Tuesday, October 14, 2008

REM - Crush with Eyeliner

I was just rocking out in the shower to the Megachild song Bannisters. I was thinking about how to lift this song back up... and then I started thinking about the early-mid nineties album Monster from R.E.M. This album provided ample anthems for my early high school years, although I remember that I ultimately traded the album with a friend in order to get my hands on Soundgarden's Superunknown. Although I still love that Soundgarden album (which also provides great anthems, especially "My Wave", which sticks in my head when I am surfing, and "Fell on Black Days" is a great song to sing along with on a long drive).

R.E.M. had already established themselves well before Monster, and some might even say that this album is not among their greatest works. It met with fairly great commercial success, as I remember, especially the single "What's the Frequency Kenneth?" Although there were a few mellow numbers on the album, there was a rocking fuzzy-reverbed & distorted guitar component that was characteristic of most of the album. "Crush with Eyeliner" is a song with a moderate tempo that exemplifies that guitar work, paired with some groovy bass work, and Michael Stipe's fun & bizarre lyrics.

I'm thinking that Bannisters could adopt a little bit of the sound from Monster, if our gear permits it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Monster and New Adventures in Hi-Fi, the album that followed are huge influences on my guitar playing - at least the attempt to cover up shoddy skills with big distorted chords - especially songs like Valkerie, Late in the Day, Hey There and BDG