R.E.M. — Chronic Town
Author: tracysigler | Posted: December 23rd, 2005 | | Tags: 1982, alternative, music, R.E.M., vinyl | 1 Comment »
- Artist: R.E.M.
- Title: Chronic Town
- Year: 1982
- Format: Vinyl 12 in.
- Rating (1-10): 7
- Owner: Mary/Tracy
- Acquired: 1982 – We both had our own copies.
- Keeper: Yes
I was never really into R.E.M., but for some reason I did buy the first few records. Mary, on the other hand, seems to have almost everything they did, including oddball stuff like 7″ 45RPM box sets. I was in high school when this came out and I would buy anything new, not on the radio, that I could get my hands on. Now that I’m a crotchety old geezer I’m not nearly as tolerant. I’m still always on the hunt for “the new”, but I only want what really excites me.
This EP saved me from certain cultural death by Heavy Metal! I was living in LA in a dumpy little single apartment, attending UCLA and hating life. Like you, I was sick to death of what I was hearing on the radio.
Thank goodness fo KXLU – the Loyola Marymount University radio station, otherwise I would never have heard anything new!
Anyway, I saw this EP in the cheap bins at Rene’s Records on Spaulding and Melrose around the time came out and brought it home. I couldn’t listen to anything else for about a month! Later I picked up the other two albums that were out at the time, Murmur and Reckoning.
My aesthetic has widened significantly in the past 20-or-so years, but this EP was a defining moment in my life. Thanks for posting this…
-M.