at a glance...

Hometown: Athens, GA
Year Formed: 1980

Members:
Mike Mills -bass, vocals
Peter Buck -guitars
Michael Stipe -vocals
Bill Berry -drums

Bands in the Family:
Tuatara, Hindu Love Gods, Robyn Hitchcock, U2, Patti Smith, Radiohead, Vic Chesnutt, 10,000 Maniacs, KRS-One, Billy Bragg, Drivin' and Cryin', Fleshtones, Grant Lee Buffalo, Patti Smith, Warren Zevon, Neneh Cherry, B-52s, Golden Palominos, Kristin Hersh, Butter 08, Smashing Pumpkins, Oh OK, the Db's, the Troggs.

Notes:
In the wake of punk and new wave, the garage band sound of the Chronic Town EP, released in 1982,was R.E.M.'s first taste of critical worship,something that washed over into 1983 when the band's full length debut Murmur was universally considered the best album of the year. R.E.M. spent the early half of the '80s as a college radio station staple at universities across America, releasing at least one album a year on I.R.S. Records. On the heels of their top-five single "The One I Love," 1987's Documentallowed the band to break through to a mainstream audience for the first time. The band's exodus to major label Warner Bros. allowed their unique sound to reach an even bigger audience, as 1989's Greencontinued garnering critical praise for the band while selling over a million records. The '90s saw R.E.M assume the role of global super-group, as Out OfTime, Automatic For The People, Monster, and New Adventures In Hi-Fi proved. Things briefly came to a halt in 1997, however, as founding member and drummer Bill Berry decided to quit the band after a severe illness. Amid speculation that this meant their demise, the remaining three members decided to keep playing and released their eleventh studio album, Up,in 1998. They finished the decade by writing the musical score for the Andy Kaufman biopic, "Man On The Moon," named after one of their songs.

Links:
We Love R.E.M.

This is an R.E.M. tired of the jangle thing, bored of the "it's so cool that you can't understand the lyrics" knock; I saw them on the "Preconstruction" tour before this album came out, and it was clear that they were out to prove that they could in fact kick ass. And there's a lot of ass-kicking here, from the muscly three-note riff that opens the opener "Feeling Gravity's Pull" to the whoop-it-up "Can't Get There From Here" to the flat-out stomp of "Auctioneer (Another Engine)." Oh, sure, maybe some of these songs could easily have fit on Murmur or Reckoning ("Green Grow the Rushes" being the most blatant example), but a lot of it sounds like it came, like the best rock 'n' roll, straight from Mars. Why is Old Man Kensey so creepy, in the song that bears his name? Why, when you greet a stranger, should you "look at her shoes," as "Good Advices" advises us? And why, if Mills has been there and knows the way, does Stipe say we can't get there from here?

Rarely has an album been more aptly titled. Fables of the Reconstruction is about storytelling and trains and the South and music and the whole enterprise is shot through with the feeling that we're lost so badly that we might never never get back. Who is "we"? The "we" is Dixie on "Wendell Gee," with its plaintive banjo; "we" means America itself on the amazing "Driver 8" ("we can reach our destination/but we're still a ways away") and the almost-as-amazing "Life and How to Live It;" and "we" means the band itself on "Feeling Gravity's Pull," with its ominous we-ain't-no-mumble-band string section ending. But the whole album is saved from concept hell by the scratchfunk of "Can't Get There From Here," where Mills' ridiculous falsetto and some out-of-nowhere New Orleans horns bring it all back down to earth. Everyone's forgotten Fables now, just like they didn't get it then, but it's a wonderful album that set this great band on their brave path. Believe it.

If you like R.E.M., check out:

R.E.M. Reckoning
R.E.M. Automatic for the People
R.E.M. Document
R.E.M. Murmur
R.E.M. Life's Rich Pageant
R.E.M. Fables of the Reconstruction
X More Fun in the New World
Bob Dylan Nashville Skyline
The Replacements Let it Be
Mercury Rev Deserter's Songs
The Db's Stands for Decibels

-- Matt Cibula

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