R.E.M.

R.E.M. Call It Quits

by Justin Ward on Sep 21, 11

I stopped by Stubb’s BBQ in Austin on my final night in Texas and I was reminiscing hard about the amazing time I had at SXSW 2008, and Stubb’s was where I caught the R.E.M. show that Spin hosted that helped launch a pretty banner year for the band. So it’s a bittersweet thing to see the news that they’ve decided to split amicably and just punctuate an amazing career together as a band with a simple period after releasing an album earlier this year and never planning on touring to support it anyway. So in essence the band just said, “ya know, we’re cool to release a greatest hits” and “call it a day” in their words; you can’t argue with that.

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SXSW 2008 | Day One Recap and Photos

by Justin Ward on Mar 19, 08

in Festivals,Photo Galleries

By the time the music portion of the South by Southwest conference began, I was really excited for what I knew the week ahead of me would include. I had already started to plot out the ultimate schedule in my mind and on sched.org, and through the wonders of my MacBook Pro and my iPhone, I had a handy mechanism for keeping up on what was going on all across town and what I could possibly see while in attendance. The ultimate schedule was impossible, but I had a good run through the entire fest and started out strong with about 15 bands on day one.