*69

[captqitn]

I had to let that post settle in for a few seconds before I could even remember what that meant.

It seems really foreign to think that for most of my life when the phone rang, I didn't know who was calling until I picked up.

[Doctor Rock]

I used to be hugely into R.E.M in the late 80s.  I have all their records up till (and including) Green.  I have none of the records they did after that, and I've never felt the need to get them. 

[Jesse]

I still remember when REM were a well-connected up and coming band. Saw them open for Squeeze and The English Beat in Long Island (Thanksgiving '82) and for the Police at Shea Stadium. They were gonna be big.

Who knew that their destiny would be to contribute to the death of the major label era while simultaneously delivering a mediocre album?

In my mind, REM is the band that did Life's Rich Pageant. After that, it gets fuzzy. And I'm happy to keep it that way.

[captqitn]

How did they contribute to it?

[captqitn]

The inventor of the album cover died on Sunday.

Not something I really thought of as having been "invented" but I suppose somebody had to do it the first time.   Lucky for us, he was good at it.

http://www.alexsteinweiss.com/as_index.html

[Tripp]

well, I'm finally getting back to normal from this summer cold... I've been taking Severe Sinus Congestion pain relief and I discovered the joys of Neti-pot yesterday ( a little tea-pot with which you pour saline solution up your nose)...  almost back to 100%.. not quite..

[captqitn]

Love this one

[captqitn]

well, I'm finally getting back to normal from this summer cold... I've been taking Severe Sinus Congestion pain relief and I discovered the joys of Neti-pot yesterday ( a little tea-pot with which you pour saline solution up your nose)...  almost back to 100%.. not quite..

well done.   Being sick in the heat sucks the balls of the donkey.

And yes, Neti pots are the tits.    A cokehead friend turned me on to them a couple years back.

[Bizarro]

I was with R.E.M. through Automatic for the People even, which I know didn't work for many people, but I liked it quite a bit. Monster sucked, but had enough moments I didn't hate them for it. I can maybe even name three songs after that.

I did hear "At My Most Beautiful" the other day and kinda liked it this go around. I better understand at this age the Brian Wilson/Van Dyke Parks vibe he was going for. Still kinda painfully literal, but pretty.

[Bizarro]

That lead single off their newest record was like cotton candy: sweet in a way that gave me an initial "Fuck yeah!" rush, but so without complexity or depth that I was sick of it before I was done with it and ready to hand it to the kid next to me and walk away.

This, though, is one of the best short record reviews ever:

Before [Monster] was released, stipe had described it as a "punk rock" record.  And thurston moore was to guest on it. Turns out michael stipe has no idea what punk rock is, peter buck got a new pedal and couldn't figure out how to turn it off, and thurston moore made sure nobody could tell he had anything to do with that record.  Also, there is no way to make a timeless record if the lead single is called "star 69".

[Jesse]

How did they contribute to it?

From a 2008 article on Blender.com "20 Biggest Record Company Screw-Ups of All Time":

The Last Of The Mega-Deals
#13 One label’s big spending single-handedly ends “alt-rock” boom
In 1996, Warner Bros. signed R.E.M. to a five-album contract for a reported $80 million. It was the most costly record deal in history and elicited one of the lowest returns. Warner needed R.E.M. to sell at least 3 million copies of all five records to come out in the black, but sleepy folk-rock albums like 1998’s Up moved a fifth of that. The execs went further into the hole by allowing R.E.M. to keep the masters of all their Warner releases, forfeiting future revenues generated by the band’s popular ’80s and early-’90s discs. No one knows how much the label lost—but the debacle brought to a close an era in which acts known for their “integrity” could score huge paydays.
Unintended consequence Warner executives still hoping “Daysleeper” makes it on to The Hills soundtrack.

[Bizarro]

Signing a pop band in their late 30s/early 40s to an $80 million deal... how did that go wrong?

[Poop Fresh-Herbed Pickles]

Remember *67 would block your number from showing up on caller id?

[Poop Fresh-Herbed Pickles]

Wow, Jesse. What a terrible deal.

REM was totally washed up after New Adventures in Hi-Fi.

[Bizarro]

My dad used to work in data security for the phone company for years. *69 drove him nuts because it took Hollywood about ten years to catch up to it. For a decade or so after it came out, there were still scenes in Hollywood movies where they had to hold the person on the line to get a trace. "How in the hell do they think the FBI needs 5 minutes to get a number on a land line calling if you can add it to your home phone for $3 a month?" he'd rant.

It also drove him nuts when they'd "check the phone records." That's something you still can't even do in every part of the country and you couldn't do anywhere until less than ten years ago. But still, in 1990, you'd see a movie where they'd check the phone records on the victim's home phone for the last six months. Do you remember how frigging expensive hard drives were in 1990? Why ON EARTH would they save local calls made by someone back then? They weren't billable. There was literally no reason at all to save them. Once the connection was ended, there was no record. Unless it was a mobile phone, a long distance or international call, or a collect call. Unless it was BILLABLE.

These days, storage is cheap, so they totally save all of that. But for the longest time, that was just something stupid screenwriters believed.