Robyn Hitchcock has just released a new video for ‘Ordinary Millionaire,’ a song co-written with The Smiths’ Johnny Marr that serves as the first single off the 3-years-in-the-making ‘Propellor Time.’

[tweetmeme]Robyn Hitchcock this spring will release the 3-years-in-the-making Propellor Time, an album recorded with current back-up band The Venus 3 — R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, Young Fresh Fellows’ Scott McCaughey and ex-Ministry drummer Bill Rieflin — and featuring guest turns by the likes of The Smiths’ Johnny Marr, Nick Lowe and John Paul Jones of Led [...]

[tweetmeme]Members of R.E.M.’s fan club have begun receiving their annual Christmas single from the band, and this year’s disc features a surprise: an appearance by retired drummer Bill Berry on a cover of “Crazy Like a Fox,” a hippie protest song Lenny Kaye recorded in 1966 under the pseudonym Link Cromwell.
Although Berry has performed live [...]

In conjunction with this month’s release of its Live at the Olympia album, R.E.M. is presenting “This Is Not a Theatrical Release,” a series of limited sneak-preview screenings across the country of the “un-concert documentary” being packaged with the special 2CD/1DVD edition of its new live album.
Directed by Vincent Moon and Jeremiah (who produced the [...]

Retired drummer Bill Berry and bassman Mike Mills jumped onstage last night with Peter Buck and the rest of The Minus 5 for a near-reunion of R.E.M.’s classic lineup in Athens, Ga. — a get-together that could have spawned a full reunion, since Michael Stipe was in the audience at the 40 Watt Club, according [...]

R.E.M. this week revealed the tracklist for its 39-song, 2CD Live at the Olympia, an album — due out Oct. 26 — that was culled from five nights of “working rehearsals” in 2007 that preceded the recording of last year’s hard-rocking comeback Accelerate.
The impressively deep tracklist — don’t be looking for the hits on [...]

R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, Dream Syndicate’s Steve Wynn and Young Fresh Fellows’ Scott McCaughey will tour the U.S. this summer and fall under a trio of musical guises — The Minus 5, The Baseball Project and The Steve Wynn IV — that apparently are all one in the same.
The triple-bill concerts, which run Aug. 26 through [...]

With touring and promotion of 2008’s Accelerate now finished, R.E.M. this year will issue, at a minimum, a pair of archival releases, hitting both ends of its long and fruitful career.
According to a post on the band’s Web site, R.E.M. is preparing a deluxe edition of 1984’s Reckoning that “will be done in the same [...]

This week’s star-studded Carnegie Hall tribute to legendary college-rock grads R.E.M. was capped off with an appearance by the band itself, performing “E-Bow the Letter” with Patti Smith.
The unbilled appearance by Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills wrapped up  a night of tribute performances by the likes of Bob Mould, The dB’s, The Apples [...]

Record Rack: A weekly round-up of the pertinent new releases hitting stores this Tuesday:
ARTIST: U2
ALBUM: No Line on the Horizon
FORMAT: CD, LP, download
BACKSTORY: Bono and Co.’s 12th album leaked nearly two weeks ago, prompting the band to stream it on MySpace well before its official release date. The disc finds U2 working with longtime associates [...]