A comprehensive archive of R.E.M. articles from newspapers, magazines and online.

By Ray Pride
11.08.99
Playboy.com

While he’s published books of his photography, Michael Stipe is best known as the frontman for supergroup R.E.M. For most of the past decade, he’s also quietly gone about a mission of changing the face of American movies. As a producer, he’s put his interests and time behind projects both large and small, such as the remarkably funny documentary on no-budget filmmaking, American Movie. But his biggest splash to date is Being John Malkovich, the surreal, subversive comedy of what goes on in the minds of those who wonder what goes on in the minds of celebrities, written by first-timer Charlie Kaufman and directed by video wonder Spike Jonze.

Being John Malkovich takes big chances, starting with its nutty concept, its casting-against-type (John Cusack as a sniveling puppeteer; Cameron Diaz made ordinary as his unloved wife) and working through to its weird and farcical conclusion. It’s filled with the kind of artistry that doesn’t come from formula. We talked on a recent Saturday morning in New York, Stipe walking into the room with a freshly made omelet and hash browns.

Playboy.com: So what prompted you to produce?

Michael Stipe: I’ve been working in film for 12 years, which most people don’t know. Probably the only thing that came out with something of a wide release was Velvet Goldmine, the Todd Haynes glam-rock film. But I’ve done six feature films. Most of the stuff I’ve done is really under the radar.

PB: What do you like about film?

MS: Like music, it’s a very powerful medium. I’m drawn to it. I’m a photographer myself, and I have a lot of friends who work in the film business. There was a point in the early Nineties where I’d been working on very, very guerrilla independent films for a couple of years. Then I wanted to go Hollywood! I knew a lot of people who were incredibly frustrated with the material that they were offered as actors or directors or editors or writers or lighting people or what have you. Naively, I thought, Well, I’ll just create another film company that will make movies that don’t suck. It’s just as easy as that.

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By Jim Bessman
11.05.99
Billboard Magazine

When it came time to score Milos Forman’s eagerly awaited Andy Kaufman biopic, “Man On The Moon,” the appropriate composer was obvious. After all, the title was lifted from R.E.M.’s 1992 single, itself a tribute to the late comedian whose bizarre but brilliant antics are re-enacted in the Universal/Jersey Films picture.

The film, which stars Jim Carrey, Danny DeVito, Courtney Love, and Paul Giamatti, opens Dec. 25. The soundtrack is being released on R.E.M.’s label, Warner Bros., in conjunction with Jersey Records; it bows Nov. 23.

Besides containing the group’s first movie score, the soundtrack includes the title-track hit, which originally appeared on the 1992 album “Automatic For The People.” The set also boasts two new songs: the radio single “The Great Beyond” and “This Friendly World,” which is performed by the band with Carrey, who plays Kaufman.

Other soundtrack songs include a warped version of “I Will Survive” as performed by Kaufman’s outrageous lounge singer alter ego, Tony Clifton; Exile’s pop hit “Kiss You All Over”; Kaufman’s own versions of “Rose Marie” and “One More Song For You”; and the Sandpipers’ 1958 recording of the “Mighty Mouse” theme, the chorus of which was triumphantly lip-synced by Kaufman on his historic “Saturday Night Live” debut in 1975.

The movie essentially celebrates that and other (in)famous Kaufman gags, so for good reason, the promotional CD for “The Great Beyond” is subtitled “R.E.M. Celebrates Andy Kaufman.”

Kaufman’s untimely 1984 death from cancer at age 35 was considered by many to be just another hoax, as his best friend and collaborator Bob Zmuda recounts in his recently published biography, “Andy Kaufman Revealed!”

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By Dakota Smith
10.27.99
Sonicnet

R.E.M. won’t be eligible for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for several years, but another museum has already taken in the influential Athens, Ga., band.

“Rapid Eye Movement: R.E.M. on Television,” a comprehensive exhibit of visual and audio material, is on display at the New York and Los Angeles branches of the Museum of Television & Radio through Nov. 28.

“If people find it interesting and noteworthy, and worth putting on exhibition into an institution, we’re certainly appreciative,” the band’s manager, Bertis Downs, said. The band has yet to see the exhibit, Downs said, although singer Michael Stipe did sit for an interview with the museum in October that’s included in the display.

Through music videos, tapes of television appearances, radio spots and a couple of documentary films, the exhibit traces R.E.M.’s evolution from college-radio cult band to rock stars.

The exhibit is part of the museum’s ongoing series saluting performers for whom television has played an important role in achieving success. Past exhibitions at the museum have focused on singer Janet Jackson and the late comedian Andy Kaufman.

Including R.E.M. in the series wasn’t a difficult choice, said Arthur Smith, a curatorial assistant at the museum. “R.E.M. [have] been in the forefront of innovation in terms of their visual presentation.”

“We have been around for a while and done quite a few videos and films of concerts,” Downs said.

As part of the R.E.M. exhibition, the museum compiled a 90-minute film that includes “MTV Unplugged” performances; such music videos as “Everybody Hurts” (RealAudio excerpt), “Man on the Moon” and “Losing My Religion”; and clips from the 1995 documentary “Rough Cut” and numerous television appearances.

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By David Daley
10.18.99
Hartford Courant

Michael Stipe had very little interest in film when R.E.M.’s murky,mysterious jangle first emerged from the backwoods of Athens, GA.,more than 15 years ago.

That band’s early videos were as impressionistic and allusive as Stipe’s lyrics but tended to be simple reflections of the band members rustic, rural surroundings. They wandered about famous Georgian folk artist Howard Finster’s farm in the “Radio Free Europe” clip set “Can’t Get there from Here” at a roadside stand and a Southern drive-in and “Driver 8″ along a long-hidden Athens train tracks.

R.E.M.’s sound grew more accessible, spawing hits like “Losing My Religion” and “The One I Love.” But its videos only became more arty and ambitious, like the moody, black and white clip for “Man on the Moon” and the award-winning “Everybody Hurts.” which showed the lonely, personal thoughts of drivers stuck in freeway traffic, who slowly abandon their cars and walk away.

Along the band’s journey from the margins to the mainstream, Stipe discovered a love for making movies. He co-founded two film-production companies and gave unknown young directors the opportunity to make high-profile R.E.M. videos. And just as R.E.M. influenced a generation of 80’s college radio sound-alikes-and profoundly affected the teen-agers who would define the arty, uncompromising side of 90’s alt-rock, like Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, Stipe and his young proteges are now makng the prescence felt in the film world.

Stipe’s Single Cell films produced two of the fall’s most talked-about independent films “Being John Malkovich” and “American Movie” Malkovich which co-stars John Cusack Cameron Diaz, and yes, John Malkovich, is the directoral debut for Spike Jonz, who made his name with the music videos for the Beastie Boys “Sabatage” Weezer’s “Buddy Holly” and R.E.M.’s “Crush with Eyeliner.”

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