The baseball project blog is great

The new album is their best in a while - which is not saying much but still it's good. Still love Murmur, , Reckoning, Pageant and Document like they were my own kids though.

hey J Leeds! Hope you are well

Steve Wynn once won a drunkoid best hair contest at Maxwell's.

Screw REM. It's all about YFF.

I'm talkin' 'bout Amy....

I heard Past Time today on woxy. Sounded good.

Wow, all these years I though Curt Flood lost his case, but now I learn differently.

Screw REM. It's all about YFF.

"REM member" seems to be a bit of a stretch, if not an insult. No REM song featured lyrics like these:

Karen!

They say she had the most beautiful voice
but I'd take Wanda or Sandy if I had my choice
And she could play the drums! Even while wearing a dress
but Hal Blaine would take over when they needed the best

Everyone who was there, they have to write about it
They know something bad, they've got to scream and shout it
She starved herself to death with no brother to stop her
But he helps remember her now with this special TV offer

"REM member" seems to be a bit of a stretch, if not an insult

I think they meant Peter Buck

The crowning achievement is Wynn’s “Harvey Haddix,” a lament sung about the Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher whose bid for a perfect game ended with a hit in the 13th inning.

My father-in-law, who is 93, and is currently upstairs lamenting over the Brewers loss and Cubs win, likes to clip things out of the paper and send them to his scores of descendents. Once I got an envelope in the mail that was a print out of a website (I think a Wikipedia page) describing various near no-hitters and perfect games. In the margins next to the description of the Haddix/Burdette showdown he wrote "listened to the end of the game in the car in the driveway." He was right about my current age when that happened. It brings to mind how I recall certain places and events in life simply because there was a baseball game I was watching/listening to associated with them.

I think they meant Peter Buck

I must have missed that -- after the initial visit to the page, I'm being hit up for registration.

Anyway, Young Fresh Fellows was one of my favorite bands to see in the late 80s. On one of my last days in the Bay Area in '98, some friends talked me into going to see them. I hadn't seen them in several years, and was hesitant about seeing them in their dotage. My concerns were completely unfounded. They rocked. It was the best show of theirs I ever saw.

They say she had the most beautiful voice
but I'd take Wanda or Sandy if I had my choice

Best singer, of either gender, in any genre, I've ever heard...

FWIW, the caption under the picture in the article reads:

R.E.M.'s Peter Buck helped orchestrate the gritty CD, The Baseball Project: 'Vol. 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails,' which celebrates and probes the seamier sides of big league ball through the ages.

The ad on the side of the site hypes Scott McCaughey, which seems weird. Is he a bigger star than Buck? And he's not even an "official" member of R.E.M., even though he's played with them for years.

McCaughey and Steve Wynn wrote and sang the songs. Buck just plays on the album as a sideman, basically.

I'm glad this was linked. I downloaded the album from Yep Roc. I'm looking forward to listening to it at the office tomorrow.

It brings to mind how I recall certain places and events in life simply because there was a baseball game I was watching/listening to associated with them.
Dodgers 4, Expos 3 - The night before I left for freshman year at college.
Astros 5, Dodgers 4 (22) - Packing for my summer job at Disneyland; listened to this on the drive through the desert westward.

R.E.M.'s best period was the one spanning from 1981-1984, in other words from Chronic Town to Reckoning. They made tons of great albums after that (among which Document is NOT one...a huge disappointment, I think people only like it because of the popular singles, forgetting that all the other songs are generic crap except "Heron House") and even managed a wildly successful reinvention with Automatic For The People. But nothing beats the consistency of those early years. In fact, nothing beats the preternatural brilliant of the Murmur, which is perfect - literally note perfect - for the first 10 tracks before falling off significantly with "We Walk" and "West Of The Fields." Still the greatest debut album in rock history by a wide margin.

"Wolves, Lower," "Gardening At Night," "Laughing," "Perfect Circle," "Shaking Through," "Catapult," "Harborcoat," "7 Chinese Bros.," "Camera"...what an amazingly high level of consistency. And "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville" was written about my hometown, so there's a note of personal pride there.

It's a shame that they've been unlistenable since 1999 or so. Up was a brave and impressive adaptation to tough circumstances (losing Berry), but everything since then is pablum.

Best singer, of either gender, in any genre, I've ever heard...

I wouldn't go that far. But best female singer? For sure. For me her iconic moment will always be "I'll Keep It With Mine," though "Matty Groves" and the super-rare BBC version of "Who Knows Where The Time Goes?" (so so much better than the dull Unhalfbricking cut) are close.

Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate, Miracle 3)

Umm...Gutterball anyone? They released two albums. Steve Wynn, Stephen McCarthy of the Long Ryders, Johnny Hott and the late Bryan Harvey of House of Freaks (not that Bryan Harvey). Those are two brilliant albums. Pick them up used somewhere if you can find them.

Still the greatest debut album in rock history by a wide margin.

I love R.E.M.'s early material. Everything through Document, and then it's kind of a downhill slide. And Murmur is right alongside Pageant as their best work in my opinion. But there is no rock debut that will ever even enter the same universe as the first Stone Roses album.

My father-in-law, who is 93, and is currently upstairs lamenting over the Brewers loss and Cubs win, likes to clip things out of the paper and send them to his scores of descendents.

You married Harvey's daughter?

Astros 5, Dodgers 4 (22) - Packing for my summer job at Disneyland; listened to this on the drive through the desert westward.

That's one for which I have a distinct memory. Meeting people at the Smoke House in Burbank after graduation (I was teaching HS) for drinks. Entering the restaurant I saw the game was in extra innings. Having said drinks, eating dinner, sobering up, going home, I saw it was still going. I listened to some of the teen innings driving home. I was too exhausted to listen to the end though.

You married Harvey's daughter?

Harvey Haddix is dead, unlike my father in law, who is alive despite having been born ten years earlier.

Harvey Haddix is dead, unlike my father in law, who is alive despite having been born ten years earlier.

Bugger. Harvey Haddix's prominence in this thread ruined it, but I meant our own Harveys Wallbanger. A good-natured joke at his expense, if you will. Aged guy, Brewers fan, etc.

But there is no rock debut that will ever even enter the same universe as the first Stone Roses album.

A good album, nay a great one, but it has too many crap tracks on it (especially near the end) to beat Murmur. Conciseness is a virtue. That said, "She Bangs The Drums" and "Waterfalls" are fine fine pop.

the super-rare BBC version of "Who Knows Where The Time Goes?" (so so much better than the dull Unhalfbricking cut) are close.

The Fairport version or the solo version? I have the Fairport BBC version on a Richard Thompson fan club tape that came out back in the 1980s, and I agree that's a really good one. I haven't heard the 1973 solo version, but it's available on the Live at the BBC Denny box set (which I'll pick up, if I ever win the lottery...)

In fact, nothing beats the preternatural brilliant of the Murmur, which is perfect - literally note perfect - for the first 10 tracks before falling off significantly with "We Walk" and "West Of The Fields." Still the greatest debut album in rock history by a wide margin.

Murmur is one of those albums that I can remember where I was when I first heard it - in a record shop in the Georgetown area of Washington DC in the summer of 1983, when I was there for my best friend's wedding. I'd never heard R.E.M. before, and "Radio Free Europe" came over the store's speakers, and it floored me. I immediately went to the counter, found out who band was, and bought the album as soon as I got home. It's still my favorite R.E.M. album (although I'm probably the only person in the world who counts "Cuyahoga" as his favorite R.E.M. song.)

Best debut album? Hard to say. Murmur is great, but so were Are You Experienced? and The Crossing...

The Fairport version or the solo version? I have the Fairport BBC version on a Richard Thompson fan club tape that came out back in the 1980s, and I agree that's a really good one.

That's the one. From December of 1968, quite some time before it was released on Unhalfbricking. Oddly excluded from the otherwise great Heyday BBC sessions disc and only available on the (disappointing) boxed set. Beautiful acoustic-only performance.

Fairport Convention from 1967-1970 was basically untouchable. I'd take their first five albums to the desert island with me.

Fairport Convention from 1967-1970 was basically untouchable. I'd take their first five albums to the desert island with me.

Agreed. Fairport circa 1969 is perhaps the one band I'd most like to go back in time to see, if offered a trip in the TARDIS.

Agreed. Fairport circa 1969 is perhaps the one band I'd most like to go back in time to see, if offered a trip in the TARDIS.

And the thing is, you'd be seeing any one of three different bands depending on what part of 1969 you ended up at. What We Did On Our Holidays, Unhalfbricking, and Liege & Lief were ALL released in 1969. That's postively Dylanesque/Beatlesque in its insane compression of brilliance into a tiny time period, like releasing Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited or With The Beatles and A Hard Day's Night in the same year.

And the thing is, you'd be seeing any one of three different bands depending on what part of 1969 you ended up at. What We Did On Our Holidays, Unhalfbricking, and Liege & Lief were ALL released in 1969. That's postively Dylanesque/Beatlesque in its insane compression of brilliance into a tiny time period, like releasing Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited or With The Beatles and A Hard Day's Night in the same year.

You know, I'd always assumed that Holidays came out in 1968, but you're right - it came out in January 1969, Unhalfbricking in July, and Liege & Lief in December. Good God! And that includes time spent recuperating after the van accident that killed Martin Lamble and Jeannie Franklin...

Given the choice, I think I'd see them after Mattacks and Swarbrick joined - nothing against Lamble, but Mattacks has always been one of my favorite drummers. I have seen him play with RT a few times.

Time After Time was my least favorite song.

The Baseball Project featured on Letterman and This Week In Baseball a couple of weeks back. I believe that's the most American TV promotion any Steve Wynn record has ever had.

Wynn's output the past seven years (including the Miracle 3 discs Here Come the Miracles, Static Transmission, tick...tick...tick..., and Live Tick) is as good as anything he's ever done, and I say this as a big Dream Syndicate/Gutterball fan. The Miracle 3 is a tremendous live band, and to tie into the Richard Thompson/Fairport tangent this thread's taken, they occasionally break out a superb cover of "Calvary Cross."

Time After Time was my least favorite song.

There are some bands I'd like to namecheck, and one of them is R.E.M. - classic songs with a long history, southern boys just like you and me, R.E.M. Flashback to 1983: Chronic Town was the first EP. Later on came Reckoning, with Finster's art and titles to match: "So. Central Rain," "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville," "Harborcoat," "Pretty Persuasion," "(You Were Born To Be A) Camera." ("Time After Time" was my least favorite song. "Time After Time" was my least favorite song.) The singer he had long hair, and the drummer he knew restraint. The bass man knew all the right moves and the guitar player was no saint. So let's go way back to the ancient times when there were no 50 states, and on a hill there stands Sherman and his mates, and they're marching through Georgia. They're marching through Georgia. They're marching through Georgia! And there stands R.E.M.

Yes, this thread is old.

Yes, this thread is functionally irrelevant.

But this thread is still open to posting (neither too old nor too kevin-infested).

And yes, I happen to be listening to Pavement, Fairport Convention, and Richard Thompson tonight.

And yes, I have happened to notice that vortex of dissipation and I, whatever our political differences, have nearly identical musical tastes.

And I just felt the need to point out that he was indeed correct about Dave Mattacks being a fantastic drummer whose every bit of session work is worth listening to. I think that once I'm done with this post I'll put on XTC's Nonsuch, where he is also featured.

Murmur yep. Early REM had uniqueness, as did The Clash and early Elvis Costello.