R.E.M.- Monster 30th- Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills

When R.E.M.’s Monster album, already the alterna-band’s ninth (!), came out in September 1994, most casual rock fans didn’t know that lead singer Michael Stipe was friends with actor River Phoenix and Nirvana singer/songwriter Kurt Cobain, both of whom died while R.E.M. was making Monster. Also it was unknown at the time  that R.E.M. had actually broken up and walked out at one point during recording it. All we knew when we heard Monster was that, unlike its predecessors Out of Time and Automatic for the People, Monster rocked, and it felt right.

Not since Green  more than five years earlier had R.E.M. come out so unself-consciously swingin’ as on September 1994’s Monster . “We were touring for the first time in five years. We wanted something arena- and festival-ready”, says R.E.M. lead singer and lyricist Michael Stipe in Newsweek  about the overall sound of the album Monster. My guests here In the Studio  are Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, and Mike Mills, looking back with the soundtrack provided by “What’s the Frequency Kenneth?”, “Crush with Eyeliner”, “Bang and Blame”, and “Strange Currencies” bottled up in an emotional and popular blockbuster which became a sales Monster for R.E.M., debuting at #1 on Billboard, ditto in the UK, eventually going quadruple platinum. Of note is the fact that the Fall 1994 tour turned out to be their last with drummer Bill Berry, who suffered a life-threatening aneurysm in Germany while on the  subsequent Monster  European leg and was advised by doctors to retire from the road. Stipe, Peter Buck, and Mike Mills all join me here In the Studio on Monster’s thirtieth anniversary. -Redbeard