R.E.M. Offer "Stirling" DVD

R.E.M. are hunkered down in their hometown of Athens, Georgia, working on their fourteenth album, with plans for a release this fall. In the meantime, the band will offer Perfect Square, their first concert film in almost twenty years. The DVD, due March 16th, is culled from a Wiesbaden, Germany, performance on last year's world tour.

The set list spans the group's career, from the mid-Eighties tracks like "Maps and Legends" and "Begin the Begin" to "Bad Day" and "Animal," the two new tracks included on last fall's In Time: The Best of R.E.M. Bonus material will include A Stirling Performance, a behind-the-scenes documentary that follows the band over a three-night stand in Stirling, Scotland.

As for the new material, Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills are still writing and demoing new material in addition to dusting off songs they recorded last year during sessions in Vancouver, according to manager Bertis Downs. Downs describes some of the newer songs as "lush and atmospheric," and offered "Magnetic North," "I Wanted to Be Wrong," "Around the Sun" and "Wanderlust" as some of the working titles. The band plans to enter the studio in the next few weeks to continue recording sessions. In addition to the fall release, the group also plans to line up a new set of tour dates.

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Song Stories

“Is It True”

Brenda Lee | 1964

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."

More Song Stories entries »

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