: : but這其實是開玩笑式的專輯名稱
: : 歌都是在Monster巡迴演唱時玩出來的
: ??你意思是這首歌是live作的嗎?
New Adventures In Hi-Fi, R.E.M.'s fifth Warner Bros. Records release, finds the
quartet at a creative juncture that is intriguing, even for a band that has
made a career of challenging themselves.
Recorded in various locales , including studios, soundchecks and even a
dressing room , on and around their recently completed world tour, the album's
generous helping of fourteen new tracks continues the strategy of spontaneous
musical combustion that began with 1994's Monster. Almost two years of nearly
continuous performing adds a potent new element to the mix, reasserting
R.E.M.'s roots as a live band, even as they continue to redefine the expressive
potential of their ensemble playing and songwriting.
The result is a record that equals more than the sum of its parts. A live album
with a studio gloss, a studio album with a live charge, New Adventures In Hi-Fi
is something very much like a calculated accident.
"The idea was to graft together stuff that was recorded live with stuff that
was done in the studio, so you can't really tell what's what," explains Michael
Stipe. "We didn't want to lose the momentum of the stuff that we'd written and
recorded during the tour, so it's kind of like we're still a little bit on the
road, and when you're on the road, you do things fast, so we made this record
a lot faster.
"We talked about trying to capture the kind of swirling, chaotic aspect of
touring without actually writing songs about being on the road," Peter Buck
concurs. "The last day of the tour, which is normally when everyone's tired,
we were all energized about doing these new songs, and that kept it really
interesting."
"We've never been able to make a record and tour at the same time," adds Bill
Berry. "And it was very exciting. There are definitely live elements to
thisthat you don't hear on any of our other efforts."
"This record really epitomizes what it is to be in a band," asserts Mike Mills.
"You tour and you write songs, then you play the songs and put out arecord of
them. It really defines the best things about being in a band...very simple and
straightforward."
Simple and straightforward in concept, perhaps, but considerably more
complicated in execution. The elements of New Adventures In Hi-Fi were assembled
from a wide range of sources, including live performances captured on the
Monster tour: "The Wake-Up Bomb" (Charleston, S.C.), "Undertow" (Boston),
"Binky the Doormat" (Phoenix) and "Departure" (Detroit). "How The West Was Won
And Where It Got Us," "New Test Leper", "E-Bow The Letter" and "Be Mine" came
together at Bad Animals Studios in Seattle, while "Zither" found its way onto
the album from an impromptu session in a Philadelphia dressing room. Several
other selections, including "Leave", "Bittersweet Me", "So Fast, So Numb",
"Low Desert" and "Electrolite", originated at soundchecks in Atlanta, Orlando,
Memphis and Phoenix.
"For us, going to soundcheck used to mean just getting it over with and then
going to dinner," explains Bill. "But this was really a time when we could
actually do something, where we could be creative.
This intentional invitation to happy accidents also carried into the
songwriting itself. Again, Bill Berry: "One day in Seattle, I was walking
through the studio and Mike was playing this little ditty on the piano. I
thought, 'You know, I've got nothing better to do. I'll sit down and play the
drums.' Unbeknownst to us, the tape was rolling. When Michael heard it, he went
nuts, so we stopped what we were working on and twenty-four hours later that
song was completely realized. ----我想這是這首歌誕生的方式~~
Produced by the band's longtime studio collaborator Scott Litt, R.E.M.'s new
album is also distinguished by some very notable guest artists, including Scott
McCaughey (on loan from Seattle's Young Fresh Fellows), Nathan December (who
played second guitar on the Monster tour), violinist Andy Carlson, and punk
godmother Patti Smith, who shares vocals with Michael on "E-Bow The Letter".
"We were lucky enough to be able to work with someone that was a big
inspiration to us over the years," asserts Peter. "It was really an amazing
experience. I remember going to see Patti when I was seventeen, and to be in
the studio with her singing on a song that I wrote was just incredibly moving.
And she did such an amazing job...kind of a demented Ronettes girl-group feel."
Whatever else New Adventures In Hi-Fi might be, it represents something of a
triumph for the group, not just professionally, but also personally. The
Monster tour took its toll in health incidents of varying degrees of
seriousness for three of the four members, including Bill Berry's potentially
fatal brain aneurysm.
"Walking off stage that first show after my surgery," recalls Bill, "was a
really nice hurdle to have cleared. That was my tour highlight."
"There's something to having a near-death experience, or watching a dear friend
go through one," admits Michael. "It makes you re-evaluate what you're doing
and how worthwhile it is."
The value of what R.E.M. is doing is fully in evidence on an album that finds
them, after more than a decade, working at the peak of their creative powers.
But, as much as New Adventures In Hi-Fi points the way to the group's future,
it is also an often-touching reminder of where they have come from.
"If there is something thematic to this record," concludes Michael, "it's that
it is very similar to our first album, Murmur. When we were on the road the
first time, in '82 and '83, traveling from town to town and playing small
clubs, the songs that emerged were about travel and movement and being away
from home, wherever home is. And this record has at least a little bit of the
same feel. The songs we wrote on the road have a feeling of movement, of
passage, a feeling of being distant, whether it's geographic distance or
otherwise."
It's a distance R.E.M. has bridged with some of the most dynamic, authentic and
revealing music of their career.
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