I'm glad they are at least acknowledging this record and it'll be fun to read the liner notes, but I'm disappointed that there aren't any extras at all. But, there are plenty of bootlegs out there such as Chronic Murmurings... here is a good write up of what is on it: https://www.reddit.com/r/rem/comments/8022sb/chronic_murmurings_song_notes_as_requested_by/
On topic: I think I'll skip this reissue and stick to my earlier vinyl reissue, unless the mastering turns out to be very good on this one or something. Or get the CD just for the liner notes... aargh it's hard (and expensive) being a fan.
Yes I have all of the ordinal I.R.S. c.d.'s.....Warners as well in original and deluxe edition and the bigger super deluxe boxsets but I wasn't sure what was missing so I purchased both download rarities sets.....I've not been lucky enough to score the live "IN GREENSBORO" on c.d. yet.For the record I hate to admit I've pre-ordered the cassette/player bundle and the c.d. of "CHRONIC TOWN" but in my defense I also did the same for the limited bundle for "RADIO FREE EUROPE"........Don't hate me......
If I'm not mistaken it is better to get the digital version of Green deluxe anyway, because supposedly that contains all the Greensboro tracks, including the ones on the "exclusive" RSD CD.
I have Chronic Murmurings on vinyl, but it’s not easy to find a copy of it these days. While Chronic Murmurings does contain a lot of the outtakes that could have been used to flesh out this anniversary release, and, once again, the RCA demos are really strong and one of the jewels of what’s left in the vault, the sound quality of Chronic Murmurings ranges from fair to poor. The source of it and other early vinyl boots were dubs of dubs of cassettes passed around R.E.M.’s inner circle. One of the huge missed opportunities here was the missed opportunity to get the 1981/82 studio outtakes out there in better sound quality.
Talk about going from '1st' to possibly 'worst' but one of the 5.1 mixes, and on dvd-a I think, is Around The Sun. I've heard pretty good things about its downmix to stereo. I will ty to add to the know but in another thread. A long way from Chronic Town, just even in years alone. But this thread got me going on extras. I have a US Chronic Town pressing too. Sterling Stamps iirc. Will have to give it a spin! That blue-colored vinyl sure is pretty though.
Maybe you had to be there at the time? The first era coincided perfectly with my college days. I bought the RFE single off the counter top 45 bin at schoolkids the day they put it out. Played it for my buddies, once we heard that it was all over. When we got Chronic Town we were pretty sure it was the greatest thing since lime jello with strips of baloney. When they were on Letterman we thought it was like the Beatles on Sullivan (see what I did there?). We played that damn record over and over and over. After that when a new LP was released we just didn’t go to class that week. We just played the record.
It's really disappointing that one of the members vetoed the release if early live material. They didn't have a problem with people recording their shows, so why wouldn't they want one of them released with the reissue? It would have got people to buy Chronic Town, and it would get people talking about how great R.E.M. were from the beginning, or very, very close to it.
Let me join the chorus of fans who are disappointed by the failure of Chronic Town to receive the deluxe reissue treatment. This presented the perfect opportunity to gather up the early demos in one place. I'm also disappointed to here that there's no interest in an "official bootleg" series of live releases. I would have thought that at least Peter would be strongly in favor of more archival releases. Apparently, back in the day, Buck used to collect REM bootlegs himself.
I would have been into it, so of course it's not going to happen. Meanwhile, every gig the Grateful Dead ever played seems to get an official release.
The vinyl issue looks to be a picture disk. I know these picture disks sound much better these days than they used to. No mention of analog tapes, just like all of the other recent REM reissues over the last 10 years. Makes me think that all of the IRS masters burned un the Ume fire.
I actually posted in a thread here a while back about “holy grails” that people wanted for their collection and a stand-alone version of Chronic Town was mine and now I see this and I’m ……. whelmed. It’s a nice stand-alone version of the EP on CD and that’s it. Glad it’s not super expensive, can anyone recommend a US website that will have it besides Amazon?
I paid $20 or $25 for the used record I have. A 1982 or 83 Sterling rca1 rca2 a1 a or something that plays nearly perfectly. Anyway was a joy and spark to listen to, a solid hit, about a perfect 5 out of 5. Sound, performance, tracks, all very good to excellent, to my ears
Add me to the list of people disappointed by this release. I do have a second pressing of this that sounds great but would have loved some bonus stuff. I guess I’ll just order one of these shirts.
Complete waste of a release. Going forward ,based on this and the New Adventures set, it appears one of the band is blocking unreleased music on reissues. R.E.M. is my favourite American band of all time and they are obviously entitled to do what they want with their music but I am very disappointed.
I wonder if this will just reuse, now sporting horrible revised cover layout, the 2014 mastering that I don't think ever got a physical release. I seem to recall it was (maybe?) DSD mastering and DSD files could be had only thru Acoustic Sounds where such downloads no longer appear ("Availability:noshow"), but could — and currently still can — be had as 24/192 | 24/96 lossless FLAC or AIFF files from ProStudioMasters, if not elsewhere as well. In my memory, it actually sounded quite nice though the dynamic range had been limited considerably compared to how they appeared at end of Dead Letter Office CD. The "Measurements" tab below actually shows peaks and DR numbers so if new one matches, that's some clue. They are promoting even the digital EP, like it's something new. so would seem it shouldn't just be this one you can still also get as lossy "Apple Digital Master." R.E.M., Chronic Town in High-Resolution Audio
Also disappointed there is no unreleased material with this release. I wonder whether the CD release will be a new remaster or whether they will use the 2014 remaster that was done for digital release.
Buck is focused on making new music. There’s a third Filthy Friends album coming out soon, and another duo album with Luke Haines. Before covid hit, who were the two members of R.E.M. you saw out on the rubber chicken circuit flogging R.E.M. reissues? Stipe and Mills. They have little or no new music of their own to promote, so they have settled into the role of traveling around the world every year or two talking up some record from their past. Buck has got other irons in the fire, and still has the fire in the belly to do something new, which is one of the chief reasons R.E.M. broke up in the first place. Whether fans accept it or not, Peter Buck in 2022 is not devoting his time to personally trawling the R.E.M. tape vaults to prepare the Live at Maxwells 1982 release you wish he would prepare for you. He’s too busy making new music with Corin Tucker. And while Buck would almost certainly have no problem with such a release, and others like it that actually have been prepared by the team around R.E.M., in their democracy, any one member can veto anything, and he doesn’t get to cast the deciding vote. Which is yet another reason R.E.M. broke up in the first place, as, after Bill Berry left, Buck lost nearly every single vote in the band 2-1.
