The Irish Doggy Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 I don't know about the greatest. The US has had a ton of great rock bands, and REM is surely one of them. My list would include: Red Hot Chili Peppers Beach Boys Metallica Others would say: Bruce Springsteen Grateful Dead KISS Nirvana White Stripes Ramones Aerosmith Maybe even some Journey. Hall and Oates Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clubfoothead Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 I don't know about the greatest. The US has had a ton of great rock bands, and REM is surely one of them. My list would include: Red Hot Chili Peppers Beach Boys Metallica Others would say: Bruce Springsteen Grateful Dead KISS Nirvana White Stripes Ramones Aerosmith Maybe even some Journey. Hall and Oates I'd need to see Lars Ulrich's birth certificate before I could put Metallica on the list of greatest American bands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cliaz Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 Great, now we'll never know what the Frequency is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SEC=UGA Posted September 22, 2011 Author Share Posted September 22, 2011 Great, now we'll never know what the Frequency is. They were asking the wrong guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chavez Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 You guys keep forgetting CCR. The Cars might have an argument. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rajncajn Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 There are bands that I dislike that I would still put ahead of R.E.M. grateful Dead & The Doors come to mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azazello1313 Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 The Doors come on, now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azazello1313 Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 (edited) from something a facebook friend just wrote: I believe that one's reaction to R.E.M. depends on when one became aware of it. There is no way to say this without sounding like a cranky old man (you kids get off my lawn!), but unless you were a music fan when they first appeared, at the least it must be more difficult to appreciate just how boldly different they were from everything else outside Athens, GA. I'm talking about 1981 (the original "Radio Free Europe" 7", which the singer in my college band shared with the rest of us, inspiring awe) - 1982 (Chronic Town EP, first R.E.M. release I bought) - 1983 (the mighty Murmur, the band's debut album). Rock critics at the time who wanted to compare them to another band -- because that's what rock critics do -- settled on the Byrds, because of the jangly guitar sound. Seems silly now, as nobody would ever confuse Murmur with any Byrds album, but that was the closest thing they could come up with. ... What did go into R.E.M.'s sound? Well, yes, the Byrds' guitar sound was an influence on Peter Buck's style, but what the Athenians really created was a distinctly non-urban American post-punk style. If all R.E.M. had released was the original version of "Radio Free Europe," they would undeniably be remembered as an unusual post-punk tangent. Even on Chronic Town (now available separately on vinyl and as the last sequence of songs on the CD and download of the compilation Dead Letter Office), "Lower Wolves" strongly channels an iconically jittery rhythm endemic to certain styles of post-punk, and Buck's career-long aversion to guitar solos is a distinctly punk trait that carried over into some strands of post-punk. There's a headlong-rush feeling to all five tracks on Chronic Town that was nothing like what mainstream rock sounded like. On Murmur that rush was tempered a bit, but R.E.M. still stood out as very different to anything getting radio play even on the cooler stations. R.E.M. began to be influential (even as the album sold a mere 200,000 copies), and a few bands began to be influenced by them (the first band I heard to which my reaction was "that sounds like R.E.M." was Leap of Faith, a Columbia College band in '83-'84). At the end of the '80s, Murmur remained my favorite album of the decade (don't bother getting the two-CD version; all it adds is the opportunity to hear a somewhat exciting band in 1983 with a singer who gets more and more out of tune as the evening goes on). With every album that followed, R.E.M. became more polished and a little more normal, and with each succeeding year and album -- Reckoning (1984), Fables of the Reconstruction ('85), Life's Rich Pageant ('86), Document ('87), Green ('88) -- the quartet's influence on other bands and, thanks to its increasing commercial success, on the music business, edged "college rock"/"alternative rock" further and further into the mainstream until, eventually, they were almost in the mainstream: Green found the band not on I.R.S., but on Warner Brothers. Though to my ears none of those albums surpassed the debut, I love them all. Even when Michael Stipe began enunciating (Fables), the band retained its aura. The growth of the band's audience meant that many new fans weren't realizing that "The One I Love" was not only not a love song, but quite the opposite; ironically, even when Stipe was both enunciating and writing more direct lyrics, he was still misunderstood, even more drastically than before when listeners at least knew that they didn't understand what he was singing. But "The One I Love" going to #9 on the pop singles chart was far from the band's commercial high point; things were about to explode. I started to lose interest in R.E.M. precisely when most of the country decided they were great: 1991's Out of Time. It took the guys three years to make, a complete break with their previous methods; it also found the number of guest musicians burgeoning to a whopping 17. Previously there had never been non-members playing on more than two tracks on an album; on Out of Time there are guests on every track. And yet the R.E.M. album that sounded least like R.E.M. became the band's first #1 LP thanks to "Losing My Religion" and "Shiny Happy People." But I still liked it, overall. Then came Automatic for the People ('92), a glum, dull-sounding album that, to my eternal surprise, is Peter Buck's and bassist Mike Mills's favorite, and that of many critics as well. Then, wanting to make a more rocking album, they made Monster ('94); its energy sounds fake, or at least forced or ironic, yet reactions were largely rapturous. R.E.M. was no merely in the mainstream, it seemingly was the mainstream, the rock sound that was acceptable to all the folks for whom the gritty sound of grunge was too intense. When 1996's New Adventures in Hi-Fi proved a bland mish-mosh of Out of Time's heavily produced acoustic sound and Monster's arena-rock moves, I lost interest entirely. Then drummer Bill Berry had an aneurysm while on tour, and retired soon after. Somehow everybody else gave up on them at the exact moment -- the band's first post-Berry album, Up ('98), which sometimes filled his chair with session drummers, sometimes with electronic drum machines -- at which R.E.M. sounded interesting to me again. When I reviewed it positively on CDNOW.com and compared it favorably to the three previous albums, I received hate email. The band's work since then has been uneven, better than its detractors say but never the great comebacks that supporters claimed each time one was released. Reveal (2001) is the least of them; Around the Sun (2004), Accelerate (2008), and Collapse into Now (2011) all offer moments of pleasure without ever coming close to the quality of those five great I.R.S. LPs. I may sound ambivalent about R.E.M., given how little I care for their four best-selling albums. But I'm not. I loved everything those four guys did for a decade, and they made one of the greatest records of all time, Murmur. That's more than most bands can say. And unlike most '80s bands I loved, they made lots of money. Can't begrudge them that. Couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of guys Edited September 22, 2011 by Azazello1313 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pope Flick Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 Their best album wasn't even an REM album but Hindu Love Gods'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darin3 Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 from something a facebook friend just wrote: sounds to me like your friend wants to slurp REM's collective peepee more than you do... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugh B Tool Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 A BIG MEH. Best American band of alltime? In a pigs arse. Never liked but a few songs from LP's and the two times I was unfortunate enough to see them they were forgetable at best. Pearl Jam smokes them in everything. Live, studio, album sales, musicianship etc etc etc. Along with Jefferson Airplane, CCR, Allman Bros.,just off the top of my head. Shoot Dave Matthews Band blows them away at the same type of music, and they're overated as hell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azazello1313 Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 Shoot Dave Matthews Band blows them away at the same type of music Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clubfoothead Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 A BIG MEH. Best American band of alltime? In a pigs arse. Never liked but a few songs from LP's and the two times I was unfortunate enough to see them they were forgetable at best. Pearl Jam smokes them in everything. Live, studio, album sales, musicianship etc etc etc. Along with Jefferson Airplane, CCR, Allman Bros.,just off the top of my head. Shoot Dave Matthews Band blows them away at the same type of music, and they're overated as hell. You forgot Huey Lewis and the News. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pope Flick Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 Cripes, one of the bands az listed as an influence of theirs, VU, has more rock n roll in Lou Reeds thumbnail than REM ever had in total. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SLAYER Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 Like the guy said if you wasn't around for the beginning you don't understand. if you started listening after 90 or so you probably are not a fan. They are a great american band. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WaterMan Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 Van Halen over the Doors is crazy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugh B Tool Posted September 22, 2011 Share Posted September 22, 2011 You forgot Huey Lewis and the News. No, you did Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seahawks21 Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 (edited) Alabama anyone? TOOL? REM? C'mon, yer jerkin my chain with this. I might be able to see top-10, but #1? You gotta be a lot better for a lot longer. This is Rock 'N Roll in the US of A! I will never bash anyone's personal musical tastes, as I am as eclectic and a bit "different" with my own personal tastes as anyone, and someone much more educated in music history and theory would be needed to prove that they AREN'T the best American band in history, but that is one heckuva thing to say considering some of work the competition has produced, especially when taking into account how much of REM's music (notably recent-ish) really sounds quite awful to my untrained ear. Edited September 23, 2011 by Seahawks21 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ursa Majoris Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 A BIG MEH. Best American band of alltime? In a pigs arse. Gotta say this is closer to my view than Az's. I don't see REM as much more than a footnote. If REM are the greatest American band, that is a pretty damning indictment of the years 1965 to the present. Whatever, each to his own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clubfoothead Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 Alabama anyone? That's closer to jamming a turd in your ear than music. Whatever, each to his own. Pretty much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonorator Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 love how murmur was featured in johnny dangerously ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loaf Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 In celebration of the 30+ years the band gave us, Dave’s Music Database presents this list of the top 30 R.E.M. songs. As always, DMDB lists are determined by a combination of songs’ chart performances, sales, airplay figures, awards earned, and placement on best-of lists from multiple sources. In this case, 7 other lists specific to R.E.M. songs have also been figured into the mix. 1. Losing My Religion (1991) 2. Everybody Hurts (1993) 3. It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) (1987) 4. Radio Free Europe (1983) 5. The One I Love (1987) 6. Man on the Moon (1992) 7. Fall on Me (1986) 8. What’s the Frequency, Kenneth? (1994) 9. Shiny Happy People (1991) 10. Nightswimming (1993) 11. Drive (1992) 12. Orange Crush (1988) 13. E-Bow the Letter (1996) 14. Find the River (1992) 15. The Great Beyond (1999) 16. Stand (1988) 17. Crush with Eyeliner (1995) 18. Daysleeper (1998) 19. So. Central Rain (I’m Sorry) (1984) 20. Don’t Go Back to Rockville (1984) 21. The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite (1993) 22. Superman (1986) 23. Strange Currencies (1995) 24. Imitation of Life (2001) 25. Bang and Blame (1994) 26. Driver 8 (1985) 27. Pop Song 89 (1988) 28. Finest Worksong (1987) 29. At My Most Beautiful (1999) 30. Bittersweet Me (1996) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rajncajn Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 Allman Brothers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loaf Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 http://forums.thehuddle.com/index.php?show...t+american+band Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clubfoothead Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 In celebration of the 30+ years the band gave us, Dave’s Music Database presents this list of the top 30 R.E.M. songs. As always, DMDB lists are determined by a combination of songs’ chart performances, sales, airplay figures, awards earned, and placement on best-of lists from multiple sources. In this case, 7 other lists specific to R.E.M. songs have also been figured into the mix. 1. Losing My Religion (1991) 2. Everybody Hurts (1993) 3. It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) (1987) 4. Radio Free Europe (1983) 5. The One I Love (1987) 6. Man on the Moon (1992) 7. Fall on Me (1986) 8. What’s the Frequency, Kenneth? (1994) 9. Shiny Happy People (1991) 10. Nightswimming (1993) 11. Drive (1992) 12. Orange Crush (1988) 13. E-Bow the Letter (1996) 14. Find the River (1992) 15. The Great Beyond (1999) 16. Stand (1988) 17. Crush with Eyeliner (1995) 18. Daysleeper (1998) 19. So. Central Rain (I’m Sorry) (1984) 20. Don’t Go Back to Rockville (1984) 21. The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite (1993) 22. Superman (1986) 23. Strange Currencies (1995) 24. Imitation of Life (2001) 25. Bang and Blame (1994) 26. Driver 8 (1985) 27. Pop Song 89 (1988) 28. Finest Worksong (1987) 29. At My Most Beautiful (1999) 30. Bittersweet Me (1996) My 30 favorite in no particular order (I'm partial to the older stuff). I could probably hit 50. The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite Fall On Me Perfect Circle Gardening at Night Wolves, Lower Bad Day Bandwagon The Great Beyond Superman Just a Touch What if We Give it Away I Believe Hyena Begin the Begin Carnival of Sorts 1,000,000 (Don't Go Back to) Rockville Camera Letter Never Sent Second Guessing Pretty Persuasion So. Central Rain (I'm SOrry) Harborcoat Strange Currencies Pilgrimage Laughing Talk About the Passion Sitting Still We Walk Country Feedback Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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