We have just a short time until the remastered version of Fables of the Reconstruction, R.E.M.’s third album, hits the stores. The bonus goodie for this one will be a set of demos the band did before they headed to London to make the record.

As I said before, there was some consternation from some R.E.M. fans because so many demos already exist. This set does seem to represent something new for the band’s vast catalog. I didn’t find any of the versions I have heard familiar.

I really like this because the live sets released with the first two remastered CDs were widely available. I did like getting a cleaner version of them, but a few songs disappeared, presumably due to royalty issues.

Either way, I like that this new disc will have something really new. I also like the way I have been able to find this out – 25 different web sites are apparently being used to release songs online to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Fables.

So you can hear the demo versions of “Can’t Get There From Here” on the Entertainment Weekly site or “Auctioneer” on the Consequence of Sound site.

I’m not going to list all 25 here because I’m lazy and haven’t even found all of them yet, but if you Google the album’s title, you can probably track most of them down. Or you can just buy the album when it comes out in less than two weeks.