NPR:

The members of the legendary rock group R.E.M. have announced the band is breaking up. The group just posted an announcement on its website: "To our Fans and Friends: As R.E.M., and as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band. We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished. To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening."

R.E.M.'s announcement comes several months after the band released its best album in more than a decade, Collapse Into Now, and nearly 30 years after its 1983 debut, Murmur.


MIKE MILLS

"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.

"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."

MICHAEL STIPE

"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.

"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."

PETER BUCK

"One of the things that was always so great about being in R.E.M. was the fact that the records and the songs we wrote meant as much to our fans as they did to us. It was, and still is, important to us to do right by you. Being a part of your lives has been an unbelievable gift. Thank you.

"Mike, Michael, Bill, Bertis, and I walk away as great friends. I know I will be seeing them in the future, just as I know I will be seeing everyone who has followed us and supported us through the years. Even if it's only in the vinyl aisle of your local record store, or standing at the back of the club: watching a group of 19-year-olds trying to change the world."

well, I'm a huge fan, but I'm not surprised or sad about this at all...

I've liked more than a few tunes off the last couple albums but it's probably for the best.

Helluva career.

This just ups the probability of Mills showing up in Athens bars more often scouting college poon.

Those early albums were really great and mean a lot to me. I still listen to them a lot.
The band is a class act and I wish them the best.
Good for them!

R.E.M. was THE band that introduced me to left-of-the-dial pop rock via Document. I spent much of the late 80s and early 90s with Murmur, Reckoning, Lifes Rich Pageant, Document, Eponymous, Green and Out of Time. I basically left them behind after Bill Berry left the band. I've heard Automatic for the People and Monster, but that's where I ended my fandom. The only thing I regret is that I never saw them play live, and I was even living in Athens when they played their "secret" Georgia Theatre show around 2001 or so.

They had a good run, but had obviously run out of great songs long ago. The timing is appropriate.

Yeah, in reality, they had ceased being a really innovative or even cool band right around the time I enrolled at UGA (a year after Monster made them a fucking 96 Rock staple)

I respect the fuck out of them. They MADE the "Athens" that most music geeks dream about. And I sold Stipe some American Spirits.

Also - the one thing I always think of when I think of REM is Stipe's "you cannot acknowledge you know who I am" attitude - best exemplified by The Great Yail Bloor Standoff, and my friend Lamont threatening to beat the brakes off him at The 40 Watt.

I need to know more

I'll let Bloor fill in the details, but apparently there was Some Dispute Over T-Shirt sales between them at some point, and he would encounter Stipe at bars and shows, and Stipe would give him The 1000 Yd. Stare.

cheers to them for writing some great fucking music in the early-mid years. still very personal and important to me.

throwing on Murmur.

always enjoyed them. not many bands have the kind of 20-year run that they did.

I'm rocking Fables right now.

Who says prayer doesn't work?

Saw them live a few times in High School post Murmur. Met Mills before a show, and he was way cool. Talked for a while and and told us Minutemen were great and we should check them out at the opening. Ended up meeting Di Boon and got his autograph. Fan ever since but only casual from Out of Time up to New Adventures and done after that.

All-Time Top 10 American band, possibly even Top 5.

Respect their decsion to end now, even though their last couple of albums have been solid.

Regret never having seen them live.

Nothing sad here. I mean, I really loved and still love a few of their early albums but there is absolutely no reason for them to keep at it at this point. Sure, the more recent albums aren't terrible but "not terrible" is never something a band that was one of the greats of their era should have to settle for.

True, but you did get to see the Police in concert.

Also: the expressions of affection to close the band down seem eerily like Sleater-Kinney's, the break-up of which was also the 'amicable' parting of friends from a one-time rock n' roll backwater. Turns out, there was considerable more animus than that, with Corin Tucker the David Lee Roth to Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss's Van Halen Brothers. So, let's just say I will not be surprised when Stipe and Mills rejoin each other for a new project.

Another band I don't really like but respect the hell out of.

They should have done this about ten years ago, but the good in their catalog still far outweighs the bad. Something you can't say for a lot of bands that stuck around for as long as they did.

When I first moved to Athens, I was at the 40 Watt with Ryan Lewis (of Kindercore Records semi-fame) seeing Man or Astroman (pretty sure The Woggles opened); Stipe was standing in front of us and Ryan was just basically talking shit about Stipe. Stipe kept turning around and looking at us. Honestly, I didn't say shit (although to be fair, I didn't tell him to shut the fuck up either), but for the next 6 years I had to endure the laser stare anytime I was within 100 yards of the guy. Which, as it turns out, was all the fucking time.

so, it's the end of this band as you know it and you feel fine?

yes, synchronicity tour

november 1983 at the southpark meadows in austin

outdoor venue - froze my man boobs off (though i was rail thin back then - my senior year of high school)

opening acts were ub40 and joe "king" carrasco and the crowns

Like discostu, I was first stricken with Document. It along with Murmur are my favorites. Unlike many, I don't mind Monster at all. I still think "Unseen Power of the Picket Fence" is the greatest song written about a band...ever.

I had a chance to see them around 95-96 with, of all people, Radiohead opening. It was an average show.

huh. They were still together?

Respect 'em. I'll leave it at that.