Was saddened to hear that REM had announced they were breaking up. Sad that they wouldn’t be playing again? Uh, no. I cant remember the last time they were absolutely essential. Decent stuff, sure sure, but not the break down the doors/get in line @ Tower records variety. Sad that they felt the need to announce they were breaking up, as if to preface first, that they were still a band, but that no, they were hanging it up.
The reaction? Well many stopped listening a while back and seem to be making light of their slight output. Others don’t believe that they’re calling it quits, and see a 5 yr or 10 yr reunion down the road.
My reaction when I heard this, and was waiting for Arcade Fire to take the stage at a free concert, before 101,000 locals in the center of Montreal was…. “why do bands bother setting dates, or alerting the world that they’re around, and going to be doing something?” In this day and age, bands– the individual artists, are constantly doing solo stuff, collaborating, and then reuniting as a collective when it makes sense. Check out what Danger Mouse is doing, or Thurston Moore, or the extended family known as Broken Social Scene. So why bother?
And seeing the extended family that is Arcade Fire, I see a little bit of REM… the ability to transform audiences, the civic pride, the respect for their elders…the way REM would give props to Patti Smith and Pere Ubu. When Arcade Fire call it quits, I see them at best, taking a hiatus, the individuals already tend to weave in and out of projects. Over the long week that was Pop Montreal, they popped up five times: live indoors, live outdoors, on the big screen in the film accompaniment to “Suburbs”, in a Pop v Jock celebrity basketball game, and at the closing party, in disguise as “Phi Slamma Jamma”, a 70s covers band featuring every member of the band except the married couple.
The reality is that the members of REM have been prodigious, and will continue to do so, whether the band is officially a band, or on temporary/long term hiatus. Michael Stipe will continue to guest, Peter Buck and Mike Mills involved in a raft of fascinating side projects. In fact, over the last few days, despite being gone, they’ve already popped up into collective consciousness. I interviewed John Wesley Harding— his latest album, due out in October, features a collaboration with Scott McCaughey and Peter Buck of the Minus Five. Yes, that Peter Buck who will be going on tour with WES, along with some of the Decemberists. And I met a rowdy bunch of musicians from Atlanta, the Carnivores, a band with a big upside, who couldn’t stop giving kudos to their mentor, one Bill Berry, who is very much a musical force behind the scenes. So the rumors of REM’s demise may in fact be quite exaggerated. Less top of line relevant? Perhaps. Active? Yes. Which begs the question. Why bother breaking up when you live in a world where no one is actively dating.
– Dennis Shin
