The Water Cooler
See other The Water Cooler Articles
Title: ‘America’s Best Rock & Roll Band’ R.E.M. Calls It Quits
Source:
Calgary Herald
URL Source: http://www.calgaryherald.com/Americ ... calls+quits/5438323/story.html
Published: Sep 21, 2011
Author: Calgary Herald
Post Date: 2011-09-21 18:54:18 by Brian S
Keywords: None
Views: 2076
Comments: 3
R.E.M, once dubbed “America’s Best Rock & Roll Band,” said Wednesday they decided to “call it a day” after more than 30 years of generating hits and selling millions of records. Key members of the band, whose hits include The One I Love and Losing My Religion, addressed fans in a posting on their website, thanking them for their loyalty and saying they have astonished even themselves with their accomplishments. “To our Fans and Friends: As R.E.M., and as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band. “We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished. To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening,” the band said in its posting. R.E.M , made up of singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bass player Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry, have released 15 albums since forming in 1980. Their most recent Collapse Into Now was released earlier this year. The band broke through the ranks of other rock acts in the early 1980s when they became a sensation on the U.S. college circuit singing their hit Radio Free Europe. Their debut album, 1983’s Murmur, helped them build a cult following among America’s youth, and they crossed over to mainstream success with 1987 hit single, The One I Love off the album Document. In December of 1987, Rolling Stone magazine put the band on its cover and dubbed it “America’s Best Rock & Roll Band,” and after that came years of successive hits. “A wise man once said — ‘the skill in attending a party is knowing when it’s time to leave.’ We built something extraordinary together. We did this thing. And now we’re going to walk away from it,” Stipe said in the statement. Bassist Mills said that while making Collapse Into Now and on their recent tour to support the album, the band mates began asking themselves what would come next. They felt that the songs from that record drew “a natural line” between their work as a group and their future as individual artists. “We have always been a band in the truest sense of the word. Brothers who truly love, and respect, each other. We feel kind of like pioneers in this — there’s no disharmony here, no falling-outs, no lawyers squaring-off. We’ve made this decision together, amicably and with each other’s best interests at heart. The time just feels right,” Mills said. R.E.M.’s Influence R.E.M. have “called it a day.” But in 31 years and 15 albums, the rock band has left behind a musical legacy — one that’s been influencing other artists for decades already. Here are just a few of the other musicians who’ve become legends in their own right, partly thanks to the Athens, Ga. band. Radiohead R.E.M. has been a long-standing inspiration for Radiohead — influencing more than just Thom Yorke’s dance moves. During R.E.M.’s Monster era, the band asked Radiohead to open for them on a series of European dates — and it was around then that the two groups formed a lasting mutual admiration society. Learning that Michael Stipe was a Radiohead fan, Thom Yorke wrote the following in a 1995 tour diary for Q Magazine: “First gig with R.E.M. Mr. Stipe comes in before the show to say hello. ‘Hi, I’m Michael. I’m really glad you could do this. I’m a very big fan.’ Wonder how many times I will run this through my brain after today. I’ve never believed in hero worship and so on, but I have to admit to myself that I’m fighting for breath. I’ve had moments in the past two years when time has completely curved and space became a Hitchcock camera trick. At these moments, barriers seem to break in my head and I never see anything in the same way again. And for days and days all I want to do is run around jumping into people’s earshot waving my hands up and down like Bjork and pulling faces. This is one of those moments.” Pavement The lo-fi heroes dedicated their song “Unseen Power of the Picket Fence” to R.E.M. and in a 1995 interview for Spin, Pavement’s Bob Nastanovich talked about how R.E.M.’s early records contributed to his becoming a musician. “When I was 15 years old in Richmond, Virginia, they were a very important part of my life,” said Nastanovich, “as they were for all members of our band. (Frontman Stephen) Malkmus was heavy into them when he went to school in Charlottesville (at the University of Virginia). I bet (guitarist Scott) Kannberg bought Monster the day it came out and played it ten times. (Drummer Steven) West was even in an R.E.M. sound-alike band. They were always this uniting force.” Courtney Love In that same 1995 Spin article Courtney Love, a one-time Seattle neighbour of R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, told the magazine that the band’s music gives her a feeling of “well-being.” And we can only assume she hadn’t spun one of their records in awhile because she also “crowed” the following to the magazine: “Michael Stipe is the sexiest man in America by a f...king country mile and if he ever decides to breed, I would appreciate being in the top five. In fact, I demand it.” The Strokes For The Strokes’ current album Angles — which, incidentally, was released in March just like R.E.M.’s last disc, Collapse Into Now — frontman Julian Casablancas was reportedly inspired by R.E.M.’s ‘80s output. In an interview for NME, Casablancas said album track “You’re So Right” was directly influenced by the band. “I had some early R.E.M. vibes for a minute or two,” he said. “It’s a darker one. It counters some of the happy vibes on the other tracks.” Pearl Jam Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder introduced R.E.M. when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. As the rock frontman admitted in a keynote speech, he’s such a fan he’d listened to R.E.M.’s 1983 debut album Murmur “1,260 times . . . even though you can’t understand a f*cking thing (Michael Stipe) is saying.” Nirvana There are few famous R.E.M. fans more vocal than Nirvana, and frontman Kurt Cobain even reportedly planned to collaborate with Michael Stipe before his death in 1994. In a 2008 column for Seattle Weekly, Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic wrote about how R.E.M. made an impact on his band when they were just starting out. “I liked their sound right away, and was drawn into the excellent pop songcraft,” Novoselic wrote, describing the first time he heard an R.E.M. album, 1988’s Document. “They showed you could be a big band and promote an awareness about the world.” — Leah Collins, Postmedia News
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Brian S (#0)
....15 years after America called it quits on REM (laughing)
Proxy IP's are amusing.....lmao
While stipulating that R.E.M is indeed a very good band, a band whose repitwo, er repatoo, er SONG LIST is 90% ballads is not a rock and roll band.
America...My Kind Of Place... "I truly am not that concerned about [bin Laden]..." "THE MILITIA IS COMING!!! THE MILITIA IS COMING!!!" I lurk to see if someone other than Myst or Pookie posts anything...
Sounds like the ... red hot chili peppers --- grunge - heroin rock !
If you ... don't use exclamation points --- you should't be typeing ! Commas - semicolons are for girlie boys !
‘America’s Best Rock & Roll Band’ R.E.M. Calls It Quits
#2. To: Brian S (#0)
--GW Bush
--Sarah Palin's version of "The Midnight Ride of Paul revere"
#3. To: Brian S (#0)
whose hits include The One I Love and Losing My Religion,
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]