The current Connells tour is starting to eerily resemble R.E.M.'s famed

1995

"hospital" tour, during which three members ended up on a gurney at one

point

or another.

The Connells' label, TVT, announced on Wednesday (April 16)

that the group's recently rescheduled dates (originally canceled due to

vocalist Doug MacMillan's bout of Diverticulitis and subsequent surgery),

have

been indefinitely postponed due to a longer-than-expected recovery time

from

MacMillan's surgery.

The singer has been resting in his Raleigh, North

Carolina home, unable to resume his singing duties due to a

temporarily-limited vocal range as a result of diminished lung capacity.

Meanwhile, the rest of the band are slated to begin work on the follow-up

to 1996's Weird Food & Devastation, which, to finish the R.E.M.

circle,

featured a song, "Maybe," mixed by veteran R.E.M. producer Scott Litt.