94XPOSED THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 22ND

R.E.M. have decided to "call it a day as a band." After 30 years together, singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck and bassist Mike Mills have had enough. Founding drummer Bill Berry left in the mid-'90s. In their own words: The guys share their thoughts on ending the band. Mike Mills: "During our last tour, and while making Collapse Into Now and putting together this greatest hits retrospective, we started asking ourselves, 'what next?' Working through our music and memories from over three decades was a hell of a journey. We realized that these songs seemed to draw a natural line under the last 31 years of our working together. "We have always been a band in the truest sense of the word. Brothers who truly love, and respect, each other. We feel kind of like pioneers in this – there's no disharmony here, no falling-outs, no lawyers squaring-off. We've made this decision together, amicably and with each other's best interests at heart. The time just feels right."

 

REM - ORANGE CRUSH

CHICKENFOOT - BIG FOOT

 

Chickenfoot may seem like a weird name, but it is memorable.  Bassist Michael Anthony says, “This stemmed out of something with Sammy, Chad and myself jamming down at Sammy’s club in Cabo San Lucas and it was probably one of those tequila fueled nights where we figured we’ve got to call the band something.”  Anthony says once word got out, they did everything they could to come up with a different name, but all the pieces just fell into place from the creation of a logo to the rapid acceptance of the moniker, so they kept it.  Keep an ear out for Chickenfoot’s second album, “Chickenfoot III,” due September 27th.  

 

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Baseball aficianados know that each MLB player gets to choose the song that accompanies them on the short walk from the dugout to the batter’s box. It’s a short and sweet signifier of the player’s personality, demonstrating if he is a rock fan or a hip-hop head. Well, it turns out some New York Yankees and Mets players utilize the music of classic rock artists to get them pumped before they step up to the plate, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The Mets’ Lucas Duda employs Jimi Hendrix‘s ‘All Along the Watchtower’ as his walk up music, even though the classic song came out before he was even born! His teammate Ike Davis gets it going to ‘Start Me Up’ by the Rolling Stones. Yankee slugger Mark Teixeira has one of the boldest walk up tunes of ‘em all, with Twisted Sister‘s ‘I Wanna Rock.’ The Mets’ Jason Bay chose Pearl Jam‘s ‘Alive’ as his walk up song. perhaps willing his sleepy bat to come “alive” thanks to the music’s thrust.

 

JIMI HENDRIX - ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER

METALLICA - WHISKEY IN THE JAR

 

After recently announcing that they will play their first ever show in India on October 28, Metallica has another first on the calendar: The band will be playing in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on October 25 at Yas Island. Meanwhile, the website LouReedMetallica.com has been set up for all details surrounding Lou Reed and Metallica's collaboration album, Lulu. The album art and final song sequence have been posted as well as a 30-second clip of the song "The View." Lulu is due in stores on November 1.

 

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Neil Young's autobiography Waging Heavy Peace will be released in the fall of 2012. In a statement, Young said, "I felt like writing books fit me like a glove. I started and I just kept going. That's the way my Daddy used to do it on his old Underwood up in the attic.  He said, 'Just keep writing, you never know what will turn up." Young's father, Scott, was a well-known sports journalist in Canada.

 

NEIL YOUNG - ROCKIN IN THE FREE WORLD