I’ve never been much of an R.E.M. fan, for no particular reason except that they were “my dad’s music.” Which is funny, because if you know my dad, you know that he is extremely passionate about music and scours the internet daily in search of new music. Whatever hip band you think you have just discovered, my dad was listening to months ago. Seriously.

But then I heard “Losing My Religion.” I mean, obviously not for the first time, since that song gets played a LOT. Especially if your mom likes to play the oldies station when she’s driving you somewhere. But I heard it a couple months ago, and, for the first time, thought “hey, that’s actually really awesome.” So then I stole a bunch of my dad’s R.E.M. songs and put them on my IPod. Although they got outplayed by Madonna and Chiodos (now there’s a dynamic duo), I found myself really enjoying them.

So it really didn’t come as much of a surprise that when I heard R.E.M.’s new single on the radio a couple weeks ago, and totally loved it, and immediately bought it on ITunes. Yes, I still listen to the radio AND pay for my music. Me and every other person over the age of 40 who doesn’t really understand the internet. Except, I actually do understand the internet quite well, I just chose to buy my music and support the music industry. But that’s quite another rant for another time.

I would be posting the new single, Supernatural Superserious, however I bought it on ITunes, therefore it’s DRM protected and I can’t upload it. Thanks, ITunes, it’s always nice to be rewarded for buying music by it then being rendered useless unless it is being played on one out of five of my authorized computers.

I thought of posting “Losing My Religion,” but it’s a pretty popular song (or was, anyway), so I opted to post something more unique. The song is called “Sugar Cane,” and is an early demo version of “Losing My Religion.” Since it’s a demo, the quality isn’t amazing, but I really like the heavy organ in the song, which doesn’t show up in the final version.

So who else is stoked for Austin City Limits re-running the R.E.M. episode tonight?? I’m definitely tuning in!