R.E.M. announces they're breaking up

One of my favorite bands, from the release of "Murmur" through "Automatic for the People." I'm sad to hear the news, but count me among those who couldn't get into their work post-Bill Berry. (One notable exception to this: I was working the graveyard shift when "Up" came out, and the song "Daysleeper" sums up that experience absolutely perfectly.)

Any list of my favorite songs in the world would have to include "Nightswimming" and "Find the River," back to back on "Automatic for the People."

 

Still not going back to Rockville.

 

Could have, but then there would have been two other threads created by people who didn't get the reference.

 

Great column...

http://tunedin.blogs.time.com/2011/09/21/r-e-m-tv-they-stood-in-the-place-where-they-lived-video/

 

You can't get there from here.

 

Very sad day for me on a bunch of levels. I grew up with the band and I could listen to them practice from my dad's office in downtown Athens. It was the first band I really cared about and that hasn't changed since I was in middle school.

My sister-in-law has worked for REM since the mid-90s and Stipe and Mills were at my brother's wedding. Around Athens they were never rock stars. People went out of their way to let them be regular locals like everyone else, which I always thought was cool.

I can see how people might have thought they hadn't done much in a decade, but the most recent album, Collapse Into Now, was good and the previous one, Accelerate, was nothing short of awesome.

I don't see these guys messing around with reunion stuff. That's not their style and they sure don't need the money. That said, it wouldn't stun me if they occasionally did one of their surprise shows in Athens once every few years.

 

Sounds like Michael Stripe and Mike Mills were at odds. Saw a tweet of someone who overhear a heated discussion:

You bang, bang, bang, bang, bang,blame, blame, blame
You bang, bang, bang, bang, bang,It's not my thing so let it go

 

Bang.

 

then they don't deserve to post

 

To sum up the post-Berry era perfectly: Please go back to Rockville.

There were transcendent moments in the midst of all Stipe's often garish attempts after "Automatic For The People" and perhaps even "Monster".

"Accelerate" was in many ways a return to form, but it all sounded like stuff they had decided not to record in 1988 and brought back for an album that didn't sound like wind wooshing through a kazoo.

/Pitchforked

Seriously, I loved the band. I even bought "Reveal" which aside from two songs does sound like wind whipping through a kazoo haunted by a painful childhood.