R.E.M. Offer “Stirling” DVD
R.E.M. are hunkered down in their hometown of Athens, Georgia, working on their fourteenth album, with plans for a release this fall. In the meantime, the band will offer Perfect Square, their first concert film in almost twenty years. The DVD, due March 16th, is culled from a Wiesbaden, Germany, performance on last year’s world tour.
The set list spans the group’s career, from the mid-Eighties tracks like “Maps and Legends” and “Begin the Begin” to “Bad Day” and “Animal,” the two new tracks included on last fall’s In Time: The Best of R.E.M. Bonus material will include A Stirling Performance, a behind-the-scenes documentary that follows the band over a three-night stand in Stirling, Scotland.
As for the new material, Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills are still writing and demoing new material in addition to dusting off songs they recorded last year during sessions in Vancouver, according to manager Bertis Downs. Downs describes some of the newer songs as “lush and atmospheric,” and offered “Magnetic North,” “I Wanted to Be Wrong,” “Around the Sun” and “Wanderlust” as some of the working titles. The band plans to enter the studio in the next few weeks to continue recording sessions. In addition to the fall release, the group also plans to line up a new set of tour dates.