R.I.P. R.E.M.

"A wise man once said--'the skill in attending a party is knowing when it's time to leave.' We built something extraordinary together. We did this thing. And now we're going to walk away from it... I hope our fans realize this wasn't an easy decision; but all things must end, and we wanted to do it right, to do it our way." -Michael Stipe, announcing the breakup of alt rock pioneers R.E.M. today on the group's Web site.

Please enjoy this tribute to a great American band who provided over 30 years of outstanding music that pulled from every cool artist and band you should have gotten into back in the day. Sorry to see you go. Thanks for helping me find my voice in high school. -Ed.

"Orange Crush" Live on Top of the Pops 1989:


"Turn You Inside Out"


"Every Day Is Yours To Win"


"I Remember California" (Live from Tourfilm)


"Disturbance at the Heron House" (Live on MTV unplugged 1991)


"Carnival of Sorts" (Live Wire NYC, 1983)


Peforming Syd Barrett's "Dark Globe" in London, 1991:


"All The Way To Reno"


"Nightswimming" (Live on Jools Holland, 1992)

LOU REED AND METALLICA REVEAL TRACK LISTING FOR LULU

With two 11-minute long songs and one 19-and-a-half-minute epic, the heavily anticipated union between the West Coast's kings of metal and the East Coast's emperor of cool could turn out to be either like The Blue Mask meets ...And Justice For All or something achingly akin to Metal Machine Music meets St. Anger, which I don't think any of us want any part of, right? I guess we will all have to wait until Halloween to find out...

Here's some spiel on the album from the supergroup's special Web site followed by the track listing:

"Lulu" was inspired by German expressionist writer Frank Wedekind's plays "Earth Spirit" and "Pandora's Box," which tell a story of a young abused dancer's life and relationships and are now collectively known as the "Lulu Plays." Since their publication in the early 1900's, the plays have been the inspiration for a silent film ("Pandora's Box," 1929), an opera, and countless other creative endeavors. Originally the lyrics and musical landscape were sketched out by Lou for a theatrical production in Berlin, but after coming together with the 'Tallica boys for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concerts in New York in 2009 all guilty parties knew they wanted to make more music together. Lou was inspired enough by that performance to recently ask the band to join him in taking his theatrical "Lulu" piece to the next level and so starting in early May of this year we were all camped out recording at HQ studios in Northern California, bringing us to today and ten complete songs.

1. Brandenburg Gate (4:19)

2. The View (5:17)

3. Pumping Blood (7:24)

4. Mistress Dread (6:52)

5. Iced Honey (4:36)

6. Cheat On Me (11:26)

7. Frustration (8:33)

8. Little Dog (8:01)

9. Dragon (11:08)

10. Junior Dad (19:28)

Thank you. -Ed.

Metallica and Lou Reed playing "Sweet Jane":

Hair High (the graphic novel)

Bill Plympton is known as known for his surreal illustrations and textured style and this adaption of his feature film Hair High is no exception. what could be a cliche ghost story is turned into a mindbending look at high school. one we all can relate to... plympton's exaggerated drawings take simple high school issues and makes them look how they all felt when we were that young, huge and distorted and horrible. Once again graphic literature hits us in the heart by being direct and honest.