R.E.M. Breaks Up After 31 Years
According to Rollingstone.com, R.E.M., the legendary Athens, Ga. band that helped define alternative rock in the 1980s and 1990s, has broken up after over three decades.
“During our last tour, and while making Collapse Into Now and putting together this greatest hits retrospective, we started asking ourselves, ‘what next’? Working through our music and memories from over three decades was a hell of a journey. We realized that these songs seemed to draw a natural line under the last 31 years of our working together,” said bassist Mike Mills. “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.”
“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,” said Michael Stipe. “I hope our fans realize this wasn’t an easy decision; but all things must end, and we wanted to do it right, to do it our way. We have to thank all the people who helped us be R.E.M. for these 31 years; our deepest gratitude to those who allowed us to do this. It’s been amazing.”
I’ll be writing more about this tomorrow. Regardless of whether they truly knew when it was time to leave the party, their influence and our gratitude for their best work is immeasurable.
– Lang
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
It’s the end of the world as we know it, but I feel fine. – That pretty much sums up how I feel about this news.
POLL: Are you going to miss R.E.M. now that they’ve broken up?
Vote: http://www.wepolls.com/p/2845286