There are some holes in the comments below maybe from laziness or lack of things TO say. At the same time this is one of my favorites I have put together.
Download Podcast #5
1) Echoes Myron – Minus 5, Butcher Covered
After putting this together, the setlist felt like something that Robert Pollard, from Guided By Voices would enjoy. Guided By Voices has been a band that I have been interested in for the past couple years, although keeping up with all their albums, as well as Robert Pollard’s solo records could be a task. I would imagine that Pollard and Peter Buck could release an album a week if it was up to them. This song is a cover of a Guided by Voices track
2) Meeting – Tanzplagen – Lost Single
Believe it or not, ‘Tanzplagen’ was the first R.E.M.-related CD that I ever bought, picking it up at the Flipside records. At the time, I had most of their collection on tape, so CD allowed me to purchase those items which were outside my listening capabilities at the time.
3) Different Girl - Demo
4) That Beat – 11/6/1981, Friday’s, Greensboro, NC
Out of all their unreleased tracks, it is a shame ‘That Beat’ never received an official release. It’s hard to think about the song appearing on any album since the albums songs in those early days are so ingrained in my psyche but I could have seen it as a B-Side quite easily.
5) Camera – 6/27/1984, Seattle, WA
6) Good Advices – 10/28/1985 – Hammersmith Odeon, London, UK
One of my favorites off of Fables, and a song that was not a regularly played.
7) Time After Time (Annelise) – 11/9/1985, Beacon Theatre, New York, NY
The song that Pavement never cared for. An acoustic performance at the Beacon.
8) Jackson – 3/15/1991, Borderline Club, London, UK
9) Dallas – 3/15/1991, Borderline Club, London, UK
10) (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville – 11/24/1981, Merlins, Madison, WI
Still love it when in the earlier days the performance was sped up.
11) Romance – Murmur Demos
12) September Sang – August 3, 1982, I & I Club, Athens, GA
The band was pretty much in experimental mode for much of the year and every now and then they would pop up with something that they would be working on and the song would be scrapped pretty quickly.
13) There She Goes Again – 10/4/1980, Tyrones, Athens, GA
The early versions of this song were much more vicious in nature than the version that ended up on Dead Letter Office.
14) Motorcycle Hero 9/15/89, Great Woods Amphitheatre, Mansfield, MA
15) Harpers – 10/21/1989, Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountainview, CA
By request. This is a pretty nice recording by the JEMS folks, I believe. The original was released by Hugo Largo, which just so happened to have Michael Stipe produce their debut album, Drum, and also have songwriting credits for this particular song. The original is a standout with Mimi Goese on lyrics. You have to admit that there is something that makes these Green shows so unique was some of the songs that they would end the show with, including such rarities as Syd Barrett’s ‘Dark Globe’ or ‘Afterhours’ by the Velvet Underground.
16) Betterman, 10/23/2001, Crocodile Café, Seattle, WA
The days of doing smaller shows became all the more rarer over the years but they did surprise back in 2001 with this show at the Crocodile Café. With Eddie Vedder in the audience and performing with the band, Stipe decided to honor Pearl Jam with a rendition that he compared to hearing him sing in the shower.
17) Government Center – 2/14/84, Hindu Love Gods, 40 Watt Club, Athens, GA
This Modern Lovers track is from a Hindu Love Gods performance with Berry, Buck, Mills and Bryan Cook on lead vocals, one of my favorite tunes from this show.
18) Paint It Black 10/2/85, Zeche Bochum, Germany
Classic in my eyes. The video is awesome as Stipe believes that the show is over only for the band to launch into ‘Paint it Black’ while he was finishing up ‘We Walk’, crooning from a perch in the audience.
19) Permanent Vacation – 1/22/1982, Friday’s, Greensboro, NC