R.E.M.

Venerable Rockers R.E.M. announced in a brief statement on their website this afternoon that the band is “calling it a day” after over 30 years today. The statement reads, “To our Fans and Friends: As R.E.M., and as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band. We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished. To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening.”

Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry formed R.E.M. in Athens, GA in 1980, and released their critically acclaimed debut album Murmur in 1983. Throughout the ’80s, the band was a cornerstone of the growing college radio scene and the evolution of what became the Alternative and Modern Rock format.

The band signed to Warner Bros. and released Green in 1988, beginning a more mainstream trajectory, culminating in the massive success of 1991’s Out Of Time and the smash hit, “Losing My Religion,” their biggest hit in the U.S.

Following a health scare on the world tour behind 1994’s Monster and the release of 1996’s New Adventures In Hi-Fi, drummer Bill Berry left the group and retired to become a farmer in Georgia. R.E.M. soldiered on and their popularity grew in Europe throughout the ’00s, while the band’s profile diminished Stateside. They were inducted into the Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame in 2007.

R.E.M. released Collapse Into Now, their final album (as well as their last under their Warner Bros. contract) in March, but did not tour behind the record.

Stipe, Buck and Mills have all released personal statements on R.E.M.’s website as well:

Mills says, “During our last tour, and while making Collapse Into Now and putting together this greatest hits retrospective, we started asking ourselves, ‘what next’? Working through our music and memories from over three decades was a hell of a journey. We realized that these songs seemed to draw a natural line under the last 31 years of our working together.

“We have always been a band in the truest sense of the word. Brothers who truly love, and respect, each other. We feel kind of like pioneers in this–there’s no disharmony here, no falling-outs, no lawyers squaring-off. We’ve made this decision together, amicably and with each other’s best interests at heart. The time just feels right.”

Stipe wrote, “A wise man once said–‘the skill in attending a party is knowing when it’s time to leave.’ We built something extraordinary together. We did this thing. And now we’re going to walk away from it.

I hope our fans realize this wasn’t an easy decision; but all things must end, and we wanted to do it right, to do it our way.

We have to thank all the people who helped us be R.E.M. for these 31 years; our deepest gratitude to those who allowed us to do this. It’s been amazing.”

Buck added, “One of the things that was always so great about being in R.E.M. was the fact that the records and the songs we wrote meant as much to our fans as they did to us. It was, and still is, important to us to do right by you. Being a part of your lives has been an unbelievable gift. Thank you.

Mike, Michael, Bill, [manager] Bertis [Downs], and I walk away as great friends. I know I will be seeing them in the future, just as I know I will be seeing everyone who has followed us and supported us through the years. Even if it’s only in the vinyl aisle of your local record store, or standing at the back of the club: watching a group of 19 year olds trying to change the world.”

Stipe also wrote on his personal Tumblr page, “THANKS PETER, MIKE, BILL, BERTIS AND EVERYONE WHO WAS EVER THERE, WHAT AN ADVENTURE!!!  XXX MICHAEL.”

Warner Bros. announced today that a new, career-spanning R.E.M. best-of compilation will be out this November.