For months, former R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck has been silent about his upcoming solo debut, but he’s finally opening up about the project, confirming it’s planned as a vinyl-only release and that he’ll sing eight of the album’s 12 tracks, with longtime sideman Scott McCaughey and Corin Tucker of Sleater-Kinney picking up the rest.
In a new interview with Paste magazine, Buck says the entire album was recorded in four-and-a-half days, but that he hopes to “get it down to two days” in the future. The record will be released sometimes later this year by vinyl-only imprint Mississippi Records.
Buck says: “If I had wanted to make it a CD, the CD would’ve been out three months ago, but vinyl is what I want to do for right now. It’s a record — like all records, people will have to look for it, I guess. It’s not gonna be in Walmart. We’ll see about the digital. I’m sure it’ll be out before, say, Thanksgiving. I say that with hope.”
In the meantime, Buck is going to start playing shows with McCaughey, ex-R.E.M. drummer Bill Rieflin and others under the name Richard M. Nixon — beginning this weekend in Seattle.
When it comes to performing live, Buck notes: “It’s not really my job to be a frontman. I’m not gonna be doing hour-long sets or anything like that, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you heard some songs from my next — this new thing that I did.”
Head over to Paste for more, including the lineup for Buck’s Todos Santos Music Festival.
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- R.E.M.’s Peter Buck to debut new band Richard M. Nixon next month in Seattle
- Vintage Audio: Peter Buck’s introduction to ‘Document’ at 1987′s New Music Seminar
- R.E.M.’s ‘Document’ 25th anniversary reissue to include unreleased 1987 concert
- ‘Athens, GA – Inside/Out’ soundtrack set for first-ever CD release with film, 5 bonus cuts
- Stream: Peter Buck, ‘10 Million BC’ — 1st track off R.E.M. guitarist’s solo debut
- R.E.M.’s Peter Buck recording solo album — and it could be a vinyl-only release
- Stream: R.E.M. ‘Radio Free Europe’ original Mitch Easter mix from ‘Cassette Set’ demo
- R.E.M., 1980-2011: Genre-defining college rock band breaks up after 31 years
Here’s betting that it’s gonna suck…bigtime. That’s why it’s not gonna be in a format that the world can hear it in.