Artist	Song
Nirvana	Heart Shaped Box
from In Utero (1993)
Wilco	What Light
from Sky Blue Sky (Bonus Track Version) (2007)
Pavement	Cut Your Hair
from Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (1994)
The Jayhawks	Two Angels
from Blue Earth (2006)
Guided By Voices	Hold On Hope
from Do The Collapse (1999)
The Posies	Dream All Day
from Frosting on the Beater (1997)
Crash Test Dummies	Afternoons & Coffeespoons
from God Shuffled His Feet (1993)
Vic Chesnutt	Speed Racer
from Little (2004)
Red House Painters	Song for a Blue Guitar
from Songs for a Blue Guitar (1996)
Blue Rodeo	Till I Am Myself Again
from Blue Rodeo Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 (2004)
Cosmic Rough Riders	Have You Heard the News Today?
from Panorama (2007)
The Autumn Leaves	You Didn't Say a Word (The Ballad of Plum Tucker)
from Treats and Treasures (1997)
Buttercup	Hello, Goodbye
from Hot Love (2006)
The Gefkens	Billboard
from Grind (1994)
Now It's Overhead	Let the Sirens Rest
from Dark Light Daybreak (2006)

Comment:

Whether it’s Americana, grunge, or alt-anything, it’s pretty hard to escape the massive impact that R.E.M. has had on pop music. Practically as American as tuna casserole, Wilco sank their roots into heartland soil deep and wide. Their alt-folkie, ragged-edged waltz “What Light” splits the difference between Dylan and Stipe, where fidelity to melody never interferes with the perfect vibe. Had there never been an Athens, would there have been a Seattle? Hard to say for sure, but Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain wasn’t just R.E.M.’s friend; he was also a fan: “I don't know how that band does what they do. God, they're the greatest.” On the sludgy “Heart Shaped Box,” Cobain & co. dredge despair’s depths, bleak as a December Seattle sky. And if anybody had a right to a bleak outlook, it’s Stipe-produced discovery (and paraplegic) Vic Chesnutt. Over an austere nylon-string guitar and ethereal backing vocal, he creaks out the details of his tiny triumphs in “Speed Racer”: “I can dodge the thunderbolts/And scratch out an existence on this glorious but simple plane.” From the Jayhawks to Pavement and beyond, all the far-flung branches of R.E.M.’s family tree are right here at your fingertips.

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