REM start work on new demos

REM have confirmed that they have tentatively started recording the follow-up to last year's Accelerate.

Guitarist Peter Buck told Pitchfork that the band had broken its usual habit and layed down a series of 14 demos for their upcoming album.

Buck said: "I'm not even sure you could say we've started the record. But Mike [Mills] and I write all the time, and I had a bunch of songs we were going over during soundcheck on the last tour.

"I just didn't want to forget mine. Mike had some stuff he wanted to do. We never do demos; we just go in and record. And I was like: 'Well, I have a lot of equipment in Portland; we can do it there.'"

He added: "It's just an acoustic guitar and me kind of mumbling and humming and stuff. It's great to have the band play the things and focus.

"To a certain degree, when we are doing this stuff, we are doing this to excite Michael [Stipe] about getting inspired."

REM recently performed alongside punk legend Patti Smith as part of their own tribute show at Carnegie Hall.