Unregistered, Murmurs is now new!
Two features which are quite cool: Social Groups makes it all Facebook like and albums lets you have your own photo albums to share with friends.
ALSO: your profile is a full social profile now, letting you buddy list with friends and more.
COMING SOON: more cataloging of REM on the web including YouTube, Twitter and Flickr.
March found everyone gearing up for the release of Accelerate. Of note in March was the first public shows the band had made since the Dublin shows the July prior, in Florida, Austin, TX, London and on April 1, the Today Show.
After Florida, the band came to Austin, TX during the SXSW Interactive festival for press and some down time. Of note during this is the collision of technology with R.E.M. with Michael's appearance (with a certain someone) at a Facebook party.
The performance at Stubbs BBQ on March 12 was fantastic. Photos here
Ninetynights was also tapering down to its inevitable conclusion, and finally at the end of March, iLike for the first time streamed an entire record on Facebook, which just happened to be R.E.M.'s. The CEO of iLike, Ali Partovi is a huge R.E.M. fan and it was great to make this happen.
February continued the lead up to Accelerate with the release of Supernatural, Superserious. Originally rehearsed live in Dublin as the song Disguised, the song had a last minute title switch after being rewritten to include a chorus.
Taking the lead from Michael Stipe, who has said now that "music video is dead," the band with Vincent Moon and Warners made a total of 12 videos for the record, plus one "official video." The official video was notable for having no lip-sync at all, while the 12 other edits were released as "open source" content for others to make videos out of.
All told, over 93 videos were made. One, done by two unpaid interns at Warner Bros. Records' Burbank office, was sent to VH-1 for airing. Another, from user OneBedroom resulted in the editor being contacted by Vincent Moon to work on projects.
Also, on February 29, Ninetynights featured a special treat: the only R.E.M. show ever performed on a leap-day was put on Ninetynights with a video introduction from Mike Mills, shot in LA by Ethan. The day after, the song, clip and any download were taken down.
January 1 began not only a new year, 90 days of R.E.M, leading up to the release of Accelerate. On ninetynights.com, every day a video was posted in Flash and HD download, then only in Flash the day after.
ninetynights was one of six (6!) websites created for Accelerate.
Accelerate is finding it's way onto a lot of best of 2009 lists. It's great to see the album had a positive impact and that critics are still liking the album months after release.
Star Tribune, Minneapolis:
5. R.E.M., "Accelerate." These veterans rocked with renewed purpose and more potency than ever.
San Jose Mercury News:
9. "Accelerate" — R.E.M.: Just when you thought the guys from Athens, Ga., had become totally irrelevant, they roar back with 35 minutes of bracing, immediate rock delivered with a fire they'd largely outgrown by the time they recorded "Murmur" in 1983.
Salt Lake Tribune, Utah:
9. R.E.M., "Accelerate" » While not a return to the heights of "Document" and "Monster," the trio has awakened from its slumber to become relevant again, both edgy and melodic.
Orlando Sentinel:
R.E.M., Accelerate: For a long stretch, it sounded like R.E.M. had forgotten how to rock. The band remembers on this 11-song collection powered by jangly guitars and exuberant singing.
Various Critics, Denver Post:
1. R.E.M., "Accelerate"(Warner Bros.) It's the best R.E.M. album since 1994's "Monster," although given the band's recent output, that doesn't nail down the greatness of this tasty rock 'n' roll. The pioneering college rock band amazed fans by making its music essential again — no easy task, given it has been around for 25-plus years.
2. R.E.M., "Accelerate" (Warner Bros.) Yes, "Supernatural Superserious" was the greatest single (from a veteran group) of 2008. But that wasn't the only shining nugget in this bunch. Listen to Mike Mills' backups in "Man- Sized Wreath," Michael Stipe's desperate pleas in "Hollow Man" and, gasp!, an epic title track.
10. R.E.M., "Accelerate" (Warner Bros.) Michael Stipe and company reasserted their relevance and vitality on this collection of upbeat rockers, driven by Peter Buck's bloodthirsty guitar.
Newsday, NY:
4 R.E.M., "ACCELERATE" (Warner Bros.). Though the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers' return to form didn't get as much attention as the flashier comebacks of Britney Spears and Axl Rose, R.E.M.'s bold "Accelerate" brings back the rocking swagger of their earlier days with the pointed barbs of "Living Well Is the Best Revenge" and "Man-Sized Wreath."
and then there is the Phoenix New Times giving Murmur some love in it's top ten reissues of 2008:
R.E.M. Murmur (Universal) Few albums have ever triggered a sea change in rock and roll with more authority and fewer decipherable lyrics than R.E.M.'s 1983 debut. Reaching back to the Byrds, Peter Buck's paisley guitar parts provide the pop counterbalance to Michael Stipe's kudzu poetry - even today, only he probably knows what he was singing about. One-in-a-million opener "Radio Free Europe" remains the pick of the litter, but "Moral Kiosk" and "Catapult" aren't far behind, and the dusky "Perfect Circle" presages Automatic for the People by a decade. Extras: 1983 live disc from Toronto fleshes out Murmur with Chronic Town strays ("Gardening at Night") and soon-to-be Reckoning standouts ("Harborcoat").
Mike Mills, Bassist from R.E.M. on December 17th at 3pm
Hometown hero, Mike Mills of the famous R.E.M. will be spinning some vinyl and talking about the strong relationship between early R.E.M. and WUOG.
WUOG is famous for being the first radio station to broadcast the band. Like many great Athens bands, R.E.M. has played live in our lobby.
We're excited and honored to have Mr. Mills in our station once again.
In 1955 Charlie Wilson, CEO of General Motors, famously said “What is good for General Motors is good for America.” In this context, the modern corollary could be, what’s good for R.E.M. is good for alternative rock. Considering their status as the godfathers of the whole damn indie-alt-college corpus, the fact that they’re still producing relevant music is something of a miracle. That they spent so long wandering in the proverbial desert only makes this hard-earned triumph all the sweeter. Now, to be fair, this is clearly not R.E.M.’s best album, but it’s still a damn good album –- and second-tier R.E.M. still sits head and shoulders above the majority of everything else. Time will tell, but I think it’ll probably age at least as well as Document or Out of Time. Most importantly, this album is good in a way that makes you want to forgive a few lapses. It sounds less like a definitive statement than a prelude, a band stretching their muscles after a long coma, tentative in places but on the right track. They’re back, finally. Tim O’Neil
BoingBoing today has posted a video narrated by Michael Stipe From BoingBoing:
In this episode: the story of Jesus Tecu Osorio, a Maya AchÃ* man who witnessed one of the most horrific massacres of Guatemala's 36-year internal conflict, when he was a child -- and what he is doing to preserve the memory of victims, and the rights of survivors.
Tom Moon, former music critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer, has written a book entitled "1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die". You can access the list at: www.1000recordings.com/. Murmur was the only R.E.M. record to make it. If you read the comments on the blog at the book website some people have already complained that Automatic should have made it. Great majority of records on the list are not rock/pop/folk, so getting one record on the list is pretty good although I would have gone for Reckoning or Lifes Rich Pageant if I had just one to choose. Anyway, I know eveyone here is crazy about lists so this is one more list to add...
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