There very well could have been a full-fledged R.E.M. reunion in Portland, Ore., on Saturday night as all four members of the defunct college-rock superstars performed after Peter Buck’s wedding. But, by all appearances, they managed to avoid such headlines, just barely, by not actually sharing the stage together.

It’s a nearly unparalleled landmark in the history of ’80s college rock: R.E.M.’s peerless debut album, Murmur, was released on April 12, 1983 — exactly 30 years ago today. Today we celebrate this milestone by looking back at the building blocks of the album we know and love.

The first weekend of Peter Buck’s three-weekend Todos Santos Music Festival in Baja California, Mexico, wrapped up Saturday night with what was essentially a reunion of latter-day R.E.M. minus Michael Stipe as bassist Mike Mills joined Buck and his steadfast R.E.M. sidemen Scott McCaughey and Bill Rieflin onstage.

Scott McCaughey tells the Seattle Weekly that former R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck’s self-titled album — with guest turns by Mike Mills and Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker — could be out as early as next month, when Buck debuts his new band, dubbed Richard M. Nixon, at a pair of Seattle shows with Young Fresh Fellows.

This year’s South By Southwest will feature appearances by a horde of ’80s college rock vets, including The Jesus and Mary Chain, Bob Mould performing ‘Copper Blue,’ The Wedding Present, Thomas Dolby, The Cult, Dinosaur Jr and The dB’s, plus R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and Mike Mills playing Big Star’s ‘Third.’

The now-disbanded R.E.M. today unveiled the tracklist and cover art for its forthcoming, career-spanning best-of — the 40-song ‘Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage: 1982-2011’ — and announced that ‘We All Go Back to Where We Belong,’ one of three new tracks on the set, will be issued as a single next month.

New York City’s Baruch College played host Saturday night to a star-studded tribute to Big Star’s beloved ‘Third/Sister Lovers’ album, performed by R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe and Mike Mills, plus Matthew Sweet, members of Teenage Fanclub and Yo La Tengo, and surviving Big Star member Jody Stephens.

While R.E.M. is busy promoting its forthcoming new album ‘Collapse Into Now,’ the band will continue its reissue series with the release later this year of an expanded 25th anniversary edition of 1986’s ‘Lifes Rich Pageant.’

As promised last week, R.E.M. today premiered its first music video from the forthcoming ‘Collapse Into Now’: a clip for radio single ‘Mine Smell Like Honey.’

Members of R.E.M.’s fan club have begun receiving their annual holiday single in the mail, and, like last year’s, the 2010 installment features the return of departed drummer Bill Berry on a cover of Darlene Love’s classic ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’ — as well as an instrumental mashup of three tracks off the band’s forthcoming album ‘Collapse Into Now.’

R.E.M. employed a decidedly old-school medium to announce the full tracklist of its new album ‘Collapse Into Now’: The band revealed the titles of the record’s 12 songs via its snail-mail fanclub newsletter.

Mike Mills revealed the first details of R.E.M.’s 15th studio album, ‘Collapse Into Now,’ on Wednesday, telling Spin.com that the record features a ‘more expansive’ sound than 2008’s hard-rocking ‘Accelerate,’ thanks, in part, to guest appearances by the likes of Eddie Vedder, Patti Smith, Lenny Kaye and Peaches.

During a break from sessions for R.E.M.’s next album, Mike Mills contributed a cover of Billy Bragg’s ‘Sing Their Souls Back Home’ — off the agit-folkie’s 2008’s album ‘Mr. Love & Justice’ — to The Voice Project.