R.E.M. is a hard act to follow, which explains why drummer Bill Berry has never been in another full-time band since his 1997 departure — until now. Berry has teamed with Five Eight’s Mike Mantione in The Bad Ends, whose debut album, The Power and the Glory, will be released Jan. 20 on New West […]
Four years ago, Cuban-born musician Hector Tellez Jr. was living in Havana: playing local clubs several nights a week, delivering passionate performances of well-oiled melodic blues rock. His style, merging the grit of Muddy Waters wailing on electric guitars with the tender-hearted yet mysterious air of Jeff Buckley, was not always welcomed by the locals, […]
Michael Stipe met Peter Buck in an Athens, Georgia record store in January 1980, and that fortuitous moment spawned one of the defining ‘80s bands. Joined by the rhythm section of Bill Berry and Mike Mills, R.E.M. worked up a jangly yet esoteric sound – equal parts Velvet Underground and The Byrds — that quickly became their […]
R.E.M.‘s Peter Buck and Soundgarden’s Kim Thayil joined the reunited The Black Crowes at their show in suburban Seattle at Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery Amphitheatre on Tuesday. Buck joined the band for a cover of “The One I Love,” and was joined by Thayil for a cover of The Velvet Underground‘s “Rock & Roll.” The show was […]
R.E.M. will celebrate the 40th anniversary of its classic, five-song debut EP, Chronic Town, by releasing it as a standalone CD for the first time in the U.S. on Aug. 19 via I.R.S./UMe. Augmented by extensive new liner notes from original producer Mitch Easter, the project will also be available on picture disc vinyl and […]
R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and Mike Mills are in the studio with producer Mitch Easter for the first time in more than 30 years, according to a Twitter post. The musicians are recording a new album at Easter’s Fidelitorium Recording studio in Kernersville, N.C., with The Baseball Project, their long-running group featuring former R.E.M. sideman Scott […]
This article originally appeared in the September 1999 issue of SPIN. “You must be high.” We heard that a lot during the time we spent preparing this issue. Which is understandable. Pronouncing the 90 greatest albums of the ’90s is a somewhat presumptuous thing to do. When you’re measuring the music this decade is offering to […]
In further celebration of R.E.M.‘s recently released New Adventures in Hi-Fi 25h Anniversary Edition, the iconic rockers just released a newly HD-restored video for “Electrolite.” [embedded content][embedded content] “Electrolite” is the closing track of the band’s September 1996 release, the 14-track New Adventures in Hi-Fi. The record’s 25th anniversary edition was released on October 29 this year, […]
Vinyl sales have gone up 94% this year, according to a report by the RIAA. That helps the massive flux of reissues that dotted the fall. But that’s not the good news. What really makes this column hum remains the variety of choice titles that are released on CD, and sales of that sturdy little […]
Leonard Cohen is the definition of a songwriter’s songwriter, the kind of artist you’d seldom hear on the radio, but was revered by countless musicians as one of the greatest lyricists in the world. An accomplished poet and novelist before he ever recorded an album, Cohen’s songs were vivid and literary, full of politics, dark […]