R.E.M. In The Studio For Monster's 30th Anniversary

09-23-2024

The 30th anniversary of R.E.M.'s "Monster" album is being celebrated by the syndicated radio show In The Studio With Redbeard: The Stories Behind History's Greatest Rock Bands.

Redbeard shared this synopsis for the episode: 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 release turned out to be their last with drummer Bill Berry, who suffered a life-threatening aneurysm in Germany while on the subsequent Monster tour and was advised by doctors to retire. Stipe, Peter Buck, and Mike Mills all join me here In the Studio on Monster's thirtieth anniversary.

Stream the episode here