Adam chats with Peter Ames Carlin to discuss music biographies, legendary musicians, and his new book, The Name Of This Band Is R.E.M..

Peter is an acclaimed author and biographer, known for his deep dives into the lives of music legends like Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, and Brian Wilson. His books are celebrated for their meticulous research, insightful storytelling, and the way they capture the complex journeys of these iconic artists.

Peter has new book out, called The Name Of This Band is R.E.M. It offers an intimate look at the rise, evolution, and legacy of R.E.M.

Adam and Peter explore how he gets inside the minds of these music legends, the challenges of capturing their stories, what he’s learned along the way about the creative forces that shape our culture, and what his R.E.M. biography offers that others perhaps don’t.

They talk about the socio-political position of the band, what they represent, and how that progressed over time.

The Name of This Band is R.E.M. is out on November 5th in the US, and a little later in other territories.

Our next episode is out on Monday November 11th and will see us provide commentary for the band's performance at Glastonbury 1999!

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The Big Mates discuss night shifts, Batman, the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and Up by R.E.M.

Adam, Steve, and Lucas continue their deep dive into the career and discography of R.E.M. by concluding their analysis of the band's televenth studio album, released in 1998. They talk about the writing and recording process, the context surrounding the songs, and offer up analysis, opinions, and thoughts from three differing perspectives on music, from being deeply into analysis and music, to not caring for art or critique, and everything in between.

They pick up their discussion towards the end of the album and complete their track-by-track analysis, sum up their feelings on the experiemental record, and offer up scores and highlights. They explore the legacy of the album, how it has aged over time, and how that compares to the reception of the album when it was released in 1998.

They also find time to explore R.E.M.'s contribution to the Austin Powers soundtrack, the writing of the score for the film Man on the Moon, and the standalone single The Great Beyond.

What do we think of Up? How is the album viewed now? Can you push an elephant up the stairs? Find out on this episode of What Is Music?

Our next episode is out on Monday November 4th.

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The Big Mates discuss retrofuturism, The Amazing Spider-man, rude dealers, and Up by R.E.M.

Adam, Steve, and Lucas continue their deep dive into the career and discography of R.E.M. by continuing their analysis of the band's eleventh studio album, released in 1998. They talk about the writing and recording process, the context surrounding the songs, and offer up analysis, opinions, and thoughts from three differing perspectives on music, from being deeply into analysis and music, to not caring for art or critique, and everything in between.

They pick up their discussion near the beginning of the album and continue their trakc-by-track analysis, discussing mood, tone, co-writing credits, Stipe's new way of writing, and the band's goal of being "fearless."

How far into the album will they get? How many Christmas songs are on the album? What have horses got to do with Westerns? Find out on this episode of What Is Music?

Our next episode is out on Monday October 28th and will conclude our analysis of Up!

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The Big Mates discuss TikTok podcasts, Clip art, automatic writing, and Up by R.E.M.

Adam, Steve, and Lucas continue their deep dive into the career and discography of R.E.M. by starting their analysis of the band's eleventh studio album, released in 1998. They talk about the writing and recording process, the context surrounding the songs, and offer up analysis, opinions, and thoughts from three differing perspectives on music, from being deeply into analysis and music, to not caring for art or critique, and everything in between.

They discuss the fallout of a massive period of change, the effect it had on the recording sessions, and how the band handled losing a member. They also touch on how the album was recorded, and why it nearly resulted in the end of the band.

How much of a departure is this album? Is it an electronic album? Was it written by ghosts? Find out on this episode of What Is Music?

Our next episode is out on Monday October 21st and will continue our analysis of Up.

Join the conversation on:
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E-mail: whatismusicpod@gmail.com

Get access to more shows, exclusive bonus content, ad-free episodes of this show, and more music discussion by subscribing to our Patreon!
Head to patreon.com/whatismusicpod and receive up to two new episodes of our various shows every week (including shows about Manic Street Preachers and monthly themed playlists!), ad-free archives of What Is Music?, and access to our Patron-only Discord server for even more music (and non-music) discussion!

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Join us as we introduce our new show, The WIM Album Club, available exclusively on our Patreon.

Head to patreon.com/whatismusicpod and subscribe now at the £5 "Bigger Mates" Tier or higher to get access to this brand new monthly podcast!

Every month we're going to explore a new album, randomly selected from a pool of classics, popular albums, albums the hosts have submitted, and albums submitted by you, our subscribers! We'll go into each album, explore its context, and go track-by-track in a classic WIM deep-dive. We'll also include thoughts and discussion from our Patreon subscribers...

We're very excited to get this new show going, and we hope you're excited to join us! The first album we'll be covering is Grace by Jeff Buckley. So once you've listened to the introduction and subscribed, get listening to that album!

We hope to see you all over at patreon.com/whatismusicpod!

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The Big Mates discuss microbiomes, Bandcamp, quick looks, and INTIMISM by Nicky Wire.

Adam, Steve, and Lucas return to the subject of their first season in order to catch up on the extra-curricular activities of Nicky Wire, the bassist and chief lyric writer of Manic Street Preachers.

They talk about the writing and recording process, the context surrounding the albums, and offer up analysis, opinions, and thoughts from three differing perspectives on music, from being deeply into analysis and music, to not caring for art or critique, and everything in between.

How does the album compare to the recent Manics albums? How was the album released? Will Lucas ever remember anything ever again? Find out on this episode of What Is Music?

Our next episode is out next Monday October 14th, and will see us return to R.E.M. with a deep-dive into their eleventh album, Up!

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Get access to more shows, exclusive bonus content, ad-free episodes of this show, and more music discussion by subscribing to our Patreon!
Head to patreon.com/whatismusicpod and receive up to two new episodes of our various shows every week (including shows about Manic Street Preachers and monthly themed playlists!), ad-free archives of What Is Music?, and access to our Patron-only Discord server for even more music (and non-music) discussion!

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The Big Mates take a brief pause to discuss ratings, rankings, audience demands, and the career of R.E.M. from 1988 - 1996.

Adam, Steve, and Lucas talk about their feelings so far on the band, having now covered the five records that encompass the first half of their career at Warner Bros. They place each album previously covered into the context of this era, they return to each album with more experienced ears, and they talk about how they feel about them now.

They chat context, albums, preconceptions, expectations, and much more before offering up their individual Top 10 R.E.M. (1988 - 1996) songs. These have been compiled into our second "Best Of R.E.M." compilation, available (alongside previous Best Ofs) here: https://bit.ly/3xVZAVf

What makes it into the Top 10s? What's our favourite album so far? Find out on this episode of What Is Music?

Our next episode is out next Monday, October 7th!

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Get access to more shows, exclusive bonus content, ad-free episodes of this show, and more music discussion by subscribing to our Patreon!
Head to patreon.com/whatismusicpod and receive up to two new episodes of our various shows every week (including shows about Manic Street Preachers and monthly themed playlists!), ad-free archives of What Is Music?, and access to our Patron-only Discord server for even more music (and non-music) discussion!

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Adam and Steve chat with Ethan Kaplan to discuss the founding of Murmurs.com, collaborating with the band, and the nature of online fandom.

They talk to Ethan about his musical journey to R.E.M., the nascent days of internet fandom, and how a chance meeting with Michael Stipe led to the creation of the primary R.E.M. fansite.

Ethan talks about how that fansite led to him becoming a collaborator and friend of the band, and the difficulty of maintaining a fan community in those circumstances.

We also talk about Ethan's work in the music industry and look to the future of music with the recent advent of more complex and intricate AI!

Our next episode is out on Monday September 30th and will see us wrap up the second act of the band!

Join the conversation on:
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E-mail: whatismusicpod@gmail.com

Get access to more shows, exclusive bonus content, ad-free episodes of this show, and more music discussion by subscribing to our Patreon!
Head to patreon.com/whatismusicpod and receive up to two new episodes of our various shows every week (including shows about Manic Street Preachers and monthly themed playlists!), ad-free archives of What Is Music?, and access to our Patron-only Discord server for even more music (and non-music) discussion!

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