The Name of This Band Is R.E.M.

by Peter Ames Carlin

An electrifying cultural biography of the greatest American rock band of the millennium, whose music ignited a generation-and reasserted the power of rock and roll - by the New York Times bestselling author of Bruce

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.

Genres: Music, Biography, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, History, Audiobook, Pop Culture

464 pages, Hardcover

Published November 5, 2024

Reviews

[Nathan Phillips · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was looking forward to this book, for reasons which will be obvious to anybody that knows me (fan since I was twelve, R.E.M. posters at both home and office, saw them with Bill in 2003, trawled around on fan forums and listservs for years, trekked to Athens to see the sights a couple years ago and paid money for a "Wendell Gee" 12"), and also because Carlin wrote the Brian Wilson biography Catch a Wave, which I think is the only full-scale Beach Boys book that gets close to the unbiased truth about that band. I also acknowledge that Carlin's book comes with the disadvantage that I've religiously read every interview with and article about the band that I've been able to get my hands on since I was a teenager, maybe a bit less so toward the end when I was a slightly less avid fan for a period, and just like with the Yo La Tengo book by Jesse Jarnow I fully know that no research of extant texts is going to turn up anything I don't know already. The other big challenge, not specific to me at all, is that R.E.M. as people are considerably less interesting than the music they made together; their Behind the Music episode on VH1 was amusing because it had to insert so many dramatic pauses for commercial breaks, usually trumped up incidents of not-much happening. (Not to minimize how harrowing Bill Berry's aneurysm while on tour surely was.) Nothing I've ever learned about them has challenged my feeling that they are basically quite normal and nice guys, which is great, but there's no way even Stanley Booth could make them renegade badasses.

At first it seems like Carlin is going to transcend all this. I learned quite a bit about the complex genealogy of the bands in and around Athens, and about the band members' early lives, especially Stipe -- his '70s rock fan phase was totally new info to me and was delightful to read about -- but the book actually gets weaker and weaker as it goes along, until by the time R.E.M. sign their massive second record deal with Warners in 1996 it feels like he's cobbling the book together from press releases and Rolling Stone articles, revealing absolutely nothing about the inner workings of the band during that time. He eventually concedes that the problem is R.E.M. have always held their cards extremely close, and in the case of something like the firing of their manager Jefferson Holt over alleged sexual harassment of an office worker, his hands are tied by the things the band cannot say publicly. (I'm surprised that he chose not to include a few morsels of additional information on that subject that are not very difficult to find online, unless maybe there are legal ramifications, so in that spirit I'll just say: certain types of people really don't change.)

To the extent Carlin does insert himself, I didn't feel like his music criticism or his sense of the band's history and their broader context seemed all that salient. So that I don't sound like I'm just doing a broadside I'll give a couple of examples -- his take on the 1998 Tibetan Freedom Concert, when the band came out and played "Airportman" and a bunch of very weird slow songs from Up, cites it as a low point of sorts, but I always thought it was one of the bravest and boldest things they did in their post-zillionaire era, and dwelling on Michael's weird outfit strikes me as oddly regressive. (Also: Thom Yorke's beautiful cameo in that set goes completely unmentioned, and indeed, Radiohead merits virtually no mention in the entire book, which I find really surprising since the book several times makes a point of bringing up R.E.M.'s mentorship of younger bands, and Radiohead worshiped R.E.M. and of course opened for them on the Monster tour.)

Similarly, while I was grateful that Carlin picked up on the sexually transgressive nature of the Monster-era material and finally points out how much Stipe's androgynous, open persona during that period must have meant to a lot of queer or even just alienated kids, which is something I feel like the rock press totally skirted at the time, he really seems to subscribe to a viewpoint that a lot of the songs from that time were fixated on "rock star problems," and gives both "E-Bow the Letter" and "New Test Leper" as examples. But "E-Bow" is such an abstraction, and such a beautiful song, I don't think it's fair at all to reduce it to that. And in knowing "New Test Leper" for almost my entire life, it never even slightly came to my mind that Stipe was singing about himself in it. Speaking of "E-Bow," while Carlin dutifully describes and faintly praises the song, he is so anxious to get to its disappointing chart performance that he doesn't show a whole lot of interest in tracking just how bizarre and fresh it sounded on the radio in 1996, which it absolutely did, regardless of its subsequent commercial success.

In general charts and sales seem to dominate far too much of Carlin's thinking throughout the book, and I guess that's what some people think is the most profound measure of a band's worth, but it makes him sound to me like something of a bean-counter. He's the first person I've read who concentrates more on the commercial prospects of "Losing My Religion," which really only seemed clear after the fact, than on its strangeness and strength. When he quotes I.R.S. A&R people complaining about how uncommercial their '80s videos were and what a pain that was for them, I just think, who fucking cares? The Replacements were on Sire and had vastly less viewer-friendly videos than R.E.M., and more to the point, MTV aired "Fall on Me" and "It's End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" a lot more often than Carlin seems to imply or I.R.S.'s people seem to remember. (The "Fall on Me" video, which Stipe directed himself, gets trotted out over and over again as an example of the band's supposed aesthetic unfriendliness, and never once is the dominant image of the video -- the flashing lyrics -- mentioned.)

My biggest gripe is that I just don't get a sense of what really matters about R.E.M., or what made them special, from this book. There's a whole lot of "Left of the Dial" mythologizing about the beginnings of alternative and college rock, and the book does set the record straight on R.E.M.'s mainstream breakthrough predating Nirvana's by months, but at this point that seems so academic and quaint, and not much is set forth about how R.E.M.'s unorthodox path to success paved the way for others in terms of the formation of a cult and the establishment of a sort of nationwide, and then worldwide, network. You get such a better sense of their mystery, their majesty, and especially the surreal free-associative beauty of Stipe's lyrics and singing from Marcus Gray's classic book about the band, It Crawled from the South, which unlike this book is also very sharply and eloquently written; Gray is not cited anywhere as a source, which I find odd. Carlin's attachment seems to be toward all the record store dork romanticism, as though he's grasping at the faint wisps of revolution in music for which that's not really the point. When early shows are described, there's so much text expended on how proficient and slick-sounding R.E.M. was, and far fewer words about how good they were, and if you go to archive dot org and look them up, you can find evidence from 1982 and probably much earlier that they were indeed extraordinarily good. I feel like instead of exploring anything about the individual moments that comprise R.E.M.'s legacy, this book puts it all on a relatively dull timeline and tries to celebrate some idea of underdog-makes-good and even a little of "you gotta sell out to make it." You can feel and discover so much in this band's music, and the deeper you dig into it, the more miraculous it seems, but I don't get any sense of that richness and detail within the work itself from this book, which commits the remarkable crime of making the group and their story sound utterly ordinary.

[Cam (Lana Belova)]

R.E.M. remains one of my favorite bands since I was a teenager. A beautiful art-rock with depth to it. Great songs that musically paint vivid, sunny pictures.
The first song I ever heard by them is still one of my favorites. I'm so excited about reading this book if it appears after its release on our bookstore shelves :)

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

"'[R.E.M.] were as wild and crazy as anyone, but they did it with a sense of class. They never got stupid drunk or stupid high; they were always in control of themselves. And they were kind to people. That impressed me a lot.'" -- the recollections of fellow musician Jason Ringenberg, on page 130

The month of April 2025 marks the 45th anniversary of the founding of one of the original 'alt-rock' - if you you prefer a category - groups, a quartet from the college town of Athens, Georgia known as R.E.M. Comprised of vocalist Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and drummer Bill Berry, the troupe started as a popular act at off-campus parties before 'graduating' to an indie label and then national / worldwide success by the conclusion of the 80's and the dawn of the 90's. Although not a grunge act, the boys held their own during much of the same era with solid discs like Out of Time, Automatic For the People, and Monster (my favorite of the bunch, since it features that underrated shimmering wah-wah strut of 'Crush With Eyeliner'). But do they or their history make for a compelling narrative? Author Carlin is a good music-oriented writer - I enjoyed his Springsteen biography several years ago, and was particularly impressed with his more recent behind-the-scenes account of Warner Brothers Records called Sonic Boom - but I did not think that this band chronicle reached quite the same heights. The four men lived low-key, private lives while also reliably cranking out good songs over a thirty-year period. Occasionally there were some informative moments - I did not realize just how close drummer Berry came to death due to a sudden medical issue while on tour during the mid-90's - amidst bursts of melodic nostalgia, but otherwise this was a straightforward and often workmanlike account of their existence. However, as with similar music act profiles, it will likely make you want to revisit their discography . . . which sounds just as good as ever. 🎵

[None Ofyourbusiness Loves Israel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nostalgic journey with an old friend who was always there, even if they never quite blew your mind. R.E.M. epitomized professional, melodic, and lovable music. They weren't revolutionary or groundbreaking, but they were a comforting constant. One day, I realized their absence left a gaping hole in my musical universe, like the end of the world as we know it.

I never saw them live, but I owned all their records. I didn't read about them or remember their videos, yet somehow, I knew the words to every song on their first dozen albums. They were murmuring automatically in the background, always present but never demanding attention. Their loss is palpable, like realizing your favorite pair of jeans has finally worn out, leaving you feeling like a man on the moon.

The book, much like their career, felt a bit too long at times. Their adventures in hi-fi spanned decades, filled with ups and downs, and the book captures this epic journey. I didn't learn enough about the Natalie Merchant connection; I wanted to hear more about their interactions with fame and fortune. I also didn't see why their unique connection lasted so long. The work on numerous albums, contract negotiations, and a few television appearances get a lot of ink, as do Pylon and the B-52s. I want to read a "dirtier," grittier, more rock n' roll treatment of the band, but after nightswimming in so many pages, if one shows up, I think that I will not have the energy to continue.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this an eGalley from NetGalley.

Before I read this book I knew REM was four nice southern boys who made good music.

After I read this book I knew that REM was four nice southern boys who made good music.

[Georgette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hours of ridiculous enjoyment accompanied by often painful bursts of nostalgia and memory, shaped the four hours it took to read this book. Loved it and enjoyed the unbiased look at one of my favorite bands. Wish it went a little bit more into details of their recent years since the band's retirement. Otherwise, straight up perfection.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rec. by: The New York Times Book Review by Dwight Garner, 12/8/2024—and as a fan of the band since the 1980s.
Rec. for: Rockers and rollers

That's great—it starts with an earthquake
Birds 'n snakes 'n aeroplanes...
—"The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"

I will make no grand claims about the impact that R.E.M. has had on the world, or even on music... there are plenty of others who'll attest to those things, including Peter Ames Carlin. But that little foursome from Athens, Georgia, had the impact of an earthquake on me.

Although not at first. As I mentioned a few years ago in my review of Tony Fletcher's dazzling band bio Perfect Circle, I didn't know how good R.E.M. was until 1986, when my coworker (and eventual bandmate) Tim Flanery insisted I listen to their fourth album, Lifes Rich Pageant. From then on, though, I was hooked on a group who really did seem to be speaking directly to me.

If you don't belong, you belong here.
—p.159

I'm not sure whether the above line is Peter Ames Carlin's own or something that was relayed to him, but either way, Carlin's massive biography The Name of This Band Is R.E.M. is, like Fletcher's, another book that spoke to me about those feelings of inclusion, of rightness, that listening to R.E.M.'s music helped create.

Carlin's take on R.E.M. is an enthusiastic deep dive, always lively and readable (despite the occasional awkwardness—I was brought up short during his Introduction by the phrase "expanded by factors" on p.8, for example).

I was almost halfway through the book before Carlin caught up to my own personal knowledge of R.E.M.—the first several chapters relate the band's prehistory, focusing mainly on Michael Stipe and his "chestnut curls" (a phrase which comes up often enough to be noticeable).

The other members of the band get their turns later on, though.

*

I was still living in Huntington, West Virginia—my home town—when Tim introduced me to R.E.M., and the first time I saw the band in concert was in the state capitol, at the Charleston Municipal Auditorium in 1987. West Virginia is not a huge part of R.E.M.'s history, I'll admit, but Carlin does devote some time (pp.272-273) to their appearance on public radio's Mountain Stage in Charleston later on, in April 1991. I did have to question why Carlin called then-governor Caperton by his legal first name, though—while "William Caperton" is technically correct, William Gaston Caperton III pretty much always went by "Gaston."

*

Carlin's attention does seem to wander away, a bit, as the 1990s come to an end—much like my own fervor for R.E.M. (and perhaps the band's as well) began to fade. R.E.M.'s latter albums—and they released several more in the 21st Century—receive only a few pages each.

Still, though, The Name of This Band Is R.E.M. is almost entirely about the music—Carlin consistently downplays the unhappier events during R.E.M.'s existence as a band (and yes, there were some). To Carlin (and, I'll admit, to me), for the most part, Berry, Buck, Mills and Stipe really are the "shiny happy people" they presented to the world.

Late in the book, Carlin does go back over some of R.E.M.'s early conflicts between their college courses and the pursuit of music. That's something I know a little about—I played bass and occasional rhythm guitar for a couple of short-lived bands whose other members (including Tim F., who'd introduced me to R.E.M.) eventually moved to Athens themselves. I could not follow, because I was finishing up my own college degree. Now, I'm not unhappy about staying behind in West Virginia, a decision which led to a rewarding life in almost all other respects—but sometimes I can't help wondering whether we might have captured a little of R.E.M.'s lightning for ourselves, if I'd pulled up stakes and come to Georgia with them.

*

Carlin addresses Chapter 46 of The Name of This Band Is R.E.M. directly to his readers—and especially to the "Murmurers," the early R.E.M. fans who felt betrayed—often quite vocally—by the band's increasing popularity. I never went through that phase, myself—I never got angry at R.E.M. for receiving so many accolades and so much attention from the mainstream they had originally tried to avoid courting. I think that's at least in part because (like Carlin) I never heard the changes in R.E.M.'s music as compromises—however famous they became, they always seemed to me to remain true to themselves. And if I could not follow their trajectory to the very end, I still, always, found myself paying attention.

The name of the band was R.E.M. They mattered—and not least because they always behaved as if we mattered, too.

[Keen Reader · Rating 1 out of 5]

This suffers from the age old problem which seems to afflict the vast majority of US music biography writing that I’ve come across over the years – no spark, bounce or charge to lift the writing up off the page to keep lively or engaging – just a dull, forgettable pedestrian monotone, which seems devoid of colour or interest

And some bizarre oversights which don't help, such as describing Simple Minds as a “surging Britpop band” WTF?...and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” was released in 1982 not 83 and yes the UK did have more than two channels by the time 1985 rolled around.

Now let’s be honest REM are never going to be accused of being a dynamic or thrilling band, but this makes them seem even duller than I imagined them to be. Something which I didn’t think was possible. Now I am a fan of the band, I’ve been buying their albums since the 90s and saw them live at Loch Lomond about 20 years ago – I would never call them a great band, but they have some really good tunes and one or two really strong albums, but at the end of the day I still see them as Michael Stipe (the outspoken, political one), and the rest are reduced in my mind as the one who got drunk on the plane that time, the other one who looks a bit like that one and that other one who looks like Bill Gates.

[Gina · Rating 4 out of 5]

“They wouldn’t write songs with traditional structures or craft lyrics that could be parsed for literal meaning, assuming you could pick out what was being said. Which you probably couldn’t, because R.E.M. wouldn’t mix the vocals above the instruments and also wouldn’t include a lyric sheet with their records.”

Thanks to Penguin Random House Audio and Double Day Books for the ALC in exchange for an honest review!

The quote above made me laugh out loud. I love R.E.M. so much. I will never forgive my mom for going to see them without me in 2008. There has always been something about Michael Stipe’s voice that I have always adored, and Murmur is one of my all-time favorite albums. I listened to it as soon as I finished this book.

This book does such a great of chronicling the band’s journey from formation to their decision to end the band. From the information provided, it’s clear that the four of them had such great respect for each other. Their trajectory is so interesting because they stated out on college radio and didn’t want to play big arenas. In a documentary I watched years ago, Michael Stipe described their journey as before and after “Losing My Religion,” and throughout the book this rings true.

“The name of this band is R.E.M. and this is what we do.”

I learned so much that I didn’t know about them, and it’s such an interesting book. The only thing that felt like a bit of a bummer is that the band’s words are taken from other interviews and that they weren’t directly involved. It’s still worth reading, and the audiobook is well-done and it doesn’t ever feel like it drags.

[Andrew]

The trouble with R.E.M. as a biographical subject is their justifiable right to privacy. We as music fans have become accustomed to knowing every aspect of our favorites' lives; and while that makes for compelling biography, it must be an odd feeling to know that so many strangers know so much about your life.

As such, I can't blame Stipe, Buck, Mills and Berry for keeping a tight lid, relatively speaking. In fact, none of the band members agreed to talk with the author for this book. Consequently, though, Carlin doesn't have much to work with here. But, really, how much would they have revealed anyway?

You see, in one sense I was disappointed with this book, but I'm not sure if it's the author or the band that bothers me. Sure, the author sort of reviews the albums as he gets to them in a way that I don't care for, but it's a common trope. I would have preferred a different style, but it doesn't ruin the book for me. On the other hand, maybe R.E.M. is just a boring band, with four extremely boring guys; or maybe that's what they want us to think. I suspect this is the case, which makes me want to be mad at the members of this band I love so much; but they are strangers to me, so that's a sign for me to get up and do something else with my life.

These are the thoughts that run through my head when contemplating my experience reading this book. The author had plenty of sources for the early part of the book, but only Michael and Peter receive more than a superficial amount of characterization. Once we get into the albums, though the book falls into a pattern of, "they recorded this album at this place, and here's a review of the album, and then they played a tour (or decided not to) then did it all again. also, politics, and let me make a thesis out of a random comment or lyric barely anybody can understand."

[Keely · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll just confess right up front: I was way late to the R.E.M. party. I grew up in rural western Kansas and didn't have access to college radio. I had no idea the band even existed until I heard the song "Stand" and didn't actively like them until the album Monster came out during my sophomore year of college. From there, I worked my way backwards through their albums and came to love them retroactively. They became the soundtrack of my college years.

So, take this with a grain of salt, because I definitely don't have O.G. fan cred, but I feel like The Name of This Band Is R.E.M. is a top-notch band biography. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Peter Ames Carlin takes an exhaustive and engaging look at the band's origins, their songwriting process, and their journey from college radio play to rock superstardom (i.e., the point when I jumped on the bandwagon). What stood out to me in this band bio is how UN-dramatic R.E.M. was. They didn't do self-destructive infighting. They didn't get derailed by addiction. They didn't lose their creative thread. What they did do was make a couple decades' worth of brilliant music.

Anyway, whatever kind of R.E.M. fan you are, you should absolutely check this out. You'll be inspired to pull out your old CDs and be reminded what an amazing band R.E.M. really was.

[Jamele (BookswithJams) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to DoubleDay Books for the finished copy and to PRH Audio for the ALC to review.

I have been a fan of R.E.M. for years, many of their songs were on repeat when I was in high school. However I did not know much about them, and was excited to get this book and learn more. This was very well done and confirmed my view that they were a great group of guys, going through their entire journey as a band, and has set me on a trip back down memory lane listening to their music on repeat once again.

[Agris Fakingsons · Rating 4 out of 5]

..šis ļāva ieskatīties lielas grupas vēsturē un atklāt dažus labus gabalus, ko paklausīties, īpaši no grupas pirmsākumiem.

[Fr. Bryce Sibley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started losing interest in this book right where I started losing interest in the band—around Automatic for the People.

[Lesley Potts · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have literally dozens of very happy memories of R.E.M. starting on March 21st 1989 when the Green Tour hit Austin, TX where I was living at the time, right up until this month when Peter Buck will be playing with Kevn Kinney at Eddie's Attic here in Atlanta. Any one of those memories is more nuanced and interesting than this dreadfully boring audiobook.

The band declined to be interviewed for the book. It's all stuff we already know. I like my memories better.

[Mark Schiffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid distraction. I love these guys and this gave me plenty of info on exactly what the scope of their career was. My only complaint while reading it was that I wanted more but that's a good thing.

[David S]

Haven't read many music bios before so I can't attest to how it stands up to others, but it's resulted in non-stop R.E.M. listening over the last two weeks so it had to be pretty good.

[Patrick Healy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I complained at band practice about this book because I couldn't stop reading it. "Stop complaining about that book!" Chef said. Kev read it and said it was good. What a great time these people had.

I was always curious about how there was this dramatic shift to pure commercial zeitgeist in the 90's. I didn't even know it was the same band at first.

I remember my dad bought Out of Time at Best Buy and we were listening to it on the patio. 14 year old me was amazed at how my golf-pro dad could know about something like this. I had inklings when he showed me Zappa's "Chunga's Revenge" on the turntable when I was 8 years old. That stuck with me.

I wish I had experienced REM through Reconstructing the Fables like the 8 year olds in this book. Instead, I found out about pre-Warner REM from No Alternative when Pavement creates a tribute song "Unseen Power of the Picket Fences" (no mention of this in the book, unfortuntaely).

Makes me want to read his one about Warner Bros. Also, makes me want to read more fiction. I read Barbara Kinsolver's Demon Copperhead because I saw Stipe with a copy of it on his instagram.

I remember trying so hard to find Yummy Furs cds when he off hand mentioned the Scottish band in an aside on MTV news. I wished the book talked about what he wrote on his hand for that photoshoot to promote Monster.

Please talk to me about this book. How is your band doing?

[Jason Laipply · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid and well researched rock biography tracing the long and interesting history of this iconic and influential band.

Overall, I loved the first two thirds of this book, but found myself disappointed in the last third, especially what felt like the rushed history of the band’s last handful of albums after drummer Bill Berry retired and the remaining trio continued on. But perhaps that’s just my personal bias coming through because I was hoping to learn more about the band’s dynamics during those final years.

Overall though, and solid rock biography…3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

[Allison Maier · Rating 5 out of 5]

if michael stipe has no fans i’m dead

[Darcysmom · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thorough and well researched biography of REM.

[Jennifer Taulane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has renewed my appreciation of REM's music and originality- going back and listening to every album I can- there is nothing crazy dramatic in this biography - a tad repetitive at times- but I enjoyed the behind the scenes of nice normal talented guys making it big.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I became an R.E.M. fan with the release of "Automatic for the People," which came out at the beginning of my 8th grade year. It's still my favorite R.E.M. album. (I was a little too young to have jumped on the bandwagon when "Out of Time" first came out.)

I remember details about R.E.M. always being scant. There were rumors, nothing concrete. So it was interesting and eye-opening to hear more about the members' lives, how they grew up, how they found each other and eventually formed one of the most influential bands of the 1980s and 1990s.

I really enjoyed the narrative about their songwriting process on various albums and how they never expected to become rich and famous like they did. All the band members, especially Michael Stipe, are extremely private. Being in the limelight grated on them over the years, which played a big part in their disbanding in the 20-aughts.

I read some of the critical GoodReads reviews written by R.E.M superfans. Honestly, I just didn't know enough about the band to be critical about any details that were ommitted. So I found this biography to be really good.

If you're an R.E.M. fan like me, then The Name of This Band Is R.E.M. by Peter Ames Carlin is a good place to start.

[Morgan Flannery · Rating 5 out of 5]

I still have a crush on Michael Stipe

[Trevor Seigler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let's talk about the passion, shall we? To this Southern boy who came of age just a stone's throw from the town of Athens, Georgia (in that I grew up in Oconee County, but the one in South Carolina, not Georgia), the band R.E.M. was a presence that felt odd and encouraging all at once. For a band of superstars to not only work but live a short(-ish) drive away from me in my little podunk one-horse town was a revelation when I first got my copy of "Out of Time" (in the oversized cardboard CD box, natch), and it's still a point of pride for me that I got a few likes to responses I posted on Mike Mills' Twitter page from the man himself (and my favorite R.E.M. song is "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville," which he wrote). So this book should be five stars.

But..."The Name of This Band Is R.E.M.," by Peter Ames Carlin, is a three-and-a-half one for me (though it's four stars because if there's a way to do halved-stars on Goodreads, I haven't figured it out). It's mostly good, and real in-depth on the band's history, with some critical reporting on the band that a simple hagiography would avoid. But there is a sort of disservice to the band in that Carlin focuses so much on the early years and seems to rush through post-"Monster" band history that it's almost as if he wanted to write a book about the band's early days and had to find a way to talk about the group's later history without expanding the page count unreasonably.

And let me be clear: the stuff about the early days, especially the band's individual members and their paths to Athens and their eventual meeting, is fascinating. It's the best part of the book. Then, once the band forms and begins almost immediately to get on the radar of record labels, the pace picks up. Signed to IRS Records, the band storms to the top of alternative/"college" radio, and ultimately lands on Warner Bros. Records, where some accuse them of selling out. Here, too, in a later chapter, Carlin shows how ridiculous that complaint is, even if some would argue that their best work was done while they were still a spikey New Wave upstart. At any rate, the book then turns into a run through the albums, tours, and albums and tours, and tours and albums, all culminating in Bill Berry's aneurysm onstage in 1995 and his retirement two years later. The remaining trio (Mills, Peter Buck, and Michael Stipe) continue for over a decade, finally calling it a day in 2011 amid less-than-encouraging record sales and a desire to leave the road behind.

There is more drama to the R.E.M. story than you might expect, mostly between the demands of various record companies versus the band's commitment to doing things their own way (as Carlin points out, they even "sold out" on their own terms), and Michael's prominence as front man and his ambiguous sexuality served as tabloid fodder while his bandmates continued on doing their thing. But the story of R.E.M. is ultimately about the friendship and the music that it produced, and here Carlin succeeds in showing how great both were. Okay, forget what I said about this being a three-and-a-half-star s book. It's four stars for that alone. Yes, I'm allowed to change my mind mid-review.

"The Name of This Band Is R.E.M." will have you humming along to the songs that get stuck in your head (especially "Shiny Happy People," which I unironically love), and feel like you're reading about the nicest bunch of Southern boys who just happen to be huge rock stars as well. I have qualms with some aspects of the book, but overall it's a nice look at a band who continues to be of huge importance to me on a personal level.

[David Cordero · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great read. It tells the whole journey of the band from its beginnings as an artsy college band to the cultural gods they became during the early 90s.

[Lee Weinstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

As an R.E.M. fan, I loved this book. A great read about the arc of the band’s incredible career, ending with the their induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

So - I'm probably the biggest REM fan you'll ever meet. I knew a lot of their story already (owning every book ever written by them - I'm a joyful completist.) But yes, I did learn a few things with this latest look into their long career and that is very satisfying. I've not looked for anything from the band members confirming or denying the stories... which I will do next. Not that anything was shocking - I'm just leery of taking things as gospel about the band (which strikes me as very fitting).

I love REM. They have been the soundtrack to my life, my art-making, my courage, my grief, my everything. So yes, I was teary at the end.

I still follow everything they individually do, celebrate JMS' bday in January (he is a muse in so many ways - from art, to authenticity, to silliness, to values, to sexuality and gender expression), mark the anniversary of the first church show, collect pieces of memorabilia here and there, and THRILL when I get into social media interactions with ANYONE of that universe.

Final verdict is that this is a must-read for fans like me, new ones, and fans of music in general. My ONLY quibble is with the audiobook narration... sometimes frustratingly monotone in delivery and downright CRINGE when "speak-chanting" lyrics in weird pseudo-yelling. Just, no. Sorry. But, no.

The perfect book to start the year I turn 50.
Off to fire up MY favorite album - Life's Rich Pageant. <3

[Justin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love R.E.M., which may color my review, but I also think the book is incredibly well done.

[Chris Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.