I hadn’t intended on writing about the breakup of R.E.M. again but then I heard an interview with Michael Stipe and Mike Mills and got to thinking about the future of rock music. Specifically, will there ever be a new era of “The Big Rock Band”? You May Also Like:Read More

October 14, 1983. It was a long time ago. It was the one and only night I was lucky enough to see R.E.M. in concert. You May Also Like: Why R.E.M.’s ‘Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage’ Remains Definitive Why R.E.M.’s ‘Live at the Olympia’ Showed They WereRead More

It’s amazing to me that we’re still talking about the band so many years later, even if it’s because R.E.M. has called it quits.

by Mark Saleski When R.E.M. toured on the Murmur record, they were the darlings of college radio. That’s certainly where I first heard them. “Radio Free Europe” and “Catapult” were getting a lot of airplay, and the band received some enthusiastic press reports You May Also Like: Why R.E.M.’s ‘LiveRead More

by Tom Johnson The great Grant Lee Buffalo may have been long gone, but the heart was always just the voice and guitar of Phillips anyway, wasn’t it? In between takes as Gilmore Girls’ resident town troubador, Phillips found a few free moments to record this stripped down tribute toRead More

The early Warner Bros.-focused ‘In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988–2003’ does a great job of exploring a period I refer to as the band’s Adult Years.

NICK DERISO: News that jangle-pop favorites the dBs (featuring on-again, off-again New Orleans resident Peter Holsapple) have gotten together to put down some new tracks brought me back to 1991’s “Mavericks,” a thoughtful record that would have sounded perfectly at home on an early 1980s college-rock station. Holsapple and ChrisRead More