{"id":370,"date":"2007-03-12T09:40:47","date_gmt":"2007-03-12T13:40:47","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2008-12-10T16:48:29","modified_gmt":"2008-12-10T16:48:29","slug":"where-do-you-stand-on-r-e-m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/where-do-you-stand-on-r-e-m\/","title":{"rendered":"Where Do You Stand on R.E.M."},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KA57Pafq_NU?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>I\u2019m a little surprised <strong>R.E.M.<\/strong> doesn\u2019t seem to get its props from the general RTH community. They have (well, had) a driving, melodic rhythm section; a wankery-eschewing guitarist with (judging from interviews) an encyclopedic knowledge of rock; and an eccentric lead singer who pushed them into new territory. They\u2019re kinda like <strong>XTC<\/strong> in that regard.<\/p>\n<p>Sure, their brand of jangly college rock became a cul de sac thanks to lesser lights. And yes, their preachy brand of political gesture sure can grate. But \u2013 of their early work &#8212; I submit that <em>Murmur<\/em> is a still-intriguing bit of mystery with genuninely innovative production, and <em>Reckoning<\/em> shows that they dial down production quirks and still make interesting music. <\/p>\n<p>So what\u2019s the deal? Their sound has aged much better than most of their \u201880s-era brethren. Is it <strong>Michael Stipe\u2019s androgyny<\/strong>? Isn\u2019t that taking RTH\u2019s pro-wrestling inclinations a little too far?<\/p>\n<p>At the very least, please watch the above clip and tell me that\u2019s not a great performance of a great song!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019m a little surprised R.E.M. doesn\u2019t seem to get its props from the general RTH community. They have (well, had) a driving, melodic rhythm section; a wankery-eschewing guitarist with (judging from interviews) an encyclopedic knowledge of rock; and an eccentric lead singer who pushed them into new territory. They\u2019re kinda like XTC in that regard. <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/where-do-you-stand-on-r-e-m\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[30],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}