R.E.M. To Reissue Catalog

Reissues trace fifteen years at Warner Bros.

R.E.M. will reissue their entire Warner Bros. catalog on February 15th, with each two disc set including the original album and a bonus DVD featuring the record remixed in 5.1 surround sound, as well as unreleased documentary and video footage.
The reissues span from R.E.M.'s 1988 Warner debut Green to this fall's Around the Sun, and mark the band's transition from indie favorites to one of the world's biggest bands.

"These days, there are R.E.M. fans who think 'Stand' or even 'Losing My Religion' is the first song the band ever wrote," bassist Mike Mills told Rolling Stone in 1991. "The people who listen to Top Forty are generally not R.E.M. record buyers -- or they weren't until the last year or two. It's kind of surprising to listen to the fourteen-year-old girls call up and go, 'How long have you been together? I like your first record.' And it's like 'No, no. See, the first record came out when you were about one year old.'"

Typical of the bonus material is the extra disc for Out of Time, which includes the unreleased documentary Time Piece, a blend of band member interviews and commentary on songs from the album that made R.E.M. a household name

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/ ... on=single1

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aww dont be so hard on them. if pearl jam did it you all would be excited.

big rem fan, by the way

Yea I think your being a bit hard on them. Have you seen all pearl jam's live cd's?

Maybe they've just run out of idea's and want to give the public something interesting... that costs alot of money... but hey.

I can understand things like Green being given another release, but an album released two months ago? That's crap.

I'm quite a big fan myself y'know.

I don't mind this.

Nobody's forcing you to buy them.

I love R.E.M., but I already have all of their records. I don't see myself picking up any of these, at least not until their way cheaper on eBay.

Irrelevant. Pearl Jam offered those to offer their fans an opportunity to hear all of the concerts on their tour. REM and other such bands are releasing their albums all over again, rather than simply offering B-Side collections for each album, forcing those fans that already have the albums but would like the B-Sides to purchase the albums all over again. It's fucked.

I love REM, but I don't agree with it when any artist does this. Just release the fucking B-Sides, guys.

The article didn't say that b-sides would be included on the bonus discs. The limited edition In Time had alot of the b-sides included already.

Ah. My mistake. But I stand by my point that those of us that already have the albums but would like the extra material are pretty well screwed.

DVD remixed for surround and documentary is quite cool.

I totally agree with that. I, personally, will never buy a re-issue if I already own one copy of the CD. I'll download the bonus material.

And whoever said we'd be excited if Pearl Jam did it.. Well, maybe some people would, but I wouldn't. I'd still think it's jacked. But I don't see them ever calling for that to happen.

Warner Bros gave REM a HUGE contract years back when they were at the top of the charts. They sold less and less records ever since. Looks like WB is looking to make back it's money.

yo,whats the big friggin deal?

all thous albums are classics that deserve to be reissued

Damn right. I love REM as much as I do Pearl Jam, and this still bothers me. It's just a lame way to squeeze even more money out of your fans.

If it's a lame way to get money from the fans then don't buy it. It's quite simple really.

I don't intend to, but you're completely missing the point. This is an alienation of a fanbase that has been loyal and bought their releases. We, the fans, have been supporting them for years by buying their material, and now they're basically saying "Oh, well, if you want this, you're going to have to spend a ridiculous amount of money and purchase something you already own." Re-releasing and remastering things is fine, but if they wanted to release the material so that their fans would have access to it, they could simply release the bonus material individually, or offer the bonus material from each record in one big package.

And simply because we're stating that we think it's an exploitation of their fanbase doesn't mean you have to post snide, patronizing comments that have already been made.

They should have released a DVD with documentaries and soforth on it, and a CD-package with rare tracks and b-sides on them.

Basically, yeah.

Well, sorry I pissed you off.

You make a good point about them releasing the bonus material individually. As a matter of fact I've become a fan of REM within the last 1-2 years, and have bought all of their stuff in that time frame. Still it's their choice, and I'm okay with it.