Have R.E.M. ever performed under any other names?
At their very first show, they were known as Twisted Kites. Later on, R.E.M. often employed pseudonyms for secret gigs, such as The Mystery Twins, It Crawled From the South, Bingo Hand Job, and Hornets Attack Victor Mature. The band’s members also have participated in dozens of other projects, ranging from the Hindu Love Gods (Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Bill Berry playing drunken covers with Warren Zevon) to 1066 Gaggle O’ Sound (Michael Stipe doing a one-man show on a Farfisa organ–so dubbed because 1066 was Stipe’s “favorite year in history.”)
(Excerpted from the 2006 book Is Tiny Dancer Really Elton’s Little John?: Music’s Most Enduring Mysteries, Myths, and Rumors Revealed, published by Three Rivers Press, written by Gavin Edwards.)