The B-52s

One of my favorite bands of all time, ever. I could rant and rave endlessly about the B52s but I'll sum it up by saying they are a musical entity I've returned to frequently with new appreciation and respect. Been meaning to start this thread for ages. Another post spurred me to go ahead and do it and on top of that both Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson have put out solo albums recently (both good though I'd recommend Wilson's over Pierson's)

In hindsight a lot of music styles and aesthetics I am enamored with now (kitsch and retro especially) stem from me hearing this band as a little kid and listening to them on and off since. Surface level they are infamously off-the-wall and iconic but when you dig a bit deeper than the absurd lyrics and earworm melodies there's a very subtle punk and DIY ethos that guided them and influenced an array of other musicians: "Rock Lobster" inspired John Lennon to return to the studio, they put Athens music scene (REM, Pylon, all of the Elephant 6 bands), "Mesopotamia" was a favorite of Detroit Techno godfather The Electrifying Mojo, and, perhaps the most unspoken aspect until recently, they were a major crossover band into the mainstream for queer culture. They are a hard to pin down band in terms of genre and scene - park of the punk / new wave movement early on but with this unique bent on rock...lot of surf guitar and girl group influence, plenty of american pop culture homage (thift store chic), and a really, really unpretentious take on dance music.

I guess I'm the only one.

Drives to own Private Idaho.

never really dived into their music but always appreciated the rock lobster song. I'll give one of their albums a listen at work for the hell of it. Also, as a kid the first time I heard the Dead Kennedys I was sure it was the guy from the B-52's side project. 

nah bruh. my mum loved b52s (she saw them a couple of times 'cause they were local) and played them a ton. have very vivid memories of listening to rock lobster (and whichever album that was on) on cassette on the way from atlanta to panama city basically on repeat the entire time. i bought the two disc anthology collection sometime when i was in highschool and used to rinse the first disc loads when i'd go out of town w/my group of friends. the only tracks i listened to on disc two were junebug and loveshack though. most of the ones you posted were faves along with these (and i'm sure others i'm forgetting)

wow that's a really bad recording of hot lava

Kate's voice is so powerful, clear and iconic.

Only heard of Rock Lobster 'till now, I'll check out their other stuff.

  On 4/19/2018 at 4:58 PM, juiceciuj said:

wow that's a really bad recording of hot lava

sounds like a VHS rip of a concert from afar, like in a hallway outside a venue room

love that live recording of Planet Claire, wish they didn't cut it short

  On 4/19/2018 at 5:28 PM, Haste said:

Kate's voice is so powerful, clear and iconic.

I love both her and Cindy's voice, they have different timbres but man they harmonize like buttah. Cindy is more prominent on their early stuff as lead vocal with Kate doing the wacky sounds (as a kid I did I didn't realize this, probably b/c I crushed harder on Kate) so I really can't say I like one more than the other. I think some recognize Kate more from her guest appearances on Iggy Pop and R.E.M. singles in the 90s. And of course Fred is so damn unique and hilarious. I never thought of him and Jello Biafra being so similar, makes sense though. Both have a sardonic edge from very different perspectives too.

Either way the B-52s are one of the bands so heavy on call and response, not to mention this grey area of singing and talking Fred honed in on. No one singer dominates. 

my friend's uncle was friends/collaborated with the b-52s. weird dude

I got their self-titled album on cassette at some thrift store for 25 cents when I was making $400 a month as a janitor. It got a lot of rotation that summer.

Superb band, so danceable; I've never really gone deep but this thread is making me want to go further with their catalogue. Those backing vocals on Mesopotamia

I love them yeah. Super underrated. Most people only know Love Shack or if they consider themselves more knowledgeable, Rock Lobster.

I was the same but I knew a music weirdo sperge guy in his 30s when I was 19 and I got 100s of CDrs off him in the early 00s, including a bunch of B52s albums (Dead Kennedys too!). Pretty sure my reaction at the time was "huh, so they had more than one album"

I also bought one of Fred Schneider's solo albums without knowing it was the B52's guy in my teens, just because Steve Albini was on the production credits

  On 4/21/2018 at 11:14 PM, Leon Sumbitches said:

Superb band, so danceable; I've never really gone deep but this thread is making me want to go further with their catalogue. Those backing vocals on Mesopotamia

Likewise man, they’ve always interested me but I haven’t dug deep enough. Cheers for the nudge.

The first album is great. Got it at a thrift store on cassette in junior high and dug it ever since. How did Ricky Wilson end up playing a four string guitar? I’ve always wondered about that. Don’t know any other records of theirs. Just the hit songs, Love shack Idaho and so on. That first record sure is good.

nice to see people appreciating these guys. growing up in metro detroit, the radio would play rock lobster and legal tender and mesopotamia which is what piqued my interest beyond owning cosmic thing as a child. i really enjoy their first three albums a lot, although if i'm being honest i think Whammy could have been a really great EP instead of an ok album. the guitar playing/singing on "runnin around" off of wild planet is nuts. more people should hear it. and why wasn't "give me back my man" a bigger hit? or "legal tender", "mesopotamia"?  everyone i've ever showed these songs to have been like "whoa! i had no idea!". i always wonder how they would have evolved had ricky not died. like one of the big tragedies of the era. he seemed like he was getting into cool shit with Whammy and Mesopotamia. furthering their sound. really underrated guy.

Whammy! was on regular rotation on cassette for car trips with my family as a kid in the 80s. Butterbean 4 life.

Listened to the self titled and Wild Planet albums yesterday, thanks for the recommendation Joshuatx. Turns out Cyndi Wilson has an awesome voice, kept going back to this song on Wild Planet.

  On 4/21/2018 at 11:34 PM, monoppus said:

The first album is great. Got it at a thrift store on cassette in junior high and dug it ever since. How did Ricky Wilson end up playing a four string guitar? I’ve always wondered about that. Don’t know any other records of theirs. Just the hit songs, Love shack Idaho and so on. That first record sure is good.

Second album is an essential listen, as good and arguably better than the debut. Many of the songs were ones they'd had been playing live for years and could of been on the debut, but they and Warner agreed to split their then set of songs into two albums to avoid having a weaker follow-up album of hastily written new material.

I slept on Wild Planet for a long time because my folks had it on vinyl and got rid of their record player before I ever checked it out, whereas they had the debut on CD early on

  On 4/20/2018 at 3:23 AM, whylessness said:

my friend's uncle was friends/collaborated with the b-52s. weird dude

 

this is art 

knew RuPaul was a peer / collaborator but this stuff by Tom Rubnitz is new to me 

  On 4/20/2018 at 6:23 AM, sweepstakes said:

I got their self-titled album on cassette at some thrift store for 25 cents when I was making $400 a month as a janitor. It got a lot of rotation that summer.

playing the shit out of an album because of limited accessibility is something that will never quite be the same post-streaming

my parents played the hell of the debut as well, one of the earliest albums I heard as a kid

nice illuminati eye on that pickle. posted on #pizzagate

dig dig dig

We can never forgive them.

somehow i never saw that. truly horrifying. wow i hate the b-52s now

boing

holy shit coop was in the flintstones?

  On 4/23/2018 at 11:08 PM, hello spiral said:

flol

  On 4/27/2018 at 5:43 PM, juiceciuj said:

somehow i never saw that. truly horrifying. wow i hate the b-52s now

 

 

boing

holy shit coop was in the flintstones?

meh, just badly executed kitsch overdrive in the 90s

they also did Rocko's Modern Life theme around the same time

also I think the Flintstones song was the same era Cindy was taking a break from the band