2005

Sonic Youth are currently in pre-production of their next studio record which is currently entitled

With the upcoming release of the world

A few hundred lucky wedding guests got the surprise of their life Saturday (Oct. 8) as R.E.M.’s original four members reunited to play a seven-song set at the wedding of R.E.M. guitar tech Dewitt Burton. The action went down at Kingpins Bowl & Brew in the group’s Athens, Ga., home base and marks just the second time Michael Stipe, Peter Buck and Mike Mills have performed with drummer Bill Berry since his 1997 departure.

“Nobody really knew it was going to happen,” Kingpins owner Ed Connolly tells Billboard.com. “As a matter of fact, I think it was fairly hit and miss up until the time it happened. I heard they didn’t know if Bill was even going to make it, and I don’t know if they had a chance to rehearse.”

Connolly, who has known Burton for years, said the actual wedding band was taking a break when he noticed Stipe and company setting up in the bowling alley’s arcade. “I couldn’t believe it,” he says. “I was transfixed. I heard the count in and then ‘Sitting Still,’ and by the time they got to the first chorus, it was packed shoulder to shoulder.”

The group went on to play some of its most beloved early tunes: “Don’t Go Back to Rockville” (with Mills on vocals), “Wolves, Lower,” “Begin the Begin,” “The One I Love,” “Permanent Vacation” and “Radio Free Europe.”

“The beauty is that it was in Athens on a warm Saturday night, with the band on the floor with no production,” Connolly says. “I had three old disco mirror balls and they hung them up — that was the extent of the lighting show.”

As for the possibility of the performance seeing commercial release, Connolly says with a laugh, “If it’s cool with [R.E.M. manager] Bertis [Downs], it’s cool with me.”

Source billboard.com.

Dinosaur Jr. – who has never before released a DVD – has finally announced plans to issue an official Dinosaur Jr. DVD release. This full length concert DVD, which will feature the band in its original line-up, will be filmed at New York’s legendary Irving Plaza during the bands upcoming two night stand on December 2-3, 2005. The DVD will be directed by Gold In Berlin, which is run by Mascis’ own brother in-law, German filmmaker Phillip Virus. With unfettered access to this famously elusive band, fans can expect complete backstage access to Dinosaur Jr.’s recent reunion tour, one-on-one interviews, behind the scenes goings-on and a full set of performances of Dinosaur Jr. favorites. The DVD will be packed with bonus materials that any fan of the band -seasoned or brand new – will find thrilling and entertaining. Look for the DVD to be released during the first half of 2006.

In spring of 2005 the original members of Dinosaur Jr. – J Mascis, Lou Barlow, and Murph – announced they would play their first shows together in fifteen years; one of music’s most celebrated alternative rock pioneers, who split abruptly after only three albums, would roam again. Avid fans of the band knew that the impossible had happened – the reunion of J and Lou seemed as likely as aliens landing, music lovers quietly anticipated a rare second chance to see the legendary live show they had regretfully missed over a decade before, and young listeners, too young to have been there for the first time around, lined up for venue entrance like the generation before them.