R.E.M. 40th Anniversary of Murmur: Maxwell's 1983

 

(Image credit: Laura Levine/Corbis via Getty Images)

 

Earlier this week, was the 40th anniversary of Murmur, R.E.M.'s full-length debut album. It was released April 12, 1983 and it helped launch the career of one of the greatest bands to emerge from Athens, Georgia. Personally, the album was an important and "life-changing" record that really got me hooked on their sound and the whole alternative college rock scene. I actually purchased their second album, Reckoning first, right after it's release a year later and I loved it so much I returned to the record store to buy Murmur. Peter Buck's jangly guitar sound and Michael Stipes mumbled vocal delivery was so unique to me, I realized there was more to music than what was on commercial radio. In my city, there was no alternative radio station options along with no college (we call it university up here in Canada) stations, so I looked to my record store for guidance and recommendations. A whole different sound was emerging which led me to other like-minded bands, Replacements, Husker Du, Minutemen, Mission of Burma, Dream Syndicate etc... what a great time for music and this is music that has stuck with me even today. Though R.E.M. became too big and popular to my liking, their first 4 or 5 albums are essential listening and I'm happy to see/hear Buck and Mike Mills continuing to record and perform with their many collaborations with Scott McCaughey.

 

This is an early-ish R.E.M. show a couple weeks after the release of Murmur. They had been performing since 1980, but they really became a solid live band around the release of EP, Chronic Town in mid-1982. The live sets were divided between songs from Chronic Town, songs to appear on Murmur and Reckoning, as well as some cool covers. The show at Maxwell's in April of 1983 was their last appearance at that venue, as their growing fan base forced them to play larger venues in the future. It's nice to imagine them playing at such a small intimate bar, so this set is amazing. If you're seeking more R.E.M. live shows, I found this set at the internet archive (archive.org), a great resource for live music.

Enjoy!

 

Please do NOT sell or profit from this recording!

Do NOT convert to lossy formats, except for personal use.

Please share!

 

R.E.M.
Maxwell's
Hoboken, New Jersey, USA

April 28, 1983

Original lineage: Audience Cassette Master >>> WAV SoundForge >>> Flac >>> Dime
2020 eckythump remaster: All tracks speed corrected in Audacity (+3%), normalized

Originally uploaded to Dime on 17 May 2009 by Guy_R_E. Remastered version uploaded to Dime by eckythump 5 January 2020.

01 - Moral Kiosk
02 - Catapult
03 - Sitting Still
04 - Pilgrimage
05 - Talk About The Passion
06 - Shaking Through
07 - Harborcoat
08 - Wolves, Lower
09 - Romance
10 - Pretty Persuasion
11 - Gardening At Night
12 - 9-9
13 - Windout
14 - 1,000,000 (w/ Fascists Eat Donuts snippet by Pop-O-Pies)
15 - West Of The Fields
16 - Radio Free Europe

Encore
17 - White Tornado
18 - Last Date (Floyd Cramer cover)
19 - Secret Agent Man (Johnny Rivers cover)
20 - There She Goes Again (The Velvet Underground cover)
21 - So You Want To Be A Rock'n'Roll Star (The Byrds cover)
22 - I Can't Control Myself (The Troggs cover)
23 - We Walk
24 - 7 Chinese Bros. (incomplete, fades out)

Michael Stipe - Vocals
Peter Buck - Guitar
Mike Mills - Bass, vocals
Bill Berry - Drums, vocals

 

R.E.M. 1983-04-28 Maxwell's, Hoboken, NJ, FLAC rar

 

Hey, We're Twelve years Old!! 12 Days Of Trouble Begins Now! Day One- Early Violent Femmes

Not my actual LP. Taken from discogs.com

Believe it or not, this blog is 12 years old. Despite the takedown notices, copyright infringement violations and general apathy on my part, Teenage Dogs In Trouble is still alive. I know I don't show it all the time, but this music blog is a labour of love, my love of music, live and on record. I constantly surround myself with music that isn't canned shit off the radio or the usual mainstream garbage we are sometimes forced to listen to. Hopefully the people that read this blog can appreciate a similar taste in music as myself or discover music they aren't familiar with before. Through the years I've slightly changed the focus and format of the blog. My original intend was to share music samples from albums and CD's as well as sharing recordings of some the shows I've attended. The takedown notices were in part because of some of the copyrighted music I shared, so in recent years the focus is more on live concert recordings from shows I went to or live recordings that I've downloaded or traded for. I'm also posting in FLAC format instead of lossless mp3. I go to less concerts than I used to, but I have so many live recordings I still want to share so this blog will continue on as long as there is an audience. I appreciate all your comments and I try to reply to as many as possible, so please keep your comments and requests coming.

To celebrate 12 years, I thought it would be fun to challenge myself by posting 12 posts til the end of  August. My track record for frequent posting in the past couple years isn't that good, so this will be very challenging. A popular Instagram/Facebook "thing" are daily or 30 day challenges where the participant will post something (art, music, writing, photos etc.) for consecutive days. I have a friend that just completed a 30 day challenge playing drums to a different cover song everyday as well as a creating a watercolour piece of art. It was amazing and inspiring! (Congrats Kelly!!). I'll be honest, I don't think I can post for 12 consecutive days (I do have a 9-5 job), but I will attempt to write 12 posts from now until the end of the month (in 18 days). I'm coming off vacation and I did a lot of reading (mainly non-fiction music-related) while relaxing at the cottage so many of the posts will reflect the soundtrack of some of what I read or some of the music I listened to on the pod.

Day one begins with an early rare live recording from the Violent Femmes. This recording was ripped from a bootleg LP called, Violence In The Streets which apparently is quite scarce and it was posted on Dime some years back. There isn't an exact date for the concert, but it was from 1983, the same year as the first Violent Femmes album. A friend recommended I listen to their first album right after it was released and it changed my perception of what music could be and it was very influential to my musical taste. For me, it sounded nothing like anything I had heard before. The distinct sound of Brian Ritchie's bass, Gordon Gano's angry vocals, that snare drum sound, that both scared and intrigued me. The lyrics were sometimes religious, was this Christian rock?  Were they anti-religious? I honestly wasn't sure, but really I didn't care, I loved their music! This live recording captures some of the raw energy of the band and it must have been exciting seeing them in a small venue this early in their career. Interesting, the setlist drew from songs from 4 of their first 5 albums as well as a couple songs (Gimme The Car, Ugly) that weren't originally included on the first album (later as bonus tracks on the US CD version). A very good sounding recording that is well worth the listen if you're a fan. Highly recommended!
Enjoy!!

#12daysoftrouble

Please DO NOT sell!
Do not trade this in lossy format.
Convert to lossy for personal use only.

VIOLENT FEMMES
Tupelo's Tavern
New Orleans, LA
XX-XX-1983
very good AUD (on-stage mic?)

Vinyl LP bootleg> CDR> EAC> SHN> CDR> FLAC> rar

01. Kiss Off
02. Girl Trouble
03. Hallowed Ground (called Hello-Girl on the LP)
04. Gimme The Car
05. Country Death Song
06. Gone Daddy Gone
07. It's Gonna Rain
08. Add It Up
09. Special
10. Ugly
11. Prove My Love

VIOLENT FEMMES- 1983-xx-xx Tupelo Tavern, New Orleans, LA FLAC. rar