I attached two more articles and attached them together because I thought they really did go together. As if the first time that R.E.M. played with the Brains they were not the better band but they again backed it up the second time.

            Of course the questions that you have to ask yourself after reading this was, did Ginger Schulman actually shoot herself and who in the hell would think that R.E.M. Trivia would include R.E.M. taking the place of The Guess Who.

            These articles are important for, 1) they built a name for the band early on and 2) could help promote them to anyone that had not seen them. Being described as the best band in Athens 2 months into their inception is quite a statement, especially for the bands that were in Athens at the time. Think about it this way, if some noname band in Seattle was called the best band in the city in 1992 what would you think?
 
15th May 1980 – The Red and Black
 
Brains, R.E.M. star tonight in Union’s only spring show
 
By Bobby Byrd, Entertainment editor

The Brains, a rapidly rising new wave band from Atlanta, and R.E.M., and impressive new rock group from Athens, will appear in concert tonight at Legion Field, in a show sponsored by the University Union.  Showtime is 7 p.m., and admission is free.
 
Tonight’s bill is the same pairing that played Tyrone’s O.C. on May 6 to a packed house.  The show replaced the scheduled appearance by The Guess Who.
 

In their Athens debut a year ago, The Brains were upstaged by the Wuoggerz, a group of campus radio station amateur musicians, at Memorial Ballroom. Tuesday night, The Brains played their second Athens show at Tyrone’s O.C. and were again upstaged. This time it was by a band that has been in existence for two months, R.E.M.

But wait a minute, The Brains come nowhere near the bumbling droogs their Athens record might indicate. They have produced a bona fide classic single to help set the tone for the 1980s with “Money Changes Everything”. And their newly released Mercury album, The Brains, proves they’re not a one hit band. Maybe they should just be a little more particular with the stage company they keep in the Classic City.
 
The Brains opened a 40 minute set with “Treason”, an instrumental microcosm of the beauty and desperation that is their trademark. Tom Gray’s pre-sequenced synthesizer fills were stunning. The trouble began when Gray sang, however – the sound mix turned into mush at the mere hint of a vocal. This problem plagued The Brains throughout their 11-song set and encore.
 
It was more than unfortunate that The Brains should have to wrestle with a defective sound mix. Gray’s lyrics were, for the most part, inscrutable. And the “world premiere” of two Brains songs was totally lost. Slower mood pieces like “In The Night” and “Gold Dust Kids” were an excuse to sit down instead of listen.