Can't Get There From Here

I listened to a lot of R.E.M. last year. There was just something about that band that struck the sad and melancholic nerve in me, and I returned to their records again and again. When I was flipping through the 7 inch racks at Wanna Hear It and I saw the single for Can't Get There From Here, and it was obvious that I needed to buy it even though I've never given much thought to collecting R.E.M. singles.

Can't Get There From Here is from the 1985 album, Fables Of The Reconstruction. I still don't have the vinyl for that album, and it seems to be one that you can still pick up for a reasonable price, so maybe I'll have to add that one to the collection soon.

R.E.M. singles are cool because they come with an exclusive track on the b-side. The flip side for this single features the song Bandwagon... and since I've never bothered with R.E.M. singles, this is the first time that I've heard the song, almost 40 years after it was released. Apparently the 12 inch single has two exclusive songs, so obviously that was the way that I should have gone, and I'll have to remember that if I want to keep collecting R.E.M. singles.

Out Of Time

It has been a weird year for me when it comes to listening to music. I've been kind of lost and searching for something different to listen to, and I've found myself gravitating towards bands and styles that have been a bit unexpected. I spent a lot of time last year with new hardcore records, but this year I've just felt kind of indifferent. I can feel that changing a bit as we approach the end of 2024, and I'm starting to listen to some newer shit more and more, but overall, my listening habits this year have been odd and all over the place. Case in point... R.E.M.

I've listened to more R.E.M. this year than I probably have ever in my life. I mean, I liked the band in the early 90's, but even then I didn't listen to them as obsessively has I have this past year. After spending over a decade thinking that I never needed to listen to them again, my enjoyment of the band has grown over the last couple of year. This year, however, I just keep returning to them again and again... specifically their 1991 album, Out Of Time. I don't know what it was about this record, but I've listened to it a lot. Before this year, I don't think that I'd listened to it but two or three times over the past 30 years... it has never been my go-to R.E.M. record, but when I gave it a casual listen back in January it hooked me hard, and I've easy listened to it more than any of their other albums this year.

I've listened to Out Of Time so much that I needed a copy in my collection. I thought that I'd be able to pick up an old copy of it for cheap, but I guess that since it was released in '91, when vinyl was in a decline, those original pressings may have seen smaller numbers, and therefore are more expensive than I expected. Since an original press was priced the same as a newer colored vinyl press, I decided to put my money toward the newer version. That yellow vinyl looks so good that I couldn't resist.

New Adventures In R.E.M. Reissues

I don't listen to R.E.M. a lot, but sometimes they hit a spot with me that can't be denied. As I was picking up the latest Dio single for Record Store Day, I was flipping through the record bins at Bull Moose... not really expecting to find anything, but it felt good to flip through the stacks of vinyl... and then I noticed a recent pressing for New Adventures In Hi-Fi.

There was a time when I never thought that I'd need to listen to R.E.M. again, but the last few years has found me digging out their records occasionally, and really having a good time with them. When I saw New Adventures In Hi-Fi in the racks, I felt the need to pick it up. I haven't listened to this R.E.M. record for probably 20 years, and looking at the track listing, not a single song stood out as one that I remembered. I did recall that I liked this album when I bought the CD back in 1996, so I took a chance and on a whim I bought the vinyl.

Wow. It was great revisiting this album, and a few of the songs came back to me as soon as I heard them (Bittersweet Me is so amazing... how did I forget about this song... and damn... E-Bow The Letter hits me hard as well.) I never bothered with any R.E.M. record after this one, so this may be as far as I go with the band, but now I'm curious.

Radio Free Reissue

A couple of months back I found myself on an R.E.M. kick. It was hitting me pretty hard and I spent a few days repeatedly listening to some of their albums. It was a quick obsession, but it was enough to remind me that I'd seen something earlier in the year that the band was going to be reissuing their first 7 inch. I checked it out and found the local Bull Moose store had one available, so I took a quick drive over to pick it up.

Originally released in 1981, and limited to 1,000, the single contained early recordings of Radio Free Europe and Sitting Still. I'd never paid close enough attention to the R.E.M. disography to realize they released an early single so I was kind of interested to hear it. Seeing that the original can go for around $300 on Discogs, I figured that the $10 reissue was good enough for me. Considering that a couple years ago I didn't think that I'd ever need to listen to this band again, I'm not making any big dollar commitments to collecting for them. I like R.E.M., but let's not lose our minds, okay?

Although these two songs ended up on the Murmur LP, they sound a bit looser and have more bounce to them on this 7 inch. Cool to pick up for cheap.

Finest Worksong

In the early 90's, around the time of Automatic For The People, I found myself really enjoying R.E.M. At that time, bands like Split Lip and Endpoint were starting to rock a bit, and I was loving stuff like Rain Like The Sound Of Trains. I was really digging into some more of the indie/college rock kind of stuff, and R.E.M. could not be ignored. After a few years I stopped caring about the band, and even a few years ago I was telling a friend of mine, that R.E.M. were a band that I never needed to hear again. Shortly after making that bold statement, I am of course eating those words.

Something clicked with me earlier this year and out of the blue I found myself really wanting to listen to some R.E.M. I don't know where it came from, but man, suddenly I ended up with a couple R.E.M. albums queued up each day. After revisiting the band, I kind of wanted to add a record to the collection, and an original pressing seemed like the cheapest and best way to go.

Document may be my favorite R.E.M. album, so it only made sense for me to grab this one. Front to back, this is just such a great album. Man, I was stupid excited when this thing arrived. It was in great shape and I got such a kick out of dropping the needle and taking it for a spin.

Radio Free Vinyl

At the start of Summer 2016, my mother's boyfriend of 15 years passed away due to a massive heart attack. It was a pretty big blow for the family, and for some us, it was the first time we had to deal with death of someone that was close to us.

In helping my mother clean out Steve's stuff, we came across a couple of crates that consisted of his old record collection. She offered them to me, and I took them off her hands. I expected that about 95% of it was of no interest to me, but I held out some hope that there may be small handful of records that were worth holding on to.

Back in the early 90's I was listening to more and more emo stuff out of the Hardcore/Punk scene, and along with that came an interest in REM. Hey, don't fucking judge me...even Endpoint and Doghouse Records were sliding into that Indie/College Rock sound at the time, and it seemed like REM was required listening for the socially aware feminist vegan that I was.

By 1996 or so, everything seemed so damn pretentious and uptight. I couldn't take it anymore, and I walked away to follow Ten Yard Fight and Floorpunch to something that seemed more sincere, and something that I could connect with.

I've had no desire to listen to REM for the past 20 years, but seeing their 1983 album, Murmur, in Steve's collection...it not only shocked me to see it in there, but kind of made me want to give it a spin.

I had only listened to Murmur a couple of times previously, and it didn't really move me when I initially heard it. But this time was different. I don't know if it was because I was listening to it on vinyl, or if just happened to fit my mood this time around (maybe that Molly album from earlier this year had something to do with it)...but as soon as Radio Free Europe started playing, I was immediately interested. I mean, I figured that I never needed to hear this band again, and here I was giving the album multiple spins...so no one was more surprised that I was at this change of heart.