Other Work (Non-R.E.M.)
For a comprehensive list of Mike Mills’s live performances, with or without R.E.M., please visit The R.E.M. Timeline.
- 1984 – Mike Mills, Peter Buck and Bill Berry formed the band Hindu Love Gods with singers Bryan Cook and Warren Zevon. Cook was only involved with the first single “Gonna Have a Good Time Tonight”/”Narrator”. In 1987 Berry, Buck and Mills joined Zevon on his album Sentimental Hygiene. Mike played on the songs: “Sentimental Hygiene,” “Boom Boom Mancini,” “The Factory,” “Trouble Waiting to Happen,” “Detox Mansion,” “Bad Kharma,” “Even a Dog Can Shake Hands,” and “The Heartache” and co-wrote “Even a Dog Can Shake Hands” with Buck, Berry and Zevon.
While making this album, the quartet also recorded ten cover songs, mostly blues standards. Although originally not intended for publication, these recordings were released by Giant Records on the album Hindu Love Gods in 1990. - 1985 – Mike Mills played organ on the song “One More Time” by Full Time Men, released on their eponymous EP.
- mid-1980s – Mike Mills and Bill Berry played in a Sixties cover band called the Corncob Webs.
- 1987 – Mike Mills co-produced, along with Mitch Easter, the Virginia-based band Waxing Poetics’s album Hermitage.
- 1988 – Mike Mills produced the Athens band Billy James’s album Sixes and Sevens.
- 1988 – Mike Mills played on the single “What’s It Gonna Be”/”Roadrunner” (live) byThe Cynics.
- 1989 – Mike Mills and Peter Buck played on Kevn Kinney’s MacDougal Blues album, which Peter also produced.
- 1989 – Mike Mills played on the Indigo Girls’ song “Tried to Be True” from their eponymous album.
- 1989 – Mike Mills played bass on several tracks from the Vibrating Eggs’s album “Come On In Here If You Want To”.
- 1990 – Mike Mills wrote music for Howard Libov’s short film Men Will Be Boys.
- 1991 – Mike Mills, Peter Buck and Bill Berry performed on Nikki Sudden’s album The Jewel Thief..
- 1991 – Mike Mills, Peter Buck, Bill Berry and R.E.M.’s then-additional musician Peter Holsapple collaborated with The Troggs on their comeback album Athens Andover.
- 1991 – Mike Mills sang on “Shake This Town” off Robbie Robertson’s album Storyville.
- 1992 – Mike Mills wrote theme music for Jane Pratt’s chat show, which debuted on 16 March 1992.
- 1993 – Mike Mills and Michael Stipe formed an one-off band Automatic Baby with Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton of U2. The band’s only performance was an acoustic version of “One” during an MTV concert for President Bill Clinton. This song has been released on several compilations; more info on Wikipedia.
- 1993 – Mike Mills recorded a piano part for the song “Soma” from The Smashing Pumpkins’ 1993 album Siamese Dream.
- 1993 – Mike Mills produced the Three Walls Down’ album Building Our House, released by Rust Records. Mike’s brother Mitch was playing in that band at the time. A single, also produced by Mike Mills, was released, with the songs “Steps”, “Wooden Nails” and “Faith In These Times (Live)”.
- 1994 – Mike Mills teamed up with Dave Pirner (Soul Asylum), Greg Dulli (Afghan Whigs), Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Don Fleming (Gumball) and Dave Grohl (Nirvana) to record soundtrack for the 1994 film Backbeat starring Stephen Dorff, Sheryl Lee and Ian Hart, and documenting the early days of The Beatles. The soundtrack, produced by Don Was, won the BAFTA Award for Best Film Music. The Backbeat Band only performed live once, at 1994 MTV awards – see our Spotlight!
- 1994 – Mike Mills sang on “You R Loved” off Victoria Williams’s album Loose.
- 1997 – Mike Mills was signed to write music for the film A Cool Dry Place, directed by John M. Smith, and R.E.M. were also in talks to contribute a song. Mike agreed to compose the film score because he was a fan of the book the film was based on, Michael Grant Jaffe’s Dance Real Slow. However, this project did not come to fruition and the soundtrack was eventually written and performed by other artists.
- 2000 – Mike Mills and Peter Buck guest-starred on Christy McWilson’s album The Lucky One.
- 2001 – Mike Mills, Peter Buck and Michael Stipe guest-starred (sort of) in an episode of The Simpsons animated series, entitled “Homer the Moe.”
- 2003 – Mike Mills joined the Tell Us the Truth tour, an anti-war, anti-Bush administration collaboration with Tom Morello, Steve Earle, Janeane Garofalo, Billy Bragg, and others. The tour was supported by unions, environmental and media reform groups including Common Cause, Free Press and A.F.L.-C.I.O. with the ultimate goal of “informing music fans, and exposing and challenging the failures of the major media outlets in the United States.”
- 2005 – Mike Mills compiled a CD for the Uncut Magazine, called The R.E.M. Collection Disc 1 – Mike Mills Presents… He handpicked the best of classic U.S. underground rock – a total of 14 tracks featuring the bands Green On Red, Big Star, The Blasters, The Jayhawks, Dream Syndicate, The Replacements, The Embarrassment, Soul Asylum, Pylon, The Long Ryders, Miracle Legion, Love Tractors, Jason & The Scorchers as well as R.E.M.’s live performance of “Boy In The Well” (also released on their “R.E.M. Live” double CD).
- 2006 – Mike Mills played bass on the song “The Ballad of El Goodo” recorded by Matthew Sweet for the Big Star tribute album Big Star Small World. The compilation also included songs recorded by Wilco, The Posies, Juliana Hattfield, Afghan Whigs, Teenage Fanclub and others.
- 2006 – Mike Mills and Sally Ellyson of HEM released a Christmas single – a cover of Big Star’s “Jesus Christ”. The proceeds from the recording were donated to the Red Apple Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving the quality of life for children in the U.S.
- 2007 – Mike Mills played piano on the song “Eternity” by the Brooklyn-based band Mudville, the first track on their album Iris Nova
- 2008 – Mike Mills produced a song called “Motorcade” for the Athens band Modern Skirts, off their album All Of Us In Our Night.
- 2009 – Mike Mills contributed a song “Gift Of The Fathers” for the film Favorite Son, directed by Howard Libov. The DVD can be preordered from Amazon, and the release date is 13 July 2010.
- 2009 – Mike Mills sang backing vocals on the song “Erin” released on Jill Hennessy’s debut album Ghost In My Head.
- According to this article, Mike Mills also produced Athens bands Greenhouse and Purr. If anyone has information re: when this happened and which tracks he produced, please e-mail me!
- 2010 – Mike Mills recorded a cover of Billy Bragg’s song “Sing Their Souls Back Home” for the Voice Project.
March 2nd, 2010 at 8:47 am
I’m not sure for “Pasedena” but I’m sure that Mike produced “Motorcade” for the Modern Skirts in 2008…
March 2nd, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Oh thanks, I’ll correct that! And if you spot any other omissions and such please let me know… this list is far from complete anyway.
June 27th, 2010 at 11:14 pm
I see that “favorite son” is on DVD now (
http://www.amazon.com/Favorite-Son-Pablo-Schreiber/dp/B003H3MOU6/ref=sr_1_1?
ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1276090124&sr=1-1 )
does that mean wel’l get to hear the studio version for “gift of the fathers” soon?
June 28th, 2010 at 3:42 am
Wow thanks for the tips charky! Finally I can watch this film!
June 28th, 2010 at 4:37 am
Thanks a million Charky, I’m gonna update the news roll immediately! I just hope this will be released in Europe too, otherwise we’ll have to find a way to convert this NTSC video format to something watchable.
June 28th, 2010 at 5:06 am
my pleasure folks! thanx ivana (for everytihng BTW, great site, keep up the superb work!)
June 28th, 2010 at 5:25 am
Will do!
February 21st, 2011 at 3:27 am
Ivana, we have a spammer here!
“Star wars”… that’s a new one…
March 18th, 2012 at 6:06 am
i read on a website somewhere that Mike participated in 2010 on the album “Dear New Orleans” (only for download) with vocals on Neil Young’s cover ‘Ohio’ and bass (?) on ‘Kick out the jams’. It’s a benefit album if I’m not mistaken.
March 18th, 2012 at 6:09 am
and very recently (2012) he’ve collaborated to Jason Ringenberg (ex-Jason & the Scorchers) album “Nature Jams” with lead vocal on 1 (or more ?) song.
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