R.E.M.

Athens, Georgia's R.E.M. are my second-favourite group and are also considered one of the pioneers of the alternative rock genre, mainly through Peter Buck's unique guitar style and Michael Stipe's cryptic and sometimes illegible lyrics. Formed in 1980, the group's first single, the Hib-Tone released Radio Free Europe in July 1981 was a huge success, even being listed in the New York Times'  Top 10 Singles for that year. In May 1982 the group signed to I.R.S. Records and released their first EP, Chronic Town, in August. After this, the four-piece went back into the studio and recorded what was to become Rolling Stone's album of 1983: April's Murmur, which even beat the well-established acts of Michael Jackson and U2 to the title. The album is still well-respected even today, 27 years after it was originally released. The remainder of their I.R.S. catalogue built on the debut; April 1984's darker Reckoning, July 1985's conceptual Fables Of The Reconstruction, July 1986's ecologically-minded Lifes Rich Pageant, and the group's mainstream breakthrough, September 1987's Document. Document features two of the group's most iconic and identifying tracks: The One I Love (the band's first hit single, hitting #9 in the US) and It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine).

In 1988, frustrated at a lack of global distribution, the group signed their first contract with Warner, a five-album deal that was worth $10 million. The first of these albums was November's Green, which was their European breakthrough, becoming Gold in the UK. March 1991 saw the group's second Warner album, Out Of Time, released. This featured their best-performing single to date, Losing My Religion, which reached #4 upon its release in February. October 1992 witnessed the release of the darker follow-up Automatic For The People, which itself features the stunning Everybody Hurts. The much much louder ninth album Monster, following in September 1994, was a change from the more toned down and melodic sound of their first two Warner releases. During a concert in promotion of the album in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 1st March 1995, R.E.M.'s drummer Bill Berry suffered a brain aneurysm. This was the beginning of the end of the group as a quartet, with Berry leaving in October 1997. The last album with Berry, New Adventures In Hi-Fi, was nearly entirely recorded during soundcheck sessions of the tour and was released afterwards in September 1996; prior to this, they re-signed with Warner for what was a record of $80 million. The first post-Berry album, October 1998's Up, was more electronically-influenced that previous albums but didn't have the commercial staying power during the Berry years; nevertheless they continued in this direction (although they did write the orchestral score for the Andy Kaufman biopic Man On The Moon in 1999, with The Great Beyond hitting #3 on the UK charts) and the group's 12th LP Reveal, from May 2001 had a more positive outlook but still retained the electronic sound of Up. After the group's Best Of collection 2003, the first album of new material, October 2004's Around The Sun, wasn't received as well as the group had hoped, despite hitting #1 in the UK. The now-trio's latest effort, Accelerate from March 2008, was much more well received and has a similar sound to Monster.

ITEOTWAWKI(AIFF)'s video is below, with downloads afterwards (the And I Feel Fine compilation is hosted on Megaupload).