Back in June, R.E.M.’s Mike Mills and Peter Buck traveled to Norway for the Sun Station Vadsø festival, featuring performances by a series of intertwined bands including The Dream Syndicate, Filthy Friends, The Minus 5 and The Baseball Project.
Buck plays in most of those bands, and Mills has rotated in and out of The Baseball Project, a — as the name suggests — baseball-themed band that also features Steve Wynn of The Dream Syndicate and latter-day R.E.M. sideman and The Minus 5 mainman Scott McCaughey.
During the Baseball Project’s set at Sun Station on June 23, the group performed R.E.M.’s breakout 1987 single “The One I Love,” with Mills singing lead, and Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker — who plays with Buck in Filthy Friends — taking on Mills’ usual backing vocals.
During the festival, the band also played Out of Time album track “Texarkana,” which Mills introduced by saying, “Peter and I used to be in a band together a few years ago, and this is a song that we never did.” And, during his own set, Mills, with Buck on guitar, played R.E.M. classic “(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville.”
See footage of all three performances below.
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- R.E.M., Camper Van Beethoven members offer reward after PA stolen from 40 Watt Club
- Slicing Up Eyeballs’ Best of R.E.M.: Vote for your 25 favorite songs (from this list of 282)
- Vintage Video: R.E.M. tears up pre-‘Murmur’ set in earliest known pro-shoot footage
- MTV promo from 1988: ‘When I’m an old person, I think I’ll still be listening to R.E.M.’
- R.E.M.’s ‘Automatic For the People’ to receive 25th anniversary reissue this fall
- R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe to debut rare solo music as part of Moogfest audiovisual project
sounds like bad karaoke – but it’s not mixed for this purpose
Isn’t there a petition or some legal action we can initiate to reunite R.E.M.?