Born To Rock & Roll

Thirty years ago tonight, Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Michael Stipe made their stage debut together at friend Kathleen O’Brien’s birthday party in an abandoned church in Athens, GA.  The band billed themselves as the Twisted Kites (a name which narrowly beat out Slut Bank, Cans Of Piss and Negro Eyes) and played a set largely consisting of  cover songs, kicking off with the Troggs’ “I Can’t Control Myself”.  Two weeks later, they renamed themselves R.E.M.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Yep, it’s R.E.M. week here at BTRNR, and we’re got some treats lined up for you.  By treats, of course, we mean our usual ramblings.  But at least they’ll all be in celebration of the greatest rock & roll band this country has ever produced.  So let’s kick it off with the full quartet, reunited for induction into the Georgia Music Hall Of Fame in 2006.

Dig:

This entry was posted on April 5, 2010 at 8:13 PM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: R.E.M.