R.E.M. 30 YEARS: 30 FACTS

IN CELBRATING THE 30 YEAR FORMATION OF R.E.M. HERE ARE 30 FACTS OF THE BAND.

1. St. Mary's Episcopal Church, 394 Oconee St. - The site for the debut of R.E.M. at O'Brien's birthday party, the church was built in 1871, and many years later converted into rooms inside the shell of the building. Guitarist Peter Buck, frontman Michael Stipe and O'B1. St. Mary's Episcopal Church, 394 Oconee St. - The site for the debut of R.E.M. at O'Brien's birthday party, the church was built in 1871, and many years later converted into rooms inside the shell of the building. Guitarist Peter Buck, frontman Michael Stipe and O'Brien, along with some other roommates, called the place home in the fall of 1979. Demolished in 1990, the church's steeple is all that remains - an homage to the band's beginnings.

2. "Gardening At Night" - A good song to start with, as it originally was released on R.E.M.'s 1982 debut EP, "Chronic Town," and was included with a different vocal mix on R.E.M.'s second compilation, "Eponymous" (1988) containing the liner notes: "Written on a mattress in the front yard. Now condominiums." That would be the yard of St. Mary's church - yes, now condominiums (though it's neither the first nor the only song that shares this heritage).

3. Wuxtry, 197 E. Clayton St. - If you know R.E.M. folklore, this is a no-brainer. Buck worked at the store circa 1979, where he met future bandmate Stipe, who reportedly shared the same taste in music.

4. Kathleen O'Brien - As a student at the University of Georgia, O'Brien introduced Bill Berry and Mike Mills to her roommates, Stipe and Buck.

5. "We Walk" - From the first album "Murmur" (1983), this song, says Catherine Edmonds, who's organizing a tribute show on Friday, has the lyrics "Up the stairs and to the landing ...," which refer to the hill and steep stairs leading up to 169 Barber St., where many a party was held during the band's early years.

6. The Trestle - For fans, it needs no introduction, and for locals, it's a point of contention. Pictured on the back of "Murmur," an album that made Rolling Stone's list of the 500 best albums of all time, the trestle's future - after years of debate - remains unclear. Preservationists fought to save it (at an eyebrow-raising cost to the city), bike enthusiasts want to incorporate it into their rails-trails effort to convert unused railway corridors to bike/walking paths, and engineers are studying it to see if it's structurally sound for such a conversion. At any rate, it's an impressive maze of timber that stretches high above Dudley Park.

7. Trains - Their lonely whistles can be heard day and night around downtown Athens, so it's only fitting that trains figure not just into artwork, but into some of the band's early tunes, like "Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars)" and "Driver 8."

8. "Crazy" - Released on the B-sides collection "Dead Letter Office," this is a cover of a song by fellow Athens band Pylon and contains these liner notes, which gives a good indication just how highly R.E.M. thought of its contemporaries: "I remember hearing their version on the radio the day that Chronic Town came out and being suddenly depressed by how much better it was than our record."

9. Barber Street - It's Athens' own Avenue of the Stars, surviving since the early 1980s, when a slab of wet sidewalk concrete was cause for scrawling in some permanent reminders. You'll find R.E.M.'s name there.

10. "Moral Kiosk" - Anyone who's spent time downtown knows the flier-papered pillars on College Avenue. And according to Marcus Gray's "An R.E.M. Companion: It Crawled from the South," "Apparently locals know these as the moral kiosks, and did so when the song was but a twinkle in R.E.M.'s collective eye." Might be a stretch there, but an interesting title story nonetheless.

11. Walter's Bar-B-Q - Featured in the 1987 documentary "Athens, Ga.: Inside Out," the spot on Broad Street (now JB Ribs and BBQ) was a favorite eatery for the band in its early years, and they created a tune, "Walter's Theme," which ended up at the end of "Dead Letter Office" (mixed with "King of the Road" in an admittedly drunken take).

12. "Can't Get There From Here" - On the way South out of Athens on 78, you might've passed the turnoff sign for Philomath. It's the inspiration for the lyrics "When you're needing inspiration, Philomath is where I'll go ... Philomath they know the low down ... ." Whether Philomath will inspire you is debatable, but the video for the song was shot by Athens filmmakers at Aguar Productions and was filmed partially at the a former drive-in theater on 441.

13. "Camera" - This heartbreaker from "Reckoning" was written in memory of a close friend of Stipe's, Carol Levy, who died in a car accident between Athens and Atlanta, according to Craig Rosen's book "R.E.M.: The Story Behind Every Song."

14. "(Don't Go Back to) Rockville" - As the story goes, Mills came up with this tune at the prospect of his girlfriend, Ingrid Schorr, leaving town. Originally a more rockin' song, it was shelved for some time, but manager Bertis Downs liked it very much, so the band recorded it, adding a country twang - also according to Rosen's book.

15. Seney-Stovall Chapel - It's preserved in all its raw, historic, rundown glory in the aforementioned doc "Athens, Ga.: Inside Out," in which the band sang "Swan Swan H," and Mr. Stipe danced a little jig. And later, in its restored glory, Seney-Stovall was the site for R.E.M. to put some finishing touches on 2008's "Accelerate," complete with videos shot by Vincent Moon (which you can check out on YouTube).

16. Weaver D's - Mmm, delicious fine foods. "Automatic for the People." If you know anything about R.E.M. history, it's that the band borrowed the title for this 1992 album from the man behind the counter, Dexter Weaver, himself.

17. "The One I Love" - In the video for this 1987 song, directed by Robert Longo, you'll see people standing in the windows of the Morton Theatre (before its restoration) as well as folks dancing in the earliest location of The Grit, when it was over by the railroad tracks off Hoyt Street.

18. 40 Watt - This club is about as famous as the band, known worldwide for hosting R.E.M. on stage in every one of its locations in downtown Athens. (See No. 30)

19. "Shiny Happy People" - The poppiest of pop songs by any band, anywhere, ever, the video featured a variety of Athenians, along with backing vocals by the B-52s' Kate Pierson (a former Athenian herself) and a backdrop painted by Oglethorpe Elementary fifth-graders in April Chapman's class (according to Craig Rosen's book "R.E.M.: The Stories Behind Every Song").

20. Jim Herbert - Now retired, this UGA painting professor is credited with inspiring the artistic careers of a number of young students in addition to the band members, interestingly, by way of filmmaking. A filmmaker himself, Herbert directed a number of videos for the band and captured on film some early live performances. Especially compelling is the video for the song "Low" (1992), which is based around a painting from the Georgia Museum of Art's permanent collection "La Confidence," by Elizabeth Jane Gardner.

21. Friends - So this is ridiculously broad, but Mills and Stipe, who still have residences in the ATH (with former drummer Bill Berry living in the nearby countryside), and Buck, who lives in Seattle, most definitely have many close friendships as well as musical acquaintances they've maintained over the years. You'll find Athens faces popping up in the band's videos, album artwork and elsewhere, and if you're counting extended friends, there are several local bands who've opened for R.E.M. on various tours, including the Olivia Tremor Control, Five-Eight and Modern Skirts. Also, Buck's ex-wife Barrie owns the 40 Watt Club.

22. Office - In the same way that friends are an anchor in Athens, the R.E.M. office is based here, too. Everything globally for the band begins on College Avenue, where Downs (who started out as a fan of the band when they were just getting started) oversees the daily goings-on.

23. Art - Designer Chris Bilheimer, who works in the aforementioned local office, works his magic (oftentimes alongside Stipe) for R.E.M.'s album artwork and everything that goes with it (singles, posters, special packaging - the list goes on). Bilheimer's talent is in demand, too - he's worked for other local bands like Widespread Panic, Five-Eight and The Whigs, as well as national ones like Greenday.

24. Local politics - When it comes to issues affecting the future of Athens, the band has been weighing in since the 1980s, when Stipe approached Gwen O'Looney (then a city council member, later mayor of Athens) regarding a potential street closure in his Boulevard-area neighborhood. The band ended up championing and financially backing O'Looney's run for mayor in 1990 (and her re-election as well). Noted Banner-Herald staffer Jim Thompson in a 2006 article for this paper: "What R.E.M. had done with the O'Looney campaign was to help awaken the people who were part of the local arts and music scene - who had previously made some half-hearted, underfunded attempts to get sympathetic representation in local government - to the fact they had reached something of a critical mass, and were capable of exercising some real political clout."

25. Local charities - Although their financial generosity is hardly limited to Athens (this year the band helped raise more than $1 million for Haiti relief efforts with the all-star release of "Everybody Hurts," for instance), Athens organizations and people have benefited hugely from their generosity - from a shelter for the night to new basketball uniforms at the Boys & Girls Club. "There's been no entity more broadly supportive of the community than R.E.M.," Tim Johnson, executive director of Family Connection/Communities In Schools of Athens, told this paper in 2006.

26. Production - A number of local bands have seen their tunes massaged by the production work of band members. Among them, Modern Skirts, for whom Mills recently produced a track. And Stipe helped bring the late, great Vic Chesnutt into a much wider scope of attention, producing his first few albums.

27. John Keane Studios - Located on Hillcrest in the Cobbham Historic District, just a stone's throw from Downs' home-sweet-home, this little house has been the site for Keane to work his engineering, mixing and instrumental magic on "Reveal," "Up," "New Adventures in Hi Fi," "Out of Time," "Automatic for the People" and "Green" - as well as a handful of singles. Attend Friday's party, and it's safe to bet you'll hear Keane perform some of these tunes.

28. "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" - Herbert also directed the video for this song, which was shot in a nearby abandoned house and made an instant star out of a young Noah Ray, then a student at Cedar Shoals High School. Ray didn't stray from music; he now fronts local punk band Music Hates You.

29. The Grit - Today located at 199 Prince Ave., once upon a time, this building was home of the Koffee Klub, where R.E.M. played some early shows. Stipe bought the building in 1990, and while he doesn't own the restaurant itself, he's certainly been known to partake of its vittles.

30. Finest Worksong(s) - First known (in singular) as the title of a song off 1987's "Document," locals know this even better in its plural. It's the name of the now-famous tribute show that took place Sept. 12, 2006, at the 40 Watt, organized by Jeff Montgomery of athensmusic.net. That night, local bands had gathered to play R.E.M. songs as a release party for the best-of compilation "And I Feel Fine," but little did anyone know the band would be making its own appearance, climbing up on stage to sing along with some really happy local musicians. The evening was recorded and is available on CD if you want to relive the eve