REM: The Early Years

It's hard to imagine that REM's first LP "Murmur" is 30 years old, because it still sounds as fresh as (I imagine) it sounded when it was released.

There are some people who would call themselves REM fans but who have heard very little of the band's early work. They usually know of the big hits like "Everybody Hurts" or "Losing My Religion", or maybe even "Orange Crush", but they happened after the band jumped ship from indie label IRS records to Warner Brothers in 1988.

The first five REM records are all brilliant and there's barely a weak spot on any of them (there's more on album #3: "Fables of the Reconstruction" than on the others). They show a band that is raw and bristling with youthful energy. You can't always make out what Michael Stipe is singing about, but that was always the case, even into their later period. The lyrics may be indecipherable, but the chiming electric guitars with acoustic shadows and driving rhythms still sound fresh, despite sounding similar to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Tom Petty was never this visceral or heartfelt, or even melodic - REM was always very tuneful.

The band sound very nervous on their first record "Murmur". The production is thin but that's because it was recorded cheaply. The band became tighter and better songwriters gradually and by the time "Document" was released in 1987, the production sounded better because the budget was bigger.

I hold the first five LPs of REM in very high regard, but my personal favourites would be "Life's Rich Pageant" and "Reckoning" (LPs 4 and 2 respectively.) For those who have never heard of any of the early work, below is "The Best of REM" on Spotify which cherry-picks 3 songs from each of the first 5 albums in chronological order, and the opening track is taken from their first EP release "Chronic Town".

Turn it up and, most of all, ENJOY!

Sunday Sessions: Neil Young and Pearl Jam

In 1993, at the height of the grunge era, the MTV Video Music awards happened and, as expected, a whole heap of alternative rock bands scooped the pool of awards. Pearl Jam don't usually turn up for awards shows, but I'm glad they did this time. They went on stage and performed a song that hadn't been released as of yet, and then, they introduced a special guest...

Once upon a time, Pearl Jam could be intense and fiery, as well as pensive and angsty. In 1993, they were full of sprite and energy. The track they played at the 1993 VMAs was "Animal" which was to appear on their forthcoming second LP "VS". They plowed through the song with their usual fervor, and then they welcome Neil Young to the stage to jam with them. They play Neil's social justice anthem "Rockin' In The Free World", a song from his 1989 LP "Freedom".

It seems like an odd pairing, but in retrospect, Neil had been working semi-regularly with a very grunge-y styled band for about 20 years (by that point) called Crazy Horse. Crazy Horse specialised in massive volume, feedback squalls, long jams and ragged but tight playing. The bands of the 90s grunge movement considered him "The Godfather of Grunge". In this performance, Neil out-grunges Pearl Jam with more noise and feedback than they ever did. The band turned in a solid, thumping performance of the song before Neil puts on a masterclass in amplifier torture that would have made Kurt Cobain jealous. Here's an old troubadour showing the young-uns how it was done, and they loved it.

This pairing was both timely and poignant, as less than 12 months later, the self-deprecating leader of the grunge movement, Kurt Cobain, was quoting lyrics from one of Neil Young's heaviest, grungiest songs ("Hey Hey My My (Into The Black)" from the "Rust Never Sleeps" LP) in his suicide note...

This match-up of young (no pun intended) and old led to a full scale collaboration LP in 1995 called "Mirror Ball" which featured 11 new Neil Young tunes played by Pearl Jam as a backing band. It's too bad that the new material Neil supplied for the album wasn't as strong as "Rockin' In The Free World".

This is Pearl Jam in their prime, playing with a passion that has all but dissipated from the band, both on record and on stage. It's thrilling to watch (it's too bad they didn't play with anywhere near this much energy when I saw them in Sydney in 1998). And then, to see ol' Neil come on and play one of his greatest songs with the band is a real treat. Pearl Jam regularly use this song to close the encore of their stage show. Take a look below.

NOTE: apologies for the poor audio fidelity. The uploader transferred this clip from an old VHS cassette.

Enjoy!

Garage Rock Nuggets

Lenny Kaye's iconic collection "Nuggets: Original Artyfacts of the First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968" turns 40 this year and a new tribute album is being issued next week where up-and-coming Australian Bands cover 18 songs from the album's original release. It has the equally verbose title called "Nuggets: Antipodean Interpolations of the First Psychedelic Era".

Since the release of this album, there have literally been thousands of like-minded compilations from all over the world, digging up the most obscure 60s singles from all corners of the globe. In some cases these old records have been rescued from landfills and transferred to digital because the original masters have long since disappeared or have been erased.

The question is why are there so many garage rock records to recycle? It's an interesting question, but a very simple one to answer.

The Beatles took everybody by surprise. No one imagined they'd be as huge as they were. The record industry was caught on the back foot but they could see opportunity coming. Rock music became a cash cow and nobody wanted to miss out. Anybody who looked and sounded like the Beatles or Stones were given the chance to make records because no one knew what would be the next big thing, and everyone wanted to be have the newest music sensation on their hands. Tiny labels sprung up overnight to release music by (supposedly) hot new bands. This made for a hell of a lot of records produced in a small period of time.

Of course, the path to fame wasn't all paved with gold. Many bands ended up making a few singles, and even then they may have only sold a few hundred copies. You were extremely lucky if you were given the chance to make an album. In a lot of cases, LPs by smaller groups sunk without a trace, ensuring instant collect-ability. The short supply of original vinyl meant that these records do actually go for hundreds, even thousands of dollars between collectors and dealers.

Clearly, not all these records were going to sell in large quantities die to the fact there were just so many of them to choose from. These records may have been under-appreciated at the time but they have been retrospectively praised and lauded as lost classics in some cases. A lot of bands fell by the wayside the development of pop music in the 1960s was the most rapid it has ever been before or since, with The Beatles as standard-bearers. Young hopefuls tended to be less talented and less able to keep up with the rate of change. Some bands had more enthusiasm than talent and as such sounded to raw for radio to even go near, let alone for people to hear and buy their records.

The original "Nuggets" compilation was mined for songs to cover by the next generation of punk bands in the 1970s and served as the inspiration for newer bands in the 1980s such as REM. Reissue specialists Rhino Records have expanded the original 27 track "Nuggets" album into a 4CD boxed set of obscure American tracks which is essential listening , as is the companion volume "Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts From The British Empire and Beyond, 1964-1969" which has a lot of good Australian and British obscurities on it.

Other series that are highly recommended are:

The "Pebbles" 30 volume series
The "Rubble" series
Quagmire
Back From The Grave (on Crypt Records)
Garage Punk Unknowns (on Crypt Records)
So You Wanna Be A Rock and Roll Star - an essential 3CD set of Australian nuggets from the vaults of Festival Records, compiled by Glenn A. Baker.
Ugly Things - a collection of Australian nuggets from other labels compiled by Glenn A. Baker on Raven Records.

plus various label retrospectives released by
Polydor,
Island,
Charisma,
Liberty,
EMI UK,
EMI America,
WEA,
Vertigo
Decca UK and many others