The Power of Picket Fences: A Band Biography for R.E.M.

 The Name of This Band is R.E.M.-A Biography by Peter Ames Carlin

The Name of This Band is R.E.M. book cover

Author Peter Ames Carlin

R.E.M. in concert in Italy by Stefano, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

R.E.M. collage -A derivative work by CityFeedback ,CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Thank you to Doubleday Books and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of Peter Ames Carlin’s detailed and entertaining book The Name of This Band is R.E.M. A Biography. Although I am not an R.E.M. fanatic, they were definitely a part of my musical development. I think that any person who grew up in the 90s would have to say that R.E.M. was a part of their musical life since the band was ubiquitous in so many good ways during the late 80s and throughout the 90s. It was fun to read this book, reminiscing about listening to “Pop Song ‘89”, “Stand”, and “Orange Crush” from a dubbed cassette, probably borrowed from a classmate with an older sibling. In fact, I loved “Pop Song ‘89” since it was like one of the first songs I really remember the singer addressing me. I especially liked the overdubbed “Hi, hi…” R.E.M. helped to change the way I thought about music and especially the ways that I thought about videos. I also learned about some of their older songs once I got to high school and my musical tastes were further expanded by new friends with different tastes (and older siblings as well). Plus, alternative radio in the Philadelphia area had a cool radio station that played some of the older R.E.M. songs, and I usually stayed up late on Sunday nights to watch 120 Minutes, so I remember the videos for “The One I Love” and “It’s the End of the World as We Know It”, especially since R.E.M. really challenged the concept of videos, making short films rather than using it as a promotional tool for the band. This was definitely apparent once Out of Time and Automatic for the People were released. In any event, Carlin’s book provides great insight into the band’s evolution, as well as to what went on during those video shoots and how the band’s insistence in kind of refusing the more traditional trappings of rock stardom during the 80s led to a unique and transformative approach to video stardom, and R.E.M. becoming one of the biggest bands at the time.

I typically love most books about music, especially rock music, and reading about a time period and music that I’m familiar with and grew up with is really appealing to me. Carlin’s book also taught me a lot since I wasn’t completely familiar with R.E.M.’s backstory (besides learning from the awesome Pavement song “UnseenPower of the Picket Fence”). This book provides a great history of the Athens, GA music scene, establishing where the band members came from and how they met and started making music. As Eddie Vedder noted in the band’s Hall of Fame enshrinement, it’s really cool that two of the members met at a record store discussing music. I also liked learning about their different influences, and learning how Michael Stipe was really influenced by Patti Smith, and the other members had different influences. I was aware that the Athens scene produced some great bands (obviously aware of the B52s and Pylon), but it was also fun to learn about how the band practiced together and really developed an organic sense of work and song writing. In some ways, the band kind of reminded me of Fugazi, as Joe Gross detailed in his 33 1/3 book on In on the Kill Taker. R.E.M. had no intention of becoming big stars, but rather sought to make music and art, and thus worked together and separate to create their music. It’s really cool to see how bands can kind of develop these organic methods of working and bring everything together.

Carlin’s book follows the band through their early recordings and their eventual deal with IRS Records, who helped the band become one of the most popular left of the dial/college radio bands of the 80s. I really enjoyed this part of the band’s history since it was not something I was too familiar with, and it also reminded me of some other great books about college rock bands like Trouble Boys by Bob Mehr about the Replacements and Our Band Could Be Your Life by Michael Azerrad. Incidentally, I think I remember reading in Azerad’s book that the Minutemen toured with R.E.M. and had a kind of bad experience with them. I was a little disappointed to not see mention of the other bands that R.E.M. may have helped (or hurt) along the way. Regardless, it was interesting to read more about this phase of the music scene, and just how different it was to develop a following for a band. In some ways, I could also see R.E.M.’s influence on Pavement in that they really didn’t want to do much promotion. However, that seems to change after the release of Document when the band eventually moves to Warner Brothers for Green.

Carlin’s narration is unique in that he focuses on eras of the band, but certain chapters are devoted either to the music or to different band members. I appreciated this structuring and the organization of the book. There was a good flow, and it allowed us to get to know the different members of the book, even if they did not participate in the book’s development (which I found out at the end of the book). Nevertheless, Carlin’s research and interviews with friends and colleagues of the band helped to piece together meaningful events and characteristics of the band members. For example, I really enjoyed learning about Michael Stipe’s interest in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and seeing how he was both somewhat shy and outspoken about certain things. An early news interview at one of the midnight showings of the movie helped to illustrate this kind of dual nature of someone who both seemed to love and be wary of the spotlight. In thinking about how R.E.M. differed from most mainstream MTV 80s and 90s bands, I can see how the experiences and values of Michael Stipe and other band members impacted their approach to stardom. What’s even more amazing is how they mostly maintained this approach to fame and rock stardom as their popularity continued to grow. Carlin’s analysis of the band shows that while they sought to maintain their stance, the move to Warner Bros brought about changes. However, it also seemed like the band also brought changes to music and popular culture. As Carlin mentioned towards their later tours, the band had a more family vibe towards it and had more beer and wine over the hard liquor and drugs that are often a part of rock excess. However, I also think it’s important to note how their videos were so much more conceptual than many other bands. Carlin repeatedly reminds readers that Stipe hated to lip synch, and refused to do so for older videos (which I didn’t realize). The band also didn’t like fake playing their instruments, so a video like “Stand” or “Shiny Happy People” makes sense in how ridiculous the band acts in aping their musicianship. At the time, I thought it was kind of goofy, but I see how they were both uncomfortable with bending their values and stances towards musicianship, but also kind of making fun of videos at the same time. With Out of Time and Automatic for the People, we see how the band expanded their pallet to use a bigger budget and wider audience to explore the visual elements of their art. Videos for “Losing My Religion” and “Everybody Hurts” (a personal favorite) not only emphasized the themes of their music, but also inspired other acts who took videos to new artistic heights. I can see a direct relationship between the video for “Losing my Religion” and “Heart Shaped Box”. I

The latter quarter of the book looks at the band in the 21^st century as their star starts to wane, but their musicianship goes in different directions, and the band’s identity is threatened with the loss of drummer Bill Berry, who left in 1997. The work with different drummers, but also begin to bring in different musical styles and experiment more with electronics and other styles of music. I think it’s important to note that this is also around the time of Radiohead’s OK Computer and follow up Kid A, which also took the band in a more electronic exploratory dimension. This was both an exciting a strange time for music, as bands in the post Nirvana era gravitated more towards experimentation as pop music veered towards younger solo stars and boy bands (I’m purposely ignoring the rise of Nu Metal and Rap Rock here). Carlin notes that as R.E.M. continued to create and experiment, their albums just didn’t chart in the same way. Interestingly, they continued  to have more single success in Europe and especially in the UK; however, their American success was never replicated, and their albums performed worse and worse. Carlin speculates that this could have been due to changes in popular tastes and the transition to less rock oriented popular music, but he also considers the early rise of file sharing sites like Napster and digital streaming like iTunes, that also moved music away from albums and more towards singles as a musical commodity. Throughout these industry changes, R.E.M. continued to receive critical praise with their albums. I also liked learning about what the band is up to today, learning how they are still engaged in music, and how they continue to engage in charity and consciousness raising activities, another value that the band was known for helping to contribute to MTV during the 90s. In fact, I looked up the band members as I was reading the book, and saw that Michael Stipe had recently campaigned for democrats. It’s cool to see how they remain committed to voting rights and encouraging people to vote. That’s another thing I appreciated about the band’s contribution to MTV—as a viewer or fan, you could always learn about their position about important topics, even if it was just encouraging people to register and vote.

I really enjoyed Carlin’s book, and it made me appreciate R.E.M. even more. I really hadn’t thought about them that much, and wasn’t the biggest fan, but reading about their earlier work made me realize how important they were to the college radio music of the 80s and the alternative music scene of the 90s. It’s kind of weird because I don’t usually think of them as punk rock, nor do I think of them as bands that were contemporaries of more alternative 90s bands like The Pixies or Nirvana since R.E.M. was so popular and massive in the 90s. However, they had humble origins and were able to maintain a lot of their artistic integrity in making music. Furthermore, they had an important role in challenging a lot of artists and bringing more art to videos and other programming on MTV, raising the bar and the consciousness of young, impressionable viewers and listeners. Carlin’s detailed research and interviews helped to flesh out a band that was somewhat elusive and reserved in talking about themselves, and helps to paint a pleasant portrait of the evolution and development of one of the 20^th century’s most consequential rock bands. Although I mentioned that I would have liked to learn more about the bands that toured with R.E.M. and their influence on these bands (like the Minutemen), I also think the book would have benefitted form more images and photos. I’m not sure if as an advanced copy, there weren’t any photos available, but I would have loved to see the album covers and art work, since it was such a prominent part of R.E.M.’s artistic ethos. Furthermore, I think that seeing video stills and concert photos would have been great too. I’m not sure if there are photos of the band in the studio, but that would have also been interesting to see. I also wish that Carlin talked about R.E.M.’s decision to allow the use of “Stand” as the theme song to the show Get A Life with Chris Elliot. I absolutely loved that show, and I totally associate the song with that show, even though it probably came out 3-4 years before the show. I was wondering how this reflected the band’s popularity, what went into their decision to license the song to a sitcom, and if it was even their decision. Finally, I know Carlin talked a little bit about “Radio Song”, a song and video that paired R.E.M. with KRS-ONE; it was such a strange pairing that I wish there was more discussion about what went into this song. I actually liked this song, and the video was kind of cool. KRS-ONE has always been a favorite rapper, and yet this song is never discussed in other pairings of rap and rock like “Walk This Way”. However, I think this song fell somewhere after Sonic Youth’s “Kool Thing” with Chuck D and the Judgement Night soundtrack, which had some grungy bands (including Sonic Youth and Pearl Jam). I wasn’t sure if this song might have been influenced by Sonic Youth’s “Kool Thing” since SY had a more under the radar trajectory than R.E.M. Nevertheless, maybe I can research and analyze more about this. Carlin’s book has given me much to think about and even more to listen to—not just R.E.M.’s early output, but some of the other great Athens’ bands. I highly recommend this book, especially if you grew up during the 90s.