R.E.M.

Oh my god you guys. R.E.M. broke up.

Which, for me, is not that upsetting. In fact, I'm pretty sure I thought they'd parted ways long ago. But dry your tears, R.E.M. fans. I have a theory.

There's this BAND called THE DECEMBERISTS. You're probably familiar, because everyone in America seems to have a major hard-on for them. And according to my very scientific analysis, the Decemberists are reminiscent of R.E.M. I'm not great at musical dissection, so forgive my lack of vocabulary here, but these two groups sound pretty darn similar.

My theory is that young music enthusiasts think they're hearing something new, because they're too young to readily recall R.E.M. from musical memory. And older listeners enjoy The Decemberists because it reminds them of their glory days. These two sides meet in the middle and create a double demographic situation, generating a lot of excitement for a band that isn't really that exciting.

The Decemberists even have a CALAMITY song...THE END OF THE WORLD as we KNOW IT? Anyone. C'mon. You can't really get more aligned than that. Don't you think the two pieces below could have some from the same band?





The aforementioned Calamity Song