On this day in 1958, Michael Edward Mills was born in Orange County, California.
He would go on to be the bass player in perhaps one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and 90s, REM, deploying a distinctive melodic counterpoint - and not to mention, his very distinctive backing vocals.
Music was always around him, his dad was a tenor with a love of jazz, classical and opera, while his mum played both piano and guitar. The family re-located to Macon, Georgia, and it was at high school there, that he met future band mate Bill Berry.
His musical playing journey began in the early 1970s, as he told Music Radar, "the piano was my first instrument. I first took lessons when I was 14, and then about a year later I started to teach myself bass." Inspiration came from local bass legend, Berry Oakley of the Allman Brothers Band, and perhaps more obviously, Paul McCartney. The sound of his almost lead guitar style can be traced to Chris Squire, with Mills saying, "I wasn't a huge Yes fan, but I liked the way he played it melodically, like a guitar and kind of up front."
Whilst at high school, Mills and Berry formed the band Shadowfax, which would later become The Back Door Band. They would later become disillusioned with music, feeling swamped by the southern rock scene that was dominant. MIlls sold his bass gear to booking agent Ian Copeland (one of three brothers all involved in the music scene), who introduced Mills and Berry to the fresh sounds of punk and post-punk, like the Ramones, Patti Smith and the Damned. Mills realised getting rid of everything had been a bit rash and ended up buying it all back.
By 1980, the two were up in Athens, Georgia, enjoying the more liberal music scene of the University of Georgia. It was there that they would meet Michael Stipe and Peter Buck, rehearse a few tunes in a cold, abandoned church on Oconee Street, and start a band that would become one of the corner stones of the 1980s alternative music scene.
Outside REM
In 1990, Mills provided the music for a short film called Men Will Be Boys, by Howard Libov. The same year, Mills, along with Berry and Buck, formed a backing band in a kind of super group, with Warren Zevon - the Hindu Love Gods. They put out an album of blues-rock covers by the likes of Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson and Willie Dixon.
He has also been in The Baseball Project since 2012. Orginally formed in the 2000s by band mate Buck, with Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate), Scott McCaughey (REM, Minus 5) and Linda Pitmon, Mills joined the line up in time for 2014 album 3rd.
He has also toured sporadically as part of the Big Star show, Big Star's Third, built around their album of the same name. The line up also includes original Big Star member Jody Stephens, along with Chris Stamey (The dB's) and Mitch Easter (Let's Active and co-producer of early REM work).
In 2021, he joined Chicgo musician Jason Narducy, to play on the third album by his band, Split Single - called Amplificado.
Some tunes
As mentioned, Mills' backing vocals and melodic bass lines were an integral part of the REM 'sound' - and on occasion he even got to take the lead vocal.
One of my favourite REM songs and cover versions came on fourth album LIfe's Rich Pageant. Superman is a garage pop classic and was originally written and recorded by The Clique in 1969 -
(Live in 2022 from the 40 years of Chronic Town celebration - band includes Peter Buck
and Lenny Kaye
(Audio only - if you want the perfect harmonies of the orginal version)
One of the stand out tracks on Out Of Time, the 1991 album that took them from famous to stratospheric, was Texarkana. Although credited to the whole band, this is all Mike Mills.
(Live in Portland 2017, for the Scott McCaughey fundraiser - includes Peter Buck)
Out In The Country is a cover of a Three Dog Night song, and was the B-Side of 2003's Bad Day single and gave Mills another lead outing.
Out In The Country: https://youtu.be/3O8phwDQ1OE?si=yl6XpLrvH_pu_FhL
(Audio only)
This is To The Veteran's Committee - Mills' first contribution to The Baseball Project. As with all of their tunes, it is baseball themed - this is a call to ensure that Atlanta Braves legend Dale Murphy gets elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame (he still hasn't).
Veterans Committee: https://youtu.be/WYqF--wQ3MU?si=piNL-1KCqxjXaae-
(Live in 2014 at SXSW)
(Nothing You Can Do) To End This Love was the first single from Split Single's Amplificado album. It features a wonderfully distinctive Mills backing vocal performance - and well, any excuse to play this, as it is one of my favourite tunes from the last few years!
Nothing You Can Do: https://youtu.be/OOPiWNxsBGk?si=yLB5RLSr4_1Wwjgo
(Official music video)
Happy Birthday Mike!!