R.E.M.

This article is about the music group R.E.M.. For other uses, see REM.

R.E.M.

R.E.M. is an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in early 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and vocalist Michael Stipe.

Throughout the 1980s, following the release of their debut EP Chronic Town in 1982, the band issued six albums in as many years, from Murmur in 1983 through 1988's Green. They also toured constantly, playing a variety of venues, from theaters to backwoods dives. The band became admired for its independent ethic and slow, steady rise to stardom. Along the way, the R.E.M. sound and Stipe's cryptic lyrics influenced many bands, from jangle pop groups of the mid-'80s to alternative rock bands of the '90s. Upon attaining major-label success at dawn of the '90s, the band was able to put forth broader political and environmental concerns while playing large arenas worldwide, as multiplatinum hit records such as Out of Time and Automatic for the People coexisted with continued acclaim from fans and critics.

In 1997, after R.E.M. had re-signed with their label for a then-record $80 million, Bill Berry amicably left the band, with Buck, Mills, and Stipe continuing as a three-piece. Through some changes in musical style, R.E.M. continued their career into the next decade with mixed critical and commercial success. In 2007, the band's history and influence were honored with their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, including Berry.

History

Formation: 1980-1982

R.E.M. formed at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, in January 1980. Discovering they had similar tastes, 20 year old vocalist Michael Stipe, and guitarist Peter Buck, 23, began working together eventually forming a band that was to become R.E.M. They met two 21-year-olds, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry, when they arranged an audition. In April 1980, the band rehearsed to play a twentieth birthday party for their friend Kathleen O'Brien, including a number of garage, psychedelic bubblegum, and punk covers in a converted Episcopal church on Oconee Street. Eventually, the band members dropped out of school to concentrate on their musical career. The band played many gigs at the 40 Watt Club in Athens which helped launch their career.

Over the next year and a half, R.E.M., who chose their name after Mike Mills' grndmother's initials, toured throughout the South, playing a variety of garage rock covers (including tourmates Mission of Burma's 1979 single, "Academy Fight Song") and folk rock originals. At the time, the band was still learning how to play, as Buck began to develop his distinctive, arpeggiated jangle and Stipe ironed out his cryptic lyrics. During the summer of 1981, R.E.M. recorded their first single, "Radio Free Europe", at Mitch Easter's Drive-In Studios. Released on the local indie label Hib-Tone, "Radio Free Europe" was pressed in a run of only 1,000 copies. The single became a hit on college radio and topped Village Voice's year-end poll of Best Independent Singles. Paired with the distinctive voice of Stipe and his almost indecipherable lyrics, R.E.M.'s sound was unique in the post-punk era of the early 1980s.

The I.R.S. years: 1982-1987

First releases

Favorable response to the "Radio Free Europe" single earned the band the attention of larger independent labels. In early 1982, the band signed to I.R.S. Records, and set to work on its debut EP, Chronic Town, (again with Easter). The release illustrated R.E.M.'s signature musical style: jangling guitars, chords played in arpeggio, murmured vocals, and lyrics that often avoided the standard topics of popular music. To promote the release, the band flew to California and taped a video for "Wolves, Lower", which largely featured the band synching their performance with the studio recording. Stipe felt he looked foolish, and vowed to never lip-synch in a video again.

To record their debut album, the band was initially paired by their label with producer Stephen Hague, but they objected after recording only one song. During their session, Hague pressed Berry through countless takes, then added synthesizers to the track once the band finished recording their parts. I.R.S. subsequently agreed to a "tryout" session, allowing the band to return to North Carolina and record "Pilgrimage" with Easter and producing partner Don Dixon. After hearing the track, I.R.S. gave the green light, and the band set to work selecting and recording songs from their accumulated catalog of original material. The completed album, Murmur, was greeted with critical acclaim, with Rolling Stone declaring it the best album of 1983. The album was warmly received by college radio, and its success there pushed the album into the Top 40 on the Billboard album chart. A re-recorded version of "Radio Free Europe" was the lead single from the album. Other notable tracks included the piano-led "Perfect Circle", "Sitting Still" (a re-recorded version of the Hib-Tone B-side), and "Talk About the Passion", which was re-released as a single in 1988.

The success of the album scored the band its first national television appearance on Late Night with David Letterman, where they performed a new, unnamed song. The unnamed song, eventually titled "So. Central Rain", became the first single from the band's second album, Reckoning. The band once again returned to work with Easter and Dixon, spending a mere twelve days recording the album. As with their previous work, Stipe kept his lyrics ambiguous, leaving many fans guessing as to the songs' meanings. One of the clearer songs was the second single, "(Don't Go Back to) Rockville", written by Mills about a love interest who was being called back home by her parents after they had gotten wind of her disappointing grades. While mainstream radio deemed the album too uncommercial, college radio embraced it.

College rock stars

For its third album, Fables of the Reconstruction, the band demonstrated a change in direction. After considering such wide-ranging possibilities as Van Dyke Parks, Elliot Mazer, and Hugh Padgham to produce the record, the band eventually settled on Joe Boyd, perhaps best known for his work with '70s cult favorite Nick Drake. R.E.M. travelled to England, arriving just in time to enjoy a cold and rainy London winter. The band found the sessions unexpectedly difficult, causing tensions to emerge, later blamed on the weather and homesickness; the band reportedly came close to breaking up. The gloominess surrounding the sessions ended up providing the context for the album itself, influencing an album darker and drearier than the band's previous efforts. Lyrically, Stipe began to create storylines in the mode of Southern mythology, noting in a 1985 interview that he was inspired by "the whole idea of the old men sitting around the fire, passing on ... legends and fables to the grandchildren". Though Fables' singles were again mostly ignored at mainstream radio, the band found its audience at college radio continuing to grow.

For its ensuing album, the band enlisted John Mellencamp producer Don Gehman to helm the sessions. The result, Lifes Rich Pageant, was later cited by the band as the marking post for the second stage of their career. The band's music became more accessible to listeners outside the college realm, with Stipe's vocals coming closer to the forefront. Buck discussed the difference in a 1986 interview with the Chicago Tribune: "Michael is getting better at what he's doing, and he's getting more confident at it. And I think that shows up in the projection of his voice." Over the course of Lifes Rich Pageant, Stipe's lyrics touched on a wide variety of themes, with a greater emphasis on politics and the environment. "Fall On Me" covered the concerns of air pollution, while "Cuyahoga" touched on the river of the same name in Ohio, which was once so polluted that it famously caught on fire in 1969. The album also featured a cover of The Clique's "Superman", sung by Mills, which became a popular single on college radio. The album continued the trend of each album outselling its predecessor, and eventually peaked at number 21 on the Billboard album chart. Following the success of Pageant, I.R.S. issued Dead Letter Office, a compilation consisting of tracks recorded by the band during their album sessions, many of which had either been issued as B-sides or left unreleased altogether. The album featured numerous covers and concluded with an "alcohol-soaked" uncommissioned commercial for an Athens barbecue restaurant, which devolved into a cover of Roger Miller's "King Of the Road". Of the latter, Buck joked in the liner notes: "If there was any justice in the world, Roger Miller should be able to sue for what we did to this song." For the CD release, I.R.S. added Chronic Town, its first issuing in digital format. Shortly thereafter, I.R.S. compiled R.E.M.'s music video catalog (except "Wolves, Lower") as the band's first video release, Succumbs.

Rising to stardom

For their last album with I.R.S., the band entered what would become a decade-long relationship with producer Scott Litt. Again eager to make a hard-driving rock record, the band eliminated many of the elements that had played so prominently on their early albums, including Buck's arpeggios and Stipe's mumbling vocals. Reacting to the conservative political environment of the 1980s under President Ronald Reagan, the album featured some of Stipe's most openly political lyrics, particularly on "Welcome To the Occupation" and "Exhuming McCarthy". The completed album, Document, began the band's rise into the mainstream.

Document's first single, "The One I Love", caught on at Top 40 radio. In the ensuing months, listeners who misunderstood the song's meaning made the song a popular radio dedication to loved ones, relying on the main lyric, "This one goes out to the one I love." However, they missed an ensuing line: "A simple prop to occupy my time"; the song was not particularly a love song. Stipe related to Rolling Stone, "I've always left myself pretty open to interpretation. It's probably better that they just think it's a love song at this point." Despite the ambiguity, the song became the band's first major single, reaching number nine on the Billboard singles chart. The album's second single, "It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)", was an apocalyptic rant reminiscent of Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues". While not a particular success on mainstream radio, the pop-culture-laden song became a popular favorite on college radio, and the video was featured on MTV's 120 Minutes.

The band's I.R.S. years were summarized in the 1988 compilation Eponymous. The release included most of the band's singles, as well as a number of rarities, including the original version of "Radio Free Europe," a version of "Gardening At Night" with Stipe singing the song full-voice, and a version of "Finest Worksong" with horns, which Buck thought might have made Document "had instinct prevailed at the time". The album acted as a greatest hits album for the band, even though it was not labeled as such.

Warner Bros. years: 1988-1997

At the height of fame

In 1988, R.E.M. signed a five-album contract with major label Warner Bros. Records and released Green. This was the band's first experience with heavy promotion, and they toured large arenas worldwide in 1989. The band had now been brought to international attention, with radio hits like the top 10 "Stand," and continued their political interest with the anthemic "Orange Crush" and "World Leader Pretend," the first R.E.M. song to have its lyrics printed in the album sleeve. In 1990, a mid-'80s side project between Berry, Buck, Mills, and Warren Zevon, named the Hindu Love Gods, had a record of blues covers released by Giant Records without the R.E.M. members' consent or participation; a cover of Prince's 1985 hit "Raspberry Beret" received some modest radio airplay.

R.E.M. reconvened in mid-1990 to record their seventh album, Out of Time, which was released in the spring of 1991 and became the band's first chart-topping effort in both the U.S. and U.K. A lush pop album, Out of Time boasted a wider array of sounds than the group's previous efforts, including folk and classical instruments, orchestrations, and a collaboration with rapper KRS-One on the opening "Radio Song." Out of Time's hypnotic lead single, "Losing My Religion", became the group's biggest pop hit, reaching number four in the U.S., and remains arguably their best-known song. The band also scored a Top 10 hit with "Shiny Happy People," one of three songs on the album to feature vocals from Kate Pierson of fellow Athens band The B-52's. Two songs featuring Mills on lead vocals -- "Near Wild Heaven" and "Texarkana" -- received notable airplay as well. Since the band were exhausted from the Green Tour, they chose to stay off the road. Nevertheless, Out of Time became R.E.M.'s biggest album, selling more than four million copies in the US and spending two weeks at the top of the charts.

After spending some months off in 1991, R.E.M. returned to the studio quickly to record their next album. In late 1992 they released the somber, meditative Automatic for the People. Though the group had promised a harder-rocking album after the softer textures of Out of Time, Automatic for the People was, if anything, slower and quieter, with many songs graced by string arrangements by Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. Mandolin was again heard on some songs, as well as melodica and piano played by Mills. The more acoustic sound was mostly due to the influence of Buck, who had recently produced Uncle Tupelo's March 16-20, 1992. Like its predecessor, Automatic was a quadruple-platinum success, generating the Top 40 hit singles "Man on the Moon," "Drive," and Stipe's anti-suicide anthem "Everybody Hurts", the music for which was written by Berry. Receiving the band's best reviews since their debut, Automatic for the People sold 15 million copies worldwide in spite of its cryptic, melancholy lyrics, and the fact that the band again declined to tour in support of it.

After piecing together two albums in the studio, R.E.M. decided to return to acting as a rock band. Though the result was conceived as a back-to-basics album, the recording of 1994's Monster was difficult and plagued with tension. The album, R.E.M.'s ninth, featured backing vocals by Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore on one song, "Crush With Eyeliner," while "Let Me In" was a lament for Stipe's late friend Kurt Cobain. The single "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" proved to be a crossover hit, and Monster was their fastest-selling album to date, debuting at the top of the U.S. charts and earning strong reviews from critics. However, many eventually soured on the band's self-conscious foray into arena-ready glam rock, compared to the perceived depth of their previous work, while others took it as a delayed response to grunge.

Experiencing the widest popularity of their career, in January of 1995 R.E.M. set out on their first tour in six years, beginning several collaborations with prominent stage and lighting designer Willie Williams. On March 1, two months into the tour, Berry collapsed on stage during a performance in Lausanne, Switzerland. It transpired that he had suffered a brain aneurysm. He had surgery immediately and had fully recovered within a month. On May 15, R.E.M. resumed its tour in Mountain View, California, two months after Berry's aneurysm, but his illness was only the beginning of a series of health problems that plagued the Monster Tour, causing it to live up to its ironic name. Mills had to undergo abdominal surgery to remove an intestinal adhesion in July; a month later, Stipe had to have an emergency surgery to repair a hernia.

Despite all the problems, the tour was an enormous financial success, and the group had recorded the bulk of a new album while on the road. The band brought along eight-track recorders to capture their shows, and used the recordings as the base elements for the album. As such, the band's touring musicians, including Nathan December and Scott McCaughey, ended up appearing on the album. After the tour was complete, the band entered the studio and recorded the four remaining tracks.

Shortly before its release, which was going to fulfill their contract, the band re-signed with Warner Bros. Records in 1996 for what was, at the time, the largest recording contract advance in history: a reported $80 million for five albums. 1996's New Adventures in Hi-Fi, their longest album to date, was decidedly bleak and underproduced. The album featured the seven-minute "Leave," the band's longest song to date, which was composed by Berry. Another notable track on the record was its lead single "E-Bow the Letter," a collaboration with the legendary Patti Smith, who had been one of Michael Stipe's earliest influences. Critical reaction to the album was mostly favourable; however, in light of such a huge contract sum, the album marked a considerable downfall of the band's commercial success. Though it debuted at number two in the U.S. and number one in the U.K., the album failed to generate a hit single in the U.S. and has sold half of the sales of Out of Time.

Berry's departure

Also in 1996, R.E.M. parted ways with their long-time manager Jefferson Holt, allegedly due to sexual harassment charges levied against Holt by a member of the band's home office in Athens. The group's lawyer, Bertis Downs, assumed managerial duties. (Holt denied the accusations of harassment and insisted that it was an amicable separation between him and the band.)

In March 1997, the band convened at Buck's holiday home in Hawaii and began recording demos of material written in Athens the previous month. The band took the opportunity to reinvent its sound, incorporating drum machines and Buck's vintage synthesizers from the 1960s and '70s. Berry was asked to come up with some patterns on the drum machines between that point and their next meeting, which was to be in Athens in October. Seven months later, R.E.M. met up at their West Clayton Street studio to begin rehearsals for the new album and to do some recording. Berry, however, was nowhere to be seen. "They had been recording for about a week, and Bill wasn't there, and I was going, you know, 'Where's Bill? Why isn’t he here?'" explained producer John Keane on VH1's Behind the Music. In the words of narrator Jim Forbes, Bill finally does show up, but not to make music. After seventeen years in the band he loves, he tells his closest friends that he is leaving R.E.M. for good.

With his departure, the band lost more than just its drummer. Berry regularly contributed elements such as guitar, bass, vocals, keyboards, and piano on studio tracks, and made notable songwriting contributions (including "Perfect Circle," "Can't Get There From Here, "Everybody Hurts", "Man on the Moon", and "Leave"). Stipe admitted that the band will be different without a major contributor: "For me, Mike, and Peter, as R.E.M... are we still R.E.M.? I guess a three-legged dog is still a dog. It just has to learn to run differently."

Continuing as a three-piece

After taking a time-out to gather their thoughts, rest, and travel, the remaining members of R.E.M. returned to the drawing board, at Toast Studios in San Francisco, to work on its next album. They parted ways with producer Litt, ending their decade-long collaboration. In his place, the band commissioned Pat McCarthy to produce the record; he was assisted by Nigel Godrich for the engineering, fresh off his work with Radiohead's acclaimed OK Computer. Rather than hire a permanent replacement drummer, the band made use of drum machines on the album, and drafted ex-Screaming Trees drummer Barrett Martin and Beck touring drummer Joey Waronker for handling session duties.

The recording process was plagued with a great deal of tension and the group came close to disbanding completely. Also, Mills played guitar and keyboards more often than his typical bass duties, which are more often than not played by lead guitarist Buck. Led off by the single "Daysleeper", Up (1998) debuted in the top ten in the US and UK. However, the album sank quickly, reaching only gold status in both countries and producing no major radio hits. Although by this time Stipe had been singing clearly for a decade, Up was the first R.E.M. album to include complete printed lyrics, seen as a departure from the band's tradition of ambiguity. It was also their second-longest record, and its dreamy, often electronic sound apparently put off many longtime fans still mourning Berry's departure, though Berry himself considered it R.E.M.'s finest work.

A year after Up's release, R.E.M. contributed a song, "The Great Beyond", to the soundtrack of the movie Man on the Moon, which starred Jim Carrey in the life story of comedian Andy Kaufman. (The film was itself named for the 1992 R.E.M. hit that referenced Kaufman in the lyrics.) A major U.K. hit and a minor U.S. hit, "The Great Beyond" garnered greater radio airplay than any of R.E.M.'s singles from Up. The band also wrote the instrumental score for the movie, a first for the group.

Reveal and Around the Sun

R.E.M.'s 2001 album, Reveal, continued the band's more subdued tone, its folk pop songs increasingly shrouded in layers of production effects. However, it also included the hit single "Imitation of Life". Reveal included drumming by Waronker, as well as contributions by Scott McCaughey (a co-founder with Buck of the band The Minus 5) and Posies founder Ken Stringfellow, who also backed the band live in this era. R.E.M. played a series of three free concerts to promote the album. They played before 80,000 in Cologne, 20,000 in Trafalgar Square in London, England, and 20,000 on Yonge Street in downtown Toronto, Ontario. The band continued to be a major commercial force in Europe and other parts of the world, even as they began to sink back into cult status in America.

In subsequent years, the band began the soundtrack for the 2001 film Vanilla Sky. The 2003 single "Bad Day", which was featured on the "best of" compilation In Time, sold well worldwide and spawned a tour featuring both hits and obscure fan favorites.

During a 2003 concert in Raleigh, North Carolina, Berry made a surprise appearance, performing backing vocals on "Radio Free Europe". He then sat behind the drum kit for a performance of the early R.E.M. song "Permanent Vacation," marking his first performance with the band since his retirement. (Berry has since made four more live appearances with the band.)

The band returned in 2004 with Around the Sun, which met with the mildest reception of any of the thirteen albums in R.E.M.'s career at that point, receiving mixed-to-negative reviews. Stipe had suggested the new album would be "primitive and howling," and the band had released a stark political protest song called "Final Straw" free over the Internet during the invasion of Iraq, leading fans to expect a return to roots. Instead, the album (and the final recording of that song) was ultimately more processed than even Reveal, although it featured some of Stipe's most personal songwriting. Singles from Around the Sun included "Leaving New York" (a Top 5 hit in the UK), "Aftermath", "Electron Blue", and "Wanderlust".

For the record and subsequent tour, the band hired a new full-time touring drummer, Bill Rieflin, who had previously been a member of Ministry. In the band's press release for the album, Stipe noted that Buck had brought Rieflin to the band in the hopes of pulling the band in a different direction. But Rieflin is not considered a replacement for Berry, and the band remains an official three-piece. In late 2004 the band toured with Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, Bright Eyes and others on the Vote for Change Tour supporting U.S. presidential candidate John Kerry. In 2004 the band also released a set of songs via iTunes. Throughout 2005, the band embarked on their first full-length world tour since the Monster Tour ten years earlier. During the tour, R.E.M. participated in Live 8. A scheduled R.E.M. concert at the same venue - Hyde Park, London - one week later, was postponed for an additional week in the aftermath of the London terrorist bombings on July 7. Thereafter the band took a hiatus.

Recent years

EMI, which owns the I.R.S. catalogue, released a compilation album featuring some of R.E.M.'s work from the I.R.S. years on September 12 2006 called And I Feel Fine... The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987.. On the same day, a DVD entitled When The Light Is Mine: The Best Of The I.R.S. Years 1982-1987 was released. On September 16, 2006, the band, including Berry, performed during the ceremony to honor their induction into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame. While rehearsing for the ceremony, the band recorded a cover of John Lennon's "#9 Dream" for "Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur," a tribute album benefiting Amnesty International. As well as releasing the song as a single for the album and the campaign. This was Berry's first studio recording with the band since his departure almost a decade earlier.

In October 2006, R.E.M. was nominated for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility. They were one of five artists inducted from the nine nominees. The ceremony took place on March 12, 2007, at New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. They were inducted by Pearl Jam lead singer Eddie Vedder. R.E.M. (with Bill Berry present) performed four songs: "Begin the Begin", "Gardening At Night", "Man on the Moon" (with Vedder accompanying Stipe on vocals) and the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog" (with Patti Smith and Lenny Kaye). They then joined an ensemble of the other musicians inducted (and the Rolling Stones' Keith Richards) for the closing "People Have The Power".

R.E.M. has helped raise awareness of Aung San Suu Kyi and human rights violations in Burma working with the Freedom Campaign and the US Campaign for Burma. (Past music events have included the Black Eyed Peas, Damien Rice, and Wynton Marsalis.) The group has held a concert for Burma that was beamed into the country. R.E.M. is also going to be part of a concert series for Burma organized by the Freedom Campaign that will include well-known talent both nationally and internationally.

Work on the band's 14th studio album will get underway in 2007. They will work with producer Jacknife Lee for the sessions. "We are psyched to work with Jacknife Lee," bassist Mills said in a press release. "We've got a great batch of songs, and can't wait to put them down." "R.E.M. are consistently one of the Great Bands, if not the greatest," Lee said in the statement. "The new songs they've written are some of their most exciting and visceral yet. They're a beacon for any band wishing to remain honest and challenging."

The band plans to record the new album in Vancouver, Athens and Dublin, where they will be playing five nights as part of a working 'Working Rehearsal' in the historic setting of the Olympia Theatre on June 30th, July 1st, July 3rd, July 4th, and July 5th. This is an unprecedented step in the band's history and these dates are their only planned concerts for 2007. Speaking of the dates Stipe notes “Returning to Dublin for our live rehearsal this summer provides the great start we need for our next album’s work,”. “I intend to hit the ground running.” Mills says the band chose the Olympia, an historic music hall built in 1879, because of all the great shows they’ve seen there over the years: “From the Waterboys to Lou Reed. I am thrilled to play at this wonderful venue, and in front of some of the best fans in the world”. On May 3, the band's website announced that R.E.M. would work with producer Jacknife Lee and record in Vancouver for a few weeks before moving to Ireland.

Discography

Main article: R.E.M. discography

See also

• Automatic Baby
• Bertis Downs
• The Minus 5
• Tuatara
• List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Mainstream Rock chart

Further reading

• Fletcher, T. Remarks: the story of R.E.M. Omnibus, 1989. ISBN 0-7119-1813-9.
• Gray, M. It crawled from the South: an R.E.M. companion. Guinness, 1992. ISBN 0-85112-584-0.

External links

• Official R.E.M. website