# R.E.M. Breakup Announced
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m-breakup-announced/597093
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 21, 2011, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m-breakup-announced/597093 "2011-09-21T18:03:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Stormcrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stormcrow)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2011, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m-breakup-announced/597093/41 "2011-10-20T12:47:24Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#):
>
> 1. They didn’t even release Chronic Town EP until '82.
Thats what I was remembering - I saw REM in the fall of '84 as a freshman in college, and I thought it was the tour for their first album.
It was just about the only concert I can point back to and say, “look! I was cool, 'cause I saw this awesome band back when they were playing in tiny venues!”
The two missed opportunities to have another couple stories are:
a) The Landing in St. Louis in about 1987 or 88; “Soundgarden? Thats a stupid name for a band. Lets find a place with cheaper beer,” and
b) Some club in Palo Alto, California where I remember seeing posters for Nirvana, maybe 6 months to a year before the release of Nevermind. I don’t even have as good of an excuse as “cheap beer” for not going to that one.
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### Author:  [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2011, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m-breakup-announced/597093/42 "2011-10-20T13:24:01Z")
> [@hajario](#):
>
> Why would they even need to make an announcement? Just stop playing.
[The 40 track, 2 Disc, Career Retrospective](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Part_Lies,_Part_Heart,_Part_Truth,_Part_Garbage_1982%E2%80%932011) is set for release promptly at the start of the Christmas Shopping Season.
One must set the stage for this kind of thing.
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### Author:  [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2011, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m-breakup-announced/597093/43 "2011-10-20T13:36:16Z")
The first time I heard R.E.M. was on Saturday Night Live when they performed ‘‘Losing My Religion’’ and ‘‘Shiny Happy People.’’ I was pretty young. I thought they were weird, and I was right. They were awesomely weird. Their music reminds me of my schizophrenic uncle. In a good way.
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2011, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m-breakup-announced/597093/44 "2011-10-20T13:36:34Z")
> [@Stormcrow](#):
>
> It was just about the only concert I can point back to and say, “look! I was cool, 'cause I saw this awesome band back when they were playing in tiny venues!”
Once I almost saw Dave Matthews Band in Athens before they were huge, but had to settle for the fiddler as the rest of the band didn’t show up.
Now if I only like DMB, I’d have a great instead of okay story to tell.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2011, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m-breakup-announced/597093/45 "2011-10-20T14:40:57Z")
I was surprised when I heard about it, although with most people agreeing they lost steam a long time ago, some of that was ‘why now?’ But it’s a good excuse for me to dig into their older stuff- I happened to stumble across the Dead Letter Office compilation at a store a few weeks ago and later I downloaded Reckoning, Fables of the Reconstruction, Document, and Green. I’ve had Automatic for the People and Lifes Rich Pageant for a long time and Murmur for a couple of years, and I had Monster on tape way back when. I re-bought that one, too. So it’ll take a while to go through all of that.
> [@WordMan](#):
>
> +1 - my line is that when Stipe became intelligible, I stopped listening - I mean, “two-headed calf/ Pilgrimage”? What the heck does that word salad mean? But I love those songs.
You quit on them kind of early- that’s from the first full album. 😉 But yeah, that’s a bewildering lyrics and it’s a great example of how music can carry a lot of meaning even if the words don’t mean anything.
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### Author:  [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2011, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m-breakup-announced/597093/46 "2011-10-20T16:45:09Z")
> [@Stormcrow](#):
>
> The two missed opportunities to have another couple stories are:
>
> a) The Landing in St. Louis in about 1987 or 88; “Soundgarden? Thats a stupid name for a band. Lets find a place with cheaper beer,” and
Just a quick hijack to mention that the Landing is referenced in one of my favorite Wilco songs, “Heavy Metal Drummer.”
“I sincerely miss those heavy metal bands
I used to go see on the Landing in the summer.”
Carry on…
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### Author:  [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2011, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m-breakup-announced/597093/47 "2011-10-20T17:03:37Z")
> [@bienville](#):
>
> [The 40 track, 2 Disc, Career Retrospective](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Part_Lies,_Part_Heart,_Part_Truth,_Part_Garbage_1982%E2%80%932011) is set for release promptly at the start of the Christmas Shopping Season.
> One must set the stage for this kind of thing.
One of the new tracks is available for [download](http://www.amazon.com/We-All-Back-Where-Belong/dp/B005RTT6XG/ref=sr_shvl_album_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319129946&sr=301-1) as a single (also available on iTunes). Pretty textbook late-period R.E.M., though the AM Gold-style horns are a nice touch.
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### Author:  [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)
#### Post date: [November 17, 2011, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m-breakup-announced/597093/48 "2011-11-17T18:11:02Z")
_bump_ this thread to share a link to an NPR/All Things Considered interview with Stipe and Mills on the band, the retirement and life going forward. Well done.
[http://www.npr.org/2011/11/16/142392387/r-e-m-r-i-p](http://www.npr.org/2011/11/16/142392387/r-e-m-r-i-p)
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