As previously mentioned, most of us here at ACL were excited (ecstatic!) that R.E.M. stopped by to tape a show with us during SXSW. We had the pleasure of working with Michael Stipe a few years ago when he made a special guest appearance with Coldplay, which I have to admit, left me a little star-struck. So, as someone who grew up on R.E.M., having the whole band here in our studio was one of the most personally satisfying experiences I’ve had working at ACL. I remember being thirteen and falling asleep every night listening to Document on my Walkman; the second concert I ever went to was on the Green tour. Leslie Nichols, an ACL associate producer for almost eight years, decided to move to Austin after listening to “Don’t Go Back to Rockville.” So we all have our R.E.M. stories…Feel free to leave one in the comments if you do too…

Here are a few backstage photos during the afternoon’s sound check and rehearsal:

Mike Mills and Peter Buck discuss the rundown with director Gary Menotti and Producer Terry Lickona

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We’ve had our fair share of legends here at Austin City Limits. Ray Charles, Van Morrison, Johnny Cash, Etta James…the list goes on. You’d think we’d be pretty jaded about it by now. Working with artists behind the scenes certainly lessens that starstruck feeling by several degrees. Who has time to be in awe of a musical icon who’s only a few feet away when there’s work to be done getting the show ready to tape?

Besides, being legendary is as much of a function of generational appeal as actual talent and longevity. So for ACL staffers of a certain age, R.E.M.(finally) accepting an invitation to perform is as big a freakin’ deal as landing Ray Davies a couple of years ago was to the baby boomer folks. For those music lovers who fall under that nebulous category the media calls Generation X, R.E.M. is an Important Band. This is the 80s group that, along with U2 in Europe, broke the established rules of making it big, following its own muse at the expense of overt careerism, finding superstardom and classic rock status on its own terms. By combining its dedication to underground sounds like postpunk and the Velvet Underground with a deep love of the fertile rock noise of the 60s, R.E.M. was instrumental is beginning the alternative rock revolution. For good or ill, that was our music, hitting us deeper in the soul than the disposable pop on the top 40 stations or the dinosaur rock dominating the AOR frequencies. And while a lot of alternative music has stood the test of time only in a nostalgic way, R.E.M. has held on to its iconic status in our hearts by constantly experimenting with its sound on record.

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