Put down the potato salad and deviled eggs for just a few minutes and click on THIS LINK to read my esteemed colleague Brian’s post about the five-album stretch R.E.M. dished out from 1988-1998 for a few minutes.  Brian came out swinging yesterday in his Lazy Saturday post, and a good portion of today will be spent arguing or, possibly, cementing his bold statement that no other band recorded five records of material as noteworthy as Michael Stipe and crew during this time period.  Likewise, as the concept of the album fades away in our more modern music world, is it even possible for a band to produce five gems of greatness in a row without either changing ethos to hit mainstream standards or throwing a gutterball at least once in the mix?

If you’re going to agree with Brian, you’re going to have to first admit a few things about your listening tastes during the late 80′s to late 90′s.  Let’s face it, there were several musical shifts going on in this time period, and if you were an R.E.M. fan, at least in my world, you were a dork.  Yes, this is probably blasphemous, considering most of our readership was weened on this sort of college rock/politically charged early emo shit, but I was a rock fan in the 90′s.  Arguably, when R.E.M. produced the video for “Losing My Religion,” any shred of “rock” associated with them got tossed out the window.  Stipe waving his arms around and that terribly rendered symbolic narrative with the winged chick is all I can think about.  It revolts me.  I can listen to the super early R.E.M. material and absolutely love it.  However, the entire Out of Time record was laughable to me, even as an 8th grader.  It was all cliche and the emotional sentiment embedded in the lyricism was contrived and lacked any sort of edginess that former, more raw R.E.M. music exhibited.  Out of Time was actually R.E.M.’s deathnail for people like me, so I cannot possibly steer anywhere near agreement with Brian on this one.  I can respect his point, but not agree with it.  In fact, the bands Brian brings up for comparison in his post are extremely valid, and almost serve to negate his argument.  I could write a hefty thesis about how Radiohead’s five album run during this time shouldn’t even be mentioned in comparison to R.E.M.’s.  Brian uses Amnesiac as the hinging point that moves Thom Yorke’s brilliance out of running, and this is mildly psychotic.  I’d take Amnesiac over any of the five records R.E.M. produced during this span.  As I said in the beginning of this post, it probably depends on what your tastes were during your early teens (assuming a lot of our readership is 28-35, as young bucks don’t read this many words in one sitting).  For me, it was about the sneer of rock n’ roll and always was.  I can even get behind some of the comments from yesterday’s post referring to The Talking Heads and their output.  I even like that stuff better.  To me, R.E.M. represents a whiny cliche, a sort of “this is what indie music looks like” for the masses.

Brian gets the benefit of being “sorta indie” way back in middle school.  I most certainly was not, and even if I agree with and understand R.E.M.’s influence on the music I currently review daily, I still would have shoved an REM fan in a locker way back then.  In 8th grade I was a killer DJ (heavy sarcasm), spinning tunes for our awesome cake and ice cream makeout parties and the three most requested tracks by girls were “Losing My Religion,” “One” (U2) and “Under the Bridge.”  This is entirely relevant to mention because everyone always speaks to how Michael Stipe and Bono’s outfits never sold out.  I call a major bullshit here, and anyone who was socially adjusted in the early 90′s knows that these were the top songs in the country.  The graphic above shows the pretty well discussed record sales slide REM has experienced since Out of Time‘s release in 1996.  Of the five album arc Brian refers to, I owned three of the five, but disliked each equally for the same reasons I’ve already mentioned.  If REM never sold out, then what was the early 90′s for them?  Some kind of earth shattering revelation in music that forced the masses to suddenly buy cool and relevant music in droves?  Impossible.  Arguably, Alice in Chains’ run of recorded material is as staunch as any.  For a rock fan during this time period, I choose this run as my favorite.  While every release wasn’t an LP, the five release run of Facelift, Dirt, Jar of Flies, Alice in Chains, and Alice in Chains – Unplugged, is absolutely stellar.  Was Alice in Chains simply mainstream or a prime example of period-piece music?  I really have never thought so, and as the years whittle away, these five releases will always hold plenty of water.  I know Brian will argue that this can’t count because of technicality – The unplugged album wasn’t really a studio release and Jar of Flies was an acoustic EP where most tracks were included on other albums.  Nonetheless, I’ve always felt that these albums were actually underrated, despite the immense success they all had.  The use of dropped-d tuning on big old jumbo Guilds in the Unplugged set created the signature Alice in Chains sound that I’ve not once heard duplicated before or since.  Name one band that has successfully copied this sound and aura.  It won’t happen.  Possibly the closest ripoff in recent memory is Days of the New, and that material doesn’t even come close.  In the plugged in material, the tandem delivery of Cantrell and Staley will forever be a part of 90′s history, and the duo, in my opinion, did more to shift the landscape of rock n’ roll than Kurt Cobain did.  It’s the Alice In Chains look, appeal, sound, and ruthless sludge that still sprinkles itself into darker rock n’ roll today.

So after all this rambling, I guess all I wanted to do was disagree with R.E.M.’s five album run because for me, none of it stuck.  I found Michael Stipe whiny and flaky.  I found it contrived and grating, even when I was fumbling through those early years of adolescence.  It also depends on what strands of music you were listening to during this time.  For many, the college radio genre was huge and as Mission of Burma, Dino Jr. and some of those seminal bands rise again in popularity, it makes you look super cool and genius-like.  For others, we were hell-forged deep into the rock scene and would have gladly taken Use Your Illusion over any pretentious stuff.  For me, I was that rock fan and I can’t ignore it when debating things like this.  In fact, I’ll probably roll through that MTV-Unplugged set Alice in Chains did just for old time’s sake.  In that regard, I love this type of debate as there really is no clear answer.  An even cloudier and tense discussion might ensue if the 1978-2003 timeframe was expanded to present day.  The White Stripes run is currently remarkable and I know I’d choose that over R.E.M’s run too.  Damn Brian and his requirements.

As far as the Radio Dick post today, we here at Citizen Dick wish you all a safe and happy Labor Day.  This big long weekend is just what the Dr. ordered for Brian, Justin, and I as the first couple of weeks in the classroom have been pretty hectic.  The 12 song mix here is pretty fresh and new, many of the tracks on upcoming albums we’re digging big time.  The Clientele is currently hitting me in all the right places, and we’re stoked to review it proper.  Enjoy the tunes for today, chime in on my blasphemous Alice In Chains opinion, and be sure to tune in all week as we’ve got plenty of emerging music reviews on the way.

Califone – Funeral Singers

The Clientele – Harvest Time

Air – Sing Sang Sung

The Raveonettes – Last Dance

Fever Ray – Seven (Martyn’s Seventh Mix)

Glass Ghost – Like a Diamond

These United States – I Want You to Keep Everything

Jemima Pearl – I Hate People (With Iggy Pop)

The Mary Onettes – Puzzles

Talbot Tagora – Ichthus Hop

Themselves and WHY? – Canada

Hostage – Hangin