Music

How's that for a post title. Let's just take it in order:

We poked our heads into the wine shop on the LES that R.E.M. invaded while filming their "Supernatural Superserious" video with La Blogotheque field general Vincent Moon; here, R.E.M. HQ [remhq.com] gets a quote on the shoot from the La Blog. Take it away, M. Moon:

“This was a really, really interesting, fantastic experience working with the band in New York; I'm really happy with the result and I'm almost finished with the editing, though there is still, it seems, a crazy amount of work yet to be done.

I didn't want to create a fake takeaway show with the band lip-synching and playing acoustically--that's not my style as you know--but I did focus on the improvisational aspect of the Takeaway Shows, hoping to achieve that same spontaneous feeling, by driving around the City, searching for the right place and mood without planning at all. I regarded it as a quest. We essentially were on a quest, a search to find the right place to play the music, and we settled on five or so places on Rivington Street. 2 or 3 were purely spontaneous, instances in which we just walked in and just said, "can we play"; again, it's not my style to plan so the video, hopefully will have this improvisational feel; the video will capture and concentrate on this feeling. It's focused on the performance of three guys going around NYC playing music spontaneously without being self-conscious.

As I said, I'm very happy with it. Thanks.”

You're welcome, Vincent. As mentioned too many times to count now, Accelerate is out 4/1. Click Here [stereogum.com] to see the album art. The big news, though, is that R.E.M. is hitting the road with the National and Modest Mouse, which casts new light on their choice of working with Vincent Moon; now there's no doubt, R.E.M.'s trying to make their reintroduction to the world as indie-credible as possible. It's been awhile since the band's had the hipster vote; this is certainly one way to get their attention. No matter what you think of the strategy, though, you have to admit that a National/Modest Mouse/R.E.M. show at a place like the Mann Theater in Philadelphia is simply unmissable. If it wasn't so close in time to Bonnaroo, we'd be driving down (and on that note, the tour sched is making it look like none of these bands will be down in Tennessee for the party this year).

Your tour dates:
05/23 - Vancouver, BC @ Deer Lake Park
05/29 - Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl
05/31 - San Francisco, CA @ Greek Theatre
06/03 - Denver, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre
06/06 - Chicago, IL @ United Center
06/08 - Toronto, ON @ Molson Amphitheatre
06/10 - Raleigh, NC @ Walnut Creek Amphitheatre
06/11 - Columbia, MD @ Merriweather Post Pavilion
06/13 - Boston, MA @ Tweeter Center
06/14 - Long Island, NY @ Jones Beach
06/18 - Philadelphia, PA @ Mann Center
06/21 - Atlanta, GA @ Lakewood Amphitheatre