R.E.M. Live Album in October

R.E.M. will be releasing a live album on October 26 entitled R.E.M. Live At The Olympia. The title refers to the Olympia Theatre in Ireland where the band played a one week residency in 2007. The album is a two-CD set on Warner Bros Records, featuring a massive 39 songs.

“Live At The Olympia” captures R.E.M. in uncharted territory. Over the course of their one week residency at the stately Olympia Theatre in Ireland’s capital city, the band tested new material in front of audiences prior to releasing the songs on record. The capacity crowds in attendance, including fan club members, friends, family, and fans from all over the globe, were party to R.E.M.’s aptly dubbed “experiment in terror.”

“We were just trying to do something we hadn’t done before,” said guitarist Peter Buck, “which meant there was no relaxing during the set. Every second we were playing something we didn’t know all that well. Which was kind of good… there were all kinds of terror elements going on during that show.”

The live album was produced by Dublin native Jacknife Lee who, along with R.E.M., co-produced Accelerate, the album which emerged from these shows. Most of the eleven songs on Accelerate appeared in some form or fashion at the Dublin rehearsals.

In addition to the new material, R.E.M. reached into their back catalogue and played twenty-nine other songs, some of them rarely if ever performed. The lion’s share of these songs came from the band’s IRS years, ranging from Chronic Town to Document.

A special edition 2 CD & DVD set will contain a film of the Dublin rehearsals by Vincent Moon and Jeremiah, who previously worked with R.E.M. on Ninetynights, Six Days, and the video for Supernatural Superserious.

For more on the forthcoming release, please be sure to visit remdublin.com where, in addition to a full tracklisting, you’ll find audio for “Driver 8″  and a video for “Living Well Is The Best Revenge.”