Bill Berry

R.E.M. is a hard act to follow, which explains why drummer Bill Berry has never been in another full-time band since his 1997 departure — until now. Berry has teamed with Five Eight’s Mike Mantione in The Bad Ends, whose debut album, The Power and the Glory, will be released Jan. 20 on New West Records. The Bad Ends are rounded out by bassist Dave Domizi, keyboardist Geoff Melkonian and guitarist/mandolinist Christian Lopez. The project was initially a means to work on songs for a potential Mantione solo album, but a run-in with Berry in their shared home base of Athens, Ga., led to a series of jam sessions and a pivot to a group project. “In very early 2017, a chance pedestrian encounter in downtown Athens found me face to face with one Mike Mantione,” Berry recalls. “At that point it had...