Black & Blue R.E.M. Cover Single Release: (Don't Go Back to) Rockville

Today marks the official release of a digital single from Black & Blue: a studio recording from 2008 covering R.E.M.'s classic track from Reckoning, penned by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Michael Stipe. 

The single will be available on:

Amazon

Apple Music

Instagram/Facebook

Google Play/YouTube

iHeartRadio

iTunes

Pandora

Spotify

... and a few others

Stickmen-REM Summit

After years of accusations that the Stickmen/My New Invention "sound like REM," members of our two bands finally got together this past Saturday to hash things out once and for all.  Victor Allen spoke for my band, LA-based My New Invention (formerly known as The Stickmen), while Peter Buck graciously represented Athens Georgia's finest, REM.  The meeting took place on musically neutral ground: Seattle, Washington.

Victor tells the story:

Lisa and I were walking home from our favorite breakfast spot, which takes us past our local record shop: Easy Street Records. Lisa remembered that Record Store Day was this weekend, so we popped in to support our shop and pick up some music that were hadn't gotten around to purchasing yet. The place was packed. I was reminded of hanging out at Tower Records in El Toro before they folded.

After browsing a while I found myself standing in front of the display for the new R.E.M. album Collapse, trying to decide if I wanted to buy it. As I was pondering this decision, the store manager came on the PA system and announced, "Thanks everyone for coming out for Record Store Day! We're very happen to have Peter Buck working the registers again. We're his home away from home here, so make him feel welcome. Be sure to stop by and say hi!" That made my decision easy.

While standing in line waiting for my turn, I watched Peter interact with other fans. He's a really laid back, friendly guy. The gal in front of me in line brought a big pile of LPs and he signed them all without any sign of irritation. She apologized for bringing so many things and he shrugged it off, "Don't worry about it, I don't have anywhere I need to be."

When my turn came up, he shook my hand and asked who to sign the album to, I told him and then admitted, "My band in college started out practically as an R.E.M. cover band."

Peter: "That's really great. I love to hear things like that. I have younger friends in the industry and they've told me the same thing. I think its cool. What did you play?"
Me: "We played everything we could learn off of Document and Fables... plus a couple of La's songs."
Peter: "The La's are great."

After signing the album, we had our quick photo op. Turns out he's at least 6' 2".

Peter Buck and Victor Allen

As I was turning to leave, he said, "So... you want a poster?" Then he signed and gave me a poster.

Sometimes you meet someone that you've admired or emulated and the experience is really disappointing, this was the opposite. Peter Buck is a great guy and genuinely enjoys meeting his fans.

So that's it.  Well done, Peter and Vic.  I think we can consider the hatchet buried.  REM is "cool" with the Stickmen sounding like REM.

For the record, I still don't really hear the resemblance.

And You'll Never Hear Surf Music Again

If the "classic stickmen" ever had a reunion concert, the attendance would be problematic, given the relentless nature of the My New Invention fan-alienation machine, which pretty much sucked up bad will like moist warm air in a Missouri thundercloud.

But among the millions of songs that we wouldn't play would be ANYTHING by the Jimi Hendrix Experience.  Which is a shame, not so much for the songs (they have all been beaten to death by every third garage band since 1967), but for a hidden debt of gratitude owed to that particular group of three musicians.

Without turning this into a classic rock obit blog, it wouldn't seem right to publish this post without doffing hats for the passing of drummer Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, who died in his hotel room this morning in Portland, of natural causes, while touring with a JHE tribute outfit. 

The way I remember it (and Don might dispute this), Don and I spent an afternoon in my parents' garage learning how to play the drums using Ben George's abandoned kit and a copy of the complete guitar-bass-drum tablature to the album Are You Experienced?.  [Inappropriate use of period directly after question mark? -ed.]  Up until then, Stickmen drumming had been a classic case of the blind leading the blind, with Matt, Victor, and I coaching Ben how to vamp REM tunes using only bass and snare drums.  After that day, we at least had some actual Mitch Mitchell fills to inform the rude subterfuge of our first true arrangements with drums.

And the rest is obscurity, for everyone apparently.