Nice interview with our boys here. The big news is that Mills has apparently formed an “as-yet-unnamed band”, and both he and Stipe hope to release something this year.
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Great! More side projects to look forward to! 
That new band Mills is evidently in also includes Darius Rucker and I don’t recall who else. News of Stipe’s solo album isn’t especially revelatory as we’ve been hearing about it for several years now. Buck always has several irons in the fire but it would still be interesting to know what he’s at work on. There was also no mention whatsoever of any details of what’s next from Bill Berry. Not so long ago I kept hearing that he was retired Is that from live performance, recording or both?
I know Peter Buck has the new Haines/Buck album coming in July. Also a joint Minus 5/Haines Buck UK tour in August, though this hasn’t been officially confirmed yet. Given that Minus 5/Baseball Project are doing a joint US tour in September I wouldn’t be completely surprised if there are some Haines/Buck US shows at some point in the late summer.
I hadn’t heard anything about a Mills band, so that was exciting. But yeah, I’ll believe the Stipe solo album when I hear it!
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I haven’t listened but I believe news of the new band with Darius was first revealed in this recent interview with Mills for the Caropop podcast. The author of the American Songwriter piece said Mills and Stipe mentioned Buck and Berry are at work on new projects but didn’t offer any further details.
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Maybe a new Bad Ends album for Berry? It feels like he’s rediscovered his love for making music in recent years, as long as he doesn’t have to go too far away from home.
After you mentioned Darius Rucker, I searched him and Mills and found this RS article: Hootie Babylon! Darius Rucker Tells All
Sounds like Black Crowes drummer Steve Gorman, and a session guy called Tom Bukovac are also in the band. Hopefully that appears soon. Rucker (or should I say Hootie?!) sounds quite excited by it.
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