this great singer. I want to say Joe – God, what is it? Engineer Cody – could you look up who this – Janice Whaley. Janice Whaley.

Sorry. I met her in San Francisco. Janice Whaley. Janice Whaley. Sorry, I met her in San Francisco. Janice Whaley. And I really like them, and I would listen to them in the car, and then I had them in my trunk the last time I had checked. And so I opened up the trunk, and they weren't in there. And I was like, oh, I must have taken them out. Hopefully – that can't be the one thing they stole. Is it a Smiths fan who – How did they get in your trunk?

Well, you can just pop it. So anyway, so a couple of weeks went by, and then I go back out to the car in the morning, and I feel like someone's been in it again, and I look down on the ground next to my feet, and there's that box set. No way. Like they came back to give it back. Do you leave your car unlocked? No.

That's what we can't figure out. Do you have an alarm on your car yeah but but we don't know whether someone like has been able to bypass it i don't know what it is but anyway crazy story right um why were we talking about that so how much how much money do you have brought it but i uh let me count Yeah, what do you got? This is like a warm fire that I'm by. Wait, is this an episode of Talking About Money? I think it might be. Hey, welcome to Talking About Money. This is Scott.

And this is Scott. And we're just talking about how much money Adam has in his old picky pockets at any given time. And boy, from what I can see from over here, it is a large amount. How much do you have there, Adam? Do we have a tally? It's the holiday season. It's nice to have a little walking around spending cash. Walking around money. Exactly,

Scott. So, right now I have $220 bills. $220? $220 bills in my hot little hands. Oh, wait I have $220 dollar bill. $220? $220 dollar bill. And how much? In my hot little hands. Oh, wait. Not $220. No, $220 dollar bill. Okay, so that's $40. Then I have one

$10 dollar bill. Ooh, an Alexander Hamilton. Oh, yeah. He's right there looking at him. He's not giving away his shot. No, not at all. Or I'm giving away his shot. No, not at all. Or I'm giving away my shot to him when I spend this $10 bill. To listen to Ebony and Ivory. Exactly.

And then how many, do you have any fives? Three $1 bills. Three $1 bills. George Washington on them. My friend used to, he used to really want. Wait, shut up. So that's a total of $53. And how much are you willing to spend if I can play Ebony or Ivory? I'll give you $1. All right, shut up. So that's a total of $53. And how much are you willing to spend if I can play Ebony or Ivory? I'll give you $1.

All right. My friend. Ebony And ivory Live together in perfect harmony Like, I'd like to think about, like, Peter Buck in 1983 or whenever this song came out, in the middle of making Murmur, and this is the most popular song in the nation. Just being like Jesus fucking Christ.

It's pretty good. That people are the same wherever we go. It's fucking good or bad. And fucking everyone. Listen to Steve Wonder on this song. He'd fucking

learn to live. He fucking. Learn to live. He fucking blows. And when I say blows, meaning. Blows vocally. Blows, yeah. In a good way. No, he's no good is what I'm trying to say. Yeah, he sucks.

I think everyone knows that Stevie Wonder is mediocre. Always has been. Steve Wonder, not a talent. We got to get to some of these final songs. Did we do Sh shaking through or no no we did we did okay here's we walk

now this is atypical this is not your typical REM song it's well this is what I point to when people talk about

you're pointing to your penis right now stand or shiny happy people as being dumb them selling out and doing big dumb pop songs

it's on their first album they do. This exact kind of thing. Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na. Up the stairs to the lounge and up the stairs to the home. Uh-oh. Oh.

Somehow I think I like this better than Stan, though. Uh-huh. It's like, maybe it's the vibraphones. I don't know. better than Stand, though. It's like, maybe it's the vibraphones? I don't know. Yeah. I think Mitch Easter was saying that this song they had a lot of trouble with because it's very slight, and they were trying to figure out how to record it.

And I think they recorded pool. Yeah, that's them playing pool in the background. Slight meaning just kind of a thin song? Yeah, like they didn't quite know what to do with it. But it sounds great. Yeah, like they didn't quite know what to do with it. But it sounds great. It kind of starts, I'm like, oh, this isn't your typical R.E.M.

song, and then when it starts going do-do-do-do-do and all that stuff, it's like, yeah, it's good. Alright, so it's good now. Now it's good. Then West of the Fields, right? West of the Fields is the final track on this record, and let's hear it right now.

Back to the traditional sound. I love this bass line. to a single tomorrow when we try dream of living jungle with my wife I would love to be in an acapella REM group with you where you're just going boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. West of the fields.

I, of course, would sing lead vocals. And then I would just be in the back going boom, boom, boom, boom. I will say, good song, Not as good as the previous 11. No, I also feel like if this album's finished with Shaking Through, it would be fine. Yeah, I still think it's kind of perfect in a way. It's one of the great albums of all time. But those last two songs are almost like oddly enough they're reckoning the next record only has 10 songs on it yeah and this has 12 i'm surprised that this has 12 because it was

primarily records at the time yeah and including a uh two re-recordings of their first single which you think normally a band would do sitting still and and uh yeah radio radio for europe sitting still was hip tone yeah you you think they would do that on their and Radio Free Europe. And, yeah, Radio Free Europe. Right, Sitting Still was hip-toned as well. Yeah, you think they would do that on their first EP. Like, oh, okay, now we have a studio. Let's re-record. But they saved it for their regular album. Let's play a bonus track here recorded at the time.

This is a cover of The Velvet Underground. This is There She Goes Again by Harri-Ann. Boy, do I love this. This introduced me to Velvet Underground. You too? Goddammit. It introduced me to you too. Yes. There she goes. There she goes. She's out on the street.

There she goes. She's got all her needs. There she goes. Let's go please again. There she goes. We're looking real close this time. So let's talk about Velvet Underground because you were saying that this song introduced you to Velvet Underground. Yeah. Velvet Underground because you were saying that this song introduced you to Velvet Underground. This song

took me by the arm and pulled me across the room and they were like, I would like you to meet Velvet Underground. Adam, this is Velvet Underground. Adam, why are you embarrassing me? Shaking your arm. A hard shake. I had the same experience where you and I were talking. I can't remember if it was on mic and I hope it was

because we so seldom speak off mic. But we were talking I can't remember if it was on mic and I hope it was because we so seldom speak off mic but we were talking about Dead Letter Office where a lot of these b-sides ended up and that being like one of our first

one of the first R.E.M. records yeah it was my second one that I got and your maybe second one as well because you got Document first

and then went right backwards to it I think talking to that that big black thing by your mouth. I think it was Document, Green, Dead Letter Office, and then Life's Rich Pageant, and then... Okay, so you went backwards.

You got Document, wore it out, moved on to Green a year later, then went backwards and said, this is one of my favorite bands, I'm going to go backwards. Yeah, because it wasn't until Green that I was like, oh, fuck, what is, you know, and started reading all their press.

Document, you were like, I mean, yeah, it's great. It's amazing. I mean, it's unequaled, but. But I'm uninterested in anything they've ever done. Right. It's going to take something seminal.

I got, very similar to you, but I started one album earlier. I got Life's Rich Pageant, then Dead Letter Office, which came out after it, and then went back to everything. Sure. So this is the second record that I got, and it's a collection of all of their B-sides. And in the sleeve, on the sleeve there, it was the first sleeve, I think, that had actual something on it. And it has Peter Dollar Bill talking about each song. So great.

And I had never heard of the velvet underground before and this and and this is how prevalent now the velvet underground is like i know most of their songs now like the back of my hand everyone knows velvet underground songs right but and so i i chuck when i was thinking about the three velvet underground songs that are on this record and two of which are B-sides for the next episode that we'll play, and they talk about how the Velvet Underground was a big influence in these liner notes, and they talked about in press, they were saying that they, I think, coined the thing that the Velvet Underground didn't have a lot of fans, but every fan went and started their own band. Yeah. They sort of coined that whole phrase. And I was thinking like, oh, okay, I was just a dumb kid. I didn't know The Velvet Underground.

Reading this book and interviews in this book, they say that The Velvet Underground records had been out of print for a long time. No one gave a shit. No one gave a shit about The Velvet Underground and REM resuscitated interest in the Velvet Underground. And same with Big Star. They would cite Big Star and Velvet Underground, two forgotten – isn't that weird? Forgotten bands. And now we – I mean, I don't know if you went back and listened to a lot of Velvet Underground. Oh, yeah.

Oh, my God. But it's interesting to me because this is the first version of There She Goes again that I ever – Me too. This is the first version of There She Goes again that I ever heard and the one that I was most used to before hearing Velvet Underground. But coming back to it now really – it's interesting how they changed the melody so much. Oh, yeah. And Femme Fatale and Pale Blue Eyes as well. Which we'll hear next time.

Yeah. They changed the lyrics, I believe, of Pale Blue Eyes. But it's cool what he says in the liner notes about There She Goes Again. It's one of several Velvet Underground songs we recorded. It was recorded live to two-track with Mitch Easter playing acoustic guitar under the same mic as myself. I remember that I had to step forward to play the solo just like Bill Monroe. You said that was interesting? I said that was interesting. I said that was interesting.

And then I read it. And proving just the opposite of what I had said. You said it like it was the most interesting thing you had ever heard. I mean, it is interesting that he had to play. It's far more interesting when you read it silently and just mull it over in your own brain. Yeah. Let's hear one other B-side. I didn't hear this for the longest time. had to play it's far more interesting when you read it silently and just not alone brain yeah um let's hear one other b-side i didn't hear this for the longest time speaking of billy joel the

longest time oh i uh i didn't hear this until until the reissue when irs put out uh these records on cd with bonus tracks this is their version of Moon River. Oh, yeah. That's great. Which I was not as familiar with. So, pretty standard. Although they do, it seems like in the middle they use a synthesizer to be like, So that's from the murmur sessions? Yeah, that's from the murmur sessions, yeah. Not a ton of B-sides for those murmur sessions, mainly, I think, because they put 12 songs on the record. Yeah, probably. And they had like songs on the record. Yeah, probably.

But they... And they had like a week to record the album or something. Mm-hmm. Just like Bare Naked Ladies. Yeah. They had one week.

Hilt span. All right. That is going to wrap it up for this episode. I hope that now... I mean, honestly, now you know everything there is to know about her. Mama.

Mama. Mama. Mama. Mama. Mama. Let's take you out with a little bit of Wolves, Lower. By the way, in the book, there's a section I was reading about Chronic Town where they are all laughing about the title of Wolves, Lower, and

Peter Dollar Bill is like, yeah, that's Michael. Yeah yeah just that a song title would first of all be called wolves and then be comma lower yeah let's go out with a little bit of that we will of course next time we'll be talking about reckoning until then this is scott and there's Scott over there, and we hope that you have found what you're looking for. Bye. Hi, everybody. My name is Chris Gathard, letting you know that this week, the 100th episode of Beautiful Anonymous comes out. I want to thank everybody who listens to this show where I just talk to people on the phone.

Never expected it to change my life the way it has. Thank you for supporting it. I thought this show was just going to be like all comedy fans prank calling me, messing with me. Instead, I've realized that I'm a citizen of a large world and that people have so much in common no matter where they are, whether it's someone who's a heroin addict or someone who's thinking about buying a record store or someone who shits their pants all the time or someone who has a kid with cancer or someone who's a swinger or someone who really loves Donald Trump, someone who escaped from a cult, someone who made out with their teacher in high school. I was able to talk to all these people one hour at a time and realize at the end of the day, what this project has taught me is

that we're all people and we're all living our lives and we're just trying to get by and just trying to find happiness in this messed up world that seems so goddamn confusing. Check out beautiful stories from anonymous people on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app. Thank you for listening. Thanks to faith. Scott Aukerman, Chris Bannon, and Colin Anderson. For more information and content, visit Earwolf.com. Hey, Queeros, it's me, Cami 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.