Crib Notes

Title: Fables of the Reconstruction
Released on: June 10, 1985
Favorite tracks: “Feeling Gravitys Pull,” “Old Man Kensey,” “Can’t Get There From Here”

Supposedly Fables of the Reconstruction (or would that be Reconstruction of the Fables?) is about the American South. The term “Reconstruction” harks back to Dixie following the Civil War, and there are little references to Southern geography in the songs. Rumor has it that “Maps and Legends” is allegedly dedicated to outsider artist Howard Finster of Summerville, Ga., who did the Reckoning cover. Stipe’s lyrics always pepper in bits of Southern vernacular, although I’m not sure that “Can’t Get There From Here” counts as a “Southern” expression. The song does refer to Philomath, Georgia, though. And the soft banjo in the album-closing “Wendell Gee” delicately evokes bluegrass.

I have a hard time interpreting Fables as some kind of alt-rock equivalent to a William Faulkner novel, though. (“Swan Swan H” on R.E.M.’s subsequent album, Lifes Rich Pageant, does have more of a Southern “literary” theme, however.) To me, its “Southern” mostly in the ways that Chronic Town feels Southern, and generally seems like a continuation of some of Chronic Town’s ideas. Someone could probably make a case that R.E.M., who helped turn Athens, Ga., into an alt-rock mecca, influenced Southern rock and roll more than Southern music influenced it.

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Title: Reckoning
Released on: April 10, 1984 (U.S.)
Favorite tracks: “Little America,” “Time After Time (annElise)”

Back when we were college students following R.E.M.’s new releases, a friend of mine once told me that he heard of a rock band that, after their Acclaimed Breakthrough First Album, wanted to call their next album Disappointing Follow-Up. (I don’t recall which band it was.) Reckoning, released 364 days after Murmur, shows no trace of the sophomore slump. In many ways, it’s a step forward: the songs are brighter, tighter and peppier, and the music draws on some surprising genres and cultural influences. It’s a good album.

So why do I like Murmur so much more than Reckoning? There’s nothing wrong with Reckoning, but it’s not even a close rival with its predecessor. I think it has something to do with the way that certain albums can be more than the sum of their songs.

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Title: Murmur
Released on: April 11, 1983
Favorite tracks: “Pilgrimage,” “Radio Free Europe,” “Sitting Still,” “West of the Fields”

My thoughts about REM’s first full-length album Murmur, a beloved landmark album in rock music, center on this question: can you sing early REM songs in the shower?

By “early,” let’s say pre-Lifes Rich Pageant. By “shower,” I mean, as opposed to singing along to an R.E.M. recording in the car or on the iPod or whatnot. I can chime in with practically any R.E.M. song after a fashion, no matter how obscure the lyrics, but I can’t carry the early tunes on my own. What strikes me about Murmur is how it’s a great album that goes so much against the grain of conventional rock songs.

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(cover art by Dubelyoo)

In the cinematic epic The Player, Sydney Pollack’s Dick Mellon character identified new jack Larry Levi as a “comer,” someone who gets all in your face. That’s how I would describe DJ Wreckineyez. Dude just moved here from Springfield, Mass., but in the past two months, I’ve seen him everywhere, from Fadia Kader’s Broke N’ Boujee party to the DJ Drama blowout at MJQ.

Wreckineyez’s sets are usually marked by a lot of predictable old-school and mainstream hits speckled with a few rarities and jaw-dropping blends that keep cranky old fools like me interested. But on his new mixtape, Soul Edition Vol. 2, he goes a little deeper. Hosted by Phonte from Little Brother, it finds him flipping through future soul cuts from Oddisee, Ta’raach, Flying Lotus, Sa-Ra and others. Anything with Flying Lotus on it is fine with me. And yep, Nicolay & Kay’s “Tight Eyes” is on it, too. Good stuff.

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This is the inaugural edition to a new column where I discuss some of the music I listen to every week.

Here at the Loaf, I get A TON of CDs. Due to time and space constraints, I never get to write about most of them, even if I like them. When I add all the music I download online, either through MySpace, band websites or, uh, extralegal means, I end up with a slew of things that I either never play or just give a cursory listen. I assume that, in the age of the Internet, a lot of music fans are in the same position as me. This is my attempt to rectify that.

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