Almost like a child`s game, R.E.M. has connected all the right dots in the music industry, moving from independent sensations to the kings of college radio and growing mainstream acclaim. Now, after eight years and reams of critical success, the band seems close to completing the puzzle and poised to become one of the major acts of 1989.
Wednesday, the group kicks off a world tour in Tokyo, with a stadium tour in the U.S. to follow beginning in the spring. Meanwhile, its fifth album,
”Green” is turning into its biggest commercial success thus far.
The album was released on Election Day and is outpacing the sales records of the earlier ”Document.” On the strength of the LP`s first two singles,
”Orange Crush” and ”Stand,” the album has moved to No. 15 on the Billboard album chart in only nine weeks.
R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills said he and band members Michael Stipe, Bill Berry and Peter Buck are wary about moving from the underground into the spotlight.
”We`ve reached the point where we`re sitting on the razor`s edge-the place we never wanted to be,” Mills said. ”We try not to look at this as a make-or-break album or tour, but in essence, it probably is because everyone has set it up that way.
”People are waiting to see if they were right about us (in a series of positive reviews) or if they can throw us to the dogs yet,” was how Mills described the test R.E.M. now faces.
R.E.M.`s ascension from underground cult/critical favorite to the verge of Top 40 radio also has brought shouts of betrayal and sell-out from fans who fear sharing their once well-kept secret. But there`s nothing sinister or cheap about R.E.M.`s growing popularity.
”Green” is the slickest, hardest rock album the band has produced, yet it stays true to its roots in the musical left. Meaty guitar lines from Buck and Stipe`s strident, deeply felt lyrics combine to make it an album equal in quality to the group`s ”Murmur,” although it is markedly updated.
R.E.M. was born out of a friendship between Stipe and guitarist Peter Buck. The two met in the Athens, Ga., record store where Buck worked. They recruited University of Georgia students Mills and Bill Berry, a drummer, to fill out the quartet. They had relatively little musical experience-Buck didn`t start playing guitar until he was 21-which Mills said drove the group onto an unusual track.
”We were writing and playing songs to suit our ability. We never had any one style, or were very goal-oriented. We kept playing and things happened.” The band`s first release, the 1982 independent EP ”Chronic Town,” was a jarring release that signaled a change in the winds of pop music. The combination of Stipe`s lyrically distinct vocals jumping through Buck`s overlapping, jangly guitar had an effect that caught the critics` ears. A contract with the small, leading-edge I.R.S. records soon followed.
R.E.M.`s first album, ”Murmur,” was lauded as a breakthrough for new music in its blending of divergent styles, including touches of lyricism akin to the urban psychedelia of the late 1960s. The album topped most of the year- end ”best of” polls, including Rolling Stone`s Critic`s Poll as album of the year.
The group`s artsy, post-punk sound and mysteriously vague lyrics found a welcome home on college radio, with the singles ”Radio Free Europe” and
”Gardening at Night” becoming fixtures on the play lists of low-watt school stations around the country. At the same time it blitzed campuses with live shows, playing with the Replacements and others in long sweeps through the Midwest. R.E.M. was building a loyal following.
The group`s shows featured the mercurial Stipe, looking as though he`d been virtually fastened to the floor behind the microphone, hair hanging in his face, while seeming to sing into his collar. Its status as a cult band assured, the band honed its musical style and Stipe`s lyrics began to evolve. Between 1984 and 1987, R.E.M. slowly began to move from a jangly, cross-cut guitar sound to a polished, if not idiosyncratic compromise. While Stipe`s vocals often dropped low enough to pick up the bass line, Mills covered chords on the bass while Berry`s drums sought to cover and build background-a combination that left Buck free to roam with his guitar. The result was a uniquely structured, but free-flowing sound that grabbed new listeners and a gold record for ”Life`s Rich Pageant.”
The group`s next album, 1987`s ”Document,” took it farther away from the guitar cuts of ”Chronic Town,” blending lyrics from the political left with music more from the center. From the New Right and the tensions in Central America, Stipes` lyrics took on a new strength and the group moved toward the fringes of conventional rock. One of the album`s most stirring cuts, ”Welcome to the Occupation,” remains one of the most politically charged singles of the decade.
While R.E.M. continued to tour in 1987, as headliners with 10,000 Maniacs, rumors circulated that friction was building between Stipe and Buck. It even was reported that the group had taken two buses on the road-one for Stipe, one for the band.
”The real story behind that was that the first bus didn`t have any windows,” Mills said, ”which wasn`t going to work. We got the second bus and it just gave us more space. The whole thing got blown out of proportion.”
”Document” was the last album R.E.M. recorded for I.R.S., although the company did release ”Eponymous,” a compilation of the group`s work for the label, released last fall. The group fled to the deep pockets of Warner Bros. ”People assumed that we `sold out` because we went with Warner,” Mills said. ”It was simply a matter of overseas distribution, or the lack of it at IRS. We would have made a ton of money either way, it was just a business decision.”
With a year of changes and mild controversy behind them, Mills said the group is looking ahead to the coming tours.
”We`ve grown so far musically and gotten away from the jangly guitar-which was probably about the best thing that could have happened for us,”
he said. ”The way we`re playing now is very natural for us, which means the music is still changing and we`re eager to put it to the test live. We don`t plan to sound this way, anyway. Actually, it`s even less calculated than that.”
