A Day In Rock: October 15th, 1994 – R.E.M.’s “Monster” Rules
On this day thirty years ago… R.E.M.’s “Monster” was #1 on the Billboard 200 (on first week sales of 344,000 copies). The band’s ninth studio album featured the song “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?” – the first of five singles from the album.
Drummer Bill Berry was eager to tour (for the first time since 1989) and insisted that the album “Rock.”
“If we did another record like “Out Of Time” or “Automatic For The People” we’d be sitting on stools all night and swapping acoustic instruments, and that would be kind of boring,” Berry offered. The band agreed.
“On past albums we had been exploring acoustic instruments, trying to use the piano and mandolin, and we did it about all we wanted to do it,” added bassist Mike Mills. “And you come back to the fact that playing loud electric-guitar music is about as fun as music can be.”
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