The new live CD/DVD from R.E.M. comes out next week, but that’s not the big news coming out of Athens. The band lent a song from its planned 2008 release to a CNN special on global warming. I have no quibble with the band’s politics. In fact, one of the reasons I like them, but […]
Fifteen years ago tomorrow, the history of R.E.M. took a major turn. “Automatic for the People” was released. The band’s eighth album and the followup to the hugely successful “Out of Time,” Automatic is probably one of the most acclaimed album’s in the foursome’s history. Not only has it made a ton of lists as […]
With more than 27 years passed, you would think almost every piece of R.E.M. history would be well out there in the public eye, especially with the band’s support of Internet release of live tracks. You can get pretty much every show recorded back in the early days somewhere. A year or so agao, the […]
Eighteen years and four days ago, I went to great lengths to go see R.E.M. at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. I don’t remember a ton about the show, partially because it was the second time I saw them on the “Green” tour, partially cause I probably drank a fair amount and partially because the […]
I really didn’t know what to write about today. I haven’t blogged all week because it’s just been an insane week. We spent the weekend in New York for an early anniversary trip, watching the U.S. Open. You can read more about the trip in this week’s Hobo Trashcan column. So I’m sitting here struggling […]
R.E.M. must know that I started this weekly feature because it was reported today that the new album is “two-thirds to three-quarters of the way through,” according to bass player Mike Mills. With the new live album set for release in October and Mills intimating that about a month of work in the studio remains, […]
I’m going to try and start something new and make an R.E.M.-related post on Fridays, with the theme “It’s the End of the Week as We Know It.” This week is a perfect week to start since the band announced this week that they will release a new album on Oct. 18. That’s awesome, right? […]
I am a pretty big R.E.M. fan. I have all their CDs, lots of special releases and a bunch of bootlegs. I have seen them in concert seven times, know a lot of useless trivia about them and have bought some cool merchandise on eBay to decorate my basement. But I just learned one of […]
The boys from Athens are working on their new album. They recorded up in Vancouver for a month or so, but last week held five nights of “working rehearsals” in Dublin. These shows were not shows as Michael Stipe pointed out regularly from the stage. The band worked through 11 new songs, some of which […]
Now this is the kind of weather I can get behind. When the sun shines like this, all I can think of are care free days, drinking something cold and listening to good music. While I generally abhor columns that are lists, I couldn’t resist this time. I wish I have had more to choose […]