Twenty-Five Years Of Murmuring In Athens: Athens Bands Play R.E.M.'s Murmur

by Chris Hassiotis
11/23/2008

Jeff Montgomery's been a supporter of Athens since before he lived in town. He remembers coming to Athens for a CD release show for R.E.M.'s Automatic for the People and being impressed by the fact that it was a benefit show raising money for Community Connection, the local non-profit resource organization. Now he's on that organization's board, and helping organize events like November 25's "A Perfect Circle: Athens Bands Play R.E.M.'s Murmur." This event draws inspiration from "Finest Worksongs," an event in late 2006 where Athens bands chose from a variety of R.E.M. songs to cover, paying tribute to our town's most high-profile ambassadors.

So why Murmur, the bands debut full-length? "It's a classic landmark album that's tied into Athens, especially with the trestle," says Montgomery. (The trestle pictured on the album's cover still stands in the Greenway, though in a less picturesque manner these days.) A landmark album? Well, 1983 may be well before any of UGA's current undergrads were even born -- hell, their parents may not have even met yet -- but consider this: Rolling Stone named the much-anticipated album, released after three years of touring and underground hype built behind R.E.M., 1983's album of the year over The Police's Synchronicity and Michael Jackson's Thriller.

Murmur's 25th anniversary sees record label EMI releasing a special edition of the album. The first disc contains the original IRS Records album released on April 12, 1983. It's been remastered and the sounds have been refined. The 16-track second disc of Murmur: Deluxe Edition contains a previously unreleased live show recorded in Toronto in July of the same year at Larry's Hideaway. The show covers all the Murmur bases as well as featuring songs from the earlier Chronic Town EP, a Velvet Underground cover and early versions of songs that would make it on to the Reckoning and Life's Rich Pageant albums in the mid-'80s.

Montgomery says he's looking forward to seeing local bands winnow down their options to choose only from the Murmur tracks to cover, as opposed to selecting from R.E.M.'s entire output like the Finest Worksongs bands did.

"I had been looking into some possibilities of doing something [for the album's anniversary]," he says, "and then I found out about the re-release that EMI is doing. So basically any time I know there's a release opportunity going, I pay attention, so I said let's try to see if we could make this happen. It seemed like a unique thing to do! It's a more specific canon, picking the songs from this album rather than pick anything."

Montgomery says he's eager to hear a number of classic R.E.M. tracks performed live, particularly songs that that band may have retired from the public setting. "A lot of these songs may rarely be played live. R.E.M.'s been pulling stuff out of their hat on the last tour, but I've never seen 'Shaking Through' played. All the songs are being played."

Montgomery says he brought together a group of disparate Athens musicians to offer their own takes on the classic songs. "I started asking bands to see who would be around, since it's a tricky time with the holidays and all. Everybody up until a week or two ago was really focused on election stuff, and there wasn't a lot of thought beyond that," says Montgomery.

Don Chambers + GOAT, Liz Durrett, Iron Hero, Nate Nelson, Jackpot City (performing under the name Heavy Feather) and Packway Handle Band will perform at the event, giving the jangly rock-and-roll numbers overtones of rustic Americana, folk, stripped-down solo stuff, bluegrass and classic rock-and-roll. "I tried to pick some different styles so that the songs would be presented in an interesting way, so there's going to be some variety to it," says Montgomery.

Unlike at past R.E.M.-related fundraising events, "A Perfect Circle" may be a little more low-key, with no benefit auction planned or secret surprises in the making, as when R.E.M. themselves performed at the "Finest Worksongs" event.

"We decided to scale it down a little bit and make it more of a fun, party night. We're not doing an auction or anything. In the last 13 months, this is the third CD release we've done, with Live, Accelerate and this one. So we've done a bunch in the past, and with the economic concerns, and money donated to campaigns, we thought wallets might be a little tight. We'll have some t-shirts for sale and some copies of Murmur. But really, we thought, let's keep it low-cost, high-fun and a party for people." The event will also feature a screening of vintage live 1983 footage of R.E.M.

The show starts at 8 p.m., and tickets cost $10, with all proceeds going to Community Connection of Northeast Georgia and Athens-Clarke County Family Connection Partnership/Communities in Schools of Athens. Community Connection also celebrates its 25th anniversary. "We're in the process of doing a rebranding initiative," says Montgomery, "with a new website soon. And we're in the midst of kind of a pledge period to celebrate the 25 years. We're trying to get 1000 people to pledge $25 each. We give help, we get help, we grow help."