Posted
by Matt Armstrong
October 5, 2007 at 12:10 a.m.
For Real. Are You Goofing On Elvis or Not?
As of today, it's been 15 years since R.E.M.'s Automatic For The People came out. I've held the opinion for all 15 years that it is one of the most punk records ever released. Please allow me to explain. ![][1]In 1992, the world of music was heading down a heavily produced, overly sunny path; with bands that will never be retro-hip, like Jellyfish and Ugly Kid Joe taking precious air time from even worse artists. Use Your Illusion, anyone? R.E.M., coming off of releases like Green and Out Of Time, were poised for popularity, but instead of releasing a record filled with "Shiny Happy People" and "Stand" type singles, they came to us with a somber, monochromatic tome, wrapped in yellow plastic. Instead of the typical jangly, celebratory tunes of the band's immediate past, they presented 12 songs that circled the drain of one's own mortality, and the memories of those that have left us. Stipe plaintively cries for help at points, just for someone to talk to, and you got the sense that you might be the person he was looking for, if only that cursed tape sent messages both ways. Take a minute to listen to "Everybody Hurts" again. When those strings (by John Paul Jones no less, proving Zeppelin does in fact rule) swelled up for the first time, it was unforgettable. It was as though he was wondering just how you exist, when you know that every one around you will be gone, and soon. I mean, this is the record Cobain was listening to when he killed himself.But just how is this punk? It depends on your definition, really. I consider anything that purposefully goes against the grain of what is acceptable and popular, whether it's offensive or just unexpected, to have roots in the mentality of protest. Whether or not the thing goes on to become popular is a null point, it does not matter how the public takes it. Only how it is concepted, fabricated, and eventually presented matters. When R.E.M. decided to answer the question of their own growing popularity with an acoustic navel gazing, they explicitly decided to go against the grain of pop. It was so well done, however, that the MTV viewing public took it as a breath of fresh air. And man, were they ever right. Automatic For The People spawned 6 singles and 3 top 40 hits, not to mention 5 million copies sold, laying the ground work for the band's rise to super stardom. Try as you might, you couldn't get away from "Man On The Moon" in the year 1993. Not bad for a goofy group of B-52 fans from Athens. It's not surprising that the record has made every "Best Album EVAR!!!" list produced since the turn of the century. It deserves it.Another band that I view as important (in my life at least) are The Forms (be careful uttering that name, for it is a deep and dark rabbit hole you will soon find yourself in). Checking up on them today, I saw that they have a song on an Automatic tribute record. They're hosting it on [Stereogum][2], and allowing anyone who wants it to download it for free. Pretty cool of them, if I do say so myself. Everyone likes free stuff, especially when it involves the Meat Puppets, Rogue Wave, Tegan and Sara, The Wrens, and more hipness than you can shake your white belt at. Go grab yourself a copy, or listen to it below. Prepare to feel old!Hope you enjoy it. Supporting projects like this is how we, as music consumers, keep shit like The Spin Doctors from resurfacing.-m@ [1]: http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a127/matt1276/automaticcover.jpg [2]: http://www.stereogum.com/drivexv/
Comments
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Joel (Joel Mathis) says…
This comment isn't punk, but...
The "Everybody Hurts" video was, in my memory, one of the most effective pieces of the form I've ever seen. Yes, it was a "Wings of Desire" ripoff, but it was one of the very view MTV videos I've ever seen that made me stop for a minute after I'd first viewed it, suddenly introspective.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91euxM...
lazz (anonymous) says…
Excellent piece, Matt. I won't disagree with a word of it -- mostly because I think you're right, but also because you clearly are much more informed than I am. But please let me make my Old Guy Plea: You hep, young (under, say, 35) REM fans, please make a point of going back to the begin. I'm a creature of the time, falling into the first REM just as I was starting college, but I still contend their first half dozen are as good as anybody's, ever: Chronic Town (82, EP), Murmur (83), Reckoning (84), Fables of the Reconstruction (85), Life's Rich Pageant (86), Document (87). [Dead Letter Office was wedged in there between 'Pageant' and 'Document,' a collection of previously unreleased cuts, and it was the first REM disappointment.]
I, too, fell hard for 'Automatic.' After Document, I lost my feel for REM. Automatic made me mad for them all over again.
mitzibel (Misty Nuckolls) says…
Yes, Matt, exactly. And lazz, Fables of the Reconstruction is perhaps the best album anyone's ever put out. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
lazz (anonymous) says…
Murmur, Reckoning, Fables, Pageant ... I had a different favorite everytime time I played one of those ...
smerdyakov (anonymous) says…
Thanks for this Matt-it's been far too long since I've put this one in player. "Find the River" has got to be one of my favorite songs ever (right up there with Neil Young's "Natural Beauty")
And Joel, thanks for the link to the video. Until you posted that, I STILL skipped over track 4, even this morning... a prejudice against that song going back, well, 15 years I guess. Damn. I could barely tolerate two bars of that song back then, and holy crap if it didn't just become an epiphany. I suppose it took the untimely deaths of close friends and family to make me realize it was speaking to something more than teen angst. Indeed, it did always seem as if Stipe were speaking directly to me.
btw I love "Eponymous"... I know it's a comp, but for somebody still listening to Milli Vanilli and DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince around the time "Document" came out (hey-I was 12 dammit), it reached me first... thanks to the inclusion of "It's the End of the World as We Know It."
mitzibel (Misty Nuckolls) says…
scenebooster---yeah, the "best album ever". If you think I'm full of bullshit and hyperbole *now*, you should've seen me at 13, when I first heard it ;)
smerdyakov (anonymous) says…
scenebooster-where does that leave me, with an R.E.M. tune as one of my "favorite songs ever"? Me, I don't think there's much of an objective bar to measure music by, beyond a point anyway. Sure, Milli Vanilli can pretty much be dispensed with as unadulterated crap, but calling R.E.M. run of the mill is elitist at best. Just because you didn't have to dig through some flea market stacks to find the music that's meaningful to you, doesn't mean you're missing out on the ultimate aural experience. Just sayin...
matt (Matt Armstrong) says…
I guess they decided to get rid of the media player I embedded in this. Just follow the link to find another version of it.
kthutch (anonymous) says…
I remember listening to REM at my sister's apartment in Lawrence when I was in junior high. It was at that point that I started systematically stealing her albums, taping them on my dual tape recorder and quietly returning them the next time I visited. I doubt that she was at all tricked by my stealth.
UKept (anonymous) says…
But...but...Little Miss, little miss, little miss can't be wrong....