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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: REM

  • Wax On!!!: The Poetics Go Digital

    Some of you know David Middleton as the author of our Forty-Five Revolutions per Minute series. Each week, David  picks out a (usually reasonably obscure) 45RPM record from his collection and talks about it. What some of you might not know is that David is a musician himself, and spent a chunk of the late Eighties and early Nineties fronting the band Waxing Poetics. The Virginia based-group got some face time on MTV, toured the country, and their first album, 1987’s Hermitage, was co-produced by R.E.M.’s Mike Mills.

    I’m proud to inform you guys that the Waxing Poetics’ complete three-album discography is now available on iTunes and Amazon mp3! These albums have been unavailable for some time, so those of you who were fans back in the day -or want to check the band out for the first time- can do so!

    At the risk of embarrassing one of my best friends (sorry, buddy), here’s some live footage of the Poetics from 1990. Thanks, YouTube! The sound quality isn’t fantastic, but you get the idea of how rockin’ these guys were. Ah, I just realized embedding has been disabled, so I’ve included the link here.

  • New Music Files 11/24/08: Special Monday Edition

    I hope the music industry doesn’t use this week as a model going forward.

    Not only are there albums coming out this Tuesday, like normal, but there’s also a handful of albums coming out today (Monday), and one album that came out yesterday (Sunday)! All of this left me at a loss for when I was going to publish my column this week. Y’all can’t be doin’ that, record industry.

    Anyway, lots of big names this week. Here’s the line-up.

    Guns ‘n Roses Chinese Democracy: You’ve waited fourteen years. You thought it would never see the light of day in your lifetime. Hell, most of us never thought it would see the light of day in ANYONE’s lifetime. However, Axl Rose and his merry band of scabs have finally released Chinese Democracy. One of you guys will have to tell me whether it’s worth the wait. Unless I hear absolutely mind-blowing things, I’ll stick to my copy of Appetite for Destruction…although I must admit that I am intrigued. BTW, this album is only being released at Best Buy stores, bestbuy.com and iTunes.

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  • Infatueighties # 69: “It’s The End of the World As We Know It”

    What the hell is this song about? Do the members of R.E.M. even know what this song is about? Who knows? All I know is that it’s one of the first (if not the first) song from Athens’ favorite sons that can accurately be called “fun”. It’s also one of the first R.E.M. songs that you can understand most of the words to, as first evidenced by me when I witnessed everyone in Madison Square Garden screaming along at the top of their lungs when Michael Stipe and company closed their show with this song during the Monster tour in 1994.

    “Birthday party/Cheesecake/Jellybeans/boom!”

    Aw, screw it. Here’s the video. It’s one of the best of the decade, as well.