News

WATCH MICHAEL SING “WICHITA LINEMAN” AT BOWERY IN NYC


Michael made a special guest appearance on New Year’s Eve at the Bowery Ballroom with Patti Smith and her band on the final night of their annual three-night residency at the NYC musical mecca. Smith announced that the 2011 residency would be her last at the Bowery.

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THE YEAR IN REVIEW: COLLAPSE INTO 2011


March 8, 2011, marked the release of R.E.M.’s 15th studio album, Collapse Into Now, easily one of the band’s most diverse offerings and undeniably one of their finest. The Independent, UK lauded the record for its “recurrent themes of conclusion, starting over and rebuilding [which] lend

THE YEAR IN REVIEW: COLLAPSE INTO 2011


March 8, 2011, marked the release of R.E.M.’s 15th studio album, Collapse Into Now, easily one of the band’s most diverse offerings, and undeniably one of their finest. The Independent, UK lauded the record for its “recurrent themes of conclusion, starting over and rebuilding [which] lend

R.E.M. AMONG OLOGY’S “MUSICIANS OF THE YEAR”


The band has been named one of Ology.com’s “Musicians of the Year” in the cultural website’s ongoing “Year in Review” rollout:

A lot of great bands called it quits in 2011, but none with the same level of accomplishment, integrity, and influence as Athens, GA’s original alternative rock heroes: R.E.M. Over

END-OF-YEAR POSTCARD FROM THE BREAK


Today, three days from the end of the year 2011, I am thinking a lot in threes: three decades of life with R.E.M., three guys at the end, three is a good number. Favorite things are sometimes hard to isolate–threes are easier at least for me:

So . . .three

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GQ.COM WEIGHS IN ON R.E.M.’S SPLIT IN “THE YEAR IN MUSIC”


Chris Heath takes a look at the implications of the band’s split in the following essay from GQ.com’s look back at the year in music:

And millions of Americans are surprised to find themselves suddenly remembering, as though awakening from a trance, how much they used to love R.E.M. How simultaneously

NY TIMES FEATURE: “MICHAEL STIPE IS NOT GRUMPY”


Here’s an excerpt from Michael’s recent interview with the NY Times:

NY Times: A member of R.E.M. once said that in the early days you guys drank a lot and took a lot of speed. Listening to the older songs on your new retrospective, “Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part

SPIN LOOKS BACK AT OUT OF TIME


Spin.com is currently featuring a recap of their Top 20 albums of 1991. The list includes such notables as Nirvana’s Nevermind, Pearl Jam’s Ten, The Pixies Trompe le Monde as well as R.E.M.’s Out Of Time. Check it out at spin.com.

BID ON MICHAEL’S PHOTO OF PATTI SMITH TO BENEFIT PRC BOSTON


Bids are currently being accepted at artnet.com on a photograph Michael took of Patti Smith in 1995 (the photo was featured in Michael’s book Two Times Intro: On the Road with Patti Smith. Proceeds from the auction will benefit the Photographic Resource Center (PRC) at Boston

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WEEKEND ROUNDUP: PETER BUCK, COLLAPSE INTO NOW & OTHER ODDS AND ENDS


Check out this weekend’s roundup below with the latest on Peter Buck, Collapse Into Now, “Losing My Religion,” R.E.M. Tributes, and Todos Santos:

PETER BUCK: IN THE NEWS

In honor of Peter’s birthday earlier this week on December 6th, we’ve posted the great photo above of him in Buck Snort, TN.

PETER’S CHARITY EVENT


http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2011/12/rems-peter-buck-to-host-charity-music-festival.html

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WE THREE KEANES RELEASE CHRISTMAS ALBUM


We Three Keanes, a group consisting of producer/engineer/musician and longtime R.E.M. friend John Keane and his 17-year-old daughters Paige and Rachel, have released their debut album, O Christmas, Where Art Thou?, a gorgeously-crafted collection of nine traditional holiday songs rendered in a sparse, folky style, with mostly acoustic instruments and