THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE • An electrifying cultural biography of the
greatest and last American rock band of the millennium whose music ignited a generation—and
reasserted the power of rock and roll "[Carlin's] unique gift for capturing the sweep and
tenor of a cultural moment...is here on brilliant display." —Michael Chabon In the spring of
1980 an unexpected group of musical eccentrics came together to play their very first
performance at a college party in Athens Georgia. Within a few short years they had taken
over the world – with smash records like Out of Time Automatic for the People Monster and
Green . Raw outrageous and expressive R.E.M.’s distinctive musical flair was unmatched and
a string of mega-successes solidified them as generational spokesmen. In the tumultuous
transition between the wide-open 80s and the anxiety of the early 90s R.E.M. challenged the
corporate and social order chasing a vision and cultivating a magnetic transgressive sound.
In this rich intimate biography critically acclaimed author Peter Ames Carlin looks beyond
the sex drugs and rock’n’roll to open a window into the fascinating lives of four college
friends – Michael Stipe Peter Buck Mike Mills and Bill Berry – who stuck together at any cost
until the end. Deeply descriptive and remarkably poetic steeped in 80s and 90s nostalgia The
Name of This Band is R.E.M. paints a cultural history of the commercial peak and near-total
collapse of a great music era and the story of the generation that came of age at the
apotheosis of rock.
