Comments on: Bowling, Beer, Acrade, and... REM?

Bowling, Beer, Acrade, and... REM?

NotMyselfRightNow — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 10:51:44 -0800

Kingpins Bowl & Brew, in Athens, GA, is one of those "hipster- and family-friendly" small town places where locals of all ages get together. It's got a bar. It's got bowling. It's got an arcade. And on Saturday evening, it had Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Michael Stipe, the original members of REM, reunite and play a "impromptu" seven song set in the arcade. It was only the second time since Berry left the band in 1997 that the original members played together.

By: leapfrog

leapfrog — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 11:06:01 -0800

I'm surprised they weren't on the roof.

By: bullitt 5

bullitt 5 — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 11:10:58 -0800

Cool -- :) This plays into a long time fantasy of mine: getting a favorite band to play my wedding. Guess I have to become a roadie to make that happen....

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 11:15:59 -0800

now all we need is for Faith No More and/or Mr Bungle to reunite for a surprise gig at my house. I had no idea REM had broken up.

By: bardic

bardic — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 11:17:55 -0800

They haven't. They just suck on toast without their drummer.

By: rolypolyman

rolypolyman — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 11:21:37 -0800

What exactly is going down in Athens GA lately? I've been getting this impression that it's the newest 'hip' area. I don't think it's just about REM coming from there, either.

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 11:26:32 -0800

it's from all the REM fans moving there, so it's sorta just about REM coming from there.

By: iamck

iamck — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 11:30:12 -0800

...the original members of REM, reunite and play a "impromptu" seven song set in the arcade. And the hipsters didn't flee?

By: Suck Poppet

Suck Poppet — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 11:31:12 -0800

Q: Can an otherwise excellent band ruin every shred of credibility past and future just by releasing two exceptionally crappy albums in a row? A: In the case of REM, yes.

By: fenriq

fenriq — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 11:33:00 -0800

I think this is a cool story even if REM's not really all that cool anymore. I just like the idea that they got back together for one of their roadies. I just can't see alot of other bands doing that.

By: swinginjohn

swinginjohn — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 11:39:11 -0800

i guess they all still live around there. my sis went to college there and said that Stipe owns a ton of bars and stuff.

By: NationalKato

NationalKato — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 11:43:25 -0800

i was walking in downtown Athens one afternoon, turned around while walking, and backed into Stipe. i apologized, he smiled and said nothing, and we both went our own way. i don't think he elicits much sensation there, really.

By: Robot Johnny

Robot Johnny — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 11:52:53 -0800

i guess they all still live around there. my sis went to college there and said that Stipe owns a ton of bars and stuff. Back when I much more into the band I remember reading that Stipey was quite active in local issues, especially the preservation of local buildings, and community-oriented things.

By: Robot Johnny

Robot Johnny — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 11:55:04 -0800

Also... I'm glad to see that Bill Berry's unibrow hasn't aged a day.

By: shoepal

shoepal — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 12:06:06 -0800

They airbrushed his eyebrows!

By: ktoad

ktoad — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 12:08:38 -0800

Awesome! I love that despite the fact that they're playing an impromptu set in a bowling alley, Stipe still found his chance to strike a rockstar pose.

By: solistrato

solistrato — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 12:08:49 -0800

The unibrow is where his power resides.

By: Sangermaine

Sangermaine — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 12:19:37 -0800

shmegegge I think you're forgetting the B-52s.

By: aieou

aieou — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 12:22:35 -0800

"What exactly is going down in Athens GA lately? I've been getting this impression that it's the newest 'hip' area." rolypoly: well, maybe athens's popularity is more of a cyclical thing. 20 years ago, it was all the rage. and these days, it's officially a recording/live band mecca. speaking as one from atlanta, it's definitely been the seat of (what has been called) alternative music in the south. it's ironic that a big football school like UGA is also dedicated to progressive college radio and giving new bands airtime. but often in the south, for a long time, college radio was the only place to hear non-mainstream bands on the air. also, athens, in general, is a really cool, old, mountain town (attractive to artists).

By: aieou

aieou — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 12:24:15 -0800

shmegegge: don't forget Widespread Panic, Drivin' and Cryin', and Pylon, too!

By: pmbuko

pmbuko — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 12:25:43 -0800

wtf?? hipsters in Georgia?!

By: MaxVonCretin

MaxVonCretin — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 12:26:46 -0800

Q: Can an otherwise excellent band ruin every shred of credibility past and future just by releasing two exceptionally crappy albums in a row? Two??? Don't you mean, like, five?

By: gigbutt

gigbutt — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 12:37:12 -0800

What exactly is going down in Athens GA lately? I've been getting this impression that it's the newest 'hip' area. I don't think it's just about REM coming from there, either. Haha...same thing that's been going down here forever. Music and more music. apparently some folks don't know that Widespread Panic are locals, and they are probably correct in not giving a shit but the spreadheads flock nonetheless. You might have forgotten about these guys too. Then there's a little of everything stylistically from my friends the Dictatortots to Liz Durrett, who happens to be Vic Chesnutt's cousin?niece?..can't remember. Anyway..there's always something interesting going on here. And we don't count Michael sightings as falling into that category. Gang of Four played at the 40Watt Club the other night. That was pretty damn cool.

By: TheGoldenOne

TheGoldenOne — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 12:49:58 -0800

Does this term mountain town mean something else other than a town in the mountains? Because Athens isn't even situated in the foothills let alone the mountains. Stipe does not own tons of bars in Athens. He has holdings in the Grit (a superb vegetarian restaurant) and he does give generously to local causes. Athens is a college town with more bars than churches and more venues than some cities twice the size. The food is great, the music is great, the arts are great... it's got a lot of culture.

By: bardic

bardic — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 12:57:00 -0800

Hipsters (ones lacking false consciousness) and football fans share a taste for ceap beer. Gore and Kerry didn't realize this, so they lost.

By: bardic

bardic — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 12:57:37 -0800

Cheap. Cheep cheep. I'm speaking as a lush and a football fan and a fan of REM's first few albums.

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 12:57:41 -0800

And Love Tractor, and Guadalcanal Diary (from Marietta), and Oh-OK (with Michael Stipe's sister and Matthew Sweet), and Dreams So Real. From this timeline of the Athens music scene (which people are trying to preserve). Athens Music is a blog that focuses on the scene.

By: dydecker

dydecker — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 13:05:07 -0800

so has anything interesting happened musically there since 1986? Apart from REM playing their friend's wedding of course.

By: aieou

aieou — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 13:19:49 -0800

dydecker, the 40 Watt Club always puts on great shows. and for what it's worth, rolling stone considers athens the #1 college music scene in the country.

By: dydecker

dydecker — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 13:29:08 -0800

Come on. Rolling Stone hasn't known anything about anything, at least not in my lifetime. There must be some worthwhile Athens music of more recent vintage.

By: lilboo

lilboo — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 13:42:05 -0800

dydecker: To answer your question - in 1998, Neutral Milk Hotel released "In the Aeroplane over the Sea" And it was really, really good. Just when you think Athens is over, it comes out with some thing new. (And yes, we are due.)

By: Peter H

Peter H — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 13:53:35 -0800

And it was really, really good. YES, it -was- (shit, it IS) really good, one of the best albums of the century, easily! However, it wasn't made in Athens, it was made in Denver.

By: Suck Poppet

Suck Poppet — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 13:58:51 -0800

MaxVonCretin: I was being sort of generous since Monster wasn't what I would call extremely crappy—just more like ordinarily crappy. Green being slightly more crappy than Monster but still not extremely so. Yet it was crappy enough for me to see the writing on the wall. Automatic for the People was the confirmation of all fears and the end of any form of voluntary exposure to anything REM for me. But, yeah, point taken.

By: slhack3r

slhack3r — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 14:29:10 -0800

Athens is a great place for musicians - music loving bar-goers that are open to new music, dirt cheap practice space (Nuci's Space is awesome, and for a good cause), and exactly eleventy-billion bars to play in. I'm moving away soon, and will really miss this town. I really have it nice - any day of the week I can stumble a couple hundred yards up the street to the bars and see a band I've never heard of before. I guess this is a good time for us Athens mefites to unite, eh? I know there aren't many of us, but if anyone's interested in getting a beer at copper creek later this week, let me know! E-mail's in my profile.

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 14:31:52 -0800

"It was only the second time since Berry left the band in 1997 that the original members played together. ...but about the millionth time since the soul left the band in 1989 that they've played together. dydecker: "so has anything interesting happened musically there since 1986?" Well, even the mere fact of Collective Soul (ugh) means that Athens, Georgia has produced more good bands than New York City over the last few years. The last good thing to come out of New York was Sonic Youth, and they stopped being interesting around the time REM did. (Did they have some sort of agreement or something? "Wait until 1988, and then suck?" Chaos was supposed to be next, then came the truth... but, finally, all we got was wannabe hipsterism and grunge emulation.) New York is the lamest town in rock now; everyone there has nice clothes, a healthy sense of irony, a good mp3 collection, and no balls. Athens produced good bands because it was fun, small, and had good venues. Once you start to attract hipsters, your scene tends to die. Good bands tend to come from places like Stockton, CA.

By: gigbutt

gigbutt — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 14:43:43 -0800

Whoops! I forgot Drive by Truckers. If they ain't cool I'll eat my hat.

By: emelenjr

emelenjr — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 14:49:34 -0800

shoepal: Well played.

By: shoepal

shoepal — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 15:16:41 -0800

Thanks, emelenjr. Glad someone got it. Peter H, I don't think NMH would be considered a Denver band. Maybe Apples in Stereo, but not NMH. I think lilboo was saying the NMH was a good example of an Athens band. (Though, I don't know if NMH qualifies as an Athens band either. But definitely closer to Athens than Denver.) I'd also like to chime in with I Am The World Trade Center as another Athens export worthy of praise. I'll also concur that Athens is a strange town with an interesting melange of hipsters and sorostitutes rubbing elbows at watering holes and 40 watt shows. Asheville is becoming a sort of mini-athens and might be the mountain town that aieou was referring to, as it is known as an artist town.

By: eustatic

eustatic — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 16:24:01 -0800

The music comes and goes, but this is definitely a town that supports its musicians, despite the restrictive housing laws imposed by the government, and despite how bad local bands can be sometimes. check out this blog for 'slices of life.' But i love this place; you shouldn't leave here without having played in a band. No matter how wretched you are, a good crowd will show. The other side of Athens is its 30% (v high, even for Georgia) poverty rate, the tent-cities of homeless living on the oconee river, an amazing amount of undocumented workers living? on practically zero wages, and a 50% dropout rate from the public school system. we are also the only town in NE Georgia with a public mental health facility, which leads to some fun characters wandering into town, striking up conversations with the mono-cultural sons and daughters of Cobb County, themselves floating thru on an ivory bubble for their four-year state education, paid for by the Georgia lottery. Come on down, MeFi! you'll be just in time for Halloween!

By: keswick

keswick — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 16:28:55 -0800

I think it's funny when aging Gen-Xers (of which I am one) start sounding like the aging Baby Boomers they love to hate. That said, REM really does suck now.

By: Joey Michaels

Joey Michaels — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 17:37:20 -0800

I have been a fan of R.E.M. from the beginning. I own the Chronic Town EP on vinyl. I am hardly an obsessive fan that tracks down every little rare release they've ever put out. That being said, I really enjoyed two of the three post-Berry albums (Around the Sun left me a little flat). Obviously, everyone's musical taste is different. I have some friends who haven't liked a thing they've done since Chronic Town. I have others who think the early stuff is pure inarticulate crap. My point (and I do have one) is that this whole "at what point did REM begin to suck" thing is a matter of subjective taste similar to all of the "my music rocks your sucks" debates that pop up from time to time. I know that this whole "my team rulez" mentality infuses every element of modern life, but I can understand it in competative arenas. Music is not a competition, though, so I've never understood the whole debate. Does describing the suckiness of music that somebody else likes make one's own music better? How does one rate suckiness? The only objective way would seem to be record sales, but so many people feel that popular music, ipso facto, sucks. Help me understand this phenomenon. Once I do, perhaps I will be able to recognize when something I enjoy does, indeed, suck and will be able to correct my behavior so it is more in line with non-suckiness.

By: keswick

keswick — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 18:04:10 -0800

You suck. Hope that helps.

By: davebush

davebush — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 19:34:40 -0800

If "Around the Sun" was some band's debut, would it have have been received differently? Of course. "They suck now" is a stance that really gets in the way sometimes.

By: Joey Michaels

Joey Michaels — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 19:40:51 -0800

keswick: You suck. Hope that helps. Well, thank God that's been cleared up. I am going to go listen to Up now.

By: jrossi4r

jrossi4r — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 20:59:11 -0800

Back in the days when 120 Minutes ruled the world, all the cool kids dreamed of moving to Athens, GA.

By: Vidiot

Vidiot — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 21:58:27 -0800

I'm glad someone mentioned I Am The World Trade Center, shoepal (wow, talk about a music-world soap opera contained in one tiny band)...but don't forget Jump, Little Children and Dayroom.

By: shoepal

shoepal — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 08:26:48 -0800

Actually, Jump, Little Children (now called Jump, or something like that) are actually from Charleston. Though, they may live in Athens now. I've no clue. They met in music school in NC, iirc, so maybe they are technically an NC band. Not a fan, btw. I just happen to know a lot about southern bands.

By: Vidiot

Vidiot — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 09:36:57 -0800

D'oh! I thought I knew a bunch about Southern bands too...but evidently not. Coulda sworn Jump was from Athens, though I did know that about them meeting at NCAS. ('cause I know more about NC bands than Georgia ones.) I guess they just play in Athens a lot. Sorry!

By: shoepal

shoepal — Wed, 12 Oct 2005 10:43:03 -0800

Well, I suppose it is all about how you determine where a band is from... (where they formed? Where they lived after forming? Where they live now?) a lot of bands that are labelled "NYC band X" aren't really from NYC. But then again, not many folks in NYC are from NYC. Vidiot, were you ever on the Stephinsongs mailing list?