One or both of those were an influence on the Stone Roses.
On first hearing them and seeing their image, it reminded me of the Paisley Underground immediately. Would love to ask John Squire if they were an influence.
On a bit of a tangent .... read this great Facebook post last week. It's from Icicle Works mainman, Ian McNabb, a big fan of the PU bands. This is his take on REM. (He recently collaborated with their guitarist, Peter Buck on an album track, Aquamarine by the way)
He pretty much nails it for me ....
''R.E.M.'s potency seemed to vanish with Michael Stipe's hair. Their recordings for the IRS label from Chronic Town (1982) to Document (1987) consisted of around 50-odd compositions stuffed with Myths and Legends. Lyrics impenetrable and often meaningless (like the Cocteau Twins, the sound of the word was often deemed more important than the meaning) - Stipe's timeless voice - often redolent of Gene Clark of The Byrds, Peter Buck's chiming, 6 and 12 string electric/acoustic guitars, Mike Mills cleanly-plucked melodic bass parts and nerdy backing vocals, all framed by Bill Berry's no-nonsense four-to-the-floor This Is How It Is backbeat.
The rise of the U.S. College radio platform can be syncronised to R.E.M. The two are in unison. They paved the way for all who came afterwards - especially Nirvana. By 1987 their relentless roadwork and consistency of top-notch songwriting had elevated them to Sleeping Giant status - 'The One I Love' was a genuine worldwide top 40 hit.
Their contract served they signed to Warners in 1988 for The Big Money which they cheekily alluded to by calling their next release Green. They deserved it. The 1989 Green World Tour was R.E.M.'s peak and Green would be their last great recording.
What happened next is difficult to make sense of but as R.E.M emerged in 1991 with 'Losing My Religion' and attendant album Out Of Time it was clear something was off. The immediate concern was that KRS-One - a rap artist - was the first thing we heard when we dropped the needle on Radio Song - the opener on which R.E.M. attempt to play "funk" in the way that honkeys from the deep south can only achieve.
Next up was a three-note seemingly endless dirge entitled 'Losing My Religion' featuring Peter Buck on ... Mandolin. R.E.M. were launching their arena days with Led Zeppelin lll.
Bizarrely, this tune and the universally-reviled stinker 'Shiny Happy People' are the tracks that made R.E.M. your uncool uncle's favourite band of the early nineties. The rest of Out Of Time sounded like a band who had run out of ideas - with the exception of the Mike Mills-fronted Texarkana.
R.E.M. decided not to tour - to everybody's horror - but the album sold Millions anyway largely due to an evocative video and it being hip to dig this "new" band.
Next up was Automatic For The People. Often held up as R.E.M.'s masterpiece, it contains 'Drive' - loosely lifted from David Essex's 'Rock on' (1973) and the truly horrific 'Everybody Hurts' which soon became the go-to soundtrack to footage of brown people starving to death on the African plain or places like Detroit shutting down. The rest of AFTP contained more tuneless hokum; 'Ignoreland' 'Sweetness Follows' and 'Nightswimming' apart from the tongue-in-cheek 'Man On The Moon' which helped the album shift over eighteen million copies.
Then came Monster (1994) which saw R.E.M. attempting to make an album they could play in arenas - a welcome return to electric guitar a go-go; unfortunately the songs shone a light on a band who had run out of things to say and developed a penchant for face-painting.
R.E.M. managed another six albums from 1996 until 2011 when they finally admitted the tank was empty.
There are people who enjoy some of what R.E.M. released in this period - there are a few nuggets amongst the rubble but this is residual as opposed to signs of life.
R.E.M. 1982 - 1987 is the Gold Standard.''
Love I x
