Things that R.E.M helped me find my way to...

It may seem self-evident but listening to and trying to discover new music in the early Eighties was not as it is now. You had to do a lot of the digging yourself and when you unearthed something new and special it felt a glorious, personal discovery. A revelation.

When R.E.M started getting attention and press space in 1983 and 1984 in the UK they helped me along. They named the records and artists that had helped them forge their sound and identity. I was so in thrall to Murmur and Reckoning that I went out and bought as much as I could. I'm still grateful.

 

1. Pylon - Older brothers to R.E.M. Also from Athens, Georgia. I'd recommend their albums Gyrate and Chomp highly. Angular new wave

 

'In 1987, when Rolling Stone named R.E.M. “America’s Best Band,” Bill Berry offered his opinion: “Pylon are the best band in America.” Unfortunately, Pylon had broken up four years prior to this.'

 

 

2. Patti Smith - 'When Michael Stipe was 15 and in high school in St. Louis, he happened upon an issue of Creem magazine under his chair in study hall. Patti Smith was on the cover, looking like "Morticia Adams." Stipe went and bought Horses, took it home, listened to it all night while eating a bowl of cherries. He claims it"tore my limbs off and put them back on in a whole different order. I was like 'Shit, yeah, oh my god!' then I threw up." '

 

 

 

3. Television - Generally mentioned alongside Horses in early interviews as the bands two great formative punk influences. For some reason I recall listening to this song for one of the first times before going and watching a game at QPR with my dad in 1984. It seemed alien and strange. Eventually it changed my life. Marquee Moon not Loftus Road.

 

4. Big Star - Almost unknown in the UK except for music business insiders before R.E.M. started name-checking them. Alex Chilton, given his seeming disdain for his former band never showed much gratitude. The records were either impossible to get or too impossibly expensive to afford. They were rereleased in the early 90s.

 

 

5. The Soft Boys. - Peter Buck has said that R.E.M. were more influenced by The Soft Boys than by The Byrds. Personally I prefer The Byrds. English whimsy often sounds better to American people than Englsih ones but I appreciate the Soft Boys influence on the way R.E.M sounded. This song is great anyway. Beautiful guitar sound.

 

 

6. The Cramps - I knew them but didn't buy anything until Buck specifically recommended Psychedelic Jungle. "Basically a cover band, but they've made the best records of the last five years." Michael Stipe

 

 

7. Wire - 'Wire changed my life in 1977.' Michael Stipe

 

Husker Du singer-guitarist Bob Mould: "Wire was one of the most influential groups in progressive music."

 

And the Cure's singer-guitarist Robert Smith confirms his love for the band. "Wire was one of the prime influences on the Cure. . . . At the time, Wire seemed even more powerful than Joy Division. They had an attitude that was really spectacular. It was like pure black and white--very stark and very brilliant."

 

8. Gang of Four - 'Gang of Four knew how to swing. I stole a lot from them."- Michael Stipe. Pylon supported the Gang of Four in the early eighties and came back to Athens with a copy of Entertainment. They were barely known to the New York hipsters at the time so the Athens bands felt ahead of the curve. 9-9 and Moral Kiosk on Murmur are tracks where I think you can see traces of the influence.

 

 

9. Velvet Underground - "Nobody compares us to the Velvet Underground, and that's probably the one group we all love. I think a lot of the things we do sound like the Velvets — not to the extent of the Dream Syndicate, but a lot of my guitar parts are real Velvety — droney but melodic." Peter Buck

 

 

10. Syndicate of Sound - Lots of great garage stuff from the sixties. I heard this wonderful song first through a live cover by the band.