Credit: Press

Bill Berry returns to music with new supergroup The Bad Ends

Fri 14 October 2022 17:56, UK

Almost exactly 25 years ago, R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry announced that he was leaving the band after 17 years. Berry suffered a cerebral aneurysm onstage in 1995 and later announced his intentions to leave after completing 1996’s New Adventures in Hi-Fi.

Berry didn’t just leave R.E.M., he retired from music to become a farmer in his native state of Georgia. Apart from occasional reunions with his bandmates, like at R.E.M.’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction back in 2007, Berry has remained out of the musical spotlight. That comes to an end today, as Berry’s newest band, The Bad Ends, have announced their debut album.

Alongside Berry are Athens music stalwarts Mike Mantione of Five Eight on guitar and vocals, Dave Domizi on bass and vocals, Geoff Melkonian on keyboards and vocals, and Christian Lopez on guitars and mandolin. The Power and The Glory will be released in January of next year, but today we’re getting the album’s first single, ‘All Your Friends Are Dying’, complete with a video featuring cameos from the likes of R.E.M.’s Mike Mills and Big Star’s Jody Stevens.

“In very early 2017, a chance pedestrian encounter in downtown Athens found me face to face with one Mike Mantione,” Berry explained in a statement. “At that point it had been over 2 decades since I’d involved myself with the record-making process and here was a man Peter Buck recently described as ‘the unsung hero of Athens rock and roll’ offering an opportunity to play in the game again. It was energizing to once again play with top-notch musicians. This record is unique for me in that it was the only one, with which I was involved, that was written, rehearsed, recorded, produced and mastered in Athens!”

“The song and the video are a celebration of Athens,” Mantione added. “The song is also a tribute to Big Star and The Glands. I’m really singing it to a friend who missed this special performance of the Big Star Third album and I’m warning my friend not to miss stuff because life doesn’t last very long. We thought there was only cell phone footage of the show, but our friend Dan Jordan ended up having three cameras rolling that night. We were able to grab shots of Jody singing ‘Thirteen’ and Frank playing his guitar (which was a Telecaster that night, which is why he plays an SG in the van, as namechecked in the song).”

“The cameos were just the most fun. I got to drive around Athens with so many awesome friends,” Mantione said. “We were supposed to look glum, but once they got into the van with me, laughter would erupt. Athens had an incredible, beloved local vegetarian restaurant called The Grit which closed a day before we shot the last of the cameos. We do a drive-by of The Grit as sort of a farewell nod.”

Check out the video for ‘All Your Friends Are Dying’ down below. The Power and The Glory is set for a January 20th release.