File Under Water – Details, episodes & analysis

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File Under Water

Duckfeed.tv

Music

Frequency: 1 episode/14d. Total Eps: 20

Gary Butterfield and Kaye Ross talk you through R.E.M.'s history, albums, music, and influence. This show is retired as of 2017. RSS Feed: https://www.patreon.com/rss/80117?show=1682549

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Apple Podcasts

🇨🇦 Canada - musicCommentary
21/01/2026
#76
🇬🇧 Great Britain - musicCommentary
19/01/2026
#60
🇬🇧 Great Britain - musicCommentary
04/10/2025
#96
🇬🇧 Great Britain - musicCommentary
03/10/2025
#46

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwtdhWltSIg
13 shares
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0GFRcFm-aY
13 shares
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sBVX9kRmBE
6 shares

http://www.remhq.com/music/dead-letter-office/
2 shares
http://www.remhq.com/music/eponymous/
2 shares
http://www.setlist.fm/stats/average-setlist/rem-33d6b859.html?year=1986
2 shares

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RSS feed quality

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Score global : 53%

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File Under Water 20: Finale

Episode 20

mercredi 25 octobre 2017 • Duration

It's the end of the show as we know it (and we feel fine). This has been a great deal of fun, revisiting one of our favorite bands and thinking long and hard about what makes them special. We found new favorite songs and learned about the lives and stories of some truly great artists.

This finale is a variety episode. We answer a few letters, name our favorite songs from R.E.M.'s catalog, and even bring you a special surprise... but you have to listen to find out what it is.

File Under Water 19: Collapse Into Now

Episode 19

mercredi 11 octobre 2017 • Duration

R.E.M. goes out on a high note with Collapse Into Now, an album that takes a bit of a tour through the band's various styles over the years. It's impossible to say that the upward trend in the quality of their records would continue, but it's fitting that the group busted their ass to make their last effort their best in years.

File Under Water 10: Out of Time

Episode 10

mercredi 7 juin 2017 • Duration

It took seven albums and 11 years, but R.E.M. finally got their breakthrough in 1991 with Out of Time. The overall album heads in the same direction as Green, but goes even further into mandolin weirdness. Freed from the constraints of touring, Peter, Mike, Bill, and Michael had every opportunity to make exactly the album they wanted... but the result is oddly inconsistent.

This episode features a brief appearance by Brayton Cameron of Teenage Dirtbags to discuss "Radio Song".

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File Under Water 9: Green

Episode 9

mercredi 24 mai 2017 • Duration

Warner Bros. signed R.E.M. at the height of their popularity as an alternative rock band. Imagine their surprise when the R.E.M. they got sounded nothing like the R.E.M. that released Document just a couple of years earlier. Peter, Mike, Michael, and Bill had decided to swap instruments around. Peter picked up the mandolin, and a few folk ballads made their way into the mix. Given all of this upheaval, it's surprising that Green is one of the most solid R.E.M. albums, front to back.

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File Under Water 8: Document

Episode 8

mercredi 10 mai 2017 • Duration

Their first platinum record. Their first top ten single. Their first kinda bad album?

It was 1987 and R.E.M. was staring down their last album with IRS. Continuing the trend from Lifes Rich Pageant, they wanted it to be loud and political. That may have been the right move commercially, but we come down on the side that Document is, overall, no great shakes. Listen to our 30 year old hot takes today!

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File Under Water 7: Dead Letter Office

Episode 7

mercredi 26 avril 2017 • Duration

We've already talked about most of the B-sides, so instead we turn to the mail bag to read your R.E.M. thoughts.

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File Under Water 6: Lifes Rich Pageant

Episode 6

mercredi 12 avril 2017 • Duration

The top half is R.E.M. at the top of their game, and the bottom half is, appropriately, some bullshit.

After the misery of recording Fables of the Reconstruction, R.E.M. wanted a win. So they headed to Indiana to record with John Cougar Mellencamp's producer, with the express goal of making a big dumb rocker. The result is one half of a very good album. Political, clear, resonant. And one half of a shambling mess.

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File Under Water 5: Fables of the Reconstruction

Episode 5

jeudi 23 mars 2017 • Duration

The band didn't like it. The critics didn't like it. But we do.

R.E.M.'s story so far has been one of effortless creativity. They worked very hard to make good things happen, but they also had the right friends and creative partners to be truly prolific with their work. This changed with Fables of the Reconstruction, when the band traded Mitch Easter and the southern U.S. for a new producer and frigid London. The result is an album that has a reputation for being dark and weird, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's also not entirely true.

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File Under Water 4: Reckoning

Episode 4

mercredi 15 mars 2017 • Duration

The members of R.E.M. were anxious about creating a followup to Murmur, so instead they created a masterpiece. Reckoning is all over the map when it comes to style and production, but it provides evidence of how prolific and creative the band was from 1980 to 1984. It opens with the sublime "Harborcoat", wanders through "Don't Go Back to Rockville", and closes on a straight up protest song in "Little America". It's hard to say if this is the best possible place to start with R.E.M., but it's absolutely not the worst.

The next episode will be about Fables of the Reconstruction.

File Under Water 3: Murmur

Episode 3

mercredi 1 mars 2017 • Duration

Gary Butterfield and Kole Ross begin their journey through R.E.M.'s full-length discography in earnest, by discussing the deeply earnest album Murmur. Quiet, dark, and weird, it was unlike anything people had heard. It sold like gangbusters, took Rolling Stone's "Album of the Year" over Michael Jackson's Thriller and U2's War, and gave our four boys a seat at the table.

The links below are a comprehensive listening list, and we encourage you to listen to them before, alongside, and after the podcast.

The next episode will be about Reckoning.