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R.E.M. Accelerate

2008-03-31T23:19:00.000-07:00

Track Listings
1. Living Well Is The Best Revenge
2. Man-Sized Wreath
3. Supernatural Superserious
4. Hollow Man
5. Houston
6. Accelerate
7. Until The Day Is Done
8. Mr. Richards
9. Sing For The Submarine
10. Horse To Water
11. I'm Gonna DJ

Editorial Reviews
Accelerate, the first studio album in four years from R.E.M., finds modern rock’s most acclaimed band returning to the stripped-down, guitar-driven power that first enraptured fans. Helmed by the band and, for the first time, Jacknife Lee (co-producer of U2’s ’05 Grammy® Album Of The Year How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, The Hives and Snow Patrol), Accelerate puts the 2007 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame group once again firmly behind the wheel of alternative rock, a genre R.E.M. helped invent.

REM playing with dinosaurs

2008-03-31T03:02:00.000-07:00

REM Big Collection. REM take dinosaurs on tour so they don't get lonely.

The US rockers have revealed they always keep plastic figures of the extinct giant reptiles with them for moral support.

Guitarist Peter Buck said: "We travel all the time and it's nice to have some friends with us. You have very few friends in this business and having little dinosaurs on stage makes me feel better, and I'm not going to be on ashamed of it."

Singer Michael Stipe admits the band - who are getting ready to release their fourteenth album 'Accelerate' - still have arguments on tour and in the studio but have learnt how to deal with their problems after 28 years together.

He added to Britain's BBC Radio 1: "We tolerate each other. I know it sounds cheesy but we really respect each other and we all have a lot of love for one another. I think we realise that our music is our lives' work.

"But I've changed a lot, I used to go off and sulk for around four or five days. I wouldn't say a word to anyone, but I would also be starving for five days. I was a vegetarian for 20 years of my life and it was hard to find good vegetarian food in the 80s when I used to disappear!"

REM - comprised of Stipe, Buck and bassist Mike Mills - was formed in 1980.

REM back in London with a bite

2008-03-27T07:44:00.000-07:00

REM Big Collection. REM are back with a bang in the UK for the first time in 3 years, promoting new album, Accelerate. They played a storming set at London’s Albert Hall on Monday night. The band relished the chance to showcase their new material alongside some much loved favourites.

To add to the audiences night, support was from Robyn Hitchcock, Foals, The Duke Spirit, and legendary Led Zeppelin bass player, John Paul Jones.

The Georgia boys played the following set:

Living Well Is The Best Revenge
Accelerate
Drive
Man Sized Wreath
Electrolite
Houston
Hollow Man
Supernatural Superserious
Final Straw
Losing My Religion
The Great Beyond
I'm Gonna DJ
Horse To Water
Imitation Of Life
Until The Day Is Done
Man On The Moon

500 lucky punters will get the chance to see them tonight in London’s Apple Store, in Regent Street, in their smallest gig for many a year.

R.E.M. frontman discusses sexuality

2008-03-24T02:49:00.000-07:00

R.E.M. - All Releases, Rare and New

R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe recently said that he believes it is important for public figures to be open about their sexuality.

The 48-year-old singer has long been candid about being gay, having been named in Out magazine's "Out 100" list of gay celebrities in 1995, and describing himself as a queer artist in a 2001 interview with Time magazine.

In a recent interview with Spin, the singer revisited the topic, saying that he was always honest about his sexuality with those close to him, and now recognizes that it is important for people in the public eye to be open about such matters.

"I was totally open with the band and my family and my friends and certainly the people I was sleeping with. I thought it was pretty obvious," Stipe said.

"Now I recognize that to have public figures be very open about their sexuality helps some kid somewhere out there."

R.E.M. are due to release their 14th studio album, Accelerate, on April 1.