Welcome to the first edition of Liner Notes, your weekly link dump for all things musical. Every Sunday, we’ll collect an array of links to some of the cooler blog posts, interesting stories, or entertaining videos that we’ve scraped up from around the web, and we’ll present them to you, lovingly, in one convenient, easy-to-read package. It’s like we’re doing the heavy lifting for you, people.
One of the bigger music stories over the past couple of weeks has been the sudden and surprising break-up of R.E.M. On September 21st, the band posted a letter to fans expressing gratitude for their three decades of support, and explaining that the split was amicable. If you're looking for more information, click through and you'll be able to read the post for yourself.
I’ll admit that I was never a huge fan of the band. I’ve always felt that “Losing My Religion” is an amazing song, and given that the track was literally everywhere during the summer of 1991, I associate with it as much as any 90's teen would. Still, I have a great deal of respect for the members of R.E.M. and everything they’ve accomplished over an absolutely staggering thirty-one year career. I wish the best to Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills in their future efforts.
GO! has posted a pretty thorough retrospective on R.E.M. by the Chicago Tribune’s Greg Kot.
