R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck has been involved in a variety of musical projects in recent years, and he currently has new albums on the way from two separate collaborations.
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In April, the 68-year-old Rock & Roll Hall of Famer revealed he’d be releasing a new album with British singer/songwriter Luke Haines titled Going Down to the River … to Blow My Mind on July 25. The new record is the third in a “psychiatric trilogy” of albums by Buck and Haines. The first two albums, Beat Poetry for Survivalists and All the Kids Are Super Bummed Out, were released in 2020 and 2022, respectively.
More recently, Buck announced that he’s part of a new supergroup collective called Drink the Sea. The band will release two albums later in 2025. The outfit also features Peter’s frequent collaborator Barrett Martin, founding drummer of Screaming Trees, as well as former Queens of the Stone Age multi-instrumentalist Alain Johannes, and veteran British singer/songwriter Duke Garwood.
The group’s two debut albums, titled Drink the Sea I and Drink the Sea II, will be released on September 19 and October 3, respectively. The albums feature 22 songs between them were recorded in various locations around the world.
The band’s first single, “Outside Again,” was released on May 23 as an advance track via digital formats. Additional advance tracks will debut every two weeks leading up to Drink the Sea I’s release.
The group also is planning to launch a tour in the late fall.
More About Drink the Sea
Martin issued a statement sharing more details about the Drink the Sea albums.
“The albums were produced and mixed by Alain and me and reflect the members vast experience as songwriters, arrangers, and singers,” he said. “It also shows a strong world music influence that permeates the music. Although the songs are built around traditional guitar, bass, and drums configurations, the songs also shimmer with the sounds of Arabic oud, Indian sitar, Indonesian gamelans, and various exotic percussions like Brazilian surdo, frame drum, vibraphone, marimba, and kalimba.”
In a new interview with Vice, Buck explained that Martin was the main organizer of the Drink the Sea project.
“Barrett is a great facilitator,” Peter noted. “He knew Duke, and he knew Alain. I’d only met Alain once, and I didn’t know Duke at all. But [Barrett] just said, ‘This guy’s great, we should record with him.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I’ll give it a shot!’
Buck added, “You know, my feeling is that you’ve just got to keep yourself really open. And Barrett is always looking for new collaborators, new people to work with, and it’s great for me. … All I have to do is write and record and play, and those are all things I enjoy doing.”
Peter also revealed that Drink the Sea’s members hadn’t yet “played in the same room at the same time.”
He explained, “It’s been two or three of us at different times. So, I don’t even know what the chemistry is going to be until the first day of rehearsal [for the tour]. I mean, I know what the record sounds like, but we’re going to figure it out on the fly.”
New Single from Buck and Luke Haines, and the Duo’s Tour Plans
Meanwhile, the first single from Buck’s upcoming album with Haines was released on May 30. The song, titled “The Pink Floyd Research Group,” is available now via digital formats.
In August, Buck and Haines will be touring in the U.K. in support of Going Down to the River … to Blow My Mind. The duo will be joining another of Buck’s side project’s, The Minus 5, on the trek. The outing runs from an August 14 show in Bristol through an August 31 concert in Preston.
Buck’s Other Tour Plans with The Minus 5
The Minus 5 is a rock band that Buck co-founded in 1993 with Young Fresh Fellows frontman Scott McCaughey. McCaughey also was a longtime member of R.E.M.’s touring band. Buck and McCaughey also play together in the baseball-themed indie-rock group The Baseball Project.
The Minus 5 released it’s latest album, Oar On, Penelope!, on May 30. The album includes contributions from Bangles drummer Debi Peterson, who also has joined The Minus 5’s current lineup.
The band launched a brief North American tour leg on June 1 that’s plotted out through a June 8 show in Vancouver, Canada. The Minus 5 also will headline the Woodtick Music Festival on July 19 in Darby, Montana.
After the aforementioned U.K. trek in August, the band will mount a U.S. tour leg scheduled from a September 10 concert in Jacksonville, Florida, through a September 30 performance in Atlanta.
(Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)
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