Synopses & Reviews
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
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.
Review
"Carlin writes rock 'n' roll lives with a rare blend of documentary authority, narrative verve, and empathetic insight. His unique gift for capturing the sweep and tenor of a cultural moment — in this case, the long transitional moment between punk and the turn-of-the-century flowering of "indie" that was defined by the lifespan and the records of R.E.M. — is here on brilliant display." Michael Chabon, bestselling author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
Review
"R.E.M. is the quintessential indie band, a juggernaut of mumbled poetry and jangly guitar that revitalized the landscape of American music at a moment when we needed it the most. Peter Ames Carlin captures it all in this richly detailed and revelatory book — the fertile Athens scene, the alchemy of a great band bursting into life, their ambivalent rise to superstardom, and the tragedies and triumphs and surprises along the way. If you care about R.E.M. or indie rock or American popular culture, this is the book for you." Tom Perrotta, bestselling author of The Leftovers
Review
"Peter Ames Carlin's artful tour through R.E.M.'s remarkable lifespan portrays a band early on choosing to substitute distortion for clean jangle, an aesthetic decision entirely radical in a scene rife with punk rock noise. The fact that they remained true to the communitarian ideals of the underground, regardless of their mainstream success, will always be their most significant strength. And their songs were things of beauty." Thurston Moore, author of Sonic Life and founding member of Sonic Youth
About the Author
Peter Ames Carlin is the author of several books, including Sonic Boom: The Impossible Rise of Warner Bros. Records, published in 2021, and Bruce, the biography of Bruce Springsteen published in 2012. Carlin has also been a freelance journalist, a senior writer at People in New York City, and a television columnist and feature writer at The Oregonian in Portland. A regular speaker on music, writing, and popular culture, Carlin lives in Seattle.