ninetynights: nights 30 &31

In nights 30 & 31 we enter the studio again.
in the first clip you can hear the band talking about "houston", which seems to be a song the guys decided to give a lot of attention (production wise). check out what mr. Eric Zimmermann had to say about the song (+ partial lyrics) here:
http://remring.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=352&Itemid=36
night 31 offers a peek at mr. mike mills playing electric guitar for "Horse to water": you can hear the whole mix on the remhq front page

ninetynights: night 29

Michael stipe is listening to what seems to be a studio version of the song "Accelerate".
now, about today's clip there's one good thing and one bad:
-the good one: the song sounds absolutely faithful to the olympia live version; the only difference you note is that Peter is playing some more notes in the guitar outro
-the bad one: the song is not yet properly released

side note: we've had a hint of (almost) all the new songs, with some exceptions, via ninetynights and remhq

north american tour

tour dates for north america announced:
http://remhq.com/news_story.php?id=662
european dates plus additional american dates to follow.

side note: on the main page of remhq, you can hear a snippet of the backing track for "Horse to water", with unconventional lyrics sung by mr. Mike Mills. a very fast track, with 3 guitars in the mix. and none of them is an acoustic one

ninetynights: night 28

this is the Olympia night 4 version of "Accelerate". the song is one of the best (maybe the best) of those played in Dublin in 2007. now it's only a matter of production. btw you have to be a really incompetent producer to ruin the song. which is not Jacknife Lee's case

ninetynights: night 27

Mr. Peter Buck talks about music in general, downloads and physical releases, r.e.m.'s new material. he's quite cool with those glasses on

opening acts

the next r.e.m. tour will see opening acts by "The National" and "Modest Mouse", according to this article:
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/musicnews/s2143945.htm
if it turns out to be true (which at this stage I think is very likely) this is such a good news

ninetynights: night 26

this is a little snippet of what Michael had to say in night 4 of the Dublin rehearsals.
as a fan, I probably listened to those words around a million times, just after track 2 (sdtbotmd) of the cd I burned with all the new song played live in Dublin. the thing is, looking at Michael's face while saying those words to the crowd makes you wondering how long does it take to listen to Accelerate. too much, no doubt

supernatural video shoot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prbkejIRRJ0

supernatural superserious single cover

....ehm... what is that supposed to be ?

ninetynights: night 25

Vincent takes us on stage while r.e.m. are performing "Staring down the barrel of the middle distance". this seems to be a hint at the fact that we'll see the song (not in "Accelerate" but) as a b-side or in a dvd of the Dublin rehearsals (that would be a treat for the fans). Bertis Downs (band's manager), back in 2007, referred to a release of the above mentioned dvd.
I can see it happening as a single release, or as a very special "Accelerate" bonus disc

ninetynights: night 24

ninetynights, I have to say, is becomingmore boring every day. today's clip shows Michael in a sort of interview (I bet the footage will pop up someday in a "cleaner" form), were he explain the process of gathering to discuss the song performed at the Olymoia. he says some of them didn't work; probably he refers to Staring down the barrel of the middle distance. many of the fans, btw, think the song worked. very well. I'm still hoping to see it as a b-side.

side note: on remhq, a sort of "supernatural superserious" artwork appears in the home page. wondering if we'll see something similiar for the single cover

supernatural superserious video shoot

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003700584
r.e.m. are shooting the video for their new single in NYC

ninetynights: night 23

the Olympia, again. night 5. Vincent Moon is running upstairs to give us a enjoyable view of the guys. Michael and Mike remind to the crowd that was not a show, but just an experiment.
it turned out to be a good experiment, undoubtely

longer snippet

judging a song after having listen just about 30 seconds of it:
http://www.murmurs.com/audio/by/title/supernatural_superserious
production sounds good: electric guitar, drums, another guitar...
now I hope the guys wrote a chorus for the song, something we didn't hear in Dublin;
for now this 30 snippet is enough for me. tomorrow I'll certainly ask for more.
If they continue to give us 15 new seconds of the song each day (not likely), by january 30 we'll all have listened to the full, magnificent new r.e.m. single.

side note: r.e.m. rocks

supernatural superserious supersnippet

if you want to spoil the thing, I suggest you this:
http://www.ringtonejukebox.com/search.asp?searchstring=R.e.m.&submit1=Search&countryid=1

supernatural superserious is indeed disguised. and that 15 seconds sound like we're gonna get a great new album...and a proper preview of the song soon.

ninetynights: night 22

this post is just for the sake of it (or, if you want, to fill a blank space I'd frankly be disappointed to leave).
night 22 is nothing really worth looking today (see other posts)

tracklisting, length, first single

1)Living Well Is The Best Revenge
2)Man-sized Wreath
3)Supernatural Superserious (1st single, out mid february)
4)Hollow Man
5)Houston
6)Accelerate
7)Until The Day Is Done
8)Mr Richards
9)Sing For The Submarine
10)Horse To Water
11)I’m Gonna DJ

35 minutes long

http://gaffa.dk/nyheder/view.php/news_id=20752

I can't really understand what happened to disguised. for now, it could either be the first single or a leftover.
and where's "Staring down the barrel of the middle distance" ? (I smell b-side)
and where's "On the fly" ? (I really hope it is at least released as a b-side)

accelerate cover concept

taken from "futurepicenter", JMS' project:
http://www.futurepicenter.com/archive.php?date=2007-11-23&currentimage=4

ninetynights: night 21

nothing really exciting tonight, just a cruel way to force people to write stupid things on their blogs. btw, I wonder if the olympia theme that we see on the posters will pop up somewhere someday

I'm an awful writer

new song (partial) lyrics, made out combining night 16 & 20:

a dusty tours destination
that has seen better days
is where you ran off rail
it lost its sheen in the first early spring
when the dreams of the 1980's failed
a few bad choices some dubious concerns
what you're offering
what you're offering
I don't know
what you're offering
you' re offering
I’m picking up I’m moving on
I’ve got to leave I’ve got to find my way
thank you very much
I’m an awful writer
my address changes too often
to try to keep in touch
I turn away and broken phrase you say
kick the traces, kid
kick up a little dust
kick the traces
kick up a little dust
what you' re offering
you' re offering

accelerate album cover

I'm afraid to sound too much teenagerinlove-ish, but, hell, this is absolutely mind-blowing

i believe in coyotes and in time as an abstract

early august 2004: "Around the sun" to be released on october 4th; leaving new york on september 27 (coming to radios around the world late august).
so if history repeats itself, we can expect a first single (and a definitive album tracklisting) announcement very very soon

ninetynights: night 20

this is the complement of night 16, again with Michael singing "a cappella" a new, never before heard song. new titles that have been floating the net are 3 in total, including "sing for the submarine", "hollow man" & "supernatural superserious".
in previous posts, I mentioned the possibility that "disguised" could have morphed into "supernatural superserious", basically for a lyrics coincidence (see some posts above).
however, it seems I was wrong (or maybe not), because the song that michael is singing in nights 16 & 20 is something totally new. possibilities:
-"disguised" is indeed "supernatural superserious", and what we gwt in night 20 is a new song without a known title;
-"disguised" is still "disguised", and in night 20 we get to hear "supernatural superserious";
-the night 20 clip is part of a song we already know the title, maybe the last part (a la "around the sun"-the song-); the tempo suggests that in this case it would be the last part of one of the slower songs (vote for the poll on the right).
I bet the tracklisting will be made of all the songs played in Dublin minus on the fly (shame) and I'm gonna dj, plus the three new titles

what's the frequency, Ethan ?

this is one of the last posts on Ethan Kaplan (head of technology at Warner Bros. records and administrator of the great murmurs site)'s blog:
http://blackrimglasses.com/archives/2008/01/15/the-great-quiet/

so when, Ethan ?

alternate take on night 19

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeFYFccGOR8
just another perspective

ninetynights: night 19

tonight's clip take us on stage in the 4th of the five nights @ the Olympia.
it complements yesterday's video, that showed the backstage arrival of a glorious band.
in night 19, Peter seems to enjoy the situation, and he jerks us around, playing with the camera.
two thoughts come to mind:
-we're not sick of being jerked around;
-will we ever have the chance to get an official release of the dublin rehearsals ? yes, me thinks (accelerate bonus dvd ?http://www.music-wow.com/shop-item_details.php?id=WEA%2090004). At least, I hope so

cool

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP3iLfPWObI

Italy live dates

r.e.m. are rumoured to play 4 gigs in Italy between the 18th and 24th july;
locations (Verona, Napoli, Lucca & Milano) should be confirmed quite soon:
http://www.mtv.it/blogs/angelo4noexcuse/archive/2008/01/15/rem_2d00_to_2d00_play_2d00_in_2d00_italy.aspx;

http://ilblogdilesto1982.myblog.it/archive/2008/01/15/cookies-musica-concerti-in-italia-per-i-rem-a-luglio.html

the song panel

take a look at night 18, and then at night 6 (in no particular order). apart the music snippets, what you get is this "lyrics wall".
it seems to me a confirmation of the (partial) tracklisting, but who knows.
probably we're gonna get some of those songs as b-sides.
btw, here's the complete list:

-I'm gonna dj
-staring down the barrel of the middle distance
-living well is the best revenge
-horse to water
-mr. richards
-sing for the submarine
-accelerate
-man sized wreath

ninetynights: night 18

Jacknife lee is standing in front of the panel with lyrics for 8 new songs.
on the background, probably the intro for "Houston". it seems a really great piece of music, and also a remarkable work by mr. lee.
Also, take a look at night 6, where the bassline is more subtle, but still there

ninetynights: night 17

this is from night 5 of the Dublin rehearsals, and it helps creating the right atmosphear for anticipation.
Mike & Michael going down the stairs and then entering on stage for the july 5th show. applauses.
I wonder if someone at warner bros. is planning to give us more details about the upcoming release via ninetynights or not. it could turn out to be interesting

roundup

a good roundup of all the "Accelerate" news so far here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerate_%28R.E.M._album%29

ninetynights: night 16

"a dusty tourist destination that has seen better days is where you ran off rail
it lost a chain in the first early spring when the dreams of the 1980s failed
a few bad choices and dubious concerns what you're offering
I don't know what you're offering"

fair enough

new songs

we have three new titles:

-Sing for the submarine
-Hollow man
-Supernatural superserious

however, the latter seems to be "disguised" morphed into something else (Michael described the song as being about a seance gone wrong); the song has an indirect confirmation of being in the record, to be found in the remhq homepage (link on the right).
all in all, the tracklist is shaping up nicely, with the exception on "on the fly", a beautiful song everyone seems to have forgotten. I wonder why. Sometimes the struggle against every Around the sun-linked thing can be really silly.

side note: assuming we have 2 new songs in total, and having listened to all the others that are gonna be on the album, I'm afraid "Hollow man" and "Sing for the submarine" could suffer a little. Apart for the little snippets of "Mr. Richards" and "Houston" though, the ninetynights project is giving more attention to the 2 new songs. which imo is a good thing

friends theme

"friends theme" played in Dublin (only one of the five nights) became "Hollow man" (see post above):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RSpM7GDuWw

ninetynights: night 15

some bad encode problems on nights 14 & 15.
btw this seems to be "Hollow man", which gets an indirect confirmation for the new record.
what you get is only about 3 seconds of the song, so any judgement's postponed.
seems to me a way of building up a tracklist for the record, so this joins the list of the confirmed songs (see post above), tentatively at least.

side note: I hope "Hollow man" is as good as "Sing for the submarine" seems to be

UK live dates

UK live dates to be confirmed shortly, according to NME :
http://www.nme.com/news/rem/33630

ninetynights: night 14

as I said, brilliant.
this is classic r.e.m. sound that should really please most of the fans.
you can clearly feel the vibe of the first albums in today's clip; I also hear something reminescent of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugOkKZQbZBk
mix up night 14 and 13 in this order and you'll get the first 40 seconds of what promises to be a great new r.e.m. track: "Sing for the submarine", possibly.

side note: The Veils' "The runaway found" is a great album

I've been lost in a sea like this

aka: ninetynights 14 + 13.
Brilliant

ninetynights: night 13

some guitar noodling by mr. Peter Buck.
reminds me of this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stbFYVhTQ5k
Maybe the ninetynights idea was already flowing 7 months ago...

side note: it doesn't seem to be a snippet of a new song; btw it gives a perfect idea of peter buck's guitar playing style

b-side

one of the b-sides from the forthcoming r.e.m. singles (likely for the first of them off the new album) will be a remix by singer/producer dub gabriel.
source: http://blog.myspace.com/dubgabriel

side note: even if I'm not-so-fond of remixes used as b-sides, I must admit I'm really looking forward to this one. Michael must like very much remixes (the 2002 project "r.e.m.ix", after the release of reveal, turned out to be very good in some points-jamie candiloro's take on "she just want to be" was great, but four different remixes of "I've been high" seemed too much-)

11 songs in 30-something minutes ?

http://news.q4music.com/2008/01/the_story_of_the_new_issue_4.html

I usually don't like long albums (with some exceptions).
putting 13+ songs on an album is a choice I wouldn't make;
as a fan I want to hear them all, but I'm also sure that would destroy the band's work.
11 or 12 songs is a perfect lenght; one of the many "Around the sun"'s problems was its 13 songs lenght. I'm pretty sure it could have been much better with a 2-songs cut.
btw I do hope 30-something minutes means 38-39 minutes, at least.

side note: my fear is that "on the fly" won't make the album (no mention of it in any advance listen of the album by the music industry guys). If it's the case, I'd be rather disappointed. It's probably the best new song (hence the blog's title)

confirmed songs

some of the songs recorded during the "accelerate" session will make the album (they have 17 songs recorded in total), some other won't (maybe they will be released as b-sides).
waiting for an official tracklist, though, some of them have been (directly or not) confirmed to appear on accelerate:
-accelerate;
-until the day is done (confirmed by remhq);
-houston (ninetynights n. 6);
-mr. richards (ninetynights n. 11)
-sing for the submarine.

more to come

Dublin shows

To get an idea of what the new album will sound like:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=r.e.m.+dublin

ninetynights: night 12

Nothing really exciting today: again the Olympia theatre and the slogan of the Dublin rehearsals:
"this is not a show".
Listening to the bootlegs of the 5 nights at the Olympia, btw, you get a totally different impression. "Real shows" are being planned for 2008 (take a look at the "confirmed tour dates" post, where you also find some rumoured gigs)

cd wow

provisional tracklist (in alphabetical order) and provisional cover for accelerate at:
http://www13.cd-wow.com/detail_resul...t_code=2540676

side note: without a doubt, cover and tracklist will be different; however, this is the first retailer
to give this kind of attention to the album. Details will surely come soon

accelerate working title(s)

not-so-interesting piece of trivia.
"big life" and "radio ventriloquist" are the 2 "accelerate" working titles rumoured around the web.
source: stereogum

side note: I do prefer accelerate

confirmed tour dates

for now:

-March 8: Langerado Music Festival in Big Cypress, South Florida.

-March 12: SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas.

r.e.m. are also rumored to be playing:
austrian's biggest rock festival "Novarock";
Neapolis festival (Italy);
a show in the "Arena di Verona"(Italy).

myspace (2)

http://www.myspace.com/rem
It seems that some buzz is going to happen.
R.e.m.'s last album (Around the sun) was previewed on myspace.
This could be also the case for "Accelerate". The site is probably undergoing changes in the style of the new record artwork; hopefully we will also get something from the album (first single, maybe ?)
btw an announcement (tracklist, single release, cover, etc.) is expected very soon

myspace (1)

check out this one:
http://www.myspace.com/dubgabriel
Dub Gabriel teams up with michael stipe for a cover of "Cheree", by the New York based band "Suicide".
production wise, the song is pretty good

ninetynights: night 11

this seems to be the best of the teasers so far.
some "Mr. Richards" arrangement and mr. Michael Stipe's head @ the Olympia.
a few sinthesizer touches and a quite heavy electric guitar. Intro to the song ?

Side note: visit ninetynights (link on the right) and check out also night 6 in the "archive" section of the site: that's "Houston" bassline.
jacknife lee's production seems to fit r.e.m.'s spirit (too early to say ? maybe)

r.e.m. new album

"Accelerate", to be released on april 1.
songs rehearsed live at the Olympia theatre in Dublin in july 07.
produced by Jacknife lee (snow patrol, bloc party, u2).
tracks to (possibly) appear on the CD: accelerate, mr. richards, staring down the barrel of the middle distance, living well's the best revenge, I'm gonna dj, houston, on the fly, disguised, man sized wreath, until the day is done, hollow man, sing for the submarine, supernatural superserious, horse to water (well, some of them, at least).

Side note: if the album turns to be half as good as the dublin shows (type "rem olympia" on youtube and check for yourself) then it could really be one of the best REM efforts to date.
More news to come as they pop up in the net.
ps. check out www.ninetynights.com if you're interested

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