BOMBARDMENT

Very apt for our first topic. 4 years in the making What About Me? has been a total bombardment of the senses. We took on such an ambitious concept with little idea of what would happen. Only a faith that if we stayed with it, it’d work out.

The backing track for this chapter was written one windy night in my van in Cadaques Spain. I had copied the riff from a sample of some Thai instrument. Sounded very different on my guitar, and as I played it to other musicians around the world it took on a whole new sound. Later on, Nigel (my constant support and musical genius) told me he thought I’d ripped it from knight Rider! I probably did without realising. Certainly doesn’t sound like that in the end.

ACCELERATE REDUX

As ACCELERATE continues to excel both critically and commercially in its second week since release, we wanted to take a look back at some of the highlights from the recent promo tour the guys did in Europe and the USA. Here are a few links highlighting some of the big moments, a gathering of grunts and greens, not necessarily in any particular order:

Virgin Radio

Fresh Air

SXSW/NPR.ORG

R.E.M. ROCKS SXSW

Coming out of a post-punk world that had little tolerance for pop, R.E.M. has spent 25 years as the bastion of pop music with a weird glimmer in its eye. Hear the legendary rock band perform a full concert at SXSW, webcast live on NPR.org from Stubbs in Austin, Tex., on Wednesday, March 12.

With the band's 14th studio album (Accelerate) coming in April, many fans expect a return to form for R.E.M. After original drummer Bill Berry quit the band in 1997, R.E.M. experimented more in the studio, adding more textures to its songs while simultaneously stripping away the usual methods of crafting rock songs. The album's first single, "Supernatural Superserious," looks to the prime of R.E.M.'s '80s discography, while maintaining a modern sheen.