REM accelerate political message

R.E.M. rolled out a generous amount of new material and stuck a strong political tone during its appearance at the South By Southwest Music and Media Conference in the early hours of Thursday (March 13th) in Austin, Texas. The group played 10 songs from its forthcoming album, Accelerate, which is due out April 1st. There was a minimum of hits (''Drive,'' ''Fall On Me,'' ''Man On The Moon''), but the group did dig out obscure favorites such as ''Second Guessing'' and ''Auctioneer,'' as well as album tracks like ''Walk Unafraid,'' ''Electrolite,'' and ''The Great Beyond,'' which frontman Michael Stipe said R.E.M. hasn't rehearsed in two years.

Stipe dedicated the new song ''Until The Day Is Done'' to the late actor Heath Ledger, who he said had heard it before he died. Stipe ended the song by saying ''Goodbye Heath. We loved you.''

Stipe made a number of political statements, including thanking Austin for supporting Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama, and explaining about Hurricane Katrina refugees in Texas. Stipe also announced that he's ''sick to death of politicians telling me what I should be scared of and what I should fear'' and said that he was ''terrified history is gonna look back on this decade and the terrible overreaction of the (presidential) administration to 9/11. We have almost two years to make this decade worth something, and I think we have the power to do that.''

R.E.M. taped an episode of Austin City Limits on Thursday before heading to Europe to promote Accelerate, including a March 24th concert in London. The group begins a short North American tour on May 23rd in Burnaby, British Columbia, and will spend most of the summer in Europe before turning to North America in the fall.
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