>From the Sept. 10, 1994 issue of Billboard:
RETAIL, RADIO EXPECT R.E.M.'S WARNER SET TO BE A 'MONSTER'
LOS ANGELES- For "Monster, due Sept 27 on Warner Bros., REM packed away the
acoustic instruments and plugged in to record the hardest-rocking album of its
career. As a result, the band, which has managed to increas its popularity
despite a hiatus from touring, will likely hit the road for the first time in
five years.
Vocalist Michael Stipe says, "To go on the road with three albums of slow,
quiet material would be kind of a snore, so we made a loud record."
Although no plans are officially confirmed, manager Jefferson Holt says he is
"99% sure" the band will tour. In mid-September, REM is expected to announce
the dates for the first leg of its world tour, which probably will begin in
early 1995 in Europe and include stops in the Far East and Australia.
An American trek likely will follow in the late spring or early summer of 1995.
Promoters applaud the news: Arny Grant, co-owner of Chicago-based Jam
Productions, says, "The level of awareness and anticipation on product and
touring is very high. It will be good for them, the music industry, and the
fans."
Yet REM has proven that it doesn't need to tour to support its albums. "Out of
Time," released in the spring of 1991, has been certified for sales of more
than 4 million copies to date by the RIAA; it is the only album to top the
Billboard 200 before and after the implementation of SoundScan. "Automatic for
the People," released in late 1992, has sold more than 2.5 million copies to
date, according to SoundScan.
"Green," which was the last REM album to benefit from a tour, was certified
multiplatinum last month by the RIAA.
Given REM's previous success, anticipation is high for "Monster."
"Every album they release at this point in their career is viewed as a
potential blockbuster," says Joel Oberstein, director of retail marketing for
the 17-store, Simi Valley, CA-based Tempo Music & Video chain. "The fact that
this record has a harder edge might turn on a whole new fan base, while
maintaining [the group's] mainstream following."
Mike Halloran, PD at modern rock XTRA (91X) San Diego, says the station will
play the album's first single, "What's The Frequency, Kenneth?" and also will
air other clips when it receives the album. "It doesn't matter what they
release--people are going to buy the album no matter what," Halloran says.
"REM is bigger than can be described."
That sort of enthusiasm is also being expressed at Warner Bros., which is
looking for "Monster" to be one of its biggest fall releases.
Warner Bros. president Lenny Waronker says, "The fervor for REM amongst the
home office and field staffs is virtually unparalleled. The setup is there,
the marketing plans are in place, and, most important, the music is great."
VIDEO PREMIERE
The videoclip for "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?"--directed by Peter Care,
whose previous credits include the band's "Drive" and "Man On The Moon"--will
have its world premiere on MTV's "Alternative Nation" on Tuesday (6). The
following day, the track, an upbeat rocker, will be delivered to modern rock,
album rock, album alternative, and college radio.
The band's "Everybody Hurts" clip is nominated for six awards at MTV's Video
Music Awards, which will be staged Thursday (8) in New York.
On Sept. 13, "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" will arrive at retail.
Warner Bros. will promote the album to radio, retail, and press with an
interactive press kit that will include lyrics, visuals, snippets of music and
other information.
"Monster" will be released as a vinyl LP day-and-date with the CD and cassette
issue. A limited-edition version ov the CD, housed in a 52-page book, will be
released simultaneously, priced at $29.98.
REM is set to appear on "Saturday Night Live" Nov. 12.
The label will launch an extensive, staggered print advertising campaign in
publications ranging from Rolling Stone, Details, and Wired to such highbrow
outlets as the Nation, Atlantic Monthly, and Harper's.
In addition, the label plans to advertise the album on MTV between Thanksgiving
and Christmas, and the band plans to sponsor National Public Radio programming.
STUDIOS AND PARKING LOTS
REM started writing material for "Monster" in September 1993. The album was
recorded between March and July in studios in New Orleans, Miami, Atlanta, and
Los Angeles, "and a couple of parking lots," Stipe says.
Both Stipe and bassist/keyboardist Mike Mills say the album was difficult to
record.
"It took about one-eighth of my life," Stipe quits, adding, "It was pretty
rough. There were a lot of life things happening around us--births and deaths.
It was a very intense record." During the recording process, guitarist Peter
Buck became the father of twins, and Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, whom Stipe
had befriended and planned to collaborate with, committed suicide.
"The whole thing was via telephone," Stipe says of his relationship with
Cobain. "I knew basically what was going on, so I was trying to offer a
diversion to where he was at. He was recording stuff the whole time I was
talking to him, the week and a half before he disappeared. We talked a great
deal about what this project was going to sound like... As far as I know,
there's tapes somewhere, but I don't know where they are."
"Monster" includes "Let Me In," a haunting track that pits Stipe's vocals
against a wall of guitar reverb, organ, and tambourine, but no drums. "I wrote
that to Kurt, for Kurt, and about him," Stipe says. "I had just written an
entire album ['Automatic For The People'] about death, mortality and passage,
and really didn't want to repeat myself on this record. I was really working
against anything having to do with those topics, but his death profoundly
affected me. I couldn't really ignore it much longer."
Yet, taken in its entirety, "Monster" is generally rather upbeat, loud, and
raucous.
"We set out to that with 'Automatic For The People,'" Stipe says. "It was
going to be kind of a loud punk-rock record, but then it went the other way. I
still think 'Automatic' is a punk-rock record--it's just a very quiet one."
Musically, "Monster" runs the gamut. The fuzzed-out, guitar-heavy rockers
"Crush With Eyeliner," "Star 69," "I Took Your Name," and "Circus Envy" recall
the obscure REM oldie "Wind Out," T. Rex, and Iggy Pop. In fact, on "I Took
Your Name," Stipe wryly states, "I wanna be Iggy Pop."
"If it would have been left to my devices, the record would sound like Fugazi
on 45," says Stipe, who amused himself during recording downtime by signing on
America Online as "Stipey" and fielding questions from fans. "I'm kind of like
the punk rocker of the four of us. I would make the loudest, fastest, most
fucked-up record in the world."
Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore is featured on backing vocals on "Crush With
Eyeliner," while Stipe's sister, Lynda, formerly a membr of the bands Oh-OK and
Hetch Hetchy, is one of the backing vocalists on "Bang and Blame."
Of the former track, Stipe says, "When I wrote the lyric, I thought I stole it
from a Sonic Youth record, so I thought the best way to pay homage to them is
to ask Thurston to be on the song. In fact, I think I stole it from a Coke
commercial."
The more introspective and moody pieces include "I Don't Sleep, I Dream"; "With
Love Comes Strange Currencies," which is reminiscent of "Everybody Hurts"; and
"Tongue." The album's closer, the ominous "You," features a guitar riff
reminiscent of the Doors' "The End."
On two tracks, "Tongue" and "King Of Comedy," Stipe's vocals likely will be
unrecognizable to even the band's most loyal fans. On the former track, a
soulful ballad, the vocalist sings in a falsetto, while the techno/industrial
"King Of Comedy" finds his voice mechanically processed.
"The whole thing was recorded from a toaster--it's all machines," Stipe says of
the latter cut. "It only made sense that my vocal should sound like a machine,
too."
Says Mills, "The thing that surprises me is that each song is sort of its own
little world. When you go from song to song, you go from world to world."
Lyrically, Stipe takes on the media on "What's The Frequency, Kenneth?" and
"King Of Comedy." The title of the former track was inspired by CBS anchorman
Dan Rather getting mugged on the streets of New York. Yet Stipe says the song
isn't aimed at just Rather. "It's so far beyond him."
While there may be a message in the lyrics on "Monster," some of Stipe's vocals
are hard to decipher, a throwback to early REM. According to Mills, some of
the vocals are "recorded through a Walkman, some through a harmonica
microphone, and some are just really distorted. We really wanted to mess with
the vocal sounds a lot on this one and make it not so clear, clean, pristine."
That's fine with Stipe, who says he has always been most comfortable using his
voice as an instrument. "I feel the human voice is a really welcome element in
music and to the universality that music can have... When you include language
in the human voice, it takes it out of the more universal and puts it into the
specific."
ARENA TOUR LIKELY
Although specific touring plans have yet to be finalized, Stipe and Mills say
it is likely the band will hit the arena circuit.
"The smaller the place, usually the better rock'n'roll is," says Mills. "But
we're between a rock and a hard place in therms of all the people that want to
see us and keeping it in as intimate a place as possible."
"Monster" is REM's ninth full-length album (not including the compilations
"Dead Letter Office" and "Eponymous"). Its release comes as the band's 15th
anniversary approaches. Through the years, REM has been able to find success
while retaining its artistic integrity. Also, its original lineup, which
includes drummer Bill Berry, remains intact.
Says Stipe, "We have a great deal of respect for each other, we love each
other,a nd we like working together. There has yet to be a real turd in the
punch bowl in terms of records we put out, so it seems whatever we are doing,
we're doing it right."
By Craig Rosen
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