Listening Post

Oh how I love a challenge. A good night's sleep in Albuquerque, followed by an ugly "wake-up call": All the highways out of this city are currently shut down. Like, all of them -- in every direction. Could mean I'm stuck in this admittedly very nice, warm hotel room for another day, followed by a Cannonball Run to Vegas in the morning, or it could mean I just have to wait a few hours until things get moving again. We'll see, I guess.

Here's REM's Can't Get There from Here.

Listening Post: Thanks for the Memories Edition

Yesterday, after 31 years making music, R.E.M. announced that they would be "calling it a day."

It's impossible to overstate the impact that Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry had on the indie and alt music landscape and on good pop music in general, so I'm not going to even bother trying. Suffice it to say that the band I played in back in the late 80s basically worshiped the ground these guys walked on -- with good reason. And I'm sure a lot of other college musicians felt the same way at the time.

For the record, my favorite R.E.M. album is Automatic for the People, with Sweetness Follows being my favorite song. But in high school, this was the track from the band that I truly loved -- and maybe it's best to go all the way back to the beginning anyway.

Here's Perfect Circle

Listening Post

Sure this choice doesn't take much in the way of creativity, but what do you want from me? I'm just happy to be alive.

Still, what a let-down.

Here's REM.

Listening Post

Michael Stipe seems to channel Tom Waits for this live version of one of REM's best songs. From the stellar Automatic for the People album, it's Drive.

Listening Post

This is a bootleg concert video, but it's pretty decent quality and I love this song so much that I barely mind the average video.

Here's REM's Sweetness Follows.