Artist bio

In the '80s and '90s, when underground rock music on independent labels exploded with word-of-mouth popularity and critical acclaim and the opposing audience for mainstream pop also surged ahead to new levels of commercial enormity, a four-piece rock and roll band from Athens, Ga. forged an unforgettable career out of walking the line between the two.

R.E.M. was the acceptable edge of the unacceptable stuff; the hard-working college-rock band loved by critics from the start, and recommended by those in the know, until its gradually growing fanbase eventually made it one of the biggest rock bands in the world.

Throughout its career parabola -- from the raw, Southern art-rock of the early '80s to the singles-driven widescreen pop monoliths of its middle age, and down the slope of commercial success to the post-Bill Berry years -- R.E.M. has made engaging, self-respecting pop-rock songs and albums, staking out its claim as not the best rock band of its day, but one of the most consistent, and well-aging of its peer group.

R.E.M. also helped bring the concept of college-rock, or alternative rock, to the public consciousness. During its formative years, despite such accolades as its full-length debut Murmur being named top album of 1983 by Rolling Stone magazine, the band was largely ignored by commercial radio. But the R.E.M. bandwagon kept rolling and picking up new acolytes, largely due to the group's tireless touring schedule, and the embrace of college radio stations, which gave the band heavy airplay throughout the '80s. They were the visible face of this expansion of the music industry, in which bands that weren't incredibly popular by major-label standards could succeed by appealing to an "alternative" fanbase.

Ironically, as much as the band exemplified alternative rock, their subsequent crossover into mainstream pop stardom helped render that concept nearly obsolete. One could hardly call such latter-day R.E.M. albums like Out Of Time and Automatic For The People (each quadruple platinum) "alternatives," as would be the case with bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam, dubbed with similar tags in the early '90s even as they topped the Billboard charts.

But name-calling aside, R.E.M.'s catalog, now some 13 albums strong, is one of the more accomplished of the modern rock era. And the apparent key to the group's success is that over two decades and counting, its members have always made the music that they wanted to make; what kept them interested and excited about rock. That in itself should be a fitting legacy.

Albums by this artist

Reveal (2001)

Up (1998)

New Adventures In Hi-Fi (1996)

Monster (1994)

Automatic For The People (Recommended) (1992)

Out Of Time (1991)

Fables Of The Reconstruction (1985)

Reckoning (1984)

Murmur (Recommended) (1983)

Chronic Town (Recommended) (1982)

Concerts

August 31, 1999
Chastain Park Amphitheater, Atlanta

August 20, 1999
New World Music Theatre, Tinley Park, Ill.

R.E.M.

Chronic Town

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» TROY CARPENTER | CO-DIRECTOR

NATN Recommended R.E.M. Chronic Town IRS, 1982 RiYL: The Soft Boys, Let's Active, Echo & The Bunnymen

Released after R.E.M.'s debut single "Radio Free Europe" and before their breakthrough debut album Murmur, Chronic Town shows the quartet bursting fully formed out of the southern underground. While the EP doesn't quite sound like any other R.E.M. release, it provided an early glimpse of the inventiveness and passion that would endear the band to college rock and "alternative" listeners throughout the '80s.

Chronic Town remains a rewarding listen 20 years after its creation, as its five songs don't really lend themselves to easy comparisons. Peter Buck's ringing arpeggios, Bill Berry's enthusiastic drumming, Michael Stipe's cryptic lyrics and insistent melody lines and Mike Mills' finely-attuned sense of dark harmony combined to create a unique mixture. The resulting tunes owe vaguely to the southern rock tradition as updated by bands like the DBs and Let's Active (whose Mitch Easter produced Chronic Town in his Winston Salem, NC garage), but also shine with the D.I.Y. spirit and slapdash creativity of R.E.M. favorites like Wire and the Velvet Underground.

All five songs are great in their own right, with the punky riffage of "1,000,000" and the classic descending melody line on "Gardening At Night" both serving as benchmarks for early R.E.M. styles. But the real treats are "Wolves, Lower," a hauntingly catchy song that stands out for its persistent bridge and call-and-response chorus, and the oddity "Stumble," which features one of Berry's most elaborate drum parts woven around a repetitive, minor-key figure as Stipe mumbles chopped phrases and even throws in a spoken-word middle eight drenched in echo.

Easter's production gives the record a lo-fi feel that has allowed it to age like a nice red wine. Although Stipe's vocals aren't always as murky as most critics contend, no one instrument or melodic component ever overwhelms the others, and while the record deftly captures the feel of dark southern evening in a small college town, it sounds as if it could just as easily have been recorded in the mid-'60s by a progressive garage band or even much later as "lo-fi" became a mantra for '90s alternative pop bands (of course, a lot of those bands wouldn't have ever come into existence without the early efforts of the boys from Athens).

It's only an EP, but this is R.E.M.'s effective debut. As strong as all the songs are, the record shows more promise than a lot of bands' full-length efforts. A bit unassuming, but quite lovable, Chronic Town heralds the arrival of one of the greatest rock bands of the '80s and '90s.

TROY CARPENTER | Troy Carpenter founded NATN from a Chicago apartment during the ambitious winter of 1998 with co-conspirators Ben French and Jonathan Cohen. After a five-year stint in New York, he and wife Lourdes have recently relocated to Indianapolis, where he spends days listening to music and nights in the kitchen at Elements restaurant. Musical heroes: Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, Super Furry Animals. What else makes life worth living: Sushi, Phucty, runs in the park, and the Atlanta Braves.