R.E.M. was joined onstage Tuesday night in North Carolina by Mitch Easter and Don Dixon, the locally-based co-producers of the band's influential 1983 debut album 'Murmur' and its 1984 follow-up, 'Reckoning.' The gig -- part of their ongoing world tour in support of 'Accelerate' -- took place at the Raleigh Walnut Creek Pavilion, and also found former Smiths-turned-Modest Mouse guitarist Johnny Marr join the band onstage.

The band's surprise introduction of Easter and Dixon for a version of the memorable 'Murmur' track 'Sitting Still' during the encore was an instant highlight of the tour for R.E.M. and fans alike. "We figured out before the show that the last time those two guys attended an R.E.M. show together was 1984 at the Park Center in Charlotte," manager Bertis Downs posted yesterday. "They sat in on a song that helped put the band on the proverbial map, and the extra guitars in the hands of those dear friends, was a very special moment and sound and memory indeed."

Meanwhile Marr -- who has been supporting R.E.M. with Modest Mouse -- also joined the group as he has for the past week or so, during its encore of the 1986 single 'Fall On Me.'

During its current run, the Athens, Georgia-bred group has been playing songs from every one of its fourteen studio albums. '1,000,000', for instance, from their 1982 EP 'Chronic Town' -- produced by Easter at his now-defunct Drive-In Studios -- was one also part of the set at the Walnut Creek gig.

• Interpol will launch a summer tour consisting of European and North American festival appearances, beginning at Norway's Quart Festival on July 3.

• Stone Temple Pilots will launch a full-on reunion tour this summer. The 65-date jaunt will kick off on May 17 in Columbus, Ohio, and wrap on August 31 in Seattle.
  

• The Smiths' classic album 'The Queen Is Dead' will undergo a "visual review" on the DVD titled 'The Queen Is Dead: A Classic Under Review,' due June 10.

• R&B singer Toni Braxton was hospitalized in Las Vegas Monday night for an undisclosed, non-life threatening ailment.

Although R.E.M. and the National both performed at the Langerado Music Festival in Florida last month, National frontman Matt Berninger tells Spinner that he missed R.E.M.'s set because his band didn't arrive until the next morning. No worries, though. Berninger will have plenty of opportunities to catch R.E.M. in all their greatest hits glory when the National opens for them this summer at an amphitheater near you. (Modest Mouse rounds out the triple bill.)

Growing up, Berninger says R.E.M. was always a favorite. "The defining bands for me were the Smiths, R.E.M. and the Pixies," he says. "In high school there were the kids that listened to Rush and Slayer, and then there were the artsy kids that listened to the Smiths and R.E.M. I seemed to identify more with the artsy, nerdy kid."

Berninger recalls that, back then, it was more than just a musical preference -- it was an identity, a way of picking sides. Speculating that cliques are no longer as defined or divided as they once were, he then says, "Maybe it is still that way -- I haven't been to high school in awhile."

Asked what kind of identity traits might describe kids these days who are into the National, he diplomatically suggests that the band's slow growth has nurtured a diverse fan base. "If one demographic turns on us," he jokes, "we've still got the backing of others." So...after R.E.M. tour, maybe Brooks & Dunn dates?

'Unhappy Birthday'
--The Smiths (1987)

The Kiss-Off: "Because you're evil and you lie, and if you should die/I may feel slightly sad, but I won't cry"

If 'Happy Birthday to You' is considered the most popular song in the English language, then you'd think this fiendish rejoinder would rank reasonably high just from the blowback. Morrissey, who is worshipped in several languages for his unadulterated bitchiness, may have reached a venomous saturation point with this gleeful toodle-oo.

When we think of college professors, we think of skinny little guys in cardigan sweaters with dodgy haircuts and a pallor suggesting they haven't seen the light of day in something like a decade -- which, come to think of it, makes Johnny Marr a perfect candidate for such a position. Well, the administration of Britain's University of Salford -- located, co-incidentally, in the town where the Smiths posed for the cover of their classic 'The Queen Is Dead' album -- apparently took note of Marr's qualifications and signed him on as a visiting professor, turning his talents towards music, rather than sartorial matters.

The guitarist, who currently plies his trade with Modest Mouse on this side of the Atlantic, will offer workshops and teach master classes to students pursuing their degrees in Popular Music and Recording -- which falls roughly halfway between quantum physics and Theory of Softball on our sliding scale of difficulty. With any luck, the folks who hired Marr will be able to convince him to stick around for another semester in order to helm History of Morrissey 101 -- a topic we're sure he'd be thrilled to weigh in on.

Although we've never imagined that -- to paraphrase Oscar Hammerstein -- fart jokes and surreptitious glances inside girls' locker rooms would be among Morrissey's favorite things, we may be proven wrong by a new Moz-focused musical from the creative team behind the class-act comedy 'Balls of Fury.'

Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, who've also worked together on 'Reno 911!,' are planning a revue entitled 'I've Changed My Plea to Guilty,' which Lennon has likened to 'Mamma Mia' -- a comparison that will no doubt warm the hearts of folks fond of tripping the light fantastic to 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now.' There's no word as to precisely when the musical will get off the ground, but given the subtle humor favored by Lennon and Garant, we fully expect them to make sure the host theater's concession stand is well-stocked with 'Meat Is Murder' brand beef jerky.

"I am the son, and the heir, of a shyness that is criminally vulgar"
--The Smiths' 'How Soon Is Now?'



Listen to the line!

Much like one of his melancholy pop tunes, Morrissey's summer tour was wrought with misfortune after a viral infection forced him to cancel several U.S. dates. But Moz's recently announced fall tour dates are designed to ironically turn the frowns of his disappointed fans upside down.

Starting September 20, Morrissey will embark on a 30-date U.S. tour that -- unlike his arena-heavy summer schedule -- will feature dates at smaller club venues, giving many more fans the ability to tackle him onstage when he does Smiths covers. The tour also boasts a 10-day stretch at the Hollywood Palladium (which will serve as the legendary venue's final shows ever) and a five-night stint at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom. Superfans will have the opportunity to buy blocks of tickets for all Palladium and Hammerstein shows at a discount price.

But that's where the good fortune ends for still those still holding out for a Smiths reunion. Despite the success of recently reformed '80s bands like the Police, Morrissey reportedly turned down $75 million to reunite with long-lost partner Johnny Marr for a 50-city tour. Like he's been saying for two decades, some dreams just aren't meant to come true.

Full tour schedule, plus a concert teaser, after the jump

'Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before,' The Smiths
From 1987's 'Strangeways, Here We Come'

I am a huge fan of great melody, unique voices and stellar vocal ability. Clearly Moz's effortless sounding croon can more than fulfill a need for these. Not only does his heavenly voice hold claim to some of the best melodies written during my life -- and, perhaps, ever -- but he manages to throw in some of the most well written, poignant, pained and biting lyrics whilst singing that can melt any chilled heart. On 'Stop Me' he sings, "Nothing's changed/I still love you/Oh, I still love you/Only slightly less than I used to, my love." As someone who finds himself often presented with reasons to love people only slightly less then I used to, I find that this goes down as one of my favorite lines, and one of my favorite songs. Oh, Moz, you know how to tell it!

Hear the song after the jump.

Swedish rockers Shout Out Louds, the ones with indie tunes and the big-eyed, beautiful blonde among their ranks of five, are back with a new EP and a new label.

After releasing indie fave 'Howl Howl Gaff Gaff' in 2005, the band toured America and the world, but when it came time to move on to record number two, Capitol Records, the home of that first imprint, dropped them. Luckily, they made friends for life on one of their jaunts, who helped them out.

"We toured with the Essex Green and the Rosebuds, who are both on Merge, and we became really good friends with them," bassist Ted no-last-name tells Spinner. "I guess they heard we got dropped and they put in a really good word for us."

The new imprint, which releases just a handful of records a year, has put them shoulder length from illustrious indie company such as Arcade Fire and Spoon, among others. The family atmosphere at the label has come in handy for Shout Out Louds, as they've been touring their 'Tonight I Have to Leave It' EP, which was released last month.

Actor Milo Ventimiglia has been a busy guy of late, between shooting and starring in hit TV show 'Heroes,' the upcoming November-due film 'Pathology' and, yes, even a Fergie video ('Big Girls Don't Cry'). But Ventimiglia got to indulge his passion for music futher at the premiere of 'What We Do Is Secret,' the biopic about late Germs singer Darby Crash, who committed suicide in 1980, due late this year or early next.

"I grew up on a lot of Smiths, Duran Duran and got into a lot of hardcore punk through college," he tells Spinner of his hardcore roots. "Music evokes so much for me."

'How Soon Is Now?'
--Smiths (1984)

One of two B-sides on the 12-inch release of 'William, It Was Really Nothing,' the song that Sire Records honcho Seymour Stein would call "the 'Stairway to Heaven' of the '80s" was belatedly released on a single of its own when fans declared it an epic. U.S. audiences were introduced to it on the 'Meat Is Murder' album.



Listen to 'How Soon Is Now?'

Buy it on iTunes