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"The music is over for R.E.M.\r\nThe alternative rock band -- featuring singer Michael Stipe, 51, guitarist Peter Buck, 54, and bassist Mike Mills, 52 -- announced they have broken up after 31 years together Monday.\r\n\r\n&amp;quot;As lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band,&amp;quot; the band said in a statement on their official website. &amp;quot;We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality and of astonishment at all we have accomplished.&amp;quot;\r\nThroughout their career, R.E.M. has released 15 albums, including Murmur, Reckoning, Document, Out of Time, New Adventures in Hi-Fi, Up and Automatic For the People. The band&amp;apos;s most recent album, Collapse Into Now, was released in March 2011.\r\nPHOTOS: Today&amp;apos;s top news photos\r\nThe band&amp;apos;s original drummer, Bill Berry, 53, retired in 1997 after 17 years with R.E.M. He has since become a farmer in Watkinsville, Georgia, though he has reunited with the band on several special occasions.\r\nAccording to Rolling Stone, the band reportedly worked on new material in an Athens studio over the summer; it is unclear whether those songs will be released."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/rem-breaks-up-after-31-years-together-2011219>