sing \u201cDriver 8\u201d<\/a> like they\u2019re hosting the coolest karaoke party of all time. Narducy\u2019s tone gets bright like Peter Buck\u2019s and Shannon sounds like Michael Stipe, though they\u2019ll be the first people to tell you they don\u2019t sound anything like those guys. It\u2019s not an uncanny similarity but, if you close your eyes while Shannon\u2019s crooning, that low-larynx resonance will put a Stipe-sized image in your head.<\/p>\nShannon and Narducy met years ago at the Hideout in Chicago. Robbie Fulks brought them together, because he was using his weekly residency at the venue to play a new album all the way through every Monday. When Shannon and Narducy were in the building, they did Lou Reed\u2019s The Blue Mask with the former on vox and the latter on guitar. Soon enough, a friendship formed and, in-between acting gigs and other band obligations, the duo started doing classics by the Smiths, the Velvet Underground, and the Modern Lovers together around Los Angeles. But their faithful play-through of Murmur at the Metro in 2023 changed everything, landing them on late-night talk shows, in publications like The Guardian, and on bills across the US. The buzz kept growing from there. In 2024 and 2025, Shannon and Narducy played Fables of the Reconstruction. They asked the crowd every night if they should do Lifes Rich Pageant. Given the fact that they\u2019re about to tour Lifes Rich Pageant,\u00a0you can imagine the response they received.<\/p>\n
Lifes Rich Pageant was a transportive, transformative album for R.E.M. The band liked John Mellencamp\u2019s radio-ready tone\u2014booming drums, strident guitars, that middle American rumble. Bassist Mike Mills said there was an urge to abandon the band\u2019s previous \u201cmurky feelings and sounds\u201d for polished rock and roll and clean, well-articulated lyrics. So they hired Mellencamp\u2019s producer, Don Gehman, to make it translate, and Lifes Rich Pageant arrived in 1986 as R.E.M.\u2019s most potent record yet. Stipe, one of rock and roll\u2019s greatest communicators, sang about genocide (\u201cCuyahoga\u201d), political incarceration (\u201cThe Flowers of Guatemala\u201d), voting (\u201cBegin the Begin\u201d), and the Confederacy (\u201cSwan Swan H\u201d) while Mills, guitarist Peter Buck, and drummer Bill Berry made the mix sound sweet and slippery and seasoned with streaking countermelodies and cymbal accents. The band even tossed in a cover of the Clique\u2019s \u201cSuperman\u201d and had Mills sing lead on it. R.E.M. were just four guys 40 years ago (and still are), yet Lifes Rich Pageant sounds superhuman in its vividness.<\/p>\n
Narducy and Shannon have something great going on here. Two good friends who love a band so much that they\u2019re willing to devote all of their free time to singing their songs? There\u2019s not enough magic like that in the world. Even R.E.M. themselves have bought into it, joining the duo on stage for \u201cPretty Persuasion\u201d in Athens and Brooklyn last February. \u201cListening to the fellows and hearing their interpretations of these songs live for the first time, one of the things that was remarkable to me was how much they studied and really did their homework, but what they\u2019re doing is not mimicry at all,\u201d Stipe told Mojo in 2025. \u201cIt\u2019s not a cover band. It\u2019s much greater than that.\u201d Shannon and Narducy aren\u2019t embodying R.E.M., they\u2019re emphasizing the band\u2019s significance. And, whether they agree with me or not, they\u2019ve played a good part in sustaining R.E.M.\u2019s legacy in the 2020s. And they\u2019re doing it in chronological album order.<\/p>\n
By my count, Narducy\u2019s told so many people about his love of Document that it\u2019s become one of his defining character traits. (And who could blame him? \u201cIt\u2019s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)\u201d is a glorious madcap overload worth building a personality around.) But I wanted to chat with him and Shannon about delivering the Georgia proverb of R.E.M. to good people all over the place before they hit the road. Below is my conversation with them, edited for clarity.<\/p>\n
Paste Magazine: Jason I know that you\u2019ve told the story a couple of times about Document changing your life. Michael, what\u2019s your story here? When did you find R.E.M.?<\/p>\n
Michael Shannon: I\u2019d say Document was the entry point for me. My cousin had it on cassette and he put it on when I was visiting him. We were hanging out in his room and I said, \u201cDang, who is that?\u201d He\u2019s like, \u201cOh, this is R.E.M.\u201d Up until that point, I\u2019d been pretty solidly a Phil Collins, No Jacket Required guy.<\/p>\n
Jason Narducy: You\u2019re giving me ideas, Mike.<\/p>\n
Shannon: I cannot sing like Phil Collins. There\u2019s nobody on earth that can sing like Phil Collins. That\u2019s not possible. I do not understand how that man sang, the way he can sing. Not that I can sing like Michael Stipe, either, or sing like anybody, for that matter. But Document blew my mind. And then I went backwards and forwards. Green, Lifes Rich Pageant, Out of Time, Fables [of the Reconstruction]\u2026 I think Document was a record that really broke them out. I mean, I don\u2019t know the facts and figures\u2014the statistics\u2014but \u201cThe One I Love\u201d is definitely the song I remember being a huge, big deal.<\/p>\n
Obviously you\u2019re getting ready to tour Lifes Rich Pageant and you\u2019re going in order. Document is up next in R.E.M.\u2019s discography. It being such an informative record for the both of you, have you started thinking about playing those songs?<\/p>\n
Narducy: No, it\u2019s No Jacket Required. [Laughs]<\/p>\n
Shannon: We\u2019ll probably do Document. Really, though, it\u2019s not about our wishes and dreams. The reason we\u2019re still doing this is because people seem to want us to do it. We had a pretty strict policy of just picking a record, playing it once, and that was it. The mysterious thing about all this is it was never our intention to go touring around the country, playing these records. It\u2019s something we do because people seem to want us to do it. On the Fables [of the Reconstruction] tour, I would ask the crowd during the second set, \u201cShould we do Lifes Rich Pageant?\u201d And they would let us know how they felt about that. I\u2019ll probably do the same thing on this tour.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
You book that first Metro show on a whim and sell over a thousand tickets. At what point does it actually set in that you didn\u2019t have to do gigs here and there\u2014that you could go on tour and make this project a living, breathing thing in other parts of America and even in the UK?<\/p>\n
Shannon: It was really a surprise. Jason, correct me if I\u2019m wrong, but after the Murmur show, there was that festival in San Francisco, right?<\/p>\n
Narducy: Sketchfest.<\/p>\n
Shannon: Sketchfest, yeah. They were the first ones to reach out.<\/p>\n
Narducy: They actually emailed me before we played Metro. They read about the show and thought it was a great idea. And, to your point Michael, it wasn\u2019t our idea. I started getting emails from around the country, Minneapolis was one of them. It was like, \u201cOh, we\u2019ll try nine shows.\u201d That\u2019s a pretty conservative tour, especially when two of them are in San Francisco and then we fly to Minneapolis. We\u2019ve gotten much better at routing these days. I think we all want to keep this fun, because we all have other bands and other work to do. This has been so joyous and surprising at every turn. If it continues to feel that way, and if Mike wants to keep singing, I wouldn\u2019t want to stop\u2014unless it becomes a grind, or something that\u2019s just not fun anymore.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a Split Single fan, Jason. You\u2019re in\u2014<\/p>\n
Narducy: Oh, my gosh.<\/p>\n
You\u2019re in a couple of bands. You work with a lot of people, like Bob Mould and Superchunk. Doing this gig with Jon Wurster, John Stirratt, Vijay Tellis-Nayak, and Dag Juhlin, what do you get from this configuration and this idea that you can\u2019t get any place else in your work?<\/p>\n
Narducy: If you can give me just five seconds, I\u2019m still grappling with the fact that I found the Single Split fan.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast Goodbye\u201d!<\/p>\n
Narducy: [Laughs] This is sacred stuff to Michael and I, this music. It\u2019s this combination of working our asses off to get inside it and try to create something close to the spirit. You can\u2019t sound like R.E.M., no one can sound like R.E.M., but if we can capture some of the spirit that their music has and perform it in a way that lets the audience know that we don\u2019t take any ownership of it\u2026 There could be a real temptation to [take ownership of it], but it\u2019s really important for us to treat it a certain way. And certainly there\u2019s a little bit of pressure\u2014a beautiful pressure\u2014when the band and their management are watching and helping and making suggestions. It was their manager\u2019s idea to play Bloomington, [Indiana], because that\u2019s where the band recorded Lifes Rich Pageant.<\/p>\n
But it makes it all that much more important for us to be aware of the most respectful way to do this. And with my other music work, that is not the case at all. With the Bob Mould band, it\u2019s 120 minutes of fury\u2014we like to say \u201cthree hours of music in 80 minutes.\u201d In Superchunk, it\u2019s a different sound and different style of songs. In Sunny Day Real Estate and these other bands that I\u2019m fortunate to play with, it\u2019s original music and you can do what you want with that. With these songs, we want the crowd and the band itself to feel good about it. It takes a different kind of care, a different kind of preparation.<\/p>\n
Shannon: It\u2019s like balancing a Faberge egg on your nose for three hours. The songwriting is so incredible, because the band is inimitable. You can\u2019t imitate them, but the songs themselves, they\u2019re a part of the canon. Just because the band themselves isn\u2019t going to go out and play them anymore, that songwriting is so strong. Billy Strayhorn isn\u2019t playing \u201cLush Life\u201d anymore, but that doesn\u2019t mean somebody shouldn\u2019t be playing \u201cLush Life.\u201d I consider R.E.M.\u2019s songwriting on par with [Bob] Dylan\u2014the people that are considered to be the masters of the trade. And I think that\u2019s something they were actually quite proud of, getting the Songwriters Hall of Fame nod recently. I mean, I think they were proud enough that they got together and performed a song, which is a big no-no for them. I think that meant a lot to them, and I think it\u2019s well-deserved. The songs should be played. We\u2019re not the only band playing R.E.M. songs. There\u2019s heaps and heaps of bands playing R.E.M. songs. We\u2019re just one of them, which is as it should be.<\/p>\n
Narducy: When we were in Bristol last August, the guitar player from a great R.E.M.\u2014I don\u2019t want to say \u201ccover band,\u201d but a band that plays R.E.M.\u2019s music\u2014reached out to me to grab a pint before the show. And I did, and it was really fun to talk to this guy about very inside-baseball voicings and sounds. It\u2019s a world I have very little knowledge of, so to talk to somebody that is so deep in it, it was really fascinating. He said, \u201cYou know there\u2019s about 20 working Oasis cover bands in the UK?\u201d And I said, \u201cWhen you say \u201820 working Oasis cover bands,\u2019 do you mean they make their living from it?\u201d He said, \u201cYeah!\u201d I said, \u201cIs it affected now that the band reunited and is playing stadiums?\u201d And he said they have even more work now. It\u2019s a fascinating world. It\u2019s cool that people want to celebrate R.E.M.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Michael what you were saying about the Songwriters Hall of Fame nod and them being so proud of it that they got back together for the night\u2026 My favorite R.E.M. song is \u201cPretty Persuasion.\u201d The fact that the guys got up on stage with you two to play that together and sing it with y\u2019all, that had to have been a dream, yeah?<\/p>\n
Shannon: The dream\u2026 Yeah. You know, I remember thinking, when they were up there, particularly when Michael was up there, that I wanted him to enjoy doing that as much as possible. It\u2019s weird. I wasn\u2019t really absorbing it in a way of, \u201cOh, I\u2019m finally getting what I want.\u201d I was like, \u201cOh, I hope he\u2019s enjoying this.\u201d And he seemed to, because he did it three times. We played Athens twice on the Fables tour, and the first night he came up, he said, \u201cI\u2019m going to sing the backline, the harmony.\u201d On the second night he came up, he\u2019s like, \u201cNo, I want to do the frontline.\u201d I said, \u201cOK.\u201d And then he showed up in Brooklyn and did it again. For me, it\u2019s very meaningful.<\/p>\n
Narducy: It\u2019s another one of those things about this project that wasn\u2019t planned. When Michael Stipe first came on stage in Athens, Peter Buck was already up there and playing with us. And he leaned over to me and said, \u201cI did not think Michael would do that.\u201d They hadn\u2019t even talked about it. And Bill Berry was coaxed on stage by Dag Juhlin. I love that it just happened. Michael, what was Peter Buck\u2019s quote after they walked off stage?<\/p>\n
Shannon: \u201cPeople have been offering us millions of dollars to do this, and we just did it for free.\u201d They\u2019re people, they\u2019re actual human beings. They\u2019re deeply human, which I think is one of the reasons for their appeal\u2014their humanity and longevity. They\u2019re not trying to be slick or put one over on anybody. And they\u2019re very in touch with their emotions. It was a spontaneous thing. Very spontaneous.<\/p>\n
R.E.M. is one of those bands that got better with each album. The songs kept getting better. By learning how to play Lifes Rich Pageant, what do you know now about the band and the music that maybe you hadn\u2019t before you touched tracks like \u201cFall On Me,\u201d \u201cI Believe,\u201d and \u201cSwan Swan H\u201d?<\/p>\n
Narducy: There\u2019s a clarity to Lifes Rich Pageant that maybe hadn\u2019t been there before. It\u2019s a big sound, but it\u2019s not super-produced or anything. I would actually say Fables even has more production moves and concepts, but the songs are so massive and the clarity that came with a different recording approach allowed Stipe to tell very direct stories. There\u2019s a number of songs on Lifes Rich Pageant that, after learning them, I like more. \u201cI Believe\u201d is one of them.<\/p>\n
Shannon: I think they made a big move with Lifes Rich Pageant. The first three records seem to be of a certain feel. In Lifes Rich Pageant, the feel seems to really shift. There\u2019s a lot of mystery. On the first records, there\u2019s a certain obscurity to them, and that all goes out the window with this one. This is a very full-bodied, full-throated, hot-blooded record. Not that R.E.M. are violent people, but they seem to be on the warpath a bit\u2014like, \u201cWe got something to say.\u201d When you think about it, the band was highly respected and lauded from the get-go, from Murmur. People were in awe of them, but they weren\u2019t hugely successful\u2014financially, or anything. They kind of toured themselves into oblivion. They played so much, and they were exhausted, and they weren\u2019t having a lot to show for it financially. This record, I feel like it begins the transition into them being the supergroup they became. You can hear it.<\/p>\n
The Michael Shannon & Jason Narducy and Friends tour begins February 11 in Denver. Get tickets to a date near you here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\nMatt Mitchell is the editor of Paste. They live in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You\u2019d be foolish to try and predict what ideas will take off in 2026, but few American bands…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88],"class_list":{"0":"post-459050","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}