R.E.M. shares unreleased track to raise money for Hurricane Dorian victims

By Sam Barsanti | September 12, 2019 | 7:39pm

Aux Features Music

R.E.M. shares unreleased track to raise money for Hurricane Dorian victims

Photo: Dimitrios Kambouris

As reported by Stereogum, R.E.M. has put a previously unreleased track called “Fascinating” up for sale on Bandcamp, with all of the proceeds going to benefit the Mercy Corps’ Hurricane Dorian relief efforts in the Bahamas. The Stereogum story notes that nearly 76,000 people were left homeless by the storm, and in a statement, R.E.M.’s Mike Mills said, “it breaks my heart to see the damage wrought by Hurricane Dorian,” asking for help to “do what we can to alleviate the suffering.”

The track, which you can get for a minimum donation of $2, was recorded by Mills and Michael Stipe at Compass Point Studios in Nassau in 2004. A previous version was supposed to appear on R.E.M.’s 2001 album Reveal—which tells you what era of R.E.M. this comes from—but it was cut from the final version of the record. The Bandcamp page also notes that “Fascinating” was apparently Stipe’s favorite song from the Reveal recording session.