Listen R.E.M.'s Ominous Live 'World Leader Pretend' For Anti-Trump Series

New York, NY (Top40 Charts) On Monday 17/10, a previously unheard live recording of the band R.E.M.'s song "World Leader Pretend" was released as part of the anti-Trump "30 Days, 30 Songs" campaign. The campaign is led by author Dave Eggers and features musicians including Aimee Mann, Franz Ferdinand and Death Cab for Cutie.

When Trump used "It's The End of the World as We Know It" during a campaign rally last year, frontman Michael Stipe released a statement on Twitter saying, "Go f*** yourselves, the lot of you-you sad, attention-grabbing, power-hungry little men. Do not use our music or my voice for you moronic charade of a campaign." As if that weren't enough, bassist Mike Mills said, "Personally, I think the Orange Clown will do anything for attention. I hate giving it to him."
So needless to say, R.E.M. fits right in with the rest of the artists participating in "30 Days, 30 Songs," the anti-Trump protest song project.



Unfortunately, since the band parted ways back in 2011, they aren't contributing a new song to the project. Instead, we get a previously unreleased version of the song "World Leader Pretend," off of their album Green. In their statement with the song, the band simply said, "A perfect song for these strange times."