Ring the Alarm: An Interview with R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe

"I'm overwhelmed/I'm on repeat," Michael Stipe sings on
"Hollow Man," probably the quietest song on R.E.M.'s incredible,
jagged release Accelerate, due out March 31 to the rest of
the world and America on April Fool's Day. style="float: right; margin: 0 10px">It's a potent dose of
post-millennial anger that has been a long time coming. Since losing
original drummer Bill Berry before the turn of the century, the
legendary rock outfit has delivered a hushed stream of cerebral
confessionals. But their efforts were too quiet for a world exploding
into hyperreality around them: From rampant militarism and consumption
to a narcotized pop culture hell-bent on bling and little else, the
world needed a wake-up call, not more exquisite lullabyes. After all,
Earth is not what it was when they emerged from Athens in the early
'80s with hypnotic arpeggios, cryptic lyrics and nothing but momentum.
It isn't even close.

"Where's my jetpack?" Stipe laughs by phone, quoting artist Ryan
McGuinness. "It's 2008, and the best we can do is the odd policeman on
a Segway? We've had administration after administration pulling us
back to the 1950s. I want progress, and I want progressive agendas. I
fully expected that when I was 13 and taking an environmental science
class that we'd have alternative energy by now. If you would have told
me in 1973 that in 2008 a black man and a woman running for president
would still be a big deal, I would have laughed at you."

Yet here we are. And for Stipe's tastes, at least, one of them has
gone too negative to be considered a change agent.

"I'm for Barack Obama all the way. The Clinton campaign has took a
desperate turn and has, I think, shown its true colors. How dare they
use fear against Americans after these past seven years? I'm really
tired of politicians telling me what to be afraid of. On the other
hand, Obama is hopeful, grounded and clearly intelligent. He is,
relatively, an outsider to the beholden D.C. club, and I think that is
what America is calling out for; not a career politician but a true
outsider candidate. He represents I think the true spirit of the
beginning of the 21st century."

"Looking back," Stipe continues, "I feel like we've all had enough
of the fear and the arrogance, and losing our place in the world. Our
very big idea of a country and democracy has been brought to a near
end by very small people."

Stipe's dissatisfaction is evident and visceral on the
hard-charging Accelerate, especially on incendiary tracks
like "Man-Sized Wreath" and "Living Well is the Best Revenge," where
Stipe's sociopolitical agitation is matched in R.E.M.'s back catalogue
only by the urgent missive "These Days" from their crunchy 1986 effort
Life's Rich Pageant. Of course, back then the world was in
the ass-backwards thrall of not Bush but Reagan. But evidently the
more things change, the more they stay the same. Or get worse.

Judging by the cultural chatter and voter turnout, bringing that
post-millennial chaos under control is becoming more popular by the
day. Accelerate will only help in that department: It is a
galvanizing kick in the ass from a band whose cultural capital has
only increased through time. And it's much-needed: From global warming
to peak oil and beyond into our fracturing global communities, we are
hard-pressed for heroic narratives. We need all the alarm clocks we
can get.

"I think we can turn this around," Stipe confides, "but we can't
wait. We need the attention of everyone immediately."