Yes, Michael Stipe would cringe...

Currently, REM's "It's the End of the World As We Know It" is playing on the radio in our dining room (I really don't know why...), and Ian tried to characterize this very unusual song:

"This sounds like farm music."

And then a further qualification:

It's like farm music and music that you guys don't like and country music. It's a mix of those things.

I know better than to tell him that I actually liked REM in the 80's... But I like to imagine how REM's super-postmodern ultra-surreal lead singer, Michael Stipe, would react if he knew he were pegged as a country musician...