U Talkin’ U2 To Me? - R U Talkin' R.E.M. RE: ME? - New Adventures in Hi-Fi

Episode Date: May 23, 2018

Adam Scott Aukerman continue on this week to discuss R.E.M.’s tenth studio album New Adventures in Hi-Fi. We’ll hear from a listener during an episode of “How’s Your Baby” and Adam tries to figure out which Parks & Rec character he would be. Then they cover how an onstage aneurysm in Switzerland led R.E.M. to produce the looser 1996 album before listening through song by song. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace (www.squarespace.com/REM code: REM).

Hey everyone, thanks for listening to Are You Talking R.E.M. ReMe, and we are proud to say that we are sponsored by Squarespace today. A dream is just a great idea that doesn't have a website yet. Make it a reality with Squarespace. Squarespace makes it easy to turn your idea into a unique website. You can showcase your work, you can showcase your blog, you can publish content, you can even sell products and services of all kinds in just a few clicks. With 24-7 award-winning customer support, you can customize everything

from look and feel to settings and products using beautiful templates created by world-class designers. And there's nothing to install, patch, or upgrade ever. Head to squarespace.com slash REM for a free trial and when you're ready to launch, use the offer code REM to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or a domain. From Chronic to Collapse, Town, and Into Now, respectively, that is. This is Are You Talking R.E.M., Remy. The comprehensive and encyclopedic compendium of all things R.E.M. This is good rock and roll music.

For me and you and you and you and you. And you and you. But first of all, Adam. He made sure to stake his claim right off the bat. My friends and my friends. Hello there, R.E.M. fans, hey. Welcome back. It's been a bit of time, has it not, since I have seen you.

Three years. Three years have passed. A lot of people don't know we were recording these three years ago. That's why we were so happy all the time. Obama was president. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And things have really gotten dire. It's crazy.

Things have changed quite a bit. Things have definitely changed. So I don't know if that's going to affect our mood at all. But I want to be a little happy and upbeat here. My personal style has shifted a little bit. I know. So you're sort of the professor today. You're wearing spectacles and a cardigan.

And you look like you kind of just got up, and you're in your pajamas, and you're like, oh, let me grab the Sunday paper. What's going on in the Sunday paper? What is this? You need, like, a cup of coffee. Where are my students? Students? It's Sunday. I'm grading papers. You grade papers with your students there?

Why don't I know how to put on these? By the way, Adam is doing excellent space work right now. Glasses bits. Is this an episode of Glasses Bits? I think it might be. Go get yourself some cheap sunglasses. Hey, everyone. Welcome to Glasses Bits.

This is Scott. This is Scott. We're just talking about bits we can do with our glasses. Let me grab mine here. Let's see what you got. Okay, yeah. Let me put these bad boys on. They won't stay on. they won't stay on.

They won't stay on. Those things are supposed to go behind your ears, that's how they stay on. These are supposed to go behind my ears? All right, here we go. No, not that way, silly. Because then you need your nose to hold it up. Two great glasses bits.

See you next time. Bye. Go get yourself some cheap sunglasses. Good ep. Yeah? Yeah, right off the bat. Swinging. Yeah? Yeah. Right off the bat. Swinging. Yeah.

Ep one. They take no prisoners. They pull no punches. Episode, our first episode of this three-year period is going well. This is going really well. By the way, I do want to introduce you. He is the professor to my skipper. Marianne.

You think I'm Marianne? Maybe. Very attractive person. Do you ever take those, oh, thank you very much. You're welcome. Do you ever take those quizzes, those online quizzes, like what Friends character would you be? Oh, man, I can't get into this. What Harry Potter, you know. I like doing the Parks and Rec ones. Who do you end up

being? I just answer them chaotically. In your personal life? Yeah. Like I know you played, what was his name? Ben Wyatt. Ben Wyatt.

Yes, that's right. I know you played Ben. You're nothing like him in your regular life as far as I can tell. No, no, no. And look, I'm not saying that I know you

as well as your loved ones do because certainly they see the mask drop the minute you walk through the door, I'm sure. They see me get home and take off my second skin and put on my first. And I'm sure they just see the mask of civility just go away and it's like,

and they sigh and they're like, ah, daddy's home. Yep. And just shit gets dark when you cross the threshold. So I'm not saying I know you as well as that sure but um

I do I do think that you are not really a Ben Wyatt let me list the characters on this show and I'll see who who you would be well uh

there's Ben Wyatt mhm there's April Ludgate mhm which is Aubrey's character she's too laid back she's even more laid back than Ben Wyatt

I know Ben Wyatt is like high strung in certain ways uh huh and is like high strung in certain ways. And you're high strung in those ways. But I think you're almost an Amy. I feel like you're almost an Amy. Leslie Knope? Yeah, you're almost a Leslie Knope when it comes to like your obsessiveness about things. Sure.

Okay. So you're Leslie mixed with. April Ludgate? Is that what you say? No, no, no. You're Leslie Knope. Yeah. It would mix.

Why do you keep saying you're April? That's the only other character we've mentioned. No, I think you're're Leslie Knope. Yeah. Why do you keep saying you're April? That's the only other character we've mentioned. No, I think you're like Leslie Knope in terms of like anal, high-strung, type A personality mixed with like – was there ever a character on the show who's like just like a real piece of shit, just like a janitor? Oh, are you saying janitors are pieces of shit? Yeah. Well, they clean them. You are what you clean? Maybe Jean-Ralphio, maybe Ben's character. like a janitor who are you saying janitors are pieces of shit yeah well they clean them you are what you clean maybe Jean-Ralphio

maybe Ben's character no he's too cool I'm thinking like someone who just like came in like an extra who had one line

who's just like and everyone was like oh god I hate that guy oh maybe maybe who's a real piece of shit on the show let's just say

there was a piece of shit on the show like a literal piece of shit like the show let's just say there was a piece of shit on the show like a literal piece of shit like yeah like say aziz maybe one day was like oh this will be a funny where'd this turd come from yeah exactly and that's and that's a cross between that and the irritating parts of leslie nope okay i'll take it that's great love it has that ever come up in a quiz? Yeah, that's usually what I get. You're the turd in season four, episode 17. I do want to introduce you still, of course. You know him from the aforementioned Parks and Rec, and he's out there hitting the pavement, out there trying to get the word out about Big Little Lies.

Hey, everybody, it's me. Adam Scott is here. Thank you very much. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And how about we have you introduce you as well there, Scott? Well, let me see. I was born in Savannah, Georgia. You were not born in Savannah.

I was indeed. Really? I believe that's come up on this show. I was born in Savannah. I was indeed. Really? I believe that's come up on this show. I was born in Georgia. That's why this R-E something. R-E-M. M. It's so important to me

is because I'm a Southern boy. Have you been to Athens? I have. We've talked about that on a previous episode. Thanks for listening. At length. At not only to the episodes when they're released, but our conversations.

Oh, the glasses bit. I can't see it. I think it's another episode of glasses bit. Go get yourself some cheap sunglasses. Hey, everyone. Welcome to glasses bit. Hey. This is Scott.

This is Scott. I can't see anything. He's in the middle of a glasses bit. I can't see. I just had to turn on the recorder. That is better. Oh, wait a second. Oh, cross-eyed.

This whole room, it's spinning. Two great glasses bits. We'll see you next time. Bye. Go get yourself some cheap sunglasses. Good, good, good, good, good. Cut to, okay, hard cut to, I was born in Savannah, Georgia. Hard cut to, I'm sitting in this room

scott ackerman hello welcome to the show scott that's a hard cut too oh yeah that's a that's a good what 45 years at least yeah i mean it's like a it's not even like one of those easy writer cuts uh you know where it's like flashes forward and then back and then toggles backwards. Easy Rider? You know, have you not heard of Easy Rider? No, I know Easy Rider, Scott. Hold on, is this an episode of I Love Film? Yes. Hey, everyone.

Welcome to I Love Film. This is Scott. And this is Scott. And we're talking about film. We're talking about one film in particular. The easiest of writers. You is Scott. And this is Scott. And we're talking about film. We're talking about one film in particular. The easiest of writers. You said it. Easy Rider, directed by Dennis Hopper.

Dennis Hopper, 1969. Incredible, dare I say, revolutionary film, Scott. They made it on a shoestring budget, and it was the number three film of that year. It's the first independent film, as far as I'm concerned. As far as I'm concerned, it's the last. Because everything after that was just... Everything after Easy Rider and everything before Easy Rider was bullshit. Yeah, everything.

It's like an Easy Rider sandwich with loaves of bullshit around it. Yeah, just two big pieces of bullshit with a delicious, wonderful film in between. of bullshit with a delicious, wonderful film in between. Just like, can you imagine just like, okay, bottom layer? Just bulls come over and just big piles of shit. Then you lay a Blu-ray of Easy Rider on top of it. Just a thick piece of truth. And then on top of that, bulls come over and just their balls rub in the shit in the, they don't care about the cleanliness of their balls.

It's disgusting. That's the history of the world. That is everything before and after the beautiful film known to us, to you and I as easy rider. And we're talking about the transition cuts, the edits, where sometimes it'll go, you'll see the next scene, and then it'll flash back to the previous scene, then like toggle back and forth very quickly, and then go to the next scene. I may have said

revolutionary earlier. That's what I'm talking about. A lot like one of my favorite wars. Yes. The Revolution. The Revolutionary War, of course. Alright, well, I think we've covered everything in film history. Are there any other films that are relevant? No, everything else sucks.

I didn't think so. Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye. Good. Good app. Yeah. I think that, I don't know if we ever need to do another episode.

I think we're putting that one to bed. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, I that one to bed. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry, I Love Films fans. Goodbye. At least the I Love, I Love Films fans will – Yeah, they'll have something to talk about. They'll have something to talk about and, you know.

What were we talking about, Easy Rider? Oh, the big jump cut in your life to this one. Oh, yes, yes, yes. Here I am. So tell me, Adam, before we get to, of course we're talking about the band Har-Har-Har-Har-E-M. Yeah. And we're going to be talking about the album

New Adventures in Hi-Fi. Hi-Fi. We'll be talking about that coming up, and we're going to get really into it. But, Adam, I want to hear about your life. I haven't seen you in three years, so what's happening? Wow. Yeah, it's three years.

Let's see. What have I been doing? Not much. How about you? Oh, nothing. Okay. Cool. Well, it's great catching up.

Yeah. You ever catch up with old friends, like from college or something, and you're like, yeah, let's get together. And then approximately 20 minutes in, you've run out of stuff to talk about. Yes. How often?

Every night? Whenever I get together with friends. No, no, no. How, how, how,

that's not true. What is the most, what's the cutoff for you of like, someone who's an old friend that you don't have a lot to talk about with and someone who is a current friend that you could just like hang out for a couple hours with? You know, I feel like that – Taking off the sweater, by the way. Taking it off. A little warm in here. Showing a little bit of the hot bod.

Yeah, showing some skin. Uh-huh. A little dad bod action. I feel like that used to be the case, but genuinely with, you know, as time goes on, you actually do have more and more to talk about as the years march on. Because you have stuff in common like, how's your baby? Yeah, exactly. How's your baby? Is this an episode of How's Your Baby? I believe so.

Hey everyone, welcome to How's Your Baby? I believe so. Baby, hold on to me. Hey, everyone. Welcome to How's Your Baby. This is Scott. And this is Scott. And we're just taking calls, wondering how your baby is. Yes. I see we got a call here from Rochester, New York.

Okay, let's take it. Hello, Rochester. Hi. Hey, Rochester. Sorry, is your name Rochester? Are you calling from Rochester? It's my nickname. Oh. And, is your name Rochester? Are you calling from Rochester? It's my nickname. Oh.

And what is your actual name? Rodchester. Oh, Rodchester. Peterson. And where are you calling from? I'm calling from Rodchester. Okay. It's a house.

My house. All right. Okay. So, we're Rodchester in Rochester. You seem like you've lost patience with me. No, it's fine. I'm a big fan of the show. Can I get out my question, Rochester? You've asked me two already.

Good Lord. How's your baby? My baby? Name of the show, Rochester. How's your baby? How's your baby? Sorry, big fan of the show. I listen to it all the your baby? How's your baby? Sorry. Big fan of the show.

I listen to it all the time. I guess I should have expected this. But I haven't really thought about it. I haven't really put it into context yet. Do you have a baby? Yeah, of course I have a baby. I wouldn't be calling it a show if I didn't have a baby. Okay.

Can I check on my baby? That's exactly what I was going to ask you to do. I'm going to keep talking on the phone while I walk in. Yeah, bring it with you. Are those your feet making that noise? My little tiny feet. Okay. My little tiny, tiny, tiny feet.

I only have two toes on each feet. Wow. Yeah, I cut the others off. You must have a severe limp. You cut them off yourself. I cut them off, yeah. And why would you do something like that? I wanted to make toe soup. You wanted to make severe limp. You cut them off yourself. I cut them off, yeah. And why would you do something like that? I wanted to make toe soup.

You wanted to make toe soup. Yeah. And so you cut off- And it's illegal to cut off other people's toes. Six toes. Yes, it sure is illegal to cut off other people's toes. So I was like, oh, I got no other recourse. Okay, Rochester, I have one question for you.

Rod Chester. Rod Chester. My nickname is Rochester. I assume you were calling me by my Christian name. I was calling you by your nickname. Oh, sorry. How many toes does your baby have, Rod Chester? Oh, I've never looked.

Do you want me to look? Do you want me to check on my baby? If you could. What do you want me to see? How my baby is or how many toes are there? Because I can only do one. Well, I think one would lead directly into the other. One thing leads to another.

All right, here we go. Ready? Yeah. Here we go. I'm going to look down. I've been looking parallel. I'm going to look down into the crib, okay? Yeah, look down into that crib.

I'm tilting my chin down at a 45-degree angle, okay? Lift up that blanket and tell me how many toes you got. Okay, let's see. One. Oh, boy. I hope there's more. That's it. One toe.

I'm not finished. Let me finish. Okay. Now I'm finished. One toe. I'm not finished. Let me finish. Okay. Now I'm finished. One toe. One toe on both feet. Half a toe on each foot. Half a toe on each foot.

That's a total of one toe. Cut lengthwise. I'm going to say right now your baby is not doing well. Let me check. Oh, no. Oh, my beautiful baby. What's wrong with it? My beautiful baby. Oh, no. Let me check. Oh, no! My beautiful baby! What's wrong with it? My beautiful baby! Oh, no! It's smiling!

It's happy! That's great! That's great! See, you scared me there for a second. Oh, you gotta understand my baby's never smiled before. I would imagine not. I would imagine not. Oh, this is a beautiful day. I want to thank you very much.

Baba Booey. Oh, boy. Baba Booey. Okay, all right. How was Stern's penis? Oh, God. That guy was... I feel terrible for this baby.

I don't know. Or was that just a big Stern prank? Might be a genetic condition, too. Yeah. You know, we're all born with our challenges in life. One toe between both of your feet? I don't know. Who's the dude Pistorius? He had no toes, right?

He made something out of himself. Who am I thinking of? He did a terrible thing. One terrible thing and then a bunch of great things when he did those races? One terrible thing that ended up kind of eclipsing all other terrible things. All right, that's all for this episode of How's Your Baby?

Bye. Bye. All right, Adam, I want to get to New Adventures in Hi-Fi. I do. The epic New Adventures in Hi-Fi. But before we do that, we have some listener mail. You ready for this? Yes.

That's the sound of me opening up the actual letter. I pre-opened up the mailbag. I took care of that early, early this morning. I got up around 6 a.m. today. I was like, Adam's going to want – he's not going to want to sit around while I open up the mailbag. He's going to want it open and ready to go. So I took care of it. Don't worry.

Thank you. Here we go. I hope you'll want it open and ready to go. So I took care of it. Don't worry. Thank you. Here we go. I hope you'll enjoy this as much as I have. This is from Eric, a.k.a. Son of Ghost Dad. I've seen him on Twitter or something before. He writes us a nice letter about, thank you so much for creating Are You Talking R.A.M. Remy, the meeting of my favorite band and my favorite podcast team. Is a dream come true.

Very nice. That's nice. And he includes two CDs saying perhaps we've heard these recordings before. But in case not, they are his favorite early R.E.M. bootlegs. Two discs, early live material and early demos. The demos are mostly pulled from the bootleg chronic murmurings, plus some tracks that surfaced in 2011. The live tracks showcase the early evolution of the band

and highlight many songs lost to time. And then he has a long description of both of the things. And the reason I wanted to read this is because this is illegal, obviously. He's sending us copyrighted. Yeah, here you go. obviously he's sending us uh copyrighted yeah here you go um and so we want to alert the authorities to this yeah we got to call the cops on this guy yeah i hate to be a fucking narc but this dude he's leaving us no choice you know i mean he's just like flaunting it you know he's just sending shit um i i listen to these. They're great. These are great.

Yes, so I wanted to pass those on to you in case I know you don't have a computer with which to download these. I have a computer. I just don't have a computer with a disk drive on it, so maybe you can send me a – Okay, first of all, email attachments, I can only send maybe two songs at a time. There's 24 on each disk. You want me to send you 24 emails? No, just put it in a zip drive. I don't know.

Okay. You know what I do want is a, I would love a bootleg of a March kind of beginning-ish show from the Green Tour up in San Francisco, or Oakland, the Oakland show. Is that where you went to it? Yeah, and it was an incredible show. Do you want to hear yourself screaming? Yep. I love you.

Do you want to kiss me? Because I remember they played that song, How Does It Feel, to be in REM, it feels good, and it was a particularly good version. This is really nice, so thank you. That's great. Thank you so much. I have put it in my

computer already i listened to a lot of the uh because we were talking i think on the first episode the chronic town episode about like oh wow why haven't they released these demos or whatever so i uh listened to a bunch of those it's great um i haven't listened to the live stuff yet but thank you to son of ghost ad aka eric for that uh and then then one other package we received from Dan Fonder, I believe, or Founder, something like that, spelled weird. He blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, sent us some stuff. I won't read the letter, but do you want to see what he sent? He sent a videotape of R.E.M. This film is on. I presume you've seen this. Do you want to see what he sent? He sent a videotape of Arium.

This film is on. I presume you've seen this. Yeah. And he adjusted it so it says Arium on the back. Fuck off. Oh, man. I used to just watch this over and over again. He also sent you two the Unforgettable Fire collection,

which I believe I had when I was young. And he sent us, to my mind, something that eclipses both of these. Far better. The VHS of Citizen Kane. What an incredible film. What a package! What a package. Thank you, Dan. What a nice guy.

What a nice guy. Oh, what a nice guy. What a nice guy. Oh, what a nice guy. Hey, how is this demo version of Ages of You, this Chronic Town outtake? Was that awesome? You don't have a disk drive in there, do you? Probably not. Yeah, I liked it a lot. Yeah, I'll send you anything you want.

I will try to figure out the whole zip drive aspect of it. I will try to do that for you. I think you'll like it. I'm surprised that you haven't tracked any of this stuff down, quite frankly. I probably have heard it. Okay, okay. No need to get defensive. You're the biggest R.E.M. fan in the world. Don't worry. You're king

dipshit of fuckstop mountain over here. Stop it. dipshit of fuck stop mountain over here stop it so you are out there you want the

Oakland show from early on in the green tour so if anyone has recorded that Oakland Coliseum doobie brother style with a just

tape recorder and a trench coat anyone has that out there doobie bears you ever see that what's happening episode no you never watched what's happening episode no you you never

well yeah well the doobie brothers i think played at the local uh okay place and rerun got involved in some shady characters who wanted him to put a tape record who wanted him to home tape it and so he put it into his uh trench coat long trench track. Yeah, yeah. We were like giant tape recorder. But he, and he was just sitting there very paranoid. Yeah. And then the music moved him so much he had to get up and do the rerun dance. And it just fell out onto the floor. And then the Doobie Brothers had to take him to task for that.

What song did the Doobie Brothers play on that episode? It was probably like, we're the Doobie Brothers. We love playing Doobie Brother music. It was probably like, We're the Doobie Brothers! We love playing Doobie Brother music! It feels good! Do you want to hear that again? By the way? Yeah, it's so funny. Okay, I'll look at it here. You talk for a minute while I look for it. Man, this is the

worst part of any episode when I ask you to take the lead on something. What did you ask you to take the lead on something. What did you ask me to take the lead on? I said, like, you talk for a second while I find this, and you win. Oh, hey, listen. I have plenty to say. Okay, go. What do you got?

This video, this film is on. I remember getting my wisdom teeth out in 1991 when I was home from school for, like, Thanksgiving or something. Mm-hmm. And watching this over and over again. I think someone gave it to me because I couldn't afford. Sorry about that. Because this is like $30 back in 1991. Yeah, remember how expensive VHS copies were?

Remember how they would price them for the rental market and then they would price them for sale? Rental market would be $129.99 or something. Yes, it would be insane. I remember like waiting for Reservoir Dogs to come out because I really wanted to watch it over and over again. And when it finally came out in stores, it was like $79 because they sell it to a store that then hopes to make that back in rental sales. And then after a window of time, they would then price it down for anyone who wanted to own it.

But even then it was like $29.99. Yeah, yeah, it's crazy. I remember these, they would go straight to like Tower Records or whatever, but they were like $30 for this shit. Yeah, for this piece of shit. It's a fucking VHS cassette with six, ten songs on it. Ten music videos. Kind of depresses you,

like, 30 bucks. Everything that you value in life is eventually going to be meaningless. Oh, just yesterday, I was at,

fucking, at a grocery store and I saw The Last Jedi is already, like, in the, you know,

like, 10 buck, the Blu-ray is like 10 bucks at the checkout. that's because it just came out and they're pricing, they're going to sell so much of those.

It's lost leaders. Everything that people are excited about, it all ends up at the grocery store. It all ends up just being trash. Anyway, other than this podcast. This is classic. Okay, here we go. This is How Does It Feel When You're In R.E.M. Parentheses.

Good. End parentheses. This is a song that means a huge amount to me because I wrote it when I came out of a very bad, a very dark period. How does it feel when you're in R.E.L.? Feels good. How does it feel when you're in R.E.L.? Feels good.

Feels good Feels good The breakdown The breakdown Like 20 seconds And then the bass coming in And then the How does it feel Whenever they got This instrumentation.

I think the guy made it. The guy was just dicking around, I think. That's amazing. My favorite part's coming up. I like that. We're here like, I'm fucking stoked. That's pretty great. Thank you again. We talked about him last time.

Always makes me laugh. Always makes me smile. It's good. You know what? It's good to have a nice chuckle every once in a while. You know, it's every once in a while when your belly hurts.

Oops. Sorry, my phone is still playing something. I am going to get rid of that. Yeah, every once in a while

when your belly sort of hurts, you know, like in the morning, you wake up and you're like, what's wrong with my belly? Yeah.

It's good just to laugh. Laugh and everything feels better. You know that they've proven scientifically that laughter cures any disease. Any disease. Yeah. Every single one. That's why clowns go to hospitals. Not as patients.

We should. No, no, no. Let's be very clear about this. That's why clowns hang out at hospitals. Yes. They love, well, first of all, they very clear about this. That's why clowns hang out at hospitals. Yes. They love – well, first of all, they just love it there. Uninvited. If you went to a hospital and everyone there was a clown other than you,

every patient – like you just walked in and you're like, oh, man, I'm feeling a pain in my heart. Yeah. And every single person who worked there was a clown and then you looked around and every patient was a clown yeah what would you think was happening i would think i was in the wrong place that's it you wouldn't want your mind wouldn't start to wonder like is this clown day or something that i all the surgeons yeah like every single surgeon is a clown every single person who works there everyone in the waiting room waiting to be seen, everyone is a clown but you.

The ambulance drivers. Yeah, a messenger, a UPS guy comes and is a clown. What would you, like, literally, what would you, you'd be figuring it out, right? Wouldn't you be getting on your phone, like, looking up clown day today? I'd be fine with it. I'd be like, huh, that's kind of weird,

but then I'd just sit down and be like, let's do it and schedule a surgery. What if then you got out of the surgery and you looked in the mirror and you said, get me a mirror. And you got the mirror and all they had done was attach a red nose to your hair. To my hair? I guess what I mean is your nostril hair, your nose. Yeah, nostril hair. Red nose just attached to the hair.ling from my nose what if it was just that and you're like wait a minute like i went in there in there to get my appendix out right all they did was attach a red nose to your nostril hair so it was dangling.

Like, what would you think? And then give me an invoice for like $12,000. I mean, you'd bring it up, right? You'd probably ask. I feel like I would have to say something. All right. Speaking of having to say something, we have to go to a break but um when we come back we are going to go into new adventures in hi-fi this is very exciting you're going to want to hear what we have to say about this this is are you talking rem remy we'll be right back all right let's talk about it you heard me talk about it a little bit before the show but let's get into it let's let's do a deep dive on Squarespace. Squarespace, I've been talking about them for several years. We're, quite frankly, at my house, we're a Squarespace family. That's where we go for our website needs. We have several websites. Some of them we don't even want you to know about.

They're just out there on the dark web. But we enjoy creating websites. It's fun for us. I don't know. Some people, you know, they like to have fun. They have hobbies. They like to watch sports. They like to play sports.

They like to watch sports. They like to play sports. They like to listen to sports. But we like to create websites, and we do it exclusively with Squarespace. So thanks to them, Squarespace, think it, dream it, make it with Squarespace. That's what they say about Squarespace, and it's nice. It's fun. It's lighthearted. We love it. With beautiful templates created by world-class designers,

Squarespace makes it easy to turn your idea, if you have any idea, just turn it into a new and unique website. It's that easy. Squarespace does it. Okay, and I know what you're saying. Yeah, sure. I'll put my idea up on the web, but it won't look like what I want it to look like. Shut up. Shut up, shut, shut up. Stop talking. You're making a fool of yourself. No, you can customize everything from look and

feel to settings and products. And then you continue to talk, even though I didn't give you permission, you said it's not optimized for mobile. Yes, it's optimized for mobile, right out of the box with built-in search engine optimization. Don't worry about that. Go ahead. Feel free. Showcase your work. Put up a blog.

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One, two, three, one, two, three Come on, Adam, dance. Three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve No, one, two, three. If you're going to do the waltz, you have to count it out. Okay. Ready? And one, two, three, one, two, three.

Step with me. One, two, one, two, three, one, two. They're very good. You're doing it. I love it. I love it. You stepped on my foot. Sorry, sorry, sorry, one, two. They're very good. You're doing it. I love it. I love it. You stepped on my foot. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.

Sorry. Oh, welcome back. Sorry. Adam and I are in the middle of dance rehearsals. He's got a big ball testicle, I mean. And he's going to a party tonight where he has to dance. And he wanted me to teach him the waltz. And he, so far, is an exceptional student.

Thank you for doing that. Yeah. It was about a 60- 60 second lesson and now you think you're really good at it right yeah i mean you taking the time out of your day to teach me the waltz is uh oh larry david yeah larry david's back. Do you do impressions? I do, yeah. Who do you do? Let's see. I do – well, you just heard Larry David. Yeah.

Got that. So check. Check. Do gym neighbors. Oh, great. Singing or speaking because it's two totally different impressions. I do the speaking voice. Speaking voice.

Okay. Do you need me to set you up? Do you need me to be Sarge or anything like that? If you could, yeah. Okay, right? Pile! Well, goalie boss, here I am. Gomer Pile.

What did you think? Honestly? Yeah. I'm a little intimidated because that was exceptional. Thank you. That was amazing. I felt like I was there. I'm a little intimidated because that was exceptional thank you that was amazing I felt like I was there just

Gomer Pyle USMC right there United States Marine Corps very funny show one of the funniest shows I used to watch it all the time

whenever I was sick when I went to my grandma's house is it weird that your career like a person's career can be summed up in people used to watch me when they

were either sick or at grandma's yep that is jim neighbors and the what dick van dyke show i had a uh an exceptional i know i've said that three times in the last two minutes but i had an extraordinary uh thrift shop find i used to go to thrift shops to look for records. And it was always stuff from the 60s or 70s. It would never be current stuff at the ones that I was at. But I found a 10 record set of Jim Neighbors singing.

Wow. And it had 10 records. And each one was themed like there was one that was devoted just to gospel. And there was one to patriotic songs. Wow.

And it was just incredible. And I used to put to patriotic songs and i was just incredible and i used to to put it on at parties and clear the room it's really really good i believe i still have it amazing um we are talking about uh the little band called Rapid Eye Movement. R.E.M. R.E.M. And last time we talked about R.E.M., they did the album Monsters. Oh, God, I don't even want to say it.

They did the, you know the one I'm talking about. Can we just call it the scary one? The scary album, yeah. You know how the Beatles put out, it's not the actual title of the record, the wide album, it's, you know, The Beatles. The Beatles. But everyone calls it the wide album. And Metallica, it's Metallica, but everyone calls it.

Let's just call it The Scary Album. Okay. Okay. The Scary, or how about The Scary One? The Scary One. Yeah. Yes. So, like, our good friend, you know the movie that came out in 1976, Chaz, the super big guy.

Chaz. Yes. This is the scary one. So the last time we talked about the scary one, that was a full feedback guitar. Did we ever figure out if it was tremolo or tremolo? I'm sure in the week or so that has passed, people have told us. It was Tremolo or Tremolo. I'm sure in the week or so that has passed, people have told us. But full-on guitar effects, fuzz, feedback-y record that was – Adam enjoys it.

Maybe not his favorite. I can't recall. But for me, it was a bit of an assault on the senses by the end of it. And that came out in 1995 four and very much a reaction to the previous two records came out to one year after uh whatever that album was it came out automatic for the automatic for the people two years two years after it okay sure so we're at a every two year pace at this point which is good for a superstar, right? I mean, look at our friends and Hugh Too.

They will take 12 years in between albums. Yeah. So for R.E.M., this is good. They put out an album, then they put one out two years later, and then they put this one out two years later. Yeah, they had their big monster tour, which we didn't even talk about on the monster.

The scary one. Sorry. God. The scary Scary One. Sorry. God. The Scary One tour. Sorry. We didn't even talk about that on the Scary One episode. We didn't. We haven't talked about the – so let's get into it before we talk about this record.

So Hari M put out the Scary One album. And they hadn't toured for – this is their third album. So they're basically touring. They haven't toured since Green. They're touring three records. Basically. So no one has gotten to hear any of these songs that they love live yet. And they're like, what would it sound

like live? In my opinion, probably like the record with people going over it. That's usually what it sounds like live. That's sort of what it sounded like. Sometimes I wonder when I go to a concert, especially if I'm far away, I go go why didn't i just turn on the record and like go down the street and just yell at my house i know you know just like me back before you could get good tickets

yeah you guys rule i was just yelling at my house yeah you know but instead no we go to we we like to see people move in their little butts while they play songs. We like to see famous people shaking their butts. That's really what a concert's all about. We don't care about the music. Nope. We're like, well, I wonder if he shakes it side to side. But shake.

Is it like pelvis thrust, you know, back up and forward and back? I don't know. So they put out the scary one. They decide to go on tour for the scary one. And they have not been on tour since the green tour in 1989-ish to 90, somewhere around there. So it's been quite a bit of time. It's been four years-ish, four and a half years.

Yeah, they kick off the tour, I believe, in January 95 in Australia. Ooh, that's a tough plane ride. Yeah. You know? I believe that. Or maybe even later, maybe like March in Australia. Ooh, that's a tough plane ride. Yeah. You know? I believe that, or maybe even later, maybe like March in Australia. Anyway, it started in Australia. Mm-hmm.

It started in Australia, like a lot of things do. Oh, yeah. Crocodile Dundee. Yep. Moulin Rouge, the film. Kangaroos started in Australia. Kangaroo Jack. And ended in Australia.

Started and ended there yes exactly so they do approximately how many shows do they

do before whoa you okay I think I'm are you gonna I think I'm having a heart attack oh

oh alright this is all you're doing I think I'm having a heart attack can you help me please do you think we can just keep going and then if it gets really serious you let me know it's serious bro it's fucking serious i'm having a hard fucking heart attack i know but if it

becomes like fatal you'll let me every heart attack is fatal if you don't get to the hospital how about we get 9-1-1 on the line and just be ready just in case and we just continue yes call 9-1-1 exactly yeah please 911 on the line and just be ready just in case, and we just continue the show. Yes, call 911. Exactly. Yeah, please. All right. Beep, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. Pring, pring, pring, pring.

Hello, 911. Hi, this is Adam Scott. Hi, this is Rochester. Oh, hey, Rochester. Rochester, are you kidding me? Wait a minute, you called me. Yeah, well, I called you because my friend Scott may be having a heart attack. Yeah.

Oh, yeah. Who is this? Is this Adam? This is Adam, yeah. Oh. We spoke earlier. Do you remember? I sort of remember.

Okay. What do you want? Well. Very busy at 911. Okay. Our friend Scott here, he might be having a heart attack. We're not exactly sure. We feel like it may be serious. But just in case it becomes serious, we just wanted to have you on the line.

There's a different number for that. That's 912. Oh, thanks. Sorry. Bye. Bye. You know what? We'll call 912.

Yeah, okay. If it gets serious. Actually, I think it was just a burp. Okay, good. Yeah, I think I think it was just a burp okay good yeah I think I'm okay great okay if I do die though yeah

will you please tell Kulop that I love her nope I'm not gonna text her or anything right now just please like pass that on for me

no no? no that's the one thing that I would want you to do I can't do that why not? well I mean I could

I just can't promise that I'll remember it would be a it would mean a lot to me it would probably mean a lot to her I can't do that. Why not? Well, I mean, I could. I just can't promise that I'll remember. It would mean a lot to me. It would probably mean a lot to her. I mean, I would write it down. Because I've never told her our entire relationship. So to hear— You guys are married, though.

Well, yeah, but, you know, I like to stay away from that mushy stuff. Boy. I feel like you should tell her just in case you do die at some point. Do you write serious question have you written letters to all of your loved ones to say like all the things that you couldn't say well or or just even a cap encapsulating your your feelings in case you know you're driving out there in your you know asshole hollywood asshole car that you drive and you get T-boned by just a giant semi. By a T-bone.

By an actual guy named T-bone. But have you written letters to your loved ones or are you just going to be like, I'm gone? Yeah, I've written all those letters. You've written them? Yeah. I haven't written them. Yeah. Yeah.

Do you update them? I wrote letters for you, for your loved ones. You've written in my voice or just as yourself? I've written to your loved ones from me. Honestly, that would probably mean more to them than letters from me. I'm aware of that. They're like, wow, this is the guy from Parks and Rec who's like the irritating parts of Leslie Knope crossed with a turd. Bizarre that we're getting snail mail from him.

Who uses snail mail? Anyway. Snails. Ha-ha. Okay, so how many shows went by in the Scary One Tour before you know what happened happened? They went, oh, oh, they were in Switzerland when Bill Barry. Two weeks late? Two weeks into the tour? Two weeks into the tour?

Three weeks into the tour? What was it? They had finished their American leg of the tour and were beginning – I thought it was fairly early in the tour. Was it? From what I understand, it was. Was it before they got to America? I believe it was like literally a few weeks in. Well, they started in Australia.

Yeah. um well they started in australia let me look up boo berry because i feel like aneurysm um he had it on march 1 20 no this is an article written on March 1, 2017. Yes, he had it March 1. He did have it March 1 in Switzerland. And it probably was 1995, so it was pretty early. It was pretty early in the tour, March 1. So it was before they got to America?

Yeah, yeah. Interesting. Interesting. So three weeks in, Buckbury himself, he, in the middle of drumming, in the middle of a show, was it at the beginning of a show? They were playing tongue, I know that.

They were playing tongue, which is like kind of ironic because the tongue is so close to the brain. Yeah, it's in the head as is the brain. Do you think he was playing? He's 90 minutes into the show. Do you think he was like subliminally pressing his tongue into his brain while he was playing

or anything? There is a chance, yeah. A 100% chance, I think. So, Builder... Wait, wait, wait. I'm trying to figure out here. When the tour started? Yeah. Just look at monster tour dates that's what i did and this is really look up sorry scary one tour dates scary one tour dates all right we're both looking it up now and this is tour dates in concert history rem here we go yes they're starting with their final show and going backwards.

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Oh, boy. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Well, in any case, whether it was early or late, Adam will get. So he has an aneurysm in the middle of. 90 minutes into a show, he has an aneurysm while playing the song Tongue. And luckily they're in Switzerland where the best brain surgeons in the world reside. Strangely enough, yeah, like 10 minutes away from the venue, they're like, let's take him to this world's best brain surgeon.

Yeah. Who's right here. It was like the luckiest place to ever have an aneurysm. Yeah. And I pray if you ever have an aneurysm that you have it in Switzerland. Oh, Scott, that's right here. It was like the luckiest place to ever have an aneurysm. Yeah. And I pray if you ever have an aneurysm that you have it in Switzerland. Oh, Scott, that's really nice. You too. I would hope that you –

Well, they played in Australia for a while, then Japan, then Singapore. Okay. China. Spain. China. France, Italy, Switzerland, and that's where it kind of stopped for a bit. Yeah, you're right. France Italy Switzerland and that's where it kind of stopped

for a bit yeah you're right okay so it was very early in the tour before they even got to America so

okay so I mean this is this is life threatening yeah if he had had it anywhere else like say he'd had it in

like name any other place in the world um like switzerland i said name any other place you just named the place that he actually was in well i mean where where in switzerland i didn't i like let's just say anything within switzerland you know like territory okay just name anywhere else they were in anywhere else okay any other place there's so many

different places on earth just name one Switzerland okay let's say let's say god I'm it's hard

it's hard it's hard to think of other places I know because you got Switzerland on the brain and you know why Okay, let's say, God, I'm whacking my brain. It's hard to think of other places, I know. Because you got Switzerland on the brain. And you know why? Do I do a blah, blah, blah? Because your brain is like Switzerland cheese. My brain is just feeling neutral. Yeah, no, it's got holes in it.

You dummy. I'm sorry, I'm just going to have to say Switzerland. I can't. Okay, that's fine. Okay, say you're in Switzerland. But the part of Switzerland where there are no doctors. Okay, yes. Let's just say that.

All right, so there's one weird street on Switzerland where doctors are not allowed. Sure, that's where the arena is. They cordon them off, and they're like, no doctors allowed here. Get out of here. And no honorary doctors? Yeah. Dr. William H. Cosby, you're not allowed here? Yeah.

Goodbye, doctors. No doctors. So say you're there.. Cosby, you're not allowed here? Goodbye, doctors. No doctors. So say you're there. Anywhere else, you're dead. You're dead. Dead. You are RIP. You're pushing up daisies. You are six feet under. You are on the old wagon train to heaven, my dear boy. the old wagon train to heaven, my dear boy. But luckily for Bilberry, he has his aneurysm just right there, right by a hospital. They push him on over. I assume they, I don't know, put him in a car or something,

maybe an ambulance or something. I don't know. I didn't get the- Could have been an ambulance. Probably an ambulance. I would imagine it was an ambulance. And they're like, woo, woo, woo, woo. And they drive him right, and a brain surgeon goes, oh, woo, woo, woo, woo. And they drive him right and a brain surgeon goes, oh, yeah,

this is what I do. This is like, this is, you know, I got the call. I got called off the bench. Here I am. I'm the best brain surgeon

in the world. Let me, let me fix this guy's horrible brain problem. And bing, bam, boom. Yeah. They fix him up. So it's incredibly

uh uh scary and difficult for the band but he he was back uh back on the road

he was back like a couple weeks later yeah was it a couple weeks it seemed like two or three weeks I looked it up the other day and it was just like two or three weeks later he's like back doing shows

yeah they I think they started the tour back up uh in Northern California at the Shoreline. Oh! Because a friend of mine

was at that show. And was he, was he like yelling at him the whole time? Like, hey, you feeling all right? Yeah,

he was checking in as often as he could during the concert from back in the, back in the arena. Every single, like you hear just like, you know,

stand in the place where, are you feeling all right? Yeah. Everyone in unison. It was May 15th at the Shoreline Amphitheater. Well, well, well. May 15th.

That is two months later, but not too far off. Yeah, two months. You said two weeks. I said two or three weeks. But then. Like, okay, you didn't even know. I took a stab at it. And here you are making fun of me. Oh, you said two weeks. I said two or three weeks. But then. Like, okay, you didn't even know. I took a stab at it. And here you are making fun of me.

Oh, you said two weeks. Well. Like, fuck you. Two weeks. You were a guy who's just sitting there looking on your phone like, oh, what is the answer? Yeah, but you were like. Two weeks. That's fair.

That's pretty fair. That's accurate. But then. Yes. They get back over to Europe. They're like, oh, my God. Thankfully, Bill Barry is back. Everything's going well. They do a leg in America. Then they head back to Europe to make up those dates. Bill Barry's back July 11th 1995 Mike Mills has an intestinal

tumor which was fortunately benign but he has to have it removed it was an intestinal adhesion it was scar tissue from some other thing

why can you stop but a tumor a tumor is this source says a tumor is a thing okay no but a tumor

is a very different thing than— A tumor is any kind of mass that doesn't belong. No, it's not. Look, this says a tumor. Your thing says something else. Okay. Just because you're looking at a thing and I'm looking at a thing doesn't mean your thing is right and you have to correct me. Okay?

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. What is your— What is your glitch? What is your psychology? And this is very serious. I'm sorry. What is your glitch? What is your psychology? And this is very serious. Sure, sure. And maybe this is an intervention.

I don't know. Okay. But what is in your personality that you just feel like you have to be right all the time? What is that? You're right. No, you're right to call me out on this, Scott. And that's a breakthrough. And that's a breakthrough.

And I appreciate that. You're saying that I'm right. Finally. Finally. Thank you. Well, to be – I don't know. You're dipping your toe back in the water.

I don't want to be splitting hairs here, but – You made such great progress, and now – I did say you were right, but I didn't say it quite in the way you're – You said you're right. I'm parsing a little bit here, but you know what? I'm going to let it be. I'm going to let it go. You can't say I'm going to let it be because you're right. I'm parsing a little bit here, but you know what? I'm going to let it be. I'm going to let it go. You can't say I'm going to let it be because you're telling the person, instead of just letting it be, you're telling the person I still don't agree with you, but I'm putting the matter to rest.

Okay? If you really were letting it be, you would just say, okay, and you would let it be. But instead of saying, you know what? I'm going to let it be, is you telling me that you're still not right and I'm ending the conversation. I'm going to have the last word. That's not cool. Okay. Oh, great.

All right. Oh, all right. I feel good about that. While at the same time. Okay. Anyway. So that happens. Mike Mills has to go get surgery.

Yeah. Right? So this scary one tour is getting scarier and scarier. But then they get back on the road after Mike Mills' surgery. Back on the road. And then... I don't have a date on this one. This one, I know they are in...

What would you rather? Me actually taking stabs at things and guessing and being incorrect or listening to your dumb ass sit there like... I've got it right here. I've got it. I believe it's in Prague. Turns out that Michael Stipe... Stipe and has a hernia.

A hernia. From singing and pushing out the notes, supposedly. A hernia. All right. And he has to get singing and pushing out the notes, supposedly. A hernia. All right. And he has to get an operation and has to be pulled off. But he sings the show in Prague. They do the show in Prague, but he has to, I guess, take it easy. And then they fly him back to the U.S.

And he gets his surgery. So that's three of four members. Prague doesn't have the world's greatest hernia surgeons. Wouldn't that be ironic if every single place they were in, they were, like, lucky to have the world's greatest hernia surgeons. Wouldn't that be ironic if every single place they were in, they were lucky to have the world? These guys do the best hernia operations in the world. That would be amazing. So only Peter Dollar Bill survives this intact. He's the only one who's like, I don't know.

I mean, I've been playing guitar so much, my calluses are maybe a little deeper. But other than that, I'm fine. I'm assuming. He had to go get callus surgery. There's no information about that, but one has to assume. I remember, like, people making jokes about this, of course, and everything,

but people being like, man. And funny jokes, too. Oh, yeah. Like, legitimately, like, I understand, like, well-crafted jokes. Like, some of these jokes were, like, they weren't just layperson jokes. These were, like, crafted by the best comedy minds in the business. They were professional jokes. Professionaled jokes. Like some of these jokes were like, they weren't just layperson jokes. No, no, no. These were like crafted by the best comedy minds in the business. They were professional jokes. Professional grade jokes.

But I remember people being like, man, R.E.M.'s getting old, man. Those guys have, and now looking back, they were like 33. L'âge du Christ. Yeah. The age of Christ when he died. So it's, you know, you're never too young to die. No, I think we know that through experience, don't we? Yes, we do.

So they, basically this tour is kind of a very shambolic affair. But while they are on tour, they think to themselves, you know what? they are on tour, they think to themselves, you know what? I don't want it to be like another delay of, you know, when you go on one of these

long ass tours, then you take some time off, then you get back in the studio and you're like overthinking it. We want to put out a record, you know, very soon after this tour ends. So why don't we record it

upon what? The so they record all of their shows but like most tours that rem plays they play a lot of new material and monster tour was no exception no sorry sorry sorry sorry scary one Tour was no exception, although they played an unusually large amount of new material. They had like five new songs a night. Really? And rotating them or just those same five all the time? They played Undertow. I remember them playing Undertow and Binky the Doormat just about every year.

And would they be like, this is a new one, and people were like, oh, boy. Or were people excited for it? I don't know. It seemed like people were excited. I watched some of it on YouTube recently. It seemed like people were like, oh boy. Or were people excited for it? I don't know. It seemed like people were excited. I watched some of it on YouTube recently. It seemed like people were into it. The Scary One tour was crazy, sorry.

It was crazy because they would play mostly just that record. They weren't playing a lot of old stuff? Eventually, but the first half of the show was all – at least some of the – Well, it all fits in with the same sound in a way. Yeah. It would be a little strange to be switching it up kind of all that much, I guess. But then they did. I mean they would play all that other stuff, but the monster was on the brain.

You know how our friends Hugh Too in the Songs of Innocence or sorry, Innocence, what was the last tour? The Innocence and Experience tour? Not the one that is this year, but the- Yeah,

the Innocence and Experience. Yeah, so you know how they started off with the Joey Ramone song and then they played stuff in that same vein

of like all rocking numbers. Yeah. You know what I mean for a little while before they switched it up. Was it sort of like that where it was like Monster or was it exclusively Monster tracks? It was like, I mean, the shows I saw and then looking at like set lists and stuff,

it was- That sounds like fun. The majority of it was Monster. How much time did you spend looking at set lists? Well, just now. And imagining it. Just now when I was looking for them getting surgery. Surgery lists.

Those would be fun to look at. Would you, if there was a website devoted to every surgery that everyone in the world had, like you could just look,

it was like IMDB for surgeries. Yeah. For all citizens of the earth. For all citizens. Would that be good? I would love it. I would look at it

all the time and then find the REM members. And you could just like click on whatever, like, oh, Adam had like penile enhancement surgery. I was just going to say penis surgery. And then you click on it and then you see anyone who's ever had it.

Yeah. I would love that. This is a good business. So not only would they record tracks live, they recorded in their dressing rooms. In their dressing rooms, on stage during sound check primarily. There are several songs on this album that are soundcheck recordings. And then they would augment it later in the studio. Sure, but they would come and sometimes a soundcheck,

as they describe it in a little EPK video that our friend Lance Bangs, previous guest, sent us that he directed or co-directed. A lot of times soundcheck for a band when you're doing that long of a tour is drudgery where it's like, you know, you play for five minutes just making sure

everything sounds good. But these guys would be spending an hour and a half just hammering out new songs and they said it made the tour

really fun and Peter Dollar Bill in fact was saying that like, in that EPK, he was like, I never want to do another tour

not like this, which is always famous last words of it probably was the last one that they ever did. But it worked. They came out with this album just two years after the scary one. It's cool because even the tracks that were recorded live, you can't even tell they're live. Like you can't – they took all crowd noise out of them.

You can't really hear – only at the very end of Undertow you can hear't they took all crowd noise out of them you can't really hear only at the very end of Undertow you can hear a little bit of crowd noise well occasionally during a song you'll hear like

Michael Stipe and sing something he'll be like I went hey shut up and he'll ask people to be quiet telling people to shut up

I went down to the market quiet shut the fuck up so that's maybe the one thing that I think is like, I mean, it's sort of like an Easter egg. It's a little distracting to me because I think he's talking to me sometimes. And I'm like, I bought this record.

I'll talk during it. Don't tell me to shut up. Do you talk during records when you listen to records? Never. Do you talk to the singer ever? Never? All the time. How's that mic adjustment going?

Loud. Okay, so... Shall we go song by song, like they say in New York? Song by song. Well, first of all, it came out, let's talk about the release date.

This is September 9th, 1996. Can I tell a little story about it being released? Yes, please. About a week and a half before it is released, Tower Records in Hollywood had a come and listen to the new REM album in full if you want a week and a half before it comes out. If you want.

Well, everything is if you want. Like they're not ordering people to comes out. If you want. Everything is if you want. Like they're not ordering people to do it. You're right. You were free to not go. Mandatory citizens. In fact, there were a lot of people who didn't go. But I went by myself.

And it was at night in the park, what used to be a parking lot. Remember like Kitty Corner to Tower Records used to just be a parking lot? Yeah. Not the parking lot there, but it was across a little street. And they had a screen with the record cover projected up onto it, and they were just playing it loudly in the parking lot. Loudly, so no headphones.

It was just playing it in the parking lot. And there was like 100 people there, I guess. Did they do it at a certain time, or was it just, we're going to be playing this over and over? It was at 9 o'clock on a Sunday night or something. So I went by myself and sat there and listened to the album. It was very exciting for me. I remember one song in particular got applause after. Whoa, do you remember which one?

I do. Do you want to say it when we play it? Yeah. Okay. And what were you doing in your life at this point? Because last we spoke, you were living, as I recall,

in a shitty apartment with a bed sheet covering the window. At this point, I had moved. Thank God. Yes, I had moved. I was living in Echo Park.

I had never checked in with you wondering if you still live there. So I'm glad to hear you'd moved. I had moved to a little place in Echo Park that I eventually got kicked out of, but it was a terrific small house with no insulation, but it was pretty awesome. Why did you get kicked out eventually? Because the landlord was extremely litigious to the point where when he first showed me the place, he told me, don't cross me or we'll end up in court. And that's exactly what happened. Whoa.

We ended up in – I had to go to court. Whoa. Yeah. It was one of those guys. When you say we, was it a roommate situation? No, I lived there by myself, but my girlfriend was there, would stay there with me, and he lived next door and would keep track of how many nights she would stay. Who cares? I know, I know.

And then eventually said she was staying there too much and I was not allowed to have a roommate. Weird. And so he sued me to – brought me to court to try and get me evicted wow i was like well it's just it's my guest like i can do yeah but i i had a landlord up in santa maria who would not allow me to live with my girlfriend because she thought it was a sin see it was like that i think there was was some – he was putting some crazy beliefs on top of everything else. Oh, my gosh. And what were you doing?

He was a real asshole. Do you want to say his name? Is he dead? I don't know his name. I don't remember his name. I hope he's dead. But he was a shithead. Yeah.

And what were you doing in your life and career and everything? I was doing – I remember I was doing a TV movie in Portland with Mary Tyler Moore and Ed Asner. Oh, we talked about that in our Out of Time episode. Yes. We did? Yes, we did.

And where you were playing, it was the Revenge one, right? Yeah. What was it? Well, we were shooting that when New Adventures came out because I remember listening to it in Portland,

right, when it came out. And I was also doing a play underneath Toy Tie. You know that restaurant? Yeah. There was a little theater under there. Oh, really I was also doing a play underneath Toytie. You know that restaurant? There was a little theater under there. And so I was doing a play there and going up and shooting this TV movie. And were you ever like,

hey, Ed, hey, Mary, I'm doing a play underneath Toytie. Do you guys want to come by? I remember telling them I was doing a play. Because it sounds cool. It does sound cool. Like I'm doing this play in the basement of a Thai restaurant in L.A.

when I'm not here working on this. Right. But that's how committed I am to the craft. Yeah. And I remember them being polite but probably not caring. Yeah. Sort of like how you and I are with anyone now. Essentially.

Who would tell us something like that. Exactly. That's fantastic. So things are looking up in your career. How about you? What were you doing? Were you guys doing Mr. Show? doing Mr. Show or getting started? Not yet.

I had started comedy one year earlier in July of 1995. Okay. I had gone up at the comedy store under the tutelage of Mary Lynn Rice Cub in CJ Arabia. They put me up on their show. And so I had been doing comedy for a year at this point. It had been, you know, I had grown up a person who loved comedy and always assumed I could not do it. And I would never figure out how to break into it. Yeah. To a person who suddenly was a comedian and performing with Bob Odenkirk and David Cross and all sorts of people.

It was thrilling. It was a lot like that Michael Jackson album. Like Thriller? Off the Wall. It was crazy. And it was – Really? Because I heard it was like that other Michael Jackson album.

Bad. No, but I remember going and seeing Bob and David and Mary Lynn and all of them up in that place. It's on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and La Brea. Remember that one? There was like a, I mean, there's, oh yeah, no, it was the diamond club. Yeah. The diamond. Yeah. I used to do shows there with them. Yeah. Right around that time. So, yeah. So, so I was doing shows with them and they had started, I remember in 95, uh, before I, the month before I started doing comedy, I saw Bob and David do a live show at the Upfront Theater in Santa Monica, and that was to get HBO executives to sell the show, and they

bought it. And I saw Bernie Brielstein there afterwards going, okay, that was great. They think it was really good, but they want to do, you know, like all this kind of stuff. So anyway- Isn't that crazy now looking back on that, it's like comedy history? Right. Weird. I was living it. Legendary moments. I was living it. It was great. I was very excited to do that.

I will say, though, September 9th, 1996, I think a month, a month and a half after I started doing comedy. So around this time, around September 9th of 1995, I had started seeing a woman, a fellow comedian, and we had had a very intense relationship. Tumultuous? Very tumultuous relationship, which went well for a little while. And then so probably three months great and then nine months of severe agony. Sure. nine months of severe agony. Sure.

And to the point where we broke up over the phone, like right around this time, and I said, oh, by the way, happy anniversary, as we were hanging up. It was, she didn't know it was our anniversary. God. It was one of those. One of those. It's the girl that was, got me, I ended up getting kicked out of my house for similar relationship where I don't think she would have ever known what our anniversary was. Right.

Was your girlfriend drinking a full bottle of Patron a day? Not that I know of, but it wouldn't surprise me. And constantly cheating on you i'm think so but i'm probably yeah so very similar so at this month in particular to me was when we broke up and when we also decided you know what maybe the romantic part of it is not what was working because we like really like each other and we love hanging out with each other yeah so let's just hang out every night as friends great great idea great plan so this became the full year of that uh of us just hanging out as friends

um and i would go over to her house up in up in beachwood up in the hills every single night and hang out with her and her roommate and her roommate's boyfriend. We were all like best friends. And just, I would make her mixtapes all the time. Of course you would. I remember quite Filled with love songs? No, just like songs I liked and we would talk about it.

I remember these months in particular because I looked up when Wilco's Being There came out, which was about a month after this album. And that was something that I put on mixtapes. Sure. And we were very into, first of all, I was very into Britpop, which had kind of broke a year before with Oasis. And then also the Poptopia scene in L.A. was happening at the time,

like John Bryan playing at Largo. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like Poptopia Festival, like everyone happening at the time, like John Bryan playing at Largo and like Poptopia Festival, like everyone doing sort of power pop and Matthew Sweet was doing power pop. So that's kind of what I was into at the time and these months in particular, I just remember being sad all the time and yet being also very thrilled

to be doing comedy. But it was like torture hanging out with her and her roommate. Yes, because we were all laughing all the time and having such a good time and then at the end of the night i was you had to go home yeah bye-bye see you later worst terrible terrible terrible anyway so the so when i when i looked up these dates that's what do you remember this album coming out i don't remember the release i I, in fact, barely remember. I had to really kind of go, do I even remember this coming out?

And I think what it was was I saw the video of Ebo the Letter, the first single. Yeah. And I kind of went, well, that's pretentious. Yeah. And I said, okay, I guess we're done. So you were like, oh, weird. REM has an album out and I don't care? Well, specifically, I think the single is a really bad single.

So I was like, oh, they put this song out as their first single? Got it. Okay. Well, I guess they're up their own ass, sort of. It was my impression as a dispassionate observer who hadn't listened to really The Scary One or Automatic for the People. I was just kind of like, oh,

you know, oh, R.E.M. album, but I don't like the single, so that's about it. You know what? We do have to take a break before we go song by song, if that's okay. So when we come back, we're going to go song by song with New Adventures in Hi-Fi. We'll be right back. Paul Scheer. No, I'm not calling you, Paul. No, Siri, stop calling Paul Scheer.

Paul Scheer watches a lot of bad movies on how did this get made. It's a hell of his own creation. And I know what you're saying, like, okay, well, he's trapped in that hell. He'll never get out of it. Well, guess what? No, he can watch good movies now. In fact, for every bad movie, he tries to watch one good movie just to keep himself even. he tries to watch one good movie just to keep himself even.

So Paul Scheer and Amy Nicholson from the Canon have a new podcast, Unspooled, and that's right here on Earwolf. The first episode, it's out right now. Paul and Amy, what they do, they watch all of the classic movies that you out there, look, it's no secret, Adam and I love film. All right, but you can't watch all of the films that we've watched. Well, Paul and Amy are going to watch it.

Films like, well, guess what? Their first episode, Citizen Kane. Citizen, Citizen Kane. By the way, I'm working on my James Spader in Avengers Age of Ultron impression. Let's see if I can get it. And this is not a movie that I'll watch for this unspooled because it's terrible. But here we go. Hi.

Unfortunately, Iron Man created a robot. And that ended up in creating me, Ultron. Not bad. Anyway, they're not going to talk about it. But Citizen Kane, they're going to talk about Citizen Kane. And they're going to watch everything on the AFI 100 list like Taxi Driver, The Graduate, and Pulp Fiction. And what about me, Ultron? They explore the crazy backstories like how a group of Hollywood bigwigs tried to stop Citizen Kane from being made.

They wanted to literally burn it, which is a bad idea with celluloid. And celluloid though, oh, I love celluloid. and they bring on film experts real experts in film film film film experts you're gonna have to uh watch this uh mic cover when you're done but they bring on film experts to talk about what happened behind the scenes. This is a good show. We love film. Adam and I, we love film. So we give this our highest rating, C+. Listen to Unspooled now

in Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. Welcome back. This is track one of New Adventures in Hi-Fi. This is How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us. Thank you. This flyer is out of the line The story is a sad one Told many times The story of my life

In trying times Just an older Stirring line All the lessons won Where it got us Ah Yes Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh

Opening track quite a bit different than their last record. Let me kind of set the table of where I was this week listening to this record. Please. Okay, so we listened to the scary one, and I felt like it was a little much, but I like a lot of songs on it, but by the end I was like, I just want a different sound.

Yes. You know what I mean? Yes. So I, for the first time in like, oh, I just want a different sound. Yes. You know what I mean? Yes. So I, for the first time in a little while, I have to say, I didn't know anything about this record, really. I know I've heard a couple of the songs here and there.

Like I said, I heard... But it wasn't a huge hit, so it's not like these songs were everywhere. I texted you at a certain point. You were like, you've never heard Hi-Fi? And I said, if you asked me to hum any of these songs, I could not do it. You said, no one's asking you to hum anything. Yeah. Which I thought was rude.

Well, it was correct. Maybe it came off dry as a text. Maybe you meant it lovingly. I don't know. No, I meant it as a deep insult. So I was looking forward to this record a lot, actually. Yeah. Because the one thing I sort of could guess was that it was a reaction to Monster in a way of like it wasn't going to be Monster.

It was maybe – I had to guess like maybe a return to Automatic for the People, which as you recall I liked. So I – for the first time since we've been doing this show, I sort of had a real sense of anticipation of like, oh boy, I can't wait to listen to the new R.E.M. album. Isn't that strange? That's cool that now you know how I felt in 1996. For two years. In September. I had to wait for a year or I had to wait one week to do it, but you had to wait two years from Monster. It literally, every time an R.E.M. album came out, it would just be a countdown until the next one. Right. For me. A countdown from two yep two one here it is

in years that's right a new year's eve you would shout out two and then another new year's eve one um so i was really looking forward to it and i was like i wonder what it's gonna be like yeah um and uh this is a great opening track i agree this is it's different than any song they've done yeah it's sparse it was miller is doing and uh it is a long longer on the longer side it's uh four minutes and 31 seconds long um a lot of the songs on this album are quite long we will definitely talk about this this is uh rem's longest album at a uh an hour five minutes and 33 seconds it is their longest album um there are 14 songs there are 14 songs yes well we'll get into that as we progress but i i have to say that i was uh and am very still into this record and i think it's or this uh

this song and i think it's a's an exceptional choice for first track. Yeah, it's really cool. And watching that little documentary that Lance made, they're talking about how it's the one song that was completely born in the studio. They went in to record. Mike Miller just, like, started, like, playing around on the piano. And, like, when a guy like you and me goes in there and starts just like, oh, there's a piano?

You know, maybe we'll start doing ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding or maybe I'll dun dun dun dun dun that's Mary Had a Little Lamb

Mary Had a Little Lamb which is a classic song no there's no shame in playing that when you see a piano yeah one of the best songs ever written

but instead oh by the way I want to highlight that's like sort of a David Bowie, Aladdin, sane, Mike Garson piano playing in the middle of it, which is great. But they were in the studio freshening up the live tracks, and they recorded a couple songs. Mike just started playing that. Yeah. And Bill Barry was like, oh, that's rad.

Let's lay that down. And they abandoned the song they were doing and decided to make this. And it was like one of the last songs they did on the record, and it's the song that they all like the most. Well, it's the only one that was written and recorded in the studio. The other ones were all written. Written on the road, some recorded in the studio. And they loved it, so they opened the album with it.

Yes. It doesn't sound like any other R.E.M. song. And kind of to me says like, hey, forget the scary one. Let's just do this record. I like it a lot. What do you think? Yeah, I love this song. I think it's really weird and cool.

And unlike, it doesn't, it's not like, because where they end up going on the next record is- Don't do, no spoilers. I won't. It's experimental, but it's, you know, they move into the electronic zone a little bit. This is experimental- While still being rock.

Yeah, yeah. It's really interesting and good and catchy. All right. So then from my mind, I'm like, okay, well, how do they follow that up? And REM knew because they put out the record. They said, okay, here's track two. This is the wake-up bomb. I'm sorry.

I accidentally. That was the wake-up bomb. That was the wake-up bomb. Enjoy it. No, this is the wake-up bomb. God damn it. I look this is the wake-up bomb. God damn it. I look good in the glass pack. I look good in me.

I look good in metallic silk wrapped around black-out shoes. I skirt along the horizon. I drink some sweet drink too I get high in my low ass I like being seen I look good in my dream I take a leap in longevity I get high on my attitude Latitude, nine, ten, seven, three

I'm in a team My head's on fire, high as day Carry my dead boy, bring him back to me Or anything Oh, wake up bomb Oh, wake up bomb Oh, wake up bomb Oh, wake up bomb

Uh-huh, wake up bomb. Uh-huh. There we go. So to my uninitiated ear, it was kind of like saying like, hey, we're going to not only do stuff like Automatic for the People that's a little moodier, but we're also going to do stuff like the scary one and do a mixture. Uh-huh. Like we're going to go back and forth a little bit.

Mm-hmm. stuff like the scary one and do a mixture uh-huh like we're gonna go back and forth a little bit although these kind of live tracks like wake up bomb and a few others on here it's it's a it's a fattened out sound from monster it's not exactly that big kind of wash yes no it's it's looser and definitely has different instrumentation. They're not afraid to use acoustic guitars. And it feels like a lot of people playing. It feels like a big... It sounds like at least two people playing. It's like Grand Funk Railroad.

It's like a bunch of dudes on stage playing live. It's like the polyphonic spree. It's like the best parts of the polyphonic spree. It's like the polyphonic spree if they had 3,000 people playing. If they fucked 3,000 people and then Parliament Funkadelic got in there and was like, I want in on this. They all started a cult together. Yeah. They started like that Alice and Mac, you know, what do you call it?

Nixxiom? The sex cult that she was convicted of. What is it called? Nixxiom, right? Nivium? Nixxiom? I don't know. You never got invited to the sex cult, bro?

No. You don't know? The girl from Smallville? No. You don't know? Okay, look it up later. I definitely will. I'm surprised you were never, well, I mean, it was one dude at the top of the sex pyramid and then inviting a lot of actresses underneath. Okay. So that's the wake up bomb. I really like it.

I like it as a second track. The one thing, the one thing I will say is I don't think it's like the best song ever written. Like, like technically in terms of the actual melody and chorus. Yeah. I think it's a great like statement of purpose and it's a great,

a great attitude in a purpose and it's a great a great attitude yeah in a way and i and i can hum it and i've been humming it all week of like oh wake up mom he's he's singing a little like dylan on a lot of these songs by the way isn't he's like i look good in yeah hey it's definitely uh a guy that's been on tour for do you think that's dylan that he starts singing that just because he was on tour so much? Yes. That's where that voice came in. I've been on tour way too long. Yeah, you know, I remember when the album came out, I always really liked the song, and I liked it live

and had heard it a few times and was looking forward to it. And then this version of it, I wished they had recorded it and produced it, it like greenish, like get up. It's interesting. Like a tight, like poppy studio version. I'm going to be talking about this on some of the songs as well

of I wish the mix were different. Like it wasn't live? Yeah. Okay, I totally hear that and that's how I felt for a while. But now, years later, I really like this because it's like a snapshot of what the band was here in this moment and i like the loose big live feeling

of it it's different than what they had done before you know but it would be cool to hear the get up right version of wake up bomb but I like this I think it's looser and cool and it feels big in terms of greatest melodies R.E.M. has ever written probably not

but a good just like a fun good like super catchy yeah alright this is track 3 this is New Test Leper

I can't say that I love Jesus That would be a hollow claim He did make some observations And I quote him every day Judge not lest ye be judged But a beautiful frame Still the audience disagrees And his limbs are going straight

Call me a lover Call me a lover Call me a lover Call me a lover Okay. New Tess Lepper. I will say one of my favorites on the record. It is.

I have one quibble. Yeah. The mix. Uh-huh. I think they put a little sort of distortion on the acoustic guitar a little bit, which makes it not as clean to me. There's an alternate version. You know the one I'm talking about.

Do you want me to play it? The sort of live acoustic version? The live in the studio? It is Acoustic Seattle Studio. Yeah. Do you want me to play it? Sure. I'll tell you what I mean

by the maybe you'll hear what I mean by the by the sound on the acoustic guitar. It's like warmer. It's a little warmer. Like they put a little

distortion on the other version. So does this have drums and everything? I don't remember this. Let's hear a little bit of it. Because the part it doesn't have

it doesn't have the drum breakdown and the the keyboards it doesn't have, it doesn't have the drum breakdown. The keyboards? It doesn't have keyboards. I love the keyboards. It has a nice organ sound in it. This one does? Yeah.

Oh, yeah, it does. That wasn't supposed to be fucking Kevin. Kevin's laughing his ass off over here. Oh, yeah, I remember that. It's a good vocal performance as well. So I think this is a great, great song. I sort of wish there was a combination version. Honestly, like a lot of the songs on this record, I sort of wish

were produced a little more like Radiohead, The Bends, in a way. Huh. Like, Fake Plastic Trees.

To feel more studio-y? Yeah, like, starts off with a pretty regular, you know, acoustic guitar sound and then builds with, like, upfront guitars

and not, like, sort of semi-disguised guitar sounds. Uh-huh. Like, the mix is really the only quibble I have, but, but I really, I really liked this song a lot. I do too. I don't, I don't mind the mix at all. I, that, that second one you played is nice, but it feels, I didn't produce to me. It's not, I prefer the first version.

It feels too unproduced. All I'm saying is whoops. All I'm saying is that I, uh, I wish there was a mid, I wish there was a combo version. That was a little. So, by the way, I have to say, okay, the first song, four minutes and 31 seconds. Yeah. Respectable for a, you know, experimental thing.

Sure. Wake Up Bomb, five minutes. Five minutes and eight seconds. A little long. New Test Leopard, five minutes, 26 seconds. It's a slower song, though, like Fake Plastic Trees. That's long. It's a slower song, though, like Fake Plastic Trees. That's long. It's a little long.

Now we're going to the fourth track, Undertow, another over five minutes. Hey, you're the biggest band in the world. No one's going to tell you to make your song shorter. I will very soon. All right, this is Undertow. I know what I wanted. I know what I wanted. I know how I wanted this to be. You go down to the water.

You go down to the water You drink down on the water Walk up off the water But this is not my dream sister It is cold in heaven I'm not sprouting weeds I'm trying to be here. I'm trying to be here. Okay, Undertow.

Undertow. Another one they played on the road. A scary one tour. What do you think of Undertow, Scott? This is one of my least favorites. Uh-huh. I might like it if it were three and a half minutes. It's kind of samey for five minutes.

I also kind of is a little, speaking of the Diamond Club, a person I performed with at the Diamond Club, Maynard from Tool. It's a little like Tool production plus Undertow. I think Tool has maybe even a song called Undertow. It's a little like, hey, the Undertow will pull you under. Which I like Mater and I like Tool, but I don't know that I want to hear R.E.M. kind of doing that sort of thing. This does not sound like Tool.

What I mean to say is on the verses that weren't, you know, all that stuff sounds like a Tool production, the chorus doesn't sound like Tool. Got it. This one I would pass on, and it's maybe leading to the songs being long fatigue for me when I'm listening to the record, but what do you think? I really like Undertow.

I just think it's a really pretty chorus yeah I like the chorus it's really that's why it's it's on the cusp for me yeah of like when I hear it I go

oh I like it and then by four minutes there's still a minute to go I'm like see I don't feel guys let's wrap it up the weird thing is

Wake Up Bomb New Test Leopard Undertow these don't feel like songs that would be long they don't feel like songs that would be long. They don't feel like epics. So they – for whatever reason, them being this – like looking at this, I was surprised how long they were just looking at the times. They're not epics, and I think that's part of the issue is they don't have the dynamics like a Bohemian Rhapsody has.

They're not earning the – yeah. The length. They're just like the exact same thing for that long. Yeah. It's – okay, this leads me to a theory. They're just like the exact same thing for that long. Okay, this leads me to a theory. Maybe this is too early to do this after track four. But here's my theory about albums, comparing them to television shows.

Albums are the sketch shows of music, okay? So you know how when you're watching a television show, if it's a narrative, it tells one story for a half hour or for an hour? Albums don't do that. Albums are sketch shows. Albums are like SNL where it's like,

here's an idea for three minutes, here's another idea for five minutes, here's a different idea for, you know what I mean? You gotta know when to end it. So, sketches and sketch shows and the Lonely Island guys,

and I've talked about this all the time, like, prime length for a video, like a song parody video or any comedy video you put up, two and a half minutes. Yeah. Like anything longer, three, you're cutting. You're pushing it. You're pushing it. So for me, songs in general, and that's not to say like songs that are five minutes or bad or anything like that.

I just, I tend to like them on the shorter side. So when I see a record like this, where the first side is four minutes, five minutes, five and a half minutes, five minutes, five and a half minutes,

and then coming up on seven minutes, it's a little like, guys, we can just tighten it up just a little bit. I agree, but I also think this is where they were at. They were huge. They were a little ungainly. They were huge, but I will say that this record has not even sold a million yet.

And we'll get to why that is, and it's coming up in a second. It's coming up in literally like five seconds. Yeah, I think that's coming up in literally like five seconds yeah I think that I think that I really like Undertale I think it's a really well written song

and again for a while I wished they had a tight studio-y version of it I wish the production was a little more like Radiohead where it was like

guitars and I know that Peter Dollarbill is a totally different guitar player than Johnny Greenwood but like a little more production a little more like out in front, the Ben style. Like, wah, nah, nah.

I think they were, you know, he was feeling his Neil Young-ness for this record. Yeah, that's a good comp. But I love the production now. I like the way, because I have Green, I have Monster. We have their tight kind of studio-y rock records, and this is just a different thing. Yeah, I really love this song, but I get what you're saying. And I like it.

It's just not – it's in my bottom four. But the anthemic, like, no one's coming after me, I'm not sprouting wings going into the chorus. Those are really great kind of rock moments. I promise never to say rock moments over again. Jesus Christ. All right, let's go to, this is the lead single from the record. This is track five featuring Patti Smith on background vocals. This is Ebo the Letter What do you see? All of you and all of me flushing stars. Some of them, they surprise. I bust out and went to write this for a hapless letter. I feel to pop these little pearls. All the boys and all the girls, sweet tooth each and every one, a little scary. I said your name I wore it like a badge Teenage film stars Hash bars, cherry mash

And tinfoil tiaras Dreaming of Maria Callas Wherever she is It's fake then I don't get it I wrap my hand in plastic To try to look through it Maybelline eyes

And girls boy moves Gonna take you far, the star thing I don't give a I take you over Illumina, tastes like fear General L, the blue sesame All right, Ebo the Letter. The Ebo, of course, is the... Instrument?

The thing, yeah, if you're playing what Jimmy playing the uh like what jimmy page does in led zeppelin with his guitar playing this this seemed to be like his uh record where he was this in the past couple where it's like put a bunch of interesting words together like new test leper yeah they're all great oh yeah well because i think in the studio the song was called ebo and then the lyrics ended up being a letter he had written someone. So it's like, hey, put it together. Yeah. What do we think?

I adore this song. It's one of my favorite REM songs. Unfortunately, I think that it was a disastrous choice for first single. I think as far as someone who just was merely observing, it seemed to put the nail in the coffin of their popularity. Well, I think that, I don't know about nail in the coffin,

but I do- In terms of Monster sold, how many, like- Four million or something. Four million, and this has not sold a million. We're just talking about the state. It's sold over a million by now.

No, it hasn't. I just checked. By 2007 here. No, it says, those are current stats. No, it has sold over a million by now. Shut up. It has.

But, this is a bad, but, you know, I think that it's them being so popular at the time, they overplayed their hand here, obviously. Because Drive was their first single being so popular at the time, they overplayed their hand here, obviously. Because Drive was their first single on Automatic for the People.

And I heard recently, maybe it was even on Song Exploder, Michael Stipe saying, this was a really bold choice for a first single for us on Automatic for the People. And we did the same thing, and it bit us in the ass on New Adventures. Yeah. I mean, you know, fortune favors the bold sometimes. I think they should have, Electrolyte should have been

the first single. That's interesting. I have a different choice but I definitely think this is more of single two, single three. Or not a single.

Or not a single, yeah. I think it's a good song. It's certainly not my favorite. Yeah. It wouldn't be one of my favorite R.E.M. songs, but I like it on the record. I think it's beautiful.

I love the production on this. I love that. I love that part of it. I like Patti Smith singing. It almost seemed like a brag to me of like, we got Patti Smith. Let's make it a single, you know? Totally.

But I think also maybe there was a little, like we were talking last episode, you were saying a little REM fatigue around. There probably was REM. So many people had sold months, either shipped it back or – like the record stores had to – they ordered a bunch of units and had to ship it back. And right before this came out, the news of their $80 million record contract had come out. Yes, they renegotiated their record contract, yeah. And then this comes out.

record contract they renegotiated their record contract yeah and then this comes out they should have I feel like they should have Electrolyte would have been such a

shift from Monster but a catchy warm even How the West Was Won would have been like oh that's different I mean I don't know if it's

it ended up being a single but I don't know if it's the lead single yeah would it surprise you then to learn that this is their biggest single in

England went all the way to number four really Ebo the Letter yes wow bigger than any would it surprise you then to learn that this is their biggest single in England? Went all the way to number four. Really? Ebo the Letter? Yes. Wow. Bigger than any. It wasn't great beyond huge there too at some point?

Maybe I just mean at the time. I don't know. See, that's cool that it was a big single somewhere. I just wish that people were into it. Maybe people were like in England, they're like, listening to this is like living in England, kind of boring. It's really gloomy to listen to this song. Like I want to kill myself.

This makes me want to get some tea and crumpets. Oof. Sorry. But I was talking to our good friend Neil Campbell. Yeah. I've been working with him for a couple of weeks, and so we've been talking about R.E.M. a lot. And this is probably

his, he thinks it's a great single and his favorite song on the record. So it's, you know, just maybe a taste thing. I think the public maybe agreed that it wasn't a good choice for a single because I think this is the point where I could feel the public saying, oh, we don't need to pay attention anymore. I think also radio programmers were probably like,

the fuck is this? Yeah. It didn't get played a lot. It never got played on K-Rock, I think, which at the time in 96, maybe could kill you. I mean. Yeah. Oh yeah. I mean, you don't have the radio on your side in 1996. I mean, even don't have the radio on your side in 1996. I mean, even – I feel like even on the scary one, I feel like What's the Frequency? Kenneth got played on Top 40 radio, didn't it? Oh, totally. You know, and got played on MTV all the time. I don't really remember – Bang and Blame was like a Top 40 thing too. Yeah. I don't remember seeing this video all that much. I couldn't even – I remember seeing it, but then not really seeing it.

It just disappeared. Yeah. But on the other hand, electrolytete is still like you still hear electrolyte like when you're at the grocery store like it's a i did not know that that's interesting do you know that did you know that song at all before i had heard of it but i again didn't couldn't pick it out of the lineup um okay so this is the last track on this side what they call a side even though really um the record had four sides. Um, and, but they're right.

Wasn't it a double, it was a double album because it's so fucking long. This is, um, a seven minute song. This is leave. It's got like a little minute long prelude. Yeah.

Which is a long intro. Bill Barry wrote this. Oh, cool. Good for him. Hope he's happy. Hope that put a little coin in his pocket. Little, some ducats.

Little lettuce for his tomato. Little mayonnaise for the sandwich, if you know what I'm saying. I do know what you're saying. I like the sort of western theme on that sort of recurs through this in both the album artwork it's kind of like they're saying a road record without ever mentioning the road

but it feels like Americana the road but there is some later on you get some kind of road cliches oh really? well in Low Desert a little bit. Oh, okay. But not that I can point them out when you hear them.

I like it. So that's the intro. That's the intro. guitar solo Nothing can bring me closer Nothing can bring me near Where's the road I follow To leave and leave Believe in me It's under, under, under my feet Blood seeps right out there

Before me Where do I go? In the left touch you see There's my trust And what I believe That's what keeps me That's what keeps me That's what keeps me down Believer

Believer Believer All we have Believe that we've been all behind Shook in a dream Hey, this is Leave. I want to say we still have about five more minutes left to go in this song. And the beat never changes.

Do we really have five more minutes? Four and a half at this point. I love this melody. Me too. The chorus is incredible. And I actually love the sound when it first comes in. My only quibble is that it never changes. That that siren sound keeps going.

It never goes away, yeah. For seven minutes. yeah for seven minutes or for six minutes there's that like it the song collapses towards the end and then the siren stops for a moment and then starts back up doesn't it at the end but it's just momentary yeah yeah yeah um i actually i i prefer the um alternative version oh you Yeah, I like it. The one from the movie? Because it's such a great... Do you want me to play a little bit? Yeah, yeah. It's such a great melody

that I just... I prefer a shorter version of it. What movie was this in? A Life Less Ordinary. Oh A Life Less Ordinary. Oh, Life Less Ordinary. Yeah, a great Danny Boyle film. They played the REM version during a big chase scene. Oh, they did?

With the siren and everything. I haven't seen it since like opening night. I gotta see it again. I love Danny Boyle. Nothing could bring me closer. Nothing could bring me near. Where's the road I follow to leave, leave? It's under, under, under my feet.

The sea is spread out there before me. Where do I go in the land to see There is my trust in what I believe That's what keeps me That's what keeps me That's what keeps me down So leave Leave me down for a while. So leave,

leave it, leave it all behind. Yeah, that's cool. I think it's cool. Weirdly, like I said last time, that was credited to, that version was credited just to Michael Stipe. Weird. If I'm not mistaken, when the soundtrack

came out. It just said Michael Stipe? Yeah, it had the REM version, I think, and then that one, and that was just it. Oh, that's interesting, but then they put it out on their best of as REM, so that's interesting. What do you think of this? What do you think of Leave? I love Leave, and I like that it's— Why don't you make like a tree and get out of here? I like the intro. I like that it's this big long epic they had never done that before and i thought that was cool i know you mean that it's

not like uh paranoid android or something where it has different sections yeah i like signatures yeah i like that it's huge and uh and long this version by the way four and a half minutes as opposed to seven yeah yeah i like the you like the original you like the original all right we need to take a break when we come back we're gonna get to the five side five side we'll be right back with are you talking remade With R. You talking. REM. Remake. This is, welcome back, this is Departure. Track one on the five side or track seven? Just arrived. Singapore. Stands fast in Spain. Dylan. The soft match, the pips don't run back to me Here he comes Here he comes

Here he comes Here he comes Another one they were playing live. Yes. On the Monster Tour. Sorry, sorry. God, Adam. It's like you want to give me another heart attack.

Can I call it the frightening one? Scary is just so sort of like, ugh. Yeah, the frightening one. That's better, yeah. I like this cool song. This is a three and a half minute song. Sweet spot. I like it. It's a good length this cool song. This is a three and a half minute song. Sweet spot. I like it.

It's a good length for this song. My one quibble is the mix. I prefer the alternative version that is... Just the plain old live version? Yeah, where the guitar is a little cleaner and the vocals are a little more out front. But cool song. I like it. It's short and it's like a breath of fresh air

to start this stuff i like it the choruses on this album are very hooked the melodies are really good on this record i have to say like after the last record which was okay some good melodies i don't know but this these are some of the best melodies i think in a while but i think also the the album is it's so diverse that it doesn't feel like just an assault of one thing. No, it doesn't. No, no, no. I totally – honestly, like I – at this point, I'm enjoying it more than the frightening one. Yeah.

And my only quibble is that, you know, like I went out to Venice to go see a friend of mine the other day. And from where I live, it's a long car ride. And I was like, oh, good. I'll get to just really relax and listen to this front to back. I got to Venice and parked. And I was like, oh, how much longer do I have? There's still 15 minutes left to go. I was like, I've driven to Venice and this record isn't over.

Like, what is? But as an REM fan in 1996, it was like, great! I'm getting like two albums worth of music. You know. Yeah. Okay, this is the next track.

This is my pick for best song on the record and what should have been the lead single. This is Bittersweet Me. I move across the innocence lost All flesh and poor soul I move across the earth in my new padded shirt

I pass out alive You're so bitter, you're complaining I can't give you anything I don't know who you're living for I don't know who you are anymore But sooner chew my leg off Than get trapped in the sun I don't know what I'm hungry for I don't know what I want anymore

I'm looking for crops Oh, so good. I am so relieved because just yesterday I was listening to this album and this song come on and I literally thought to myself, if Scott hates this song, be insane going to kill me like it was it was gonna so deeply hurt my this is just class it sounds like old rem in a way but still new rem can you imagine if this were the first single like with a with a video it's i mean it was the second single it's the second single but it was two months after it after the record had already

been out three months after ebo the Ladder had been released. I still feel, that's weird, by the way, that they didn't just immediately push this out there when the first one flopped. When the first one flopped, it was like, please listen to this one instead. Listen to this. I know, it's great.

It's a great song. This is one of, I think this is the best song that they have written since Life's Rich Pageant to me. Oh, come on. I don't know. Name a better one. Losing My Religion. I love this song.

I mean, I love this. It's great. What's weird is it's not, to me, it wasn't an immediate like, oh, this is great. What's weird is it's not, to me, it wasn't an immediate like, oh, this is great. Like it wasn't the one thing I'll say about it. Maybe not being the first single is, is when I first heard it, I was a little like, eh, this is fine.

Yeah. I think that's because it's track eight on a long ass album that I was a little like fatigued. Uh huh. A little. Between departure and be mine. Yeah. Other two other guitar songs.

You know, to me, to me, the the sequencing we'll talk after the record about sequencing um but i i love it now i've been singing this all week i love that you're like kind of into this album i am into this album and you have real opinions opinions born out of you out of me liking the album out of me liking the song certainly and just having like oh oh, I wish they did this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I've always loved Bittersweet Me, and the video is cool. I've never seen it. But I still think Electrolyte.

Could have been. Electrolyte is track 14. That's the last song. We'll have a single off, and we'll let the listeners decide. Let's get to track nine. This is a five and a half minute song. This is maybe my second favorite track. I don't know.

This is Be Mine. A Mike Mills composition. Okay, this is Be Mine. Whoops. No, that's part of Bittersweet Me. Jesus Christ. Sorry. I'm not a professional DJ.

God. Like qualls. DJ qualls? DJ. Like, Qualls. DJ Qualls? Yeah. Oh my God, DJ Qualls. DJ Qualls is here! No, that's just Lauren Lapkus. She's passing through. Hey, Lauren. All right, this is Be Mine.

Speed zone up here, Tim. I never thought of this as funny It speaks another world to me I wanna be a Easter Bunny I wanna be a Christmas tree I'll strip the world that you must live in Of all its godforsaken grief

I'll ply the tone out of your feathers I'll pluck the thorns out of your feet You and me You and me You and me You and me And if I choose you Cool song. So this is one of the studio tracks.

Yes. They maybe wrote this on the road, but they recorded it in the studio. There is a version maybe wrote this on the road, but they recorded it in the studio. There is a version that was recorded on a tour bus. Which I believe I have.

Yes, it's just Mike on guitar. Yeah. No other instrumentation, I think. Yeah, but there are vocals on it, right? There are vocals,

but no other, like... That's a really cool version, too. Let's wait until the drums kick in, because... Oh, sure, sure, sure. It is a little like, it's a five and a half minute song, but it hasn't like kicked in yet,

which is why it's five and a half minutes. Structurally, it's a really weird song. And the lyrics go into a pretty weird place too. I want the finger with the ring place too there's the drums finally kick in at two minutes but that's why it's five and a half minutes like this this is dynamic i think yeah and then there's a guitar break right here right break right here, right? I love that.

I love that guitar sound. That guitar sound comes back later here. And my favorite song on the album. To me, this is like a really good Radiohead song. Well, you know, when they played the... Radiohead was opening for them. Yeah, but when they played the Tibetan Freedom concert a couple years later,

Michael Stipe and Tom York were trading places for one song in each other's band. Did they do like a... Michael Stipe could sing one Radiohead song, and Tom York came and sang one rem song and he chose this he chose this one this sounds like a song that he would write yeah did they do it sort of like a freaky freaky friday situation where they had to like switch bodies they were both struck by lightning at the same time every night yeah every night that's crazy no this was just at that what's what did one tibetan freedom what am i oh what did michael

stipe sing i don't know i don't remember was it like i'm a little creep yeah i'm a little weirdo this is great yeah it's awesome i wish you were uh shorter no i i think this one deserves i wish you were on a shorter record maybe but um yeah it's an awesome song. I mean, the fact that this and Bittersweet Me are buried in the middle of this album shows you the high quality of this album. A lot of people say this is a masterpiece,

this album. Some people wrote to me on Twitter saying that they couldn't wait for us to get to this because this is their favorite record. By the way, Bittersweet Me was recorded at Soundcheck, the basic tracks for it anyway, in Memphis. Oh, thank you very much.

Thank you very much for recording Bittersweet Me in Memphis, Tennessee. Oh, ladies and gentlemen. Someone get that freaky guy away from Lisa Marie. It's like having him in the room. And by him, I mean Scott Ackerman. Do you think that Elvis Presley was watching little Michael Jackson on TV in 1977 when he shot the TV? It was like, you're never going to marry my daughter.

Yes. All right. The next track is Binky the Doormat, another – hey, here's some words. Well, doormat is used repeatedly. Sure, but yeah, like as a title of a song, it's like, hey, let's – Well, you know where the title comes from, right? I don't. No.

You tell me. From Shakes the Clown. Oh, is it? Oh, another one I saw on opening night and have not seen since but uh have very funny have the blu-ray yeah bobcat is a good friend and as is tom kenney um this is binky the doormat This is Horror in Vista Muffin's Feature, making love

Meet the Sopran, false handcuffs I'm David's future The walls have cut us up I am able to defeat her Yeah, the Sacramento Mouth of a rat has slain She's a girl She's loving me Destiny sets my team down I say, yeah

I am defeated Have you lost your place? I've worn my door, my face I've hung my bill Sit down I let my world come round What do you got? I love Binky the Doormat. Can I guess that this is your least favorite song on the album? One of the, probably my two least favorite.

Yeah. I think it's a B-side for me. Uh-huh. I'm also, at this point, just track 10. It's five minutes long. Yeah. This is about where I start to tune out of it as a record. It took a few years for me to zone in on this song.

I don't have that kind of time. So, here I am. I'm going to stop listening to it now, if that's okay. 22 years later, and I love making the doormats. This is the next one. This is Zither. A little instrumental. Sorry I started playing

that before you were done talking. You know, honestly, I pressed the wrong button. But it was kind of fitting, because I wasn't really interested in how many years it took you to like one song. Did you listen to it

continuously? For 22 years. By the way, the fact that this album came out 22 years ago is fucking depressing. Why? Because you're

so close to death? Yes. Well, 22 years closer. That's true. Recorded in a dressing room this song that's cool when i read that uh earlier today i was like just kind of imagining these guys like in their underwear yeah just like dressed yeah undressed like should we go out on stage or record a song does that mean michael steif was just silently standing in the room yeah just dick flapping away um binky the doormat was one of the live tracks so is that one for you is it too because the chorus is really catchy i don't it's not i don't like the chorus that much it's it's not terrible it's just I don't like the production. I don't love the chorus. I feel like more than any of the other songs,

it feels like the big rock song. It's like all those songs have a similar kind of flavor, those live tracks. Yeah. I'll say the big rock songs are not my favorite on this record. I was talking to Neil about this too. He was like his first R.E.M. record he ever bought was the Frightening One. And so he thought when he first got this, he was like, oh, the rock ones are my favorite.

And now in retrospect, he's like, no, those are the worst ones on the album. Like the slower, the other stuff is better. But at the time he was like, oh, I like rock because he was 14. So what about Zither? I like Zither. Yeah. It's cool. It's a nice palate cleanser.

All right. This is So Fast, So Numb. We still have three songs. This is about when I arrived at Venice, by the way. This is So Fast, So Numb. This is my favorite song on the album. Really? Yeah. You're moving through rough waters, motorboat, and swimming in your sleep.

How could I be so blind, deciding not to see there's something wrong today? Anyone could scratch your surface now It's all amphetamine You're blasting yourself into the present Learn some vast indignity You say that, you say that You hate her, you want to recreate her I've been around her Been your lover

I let her go, kill devil hair You're coming on to something so fast So numb that you can't even feel it You're drinking the bar Okay. Okay. Not to keep bringing up Radiohead, but this really reminds me of Just by Radiohead. Oh, interesting. Right, right, right.

Uh-huh. Can't get through. Right, right, right. I just like, it's the most like classic rock of any R.E.M. song. It feels like a big epic Derek and the Dominoes song or something. Ugh. No, do you not like this song? This is one of my least favorites.

Really? Only because, and you know what's interesting? Because of where it is on the album? No, no, no. When I was watching Lance's film, it came on. I was like, oh, wait a minute. Don't I like this one? Because it's a slightly different mix. And it's a mix.

This mix I don't like. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Like the guitars are a little too in the background. This is like studio and soundcheck. It's not a live song. I love this.

It's so tight and it doesn't sound like those live tracks. It sounds like a big epic. I feel like this guitar sound here. That guitar. Right here where it breaks down. That's awesome. You know what it is? Right here.

This reminds me of Radiohead. Yeah, this is good. The only thing, maybe what I don't like is the organ being as loud as the guitar. I would prefer the Radiohead just like loud guitars with nothing murking up the mix a little. I guess R.E.M. has always had everything sort of mixed in together and never wanting to step out in front of each other. I don't know why. To me, it could be a little more obvious, if that makes sense.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The mix is a little subtle for me. I'm not rocking as much. I love the piano in it. That's what makes it really classic, rocky Derek and the Dominoes for me. And then here, they just take out the drums and break it down. It's just epic.

And it's one of their best choruses ever, I think. That particular guitar sound. But that's cool. It's a real one that's on the cusp for me of like, at first I was like, I don't like it. And then in my, spoiler alert, I have a different sequencing of the record. I took it off or I have taken it off.

But I heard it. How dare you? I heard it again today in that film and I was like, wait a minute, I do like this. Yeah. And then I went back and listened to this version. I was like, no, I don't like it. Wait, what's this other version of it in the movie? In the EPK that Lance made.

It's either a different version or a mix that they the in the in the in the epk that lance made it's a it's a it's a different it's either a different version or a mix that they're listening to in the studio i think it's the other version which i have that that was done um where is it it's a live version or something it's a live athens rehearsal do you want to hear a little bit of that yeah i have that's in like oh three though isn't it maybe but it just seemed like it was... Yeah. Yeah, this is like it's a little more up front, though. Yeah.

But anyway, I don't love the mix on either version, so I'm kind of taking a pass on this one. That's insane. That is insane. You know, I might be legitimately insane. All right. Low Desert. Low desert. Low desert.

Here we go. It wasn't even Bill Barry drumming on the version you like. Really? Who cares? Me. Ooh, it's a little slap in the bass. Slap in the bass. It happened last. it's over quick

A little dust in the engine caps Get your hands stripped down off the wheel Road out, hit your windshield I wrote out a hint, she went and she held I laughed, saw a little bit of sleep Time stands still Just call it now, I'm on your way Hey Hey

Hey Hey Is this the road song that you were talking about? Hey, hey Hey, hey Is this the road song that you were talking about? Yeah, there's some like Road cliche song Freeway drive-ins There's broken casinos and water slides And just like kind of

What do you got? It's my least favorite on the album It's my least favorite Uh-huh I think it What is it? Is it a little too like Americana cliches musically and lyrically maybe it's grown on me a lot more in the it's not terrible it's not like i'm like oh god turn this off it's just more of like

i don't know if that's that blues scale or maybe but i do like where it's like i think that's pretty cool. Meow. Yeah. I just like that one bass thing. The slap and the bass. I wish that Mike Mills would just have recorded that.

Just him going meow. And that's the whole song. That's my favorite track on the record. Okay, this is the last song. This is Adam's pick for lead single.

Last song on the record. But a good last song this is Electrolyte Your eyes are burning holes through me I'm gasoline I'm burning clean 20th century gold sleeve

You're blessed I've seen That is I've seen That is I've seen You are the star tonight Sun electric out of sight Light equips the mountain high Elect your life You're out of sight

You're out of sight If I ever want to fly Mulholland Drive Hey, I drive Mulholland Drive. You do. I drove it today. He also sings in New Test Leopard. He sings about a talk show host, and I was a talk show host. That's true. Is this album about you?

Is he following me around? That was recorded at Soundcheck, if you can believe it. I mean, I think it's pretty loosely defined here. They probably did a lot in the studio. Yeah, overdubs, yeah. I think it's great. Yeah, it's a classic. So having a lead single off,

my only thing about it being a lead single is it's not in the sort of classically rock tradition of songs, so I wonder if it would be confusing as a lead single in the same way that the Patti Smith one, Ebo the Letter was. I don't think that's why that Ebo didn't do well. I think Ebo didn't do well because

it's too weird. Yes, but what I mean is Electrolyte is like, oh listen, we got the violin, this is great. It's not a traditional like rock song. It's more of a ding-a-ding-a. It's more of like not a ragtime. But for R.E.M. it's like, you know, it's like It's like of a ding-a-ding-a. It's more like, not a ragtime. But for R.E.M., it's like, you know, it's like...

It's like a happy ditty is how I would describe it. It's more like automatic for the people and out of time than anything else on the album. And I think it just would have been a good kind of poke to remind people this is the R.E.M. you know and love. Remember when you used to poke on, what was it? Was it MySpace or was it Facebook? No, it was Facebook.

You used to poke people. Yeah, you'd poke people. I'm not on Facebook, so I don't even know if that's there anymore. I don't think it is. Yeah, I think this is a great classic song. So great that you put it on your wedding CD. How do you know that?

How do you think? I told you. Yes. Okay. In the Out of Time episode. I don't even know what else was on that CD. This is the only one that you remember? Yeah, this 14 times.

I had a question. Someone was asking me about you. Yeah. They said if we had to do another band, what would it be? And I said, quite honestly, I've talked to Adam about music for hours, if not days at this point. I don't think I've ever heard him mention another band that he likes other than U2 and R.E.M. I was like usually a person

if they have every song because you know the soundtracks that these songs were on usually if a person is like that about two bands they're about that with 25 bands is there another band that you are into as much? for a while?

For a while, Radiohead. Hmm. And I think I just kind of hit that age where I just Stopped listening to stuff? wasn't as into bands

as I Was there anything around the time of U2 and R.E.M. that you were into at the time? I was intensely into things for a while,

but those are the two that really stuck, I think. Yeah. So there will never be a we'll never talk about a different i was super into the blues brothers when i was like 11 rubber biscuits yes oh my god so into that oh um let's roll through some b-sides um this is tricycle very b-sidey that may then hold on to your seats a little later why this is an instrumental yeah all right let's go to sponge

oh this is very b-sidey too isn't it sponge um Oh, this is very B-side-y too, isn't it? Sponge. I remember spending like $11 on a CD single just to get one B-side, and you would get like this or Tricycle and be so bummed. Yeah. This was on How the west is one where it got us and this was at least the be mine mike on the bus version is also on this oh yeah yeah i wish this was about the band sponge

god i don't 16 candles down the drain. There's not much. Oh, this is pretty good, though. Is it? I don't know. I don't really remember it. What about Wall of Death? That was technically... We played it before, though.

But that was on... It was on... It was on Ebo, but it had been released literally... Like the year before. It had been one week after the frightening one. This is Revolution, which is on the batman forever sound batman and robin this was recorded with monster though this was no this was recorded with this record they say i think it was written around monster maybe i'm getting all the facts wrong but this belongs with this, they say. Your revolution is a silly idea, yeah.

If I'm remembering correctly, this was pulled off of Monster. Could be. Pretty late. But it's, which Batman movie is it on? Robin. Which is the fourth one?

The best one, right? Yes. With Arnold Schwarzenegger? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the best one. Yeah. So good. This is the studio version of Love Is All Around. We had played this during the Out of Time record, the sort of...

This is from a soundtrack. From, what soundtrack is it from? Previously released on the 1996 soundtrack for I Shot Andy Warhol. Also on the How the West is Won Where a Goddess single as well, along with Sponge. And this is Wichita Linemen, a classic song live. Was this on Bittersweet Me?

This was on Bittersweet Me, yes. It's a great song. I like this version too. I wish it was in the studio. Have you ever heard Tom Jones' version? Probably. It's great. When the second verse kicks in, he goes,

I think I need a small vacation. Oh, it's so good. Any other B-sides here? I just have a lot of alternate versions. Oh, here's the one thing they put out around here is the Starmie Kitten version with William S. Burroughs. Just something that I picked up on Mac. I think they put out on here is the Starmy Kitten version with William S. Burroughs. There's something that I picked up in Mac.

Yeah. Going along with someone else's song. We don't need to listen to this. Okay, so, great album of sadly Bill Barry's final album with R.E.M. This is the one that he was like, peace out. Cut to a year later, he's not even

in the band anymore. He's not even in the band. He's like, you know what fuck this and fuck you yeah I remember as a fan noticing in press and even press photos by the time

this album was coming out he never looked super psyched to be there interesting what do you what do you why did he leave

I think he was just like he was just sick of it. Didn't want to travel. But isn't he one of the guys who wanted to tour? Like, I want to rock. I want to be out there touring. Yeah, that's what they said. That's what they say.

And then you cut to him on Monster going like, God, it's so boring to tour. I know. It's like, dude, make up your fucking mind. And he made it up because he's like. He left. He's like, oh, $80 million? Split that four ways 20 minutes

okay bye um yeah so this was it this is the last and i i have not heard the the upcoming albums is this the last classic rem album in my opinion no it is not it is not. It is not. Okay. So we still have some classics to go, but this is definitely the last one of its ilk. Yeah. For me, again, it's just exhausting. Similarly to the Frightening one, that was exhausting for a different reason. It's just too long for me. Yeah.

But I really like it, and I like it so much. I've been listening to it all week, and the more I listen to it, I like it so much. I've been listening to it all week and I like, the more I listen to it, I would pick it up in the middle of, you know, like I would pause it when I was leaving the house

and come back to it. So I grew an appreciation for the songs out of sequencer a little bit. I was like, what, to me,

I like so many of these songs. What if I were to re-sequence the record and make it something that I liked better? Yeah. Tell me. Okay. So let's play through it. I wanted liked better. Yeah. Tell me. Okay.

So let's play through it. I wanted to keep it to no more than 12 tracks. The original is 14. And I wanted to keep it no more than like 50 minutes. Okay. So cutting 15 minutes out of it. So the first track, Keeping the Opening. Keeping the Opening.

How the West was won and how it got us. I think this is a great opening track, as I've said. Track two Okay, keeping Wicca bomb Because I like the statement of intent Of the one-two punch of this Got it Track three

I knew you were going to do that It needs to be front loaded And it sounds so good coming out of the wake-up bomb. Yeah, it's a little samey, but... Not to the wake-up bomb. The instrumentation is totally different. The tempo is different. Yeah.

Yeah, it sounds good. Listen, by the way, you're not getting the sense of it just in hearing, like, two seconds of this. Listen to this at home. Will you promise you'll listen to this at home? Send me the order, and I'll make a playlist. Okay, then next we have...

Okay. New Face Leopard. All right. Okay. Then track five, we have... Okay. Ebo the Letter. Put those two together, huh?

Put those two together. All right. I think they sound really good together. Now coming out of Ebo the Letter, which is kind of weird and depressing. Yeah. This may surprise you. This is track six, the last song on side one.

Tricycle. Tricycle. Yeah. This is a weird move that I don't agree with. This is like Life's Rich Pageant, the instrumental on the end of side one. To me, I tried various different things, and this just cheers me up after Ebo the Letter, where it's like, hey, we're having fun.

Yeah. I would just get so sick of this so quickly. Leaving this out, listen to it in sequence. Leaving it off the album, to me, was like, we're too serious. Putting this in here is like, we're still a party band. We're still having fun. Yeah. Okay. All right, we're too serious. Putting this in here is like, we're still a party band. We're still having fun. Yeah. Okay.

All right, next track. Okay. Departure, but the live in Rome version. It's slower. Okay. Guitar's a little louder, and the vocals are a little more up in the mix. Yeah, the album version's better, okay okay then going into be mine okay which sounds really good without bittersweet me in between these two like it's like it puts

more focus on it to me like this is an important song then going into revolution evolution I like it technically because it's shorter I like it better than some of the other long rock songs it's like a burst of energy then going into this version of this version of leave okay into... Okay, Zither. Zither. All right. And then ending with... So you took

So Fast So Numb off of the album. I did. Ugh. This is a disaster. I have listened to this version... No,

but it's not the album. You're taking like five songs off of it. It's what could have been the album. And you put a song from their previous era. I took four songs off of it. It's what could have been the album. And you put a song from their previous era.

I took four songs off of it. You put Revolution. Revolution belongs on this. No, Revolution was recorded for Monster. This is a, to me, this reminds me, I like this version of the record. Well, it's not the record. It's just a playlist. That's what I'm saying.

Oh, my God. This could have been the record is what I'm saying. I'm so glad it wasn't. Can you get into the spirit of this? I get it. If you didn't take almost half the album off, including the best song. Four of the 14 songs? So Fast, So Numb is an incredible song.

Tell you what. I'll let you put So Fast, So Numb in instead of Revolution. Yes. When you listen to this. See, that's a good... Revolution is an okay song. Will you listen to this version with So Fast So Numb in instead of Revolution? Yes, I will do that.

Give it a shot. But you took Undertow off? I did. And Binky the Dormant. And Binky and Low Desert, yeah. Those are the three that I'll take. Okay. Send it to me with So Fast So Numb.

I'll send it to you with that. If So Fast So Numb isn't a part of to you with that. If So Fast So Numb isn't a part of this, I will delete the email. The email? Just don't listen to it. No, but to me, listening to this version

that I put together, it is my favorite R.E.M. album since Life's Rich Pageant. Huh. The version that they put out is too long and I like parts of it. I don't understand the tricycle thing.

That's just kind of stupid. Listen to it in order. That's all I'm saying. It reminds me of Life's Rich Pageant where they're like, okay, we need a burst of energy, like a short burst of energy, and we're not taking ourselves. It actually reminds me of Dead Letter Office, too, where it's like, let's put something fun on.

But it's not that. It sounds rudimentary compared with the rest of it. But it was written for this album. I know, but they didn't put it on the, where it's like, let's put something fun on. But it's not that. It sounds rudimentary compared with the rest of it. But it was written for this album. I know, but they didn't put it on the album because it sounds like. Well, that was a mistake, and they should be punished. Just punished. Thank you. All right.

Okay, send it to me, and I will listen. That's all I'm asking is give it a chance. Because I have an alternate version of an upcoming album that I'm going to want you to listen to. I really look forward to it. I know that some listeners quibble with like, oh, yeah, you're just making a playlist, just like you said. But it's an interesting, to me, alternate universe where it's like, oh, we made some different choices and we mixed up the sequencing. I don't know. It's interesting.

Why get into this? No, I love that you put in the time and cared about the record enough to do this. Yes, I didn't show up like you, just having like, oh, I know this record. I've known it for the last 22 years. I'm not going to do any fucking research

or put any work into it. I have been listening to this album nonstop for like two weeks. Like every day of your life. No, no, no. That's good. I appreciate that. I really was. Adam, I like this record. No, no, no. That's good. No, I appreciate that. I really was.

Adam, I like this record. Good, I'm glad. Again, I like parts of it the best in a long time. Better than Automatic for the people. Not a complete total success for me, but definitely some of the songs on here are some of the best songs that they've written in a long time. I think you need to live with So Fast, So Numb and Undertow a little longer to really, like—

I don't think I'm ever going to love Undertow, but So Fast, So Numb, again, I'm on the cusp. So I listened to it today in the place of Revolution. I was like, something about it was not right, but I will live with it a long— I promise you that if you will listen to mine. I will. All right, Adam, what else do that if you will listen to mine. I will. All right, Adam, what else do we have? I love you.

I love you. That's going to do it for this extra long episode of Are You Talking R.E.M. ReMe, where we talk about new adventures in hi-fi. I don't know what we're doing next week,

but this is, this is, It's not up. It's something else. Maybe we'll do something else. Who knows? You never know what's going to happen

on Are You Talking R.E.M. ReMe. Until we see you next week, we certainly hope that you have found what you're looking for. Bye! Bye! But I can't see myself in dirty I don't buy a lacquer Dirty car like 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.