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The Name of This Band Is R.E.M.: A Biography

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE • An electrifying cultural biography of the greatest and last American rock band of the millennium, whose music ignited a generation—and reasserted the power of rock and roll "[Carlin's] unique gift for capturing the sweep and tenor of a cultural moment...is here on brilliant display." —Michael Chabon In the spring of 1980, an unexpected group of musical eccentrics came together to play their very first performance at a college party in Athens, Georgia. Within a few short years, they had taken over the world – with smash records like Out of Time, Automatic for the People, Monster and Green. Raw, outrageous, and expressive, R.E.M.’s distinctive musical flair was unmatched, and a string of mega- successes solidified them as generational spokesmen. In the tumultuous transition between the wide-open 80s and the anxiety of the early 90s, R.E.M. challenged the corporate and social order, chasing a vision and cultivating a magnetic, transgressive sound. In this rich, intimate biography, critically acclaimed author Peter Ames Carlin looks beyond the sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll to open a window into the fascinating lives of four college friends – Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry – who stuck together at any cost, until the end. Deeply descriptive and remarkably poetic, steeped in 80s and 90s nostalgia, The Name of This Band is R.E.M. paints a cultural history of the commercial peak and near-total collapse of a great music era, and the story of the generation that came of age at the apotheosis of rock. Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Doubleday


Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 5, 2024


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Print length ‏ : ‎ 464 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0385546947


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 42


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #55,422 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #33 in Rock Band Biographies #35 in Rock Music (Books) #187 in Actor & Entertainer Biographies


#33 in Rock Band Biographies:


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • Written with the same craftmanship and genuine caring that was R.E.M.
Yes, I was there, as a fan, from the Murmur days, seeing them perform at Syracuse and obsessing about the album. Yes, I was on the rest of the ride, knowing, in my heart, that life was different after Bill Berry left. But, I never stopped caring and it took this book, and last year's CBS News interview with the guys, to help me put my finger on it. Berry-Buck-Mills-Stipe (and, yes, Bertis and others) stayed kind, genuine, true to their art, most importantly - friends. This book, written by someone who obviously got this, is lovely, insightful and a must read for any R.E.M. fan. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2025 by Bob
    • Detailed and Worthwhile Read
I enjoyed this book for many different reasons; first and foremost, I graduated from UGA in 1981 and had the opportunity to see R.E.M. perform in Tyrone's in March of that year. It was apparent even then that the group was special, even when the set list was half covers. Like most Athens-based bands from that wonderful era, the energy of the music forced people on to the dance floor, even terrible dancers like me. The book dispensed with the myth that the band was a collection of rank amateurs when they began playing together. Mike Mills and Bill Berry were an experienced bass and drums rhythm section that had played numerous events in their hometown of Macon; Peter Buck knew his way around the guitar and was an outright record store music savant; Michael Stipe had honed his poet/muse frontman persona during his high school band years in St. Louis. Certainly compared to other Athens groups from that era, they were fairly experienced when they launched their act on the world on April 5, 1980. They also instantly connected and somehow maintained that closeness for almost twenty years until Bill Berry's departure, despite the hard years on the road, the inevitable frustration from recording sessions and the steadily building pressure of gradual, and then a sudden, explosion in fame. The author was handicapped by the band members' notorious tight lipped nature — none of the members contributed quotes, although Peter Buck provided helpful leads. This carefully curated image has served the band well, as it lends an additional layer of aura and mystery, but it is frustrating to an author like myself. A couple of copy edit mistakes stick out — Vanessa Briscoe of Pylon is called "Valerie" on one occasion, and Weaver D's famous restaurant features soul food, not barbecue (there is a difference). But all in all, a very informative and worthwhile read. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on January 11, 2025 by Mark Clegg
    • Brought Back Fond Memories
The 90's were filled with some of the best music ever. REM were by then one of the biggest bands. Reading this book took me back to the first time I heard Radio Free Europe in the early 80's to the end of the band's existence. Filled with information I did not know before. REM fans will enjoy reading this book. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on February 9, 2025 by Unionman
    • This will have you putting on your old records
There is not another band that means more to me than REM. I jumped on the bandwagon with Document (a cassette copy dubbed from a friend with Lifes Rich Pageant on side 2). They didn’t change my world right away, but eventually Green settled in, my collection grew to include their back catalog and I was obsessed. Still am to this day, in many ways. So when I first heard about this book via an episode of the Sound Opinions podcast, I quickly finished a book I was reading and bought this one. That podcast episode set the stage pretty well for what the book has in store for you. Being a long time fan, I know REM’s story pretty well. I’ve read other books (Tony Fletcher’s Perfect Circle is great) and countless articles over the years. REM was not interviewed for this book, so there isn’t much new here to learn about the band. The author does dive a bit deeper into the band’s childhood (particularly Stipe’s and Buck’s) and that was new for me. Carlin focuses on the band’s 80s and early 90s years in great detail, providing full breakdowns of the band’s albums, many of the songs and subsequent tours (or lack thereof). A good bit of time is also spent on Bill Berry and his departure from the band. While there is not much new added to the story, there is some new context around how some of that started to build during the Green tour and the years where Out of Time and Automatic for the People where impossible to escape. Carlin devotes less time to the post-Berry albums, which is understandable. You get a decent amount of insight into the making of Up, but very little about what follows. As a result, the last few chapters feel a little rushed and the book just kind of ends (although that is in line with how the band called it quits). If I have a criticism of the book, it is probably that I would have liked more to dig into for the later part of the band’s career. It is probably also true that this part of the book is light on detail because there isn’t much to tell. Albums were less frequent and the band wasn’t as ever-present as they had been through Monster. Carlin is clearly a fan, and like myself, a fan that has endless love for the band’s work from their debut EP, Chronic Town, through their last with Berry, New Adventures in Hi Fi. If he doesn’t love Up, Reveal, Around the Sun, Accelerate and Collapse Into Now, he doesn’t seem to recognize that later period REM was still pretty darn good by most band’s standards. That Carlin’s view of the band seems to fit so closely with my own (and I am guessing many of my age that grew up in an era when REM went from cool band to the biggest band to that band that used to be big and many didnt know were still around), this feels a little like the book I would produce if I were a writer. Many biographies end up changing the way you see the subject, and not always for the better. Celebrities are people, and though we put them on pedestals, most cannot live up to the ideals we project on them. So that this book doesn’t change my love for REM one bit is a good thing. All of the things that I thought about the band in the 90s — they had integrity, that they built their success in a way that was unique — it holds up at the end of this book. The other thing you realize…and that the author reminds you of a few times in the book…REM is great at perpetuating the myth of REM. For all that has been written about them, for all that we know about their formation, their rise to stardom and their settling into the back half of their career, they are still a mystery in many ways. But that is what drew many of us to them in the first place, and what makes their music resonate after all this time. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2024 by Christopher A. Roberts
    • Beginning was great, but last half not so much
Growing up in Georgia during the time they were starting out I was looking forward to details of the early years. The book does a good job of covering that even though many of the stories are already well known. The problem is before you are halfway Bill Berry has left the band, and the book really drags. Overall, not bad, but could have used some better editing. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on June 30, 2025 by Ham
    • The History of REM
Great book about one of my favorite bands!
Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2025 by Neat
    • Interesting to any REM fan, audiobook suffers from narrator who sounds like a hipster Howard Cosell
This book is great for a fan of REM--it really gets into the details, especially on the formation of the band and the prior histories of the Bill, Peter, Mike, and Michael. I think the main frustration is in the audiobook version, where one has to deal with the weird cadence, emphases, and pronunciations of the narrator. I think he was trying to sound cool, but he ends up sounding like a weird, hipster Howard Cosell. The reading is distracting from an otherwise very interesting book. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2024 by LuckyBystander
    • READ IT!
If you are an R.E.M. fan this is a must read. It takes you from their humble beginnings right through the final chapters of the band. No huge revelations but a very good read if you are in to music biographies.
Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2025 by Steve Herrmann

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