Released 17 years ago today.

Love Manu Chao but he was playing in Charlotte during the Hopscotch Music Festival in Raleigh a few weeks ago so it was one of those occasions where I would have loved to have been in two or three places at once.

David Fricke of Rolling Stone talks to Mike Mills about R.E.M. disbanding after 31 years: Exclusive: Mike Mills on Why R.E.M. Are Calling It Quits

When I sat back and really thought about it the other day, I realized I was 20 years old when I heard R.E.M. for the first time. I'm 49 now. That is a very huge chunk of my life.

Funny but nearly as funny as it was made out to be. While Fargo, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and No Country For Old Men are some of my favorites, there's a few Coen brothers that only serve to confuse me. This was one of them. I actually had to do some reading up on it afterwards to help me understand what I'd just seen.

^This wedding (and the ensuing rock show) even warranted an article in yesterday's edition of the Raleigh, NC News & Observer. Turns out the graffiti on the wall (see the photo accompanying the article) was scribbled by Peter Blackstock (former co-editor of No Depression magazine and friend of the newlyweds) who came back to put his name to it sometime after the original photo was taken. That's some pretty high praise right there... Yesterday, the post-wedding celebration continued with a late afternoon/early evening performance by Mic Harrison & the High Score at Sadlack's Heroes in Raleigh. Mic is a former member of the V-Roys, who have a 2 CD career retrospective hitting stores on Tuesday called Sooner Or Later. They (the V-Roys) will also be doing a very rare reunion show at the Bijou Theatre in Knoxville, TN on New Year's Eve. Yesterday's set by Mic Harrison & the High Score included a second set of nothing but new material save for a couple a covers (one of which was "Never Been To Spain"). There was nearly a second Don Schlitz moment (see the N & O article) when someone requested Kenny Rogers and the band briefly pondered playing "The Gambler" (originally penned by Mr. Schlitz).

Wilco w/ Nick Lowe at the downtown Raleigh Amphitheatre on Tuesday night (same day their new record, The Whole Love, is released).

One of the best things about ACL Fest is all the shows that take place in town that week. Sometimes it even gives you a chance to catch a performance from someone you missed at the festival.

Also noticed the expanded edition of Southern Culture on the Skids' Zombified had already hit store shelves (at least at my local record store). I guess they jumped the gun as it's actual official release date is not until this Tuesday (9.27.11.) Since the new Wilco album release is just a few days away, I held off on the SCOTS for now but did pick up these two which were both sale priced, making it much easier to talk myself right into it:

Chip Robinson (ex-Backsliders) covers Ryan Adams' "Oh, My Sweet Carolina" last night at the Pour House in Raleigh during a post wedding bash that also included Tres Chicas, the Small Ponds, Mic Harrison & the High Score and possibly the last performance ever from Patty Hurst Shifter. Evidently he learned it on the way downtown as a special last minute request from the newlyweds. He done good.

Pearl Jam cover "It Happened Today" from R.E.M.'s last studio album, Collapse Into Now on Wednesday night in Calgary, Canada. Vedder contributed backing vocals to the song which was written about the passing of Vic Chesnutt who committed suicide on Christmas day in 2009.

Fables remains my favorite even though I must admit the Lifes Rich Pageant reissue this past summer made me look at that record in a different light. I never disliked it, it's just that the reissue (just like the ones for Murmur, Reckoning and Fables before it) took me right back to when I heard them for the very first time. I was hooked from the very first moment I heard "Laughing" on WQDR out of Raleigh (now a country station) back when "album rock" actually meant that. From there I went out and purchased Murmur and Chronic Town and bought each new record as it came out. Even though they were playing all around back in those days, I never saw them in concert until 1986. Back to Lifes Rich Pageant, it definitely had a much fuller sound and pushed Berry's drums and Stipe's vocals to the forefront (that still didn't make it any easier to understand what in the fuck he was singing about). I think it also truly captured what R.E.M. sounded like live for the first time since Chronic Town. I can understand people jumping ship for various reasons over the years but for whatever reason, I hung on until the very end and I'm so very glad I did. Even though I liked Collapse Into Now, it's been a very long time since the announcement of a new R.E.M. record got me excited. The last one would probably be New Adventures In Hi-Fi. On the other hand, they always brought it live, something I believe that was always their true strength. That's perhaps what I will miss most. Sure, the anticipation of a new album is something I'm going to miss but the sheer excitement and the adrenaline rush of a live concert was were it was at for me. Especially some of those early concerts and even right up until the Green World tour where I felt like I was being transported. Those were as close to a "religious" experience that I've ever had. No other band has done that for me and I very seriously doubt they ever will.

Here's their performance of "Born Alone" they did during the show: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUDgkgr7Fuo ...and the entire concert they did prior to the taping of their actual appearance on Letterman.

It's funny how everyone has their different dropping off points. For some it was Lifes Rich Pageant (too commercial), for others it was Document (too commercial), Green (they've sold out to Warner Brothers) or when Bill Berry left following the release of New Adventures In Hi-Fi. For whatever reason, I stayed along for the entire ride from Chronic Town (even though it was Murmur I heard first) through Collapse Into Now. Were there times I started to lose interest along the way? Of course, I'd be lying through my teeth if I said otherwise. I was well aware of their hard rock/punk rock side prior to the release of Monster but the studio treatment of Stipe's vocals on that record nearly rendered them unrecognizable. That didn't really turn me off but it definitely threw me off. Their first record after Bill Berry left, Up, also threw me for a huge loop. In fact, I disliked it so much, I nearly returned it to the record store. I'm glad I didn't because that album is the very definition of a "grower". It took me a year to fully absorb and appreciate it but it was well worth it. I now consider it the best of their post-Bill Berry work with Collapse Into Now (which more closely resembles the varied songcraft of New Adventures In Hi-Fi) running a close second. Reveal I was not much of a fan of and I'm still not but I have grown to appreciate it more over the years. I even liked the follow up to that, Around the Sun, which many consider to be R.E.M.'s absolute low point. Accelerate was a return to the more raucous sounds of Monster but I believe it was too little too late, despite the outstanding performances they turned in for the rehearsals (captured on the Live At Olympia set) in Dublin that yielded Accelerate. For the first time in years, those Dublin concerts found R.E.M. breaking in new material in front of a live audience again. It also found them revisiting very rarely played chestnuts such as "Kohoteuk". It also squashed the living shit out of R.E.M. Live which had been recorded during the Around the Sun tour in 2004. Funny thing is, the press kept referring to Accelerate as a "return to form". Well, maybe for someone that came onboard with either Monster or New Adventures In Hi-Fi but at their heart, R.E.M. were always more of a folk-rock band than a hard rock one so I didn't find Accelerate to be all that characteristic of R.E.M. even though it did include a few ballads that were their stock in trade once upon a time. I think their final album, Collapse Into Now was much more representative of R.E.M., especially the latter day version that had recorded Automatic For the People and New Adventures In Hi-Fi. Bill Berry said he wouldn't leave the band if it meant they were going to break up. For better or worse, I'm glad they stuck around for as long as they did. Some bands just don't know when to call it quits. As painful as it is to know there will never be another R.E.M. album or tour, they picked an appropriate time to hang it up.

R.E.M. R.I.P.: Thank You for Running It Into the Ground by Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone RollingStone.com has also posted a photo gallery of R.E.M. through the years that can be seen here.

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is the album where they really distanced themselves from the alt.country tag for good and were subsequently branded "iWilco" and the "alt.country version of Radiohead" (even though there was nary a hint of alt.country on that record), it was because of all of the sound effects along with the computer generated blips and surface noise. To many, it tied in with the overall theme of the record, like it was a random broadcast being heard over shortwave radio. At least that was the impression many had of it at the time. Since then, Wilco albums have continued to dabble more and more in experimentation but not nearly as much as they did with that record. I hope that helps answer your question.

The Raleigh, NC News & Observer has posted this article along with a photo gallery of R.E.M. from over the years here.

Don Dixon on the demise of R.E.M., from Scholars & Rogues: Former REM producer comments on the band’s break-up Don Dixon and Mitch Easter co-produced REM’s first two (and arguably best) albums, Murmur and Reckoning. S&R contacted Dixon earlier today to ask if he had any thoughts on the band’s break-up. Here’s what he had to say. I’ll miss R.E.M. but I completely understand why they’re calling it quits. I haven’t spoken with anyone in the band yet but I believe they’re sincere when they speak of this as a group decision and point to their mutual respect. I think each of them want to move on to other things and not end up hanging around too long like some bands we know. One must remember when these guys came of age. They took the threads of several styles and wove together a sound that was fresh, original and exciting. R.E.M. was a huge influence on young musicians while still a cult act but then they went on to have unbelievable success here in the U.S. and all over the world without compromising the basic tenets they held from the start. Hit records by their own rules…what could be a better epitaph?

Since added to the story at HQ: In their own words: The guys share their thoughts on why now. MIKE "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." MICHAEL "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." PETER "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, Bertis, 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."

There's always the possibility of a reunion tour with Bill Berry in tow but you never know, R.E.M. have always been very strident in their beliefs, even if they didn't always stick to them. I always admired Johnny Carson approach to retirement. When he retired from The Tonight Show, he really retired. Probably the only celebrity that has ever stayed true to their word when they said they were going to retire.

From RollingStone.com: R.E.M. Break Up After Three Decades Legendary rock band have 'called it a day' Michael Stipe of REM performs during the Voodoo Experience Festival in New Orleans. Sean Gardner/Getty Images By MATTHEW PERPETUA SEPTEMBER 21, 2011 1:25 PM ET R.E.M. have announced that they have broken up after 31 years together. "As lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band," the band said in a statement on their official website today. "We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished." In just over three decades as a band, R.E.M. released 15 albums including landmark works such as Murmur, Reckoning, Document, Out of Time and Automatic For the People. The band's final album, Collapse Into Now, was released in March of this year. There were reports over the summer that the band had spent some time in an Athens studio, but it is unclear whether anything will come of that session.

From REMhq.com: "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." R.E.M.

LIVE WEBCAST Tonight at 8pm EDT Wilco will perform at the Ed Sullivan Theater as part of the CBS live concert webcast series Live on Letterman. The concert will stream live at http://www.cbs.com/late_night/liveonletterman/wilco/video/

Cool poster from their show in Boston tonight.