Michael Stipe Sings “E-Bow The Letter” For The First Time In 17 Years

On Saturday, Michael Stipe came to celebrate Aaron and Bryce Dessner's birthday. The twins performed a "Mixtape" show as part of AB100, a two-day festival celebrating Dessners’ 50th birthday in the Basque Country. The special event was held months after their actual birthday, which is April 23. During their set, Stipe joined them onstage to sing R.E.M.’s "E-Bow The Letter" and his Big Red Machine collab "No Time For Love Like Now" with the National’s Matt Berninger.Before playing, Stipe presented the Dessners with gifts, small sculptures he made the year that they toured together. "You can use it as a guitar slide, but you might get electrocuted, which is not good," he joked. Berninger then joined the stage, also joking that he had brought them gifts. He then placed something (gum? ZYNs?) on their music stands.Bryce Dessner talked about how when the National opened for R.E.M. back in 2007/2008, they would beg the headliners to play certain songs. "Sometimes they would oblige, and so we did it today again, and Michael gracefully said yes," he said.Then Berninger mentioned some notable advice Stipe passed on to them all those years ago. "He said, 'No matter what, remember you guys we...