Strong Marketing To Back R.E.M.'s Warner Bros. Set Billboard Newspaper August 10, 1996 BY CRAIG ROSEN LOS ANGELES - There's good news for R.E.M. fans. First and foremost, despite the rumors, the band has no plans to break up. Second, the band members, label representatives, and insiders are calling "New Adventures In Hi-Fi" -- its final album under its current contract with Warner Bros. -- its finest ever. The album will be released worldwide Sept. 9-10. "New Adventures In Hi-Fi," the band's fifth for Warner Bros. and 10th overall, not including compilations, evolved out of the band's 1995 Monster tour. It was a tour that took its toll on the band's members, with only guitarist Peter Buck surviving with his health unimpaired. First, drummer Bill Berry suffered a brain aneurysm in Switzerland. Later, vocalist Michael Stipe went under the knife for a hernia, and bassist/ keyboardist Mike Mills had surgery for an intestinal problem. However, between the visits to the hospital on the otherwise successful tour, R.E.M. was busy creating an album. Says Buck, "Bill and I came up with this idea while doing interviews for [the Monster tour] last year. We were going to write 12 new songs, record them on the road, and put it out a week later. It would be all-new live songs with applause." However, the band opted for another route. Virtually every show was recorded, but it was decided to go with recordings from sound checks. Buck acknowledges similarities to such classic road albums as Jackson Browne's "Running On Empty" and Neil Young's "Time Fades Away," but notes the band also turned to its contemporaries. "What kind of was an inspiration to us was to see Pearl Jam go out and do like a week of shows and then stay in the last town of the tour for three days and record all the things they jammed at sound check," Buck says. "We wanted to capture that spontaneity," he adds. "We're a really good live band, but never really do capture that in the studio." Mills says there was another factor. "It was partly motivated by laziness," he says. "If we could do as much as possible on the road, that's stuff we didn't have to do in the studio. That's one reason why this album was so easy to make." "We ended up with about seven finished songs and 12 unfinished ones," Buck adds. "By the end of the tour, we felt really creative and good about the work we had done, so the idea was, 'Let's go to the studio as soon as possible and let's capture the craziness, the dislocation, and weird scenes of the tour,' but without writing, 'We're an American band, come to party down in your hotel room,' because Grand Funk did that, and there will never be another song as good as 'We're An American Band' for what it was." "New Adventures In Hi-Fi" isn't Grand Funk; rather, it's classic R.E.M. The album at times recalls the band's last two releases -- 1994's hard-rocking "Monster" and 1992's more mellow and introspective "Automatic For The People," while adding some "new adventures" of its own. Says Buck, "I feel like it is kind of a sampler of all the things we have accomplished in the past and a bunch of things we haven't really approached before." (See sidebar, this page, for a track-by-track rundown.) RECKONING The release of the album comes at a crossroads of sorts for R.E.M. The band recently parted company with longtime manager Jefferson Holt. It is fielding offers from various companies for a new deal, and it is being forced to come to terms with an offhanded remark Buck or Berry made in 1986 that the band will break up on Dec. 31, 1999. When asked about Holt, Bertis Downs, the band's longtime attorney, who is credited on "New Adventures In Hi-Fi" as "advisor," says, "We don't want to talk about it, and in fact, we have agreed in a settlement not to have any comment other than our official comment." Downs then proceeds to pull out a laminated card from his wallet and quickly reads: "R.E.M. and Jefferson Holt have terminated their relationship by mutual agreement. The reasons for this decision are private and confidential, and no further discussions in these matters will be made by any of the parties." When Downs says that the band "has been through a lot of adversity," he may not be talking only about the mishaps on the road. However, things seem generally upbeat in the R.E.M. camp, despite a fatigrung week of work in L.A. in late July. In this one week, the band has taped videos for the album's frst two singles, posed for photo shoots, and conducted numerous interviews with the domestic and international press. Although Mills is fatigued from a night of partying, Buck is optimistic, and why shouldn't he be. According to SoundScan, R.E.M.'s last three albums have sold nearly 10 million units combined in the U.S. alone, making the band one of the hottest free agents on the market. There has been much speculation about who R.E.M. will sign with. Candidates include DreamWorks, the new label spearheaded by Warner Bros. veterans Mo Ostin and Lenny Waronker, who were instrumental in bringing the band to Warner Bros. in the late'80s. Another possibility is Outpost, another new Geffen-distributed entity, which is run by longtime R.E.M. producer Scott Litt, former Smashing Pumpkins manager Andy Gershon, and ex-Virgin A&R executive Mark Williams. Sony is said to be interested, and Warner Bros., of course, would love to maintain its relationship with the band. "We're playing it by ear right now," says Buck. "It is not a bad position to be in. We just finished the best record of our career, and we've sold like 35 million in the last six or seven years. I'm assuming good things will come out of this." Mills adds that the band is "just starting to take meetings to see what's out there and what's available." Warner Bros. executive VP/GM (U.S.) Jeff Gold is hopeful the band will re-sign with the label. "We love these guys as people and as artists. It's been incredibly rewarding to be able to work with artists and an organization as impressive as R.E.M.'s, and we hope to be able to continue working with them long into the future." The band "is certainly not ruling out re-signing with Warner Bros. again, but they are free agents and are considering what other opportunities or scenarios are out there," Downs says. "It's something that we are going to do in our very typical, closed, low-key, and fairly quiet way." NOT THE END OF R.E.M.... The band greets recent reports of its demise as a minor annoyance. The talk stems from its split with Holt and the fact that in 1986, when Berry or Buck -- no one can remember which one -- was asked when the band would break up, one predicted it would dissolve Dec. 31,1999. With that date on the horizon, the band is having to deal with the comment. "The thought that the band would have planned that far ahead for anything is laughable, but now it's being reported as news," says Downs. "We could start a pool about when that day would be, but at this point, they are doing what some people consider their best work, and they are probably better friends than they ever have been as individuals." Says Buck, "Either Bill or I said it, but the point is that breaking up is usually beyond your control. It was just a glib little answer." 'ROAD MOVIE' BUT NO TOUR One thing that is certain is that R.E.M. will not tour to support "New Adventures In Hi-Fi." Yet the band, Warner Bros., and retailers aren't overly concerned that the lack of a tour will hurt album sales, as R.E.M.'s biggest sellers, 1991's "Out Of Time" and 1992's "Automatic For The People," came when the band was on a hiatus from touring. "Out Of Time" has sold more than 4.1 million copies, while "Automatic" has sold more than 2.9 million copies, according to SoundScan. Bob Bell, new-release buyer for the 280-store, Torrance, Calif.-based Wherehouse Entertainment chain, says that touring "hasn't been a factor in some of their recent releases. The albums that they didn't tour behind sold just fine... This will be one of the biggest releases of the year. R.E.M., U2, and Pearl Jam all have albums coming, and they are the biggest alternative bands in the world." From the band's perspective, the basic marketing philosophy behind "New Adventures In Hi-Fi" will be "less is more," says Downs. "We've had years that we've done tours and lots of media, but this year is a year when as a band, they want to have some time as people to themselves. We are doing a fair amount on the front end, and they will do less later on. We are certainly hopeful that the music will stand up and the videos will help. The record will be played on the radio, and that will market the album." Warner Bros., on the other hand, will stage what Gold calls "an incredibly extensive launch and marketing campaign." Since the band isn't touring, the label wiH use the feature-length "Road Movie," which will be released on home video and laserdisc Oct. 1, as a marketing tool. Although the near simultaneously released album and film share some song titles, this is by no means R.E.M.'s "Rattle And Hum." The 90-minute film, directed by Peter Care, documents the three final nights of the Monster tour. In the film, the band is captured performing "Wake Up Bomb" and "Undertow" from the new album, as well as other favorites. The film will debut Aug. 16 at the Drambuie Edinburgh (Scotland) Film Festival and will be screened at film festivals in Hamburg, Spain, Tokyo, and possibly Toronto. In the U.S., MTV, VH1, and PBS will likely air a 60-minute version of the film around the time of the album's release. The first single, "E-Bow The Letter" will go to all rock radio formats Aug. 14. A videoclip directed by Jem Cohen for the track, featuring R.E.M. in performance in L.A. and guest backing vocalist Patti Smith, who was filmed on location in Prague, will have its world premiere on MTV about the same time that the single hits radio. A commercial single of "E-Bow The Letter" will be released Aug. 20 with the nonalbum track "Tricycle." A CD5 will follow the next week with "Tricycle," an alternate version of "Departure," and a cover of Richard Thompson's "Wall Of Death." The video for the second single, "Bittersweet Me," directed by Dominic De Joseph, has been shot. Two more clips with be shot in October. To drum up excitement for the release of the album, Warner Bros. will hold playback parties for radio and retail in major markets at highend audio shops to play off the album's title. Prerelease parties will be held at college campuses around the country. A call-in radio show, featuring the band and some kind of musical element, is a possibility. For the night of the album's release, Warner Bros. wiH pull out aH the stops in up to five major markets. "Road Movie" will be projected onto the sides of buildings in parking lots near record stores as a prelude to midnight sales. "We'll have 3,000 or 4,000 kids in a parking lot near Tower Records watching a live R.E.M. concert, as well as a half-hour 'making of the album' [electronic press kit]. We will premiere the video and parts of the album, and then at midnight, the album will go on sale," Gold says. While sites for the prerelease events had not been confirmed at press time, Gold says New York, L.A., and Atlanta will be likely targets. Warner Bros. will issue a limited edition of the CD in a special package, as it has done for the band's previous releases. The special package, which will be limited to 50,000 copies worldwide, will include a 64-page, bound hardcover book in a slipcase. Promotional pieces that will go to radio and retail include a series of postcards tying into the album's travel theme, as well as a promotional Viewmaster. In addition, Warner Bros. will spread the word about "New Adventures In Hi-Fi" on its World Wide Web site on the Internet with soundclips, videoclips, artwork, and photographs. The entire album may be "cybercast" (or broadcast) on the Internet prior to its release. In addition, an electronic press kit on the making of the album will be shown on Continental Airlines in September, while the video for "E-Bow The Letter" will be shown on American and Delta in September. Continental will have a dedicated R.E.M. audio channel. In the U.K., "E-Bow The Letter" will be released Aug. 19. Warner Bros. (U.K.) director of marketing Tony McGuiness says the company's British marketing strategy for the album and the single will reflect the band's "arty, enigmatic, cool" image. "R.E.M. has never lost touch with w here they've come from, and so their fans stay faithful. It's important that we continue that vibe," he says. McGuiness says the company will implement its biggest in-store promotion of the year, involving all the major retailers. A national TV campaign will begin the week of the album's release, and the press campaign will include a series of teaser ads, a first for Warner Bros. in the U.K. FUTURE ADVENTURES So if R.E.M. isn't breaking up, when will the band return after "New Adventures In Hi-Fi" has run its course? Mills says the band could regroup and being writing new material in the spring of 1997. "We had a long talk about that the other day," says Buck of the band, which makes all of its decisions democratically. "If I was the leader of the band, as opposed to just one of the guys in the band, we would record another record next summer and put it out either right around Christmas or in January 1998, and then do a tour in 1998. That's what I would do, and we might do that, too. Everybody seems interested in doing something like that. "I wouldn't put $1 million on it, but I want to do another tour, and I want to do it before my kids start school, so we can take them with us." Assistance in preparing this story was provided by Jeff Clark-Meads in London.