411 Mania — Band wraps up new CD in Germany... more info

Gigwise — It's due out next spring... more info

Undercover, Australia — R.E.M. have downed tools on their next album. more info

DrownedInSound — Birthed in a haunted old South, forged in a drab England, paranoid, sensual, nonsensical and true, Fables... was undeniably something of a diversion on the route to indie rock stardom. Yet for many fans this moon-touched night walk exceeds nigh on al... more info

LargeHeartedBoy — The 25th anniversary edition of R.E.M.'s Fables of the Reconstruction is in stores tomorrow. The album has been digitally remastered and includes a bonus disc of demos (including "Bandwagon, which I wrote about earlier this month). Along with the... more info

Stereogum — R.E.M.’s Fables Of The Reconstruction 25th Anniversary album comes out today outside the U.S., and stateside tomorrow. The band put up “Throw Those Trolls Away,” an early pre-album-recording demo (you can hear a mid-song “turn the guitar up a... more info

Guardian Music — (Fiction)This first offering from Tired Pony, a country-rock supergroup including members of REM and Belle & Sebastian, is in thrall to tempestuous love affairs and the concept of flight. It's tempting, in its preoccupation with trading dull stabilit... more info

All About Jazz — At an outdoor theater in Berlin that has played host to U2, R.E.M. and the Rolling Stones, Sony Music Entertainment plans to stage a very different kind of show next month. Before an expected sellout crowd of 22,000, three men, dressed in red, white... more info

Altsounds — This one's kind of a great story; the ladies in Uganda had covered Joe Purdy's "Suitcase," then Joe covered REM, and then Mike Mills did Billy's "Sing Their Souls Back Home." Shortly afterwards Mike saw Billy at SXSW, told him he had covered his ... more info

LargeHeartedBoy — On July 13th, Capitol is releasing a 25th anniversary edition of R.E.M.'s album, Fables of the Reconstruction. Along with the remastered album, a 14-track CD of bonus material is included as well, with demo recordings of the album's 11... more info