Alt-rockers R.E.M. call it a day
In this 1994 file photo originally released by Warner Bros. Records, alternative rock band R.E.M., from left, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe, Bill Berry, and Peter Buck are shown when they released their new album "Monster." Credit: AP
R.E.M., the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers who helped pioneer the "college rock" sound of the '80s and inspired generations of indie rockers with genre-building classics including "Losing My Religion" and "Everybody Hurts," have called it quits.
Yes, cue "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)."
"We have decided to call it a day as a band," the group announced on its website. "We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished."
That legacy includes seven platinum albums -- including "Out of Time," "Automatic for the People" and "Monster," which sold more than 12 million copies in the '90s -- and three Grammy Awards, including best alternative album for "Out of Time" in 1992.
"I hope our fans realize this wasn't an easy decision," singer Michael Stipe said in a statement. "But all things must end, and we wanted to do it right, to do it our way."
R.E.M. has gone out with its standards still high, as "Collapse Into Now," released this year, was a critical success, if not as big a commercial hit as the band has delivered in the past.
"During our last tour, and while making 'Collapse Into Now' and putting together this greatest hits retrospective, we started asking ourselves, 'What next?' " said bassist Mike Mills. "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. . . . The time just feels right."
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