R.E.M. quits

(CBS) R.E.M. has decided to call it a day, according to a post on its website.

In a statement made on remhq.com, the band writes:

"To our Fans and Friends: As R.E.M., and as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band. We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished. To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening. R.E.M."

R.E.M. formed in 1980 in Athens, Ga., with vocalist Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. The band soon found cult success and earned radio play at college stations across the country, finding mainstream success in 1987 with "The One I Love" and "It's the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)."

The band became one of the biggest in the world on radio and MTV through the late 1990s and weathered the departure of Berry in 1997, replacing him with a series of session and touring drummers. Albums in the early 2000s didn't sell as well as the band's work in its heyday, but "Accelerate" (2008) and "Collapse Into Now" (2011) fared better critically and commercially. R.E.M. last toured extensively in 2008.