1st...i love this band...does Fred still do that show on Sirius?

Deadbeat Club
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-deVRLs03jw

Yup, I love the B-52s. This isn't their greatest song musically or hook-wise, but the lyrics are pretty prescient. Sure beats most of the math rock, punk/fusion, undanceable (I guess that's not really a word) unmelodic, non-political noise stuff that most of the kids these days are doing. And what's up with the f*cking beards? I hate herd instinct! That trend is going to last about a year and a half at most. At least, unlike tattoos, you can shave them off and then get laid or apply for a job. And nobody dances at shows to live bands anymore either, just sterile computer generated crap. We had more fun than you guys can imagine from the late '70s-90's. WTF is wrong with you people?

B-52's Party out of Bounds!

"Precious getting bombed, who's to blame?"

"People get sick, they play the wrong games, you know it can ruin your day!"

Fun stuff, but early REM was THE Athens band, don't care for the new stuff though.

Ruthless People @ 7:

B-52's Party out of Bounds!

"Precious getting bombed, who's to blame?"

(actually it's crashers get bombed but I thought it was Precious for the longest time:)

The Replacements

Can't Hardly Wait

I snuck into a bar in 1981 to see the "phenomenon" REM. One of the most boring shows I'd ever seen in my life up until then. The girls were all gushing but the band was slow, unenergetic and lame. Of course, every band has those kind of nights, but I came to hate them when I heard them blasting out of every frat house on frat row. It was then that "alternative" became non-threatening to right wing frat rat sensibilities. While I personally like some of their music (even though every song sounds the same) REM + MTV were the deathblow to the politically motivating rebellion of punk rock.

If you like the B-52's and heavy metal try to track this down: A texas based metal band called Dead Horse did an amazing cover of Rock Lobster on their album Peaceful Death and Pretty Flowers.

B-52s official band of the original Amiga devs back in the day.
You could say that all modern desktop GUI stuff owes its legacy to these folk.
Remember Amiga did it before (and better than) Apple.

ferrofluid @ 21:

B-52s official band of the original Amiga devs back in the day.
You could say that all modern desktop GUI stuff owes its legacy to these folk.
Remember Amiga did it before (and better than) Apple.

Amiga satified like no other OS since.

JC @ 2:

The best band that will ever come out of Athens Georgia is Widespread Panic, hands down. They had the largest CD release party in the world as a free concert in the streets of Athens.

Billy Bob Thorton directed their live from the Georgia Theater concert in 1992. Laura Dern was in their Aunt Avis video and Angelina Jolie was on their album cover "Everyday".

Stop ignoring real music for this B52 news nonsense. They were a gimmick band that flamed out because they absolutely sucked. Widespread Panic is one of the all time touring bands and the B52's is what you call the other band?

Please!!!

Not Billy Bod Thorton, Angelina Jolie AND Laura Dern? Well that settles it! I'm throwing out my B-52's CD's! Since the A list Hollywood actors like Widepread Panic it must be the bomb!

And can I please have your phone number please? You are so cool!

And for you bearded computer geeks, try this:

Throbbing Gristle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ_T5AYTUlw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kwhStveAq8

Not only did they beat you to it by, oh let's just say THIRTY YEARS OR SO, but the Italian Futurists were doing it with machines around 1915!

http://personal-pages.lvc.edu/~snyder/em/russolo.html

It needs to be said: liberal blogs have the absolute worst taste in music. Both C&L and Atrios offer nothing but the most boring and derivative music imaginable. Not surprising, I guess, since the Clintons are all about Fleetwood Mac. The B-52's? You gotta be kidding me.

At least the wingnut blogs realize that their taste in music is offensive and don't try to act like they're cool and with it. They don't bother confirming our worst suspicions about them by posting links to music videos, and this is one lesson from the Right I wish the Left would take to heart.I

Joe King Carrasco

Buena

Tin Roof!

...rusted.

Isao Tomita - Stravinsky - Firebird - Round of the Princesses
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBb7-He4o5E

As far as "the other great Athens alternative band, I put in my vote for Pylon. Probably best known for REM's cover of their song "Crazy," which appears on Dead Letter Office.

Opal

Supernova

I'm almost 30. I was 11 when Cosmic Thing came out back in 89 and that was it for me, I was a diehard B-52 fan for life. Unfortunately they only made one more album Good Stuff back in 92 and have been silent for 16 long years but I knew they'd get back together one day.

For all of you decrying that their new album is generic rock, I don't think that you get that The B-52's were never music trailblazers in the first place. They have always been about pop-bubblegum songs in the surf rock tradition. That's why they stood out back in 79, when they realeased their first album, while everyone else was into disco, punk or traditional rock.

Even if Funplex is The B-52's by the numbers, there are a few things that put them above everyone else. One is Fred Schneider's distinctive voice. Two is Kate Pierson's voice, which is my favorite after Debbie Harry, and beauty (I have a thing for redheaded women) and I can't tell you how crushed I was when I found out that she was gay. Three is the musical hooks of guitarist Keith Strickland and Four is that this album features the return of Cindy Wilson who was one of the original members, along with her brother Ricky Wilson who died of AIDS back in the 80's, who left after Cosmic Thing.

2009 is the 30th anniversary of The B-52's first album and if this is the last album they make then I'm glad that everyone is back together doing what they do best.

Oh and I hope to christ they go on tour then I. am. there!!! This will be the last time I will probably ever get to see them live in my lifetime.

Curtis Mayfield's "Move on Up" is an awesome song, go download it NOW!!!

ffff @ 41:

I'm almost 30. I was 11 when Cosmic Thing came out back in 89 and that was it for me, I was a diehard B-52 fan for life. Unfortunately they only made one more album Good Stuff back in 92 and have been silent for 16 long years but I knew they'd get back together one day.

For all of you decrying that their new album is generic rock, I don't think that you get that The B-52's were never music trailblazers in the first place. They have always been about pop-bubblegum songs in the surf rock tradition. That's why they stood out back in 79, when they realeased their first album, while everyone else was into disco, punk or traditional rock.

Even if Funplex is The B-52's by the numbers, there are a few things that put them above everyone else. One is Fred Schneider's distinctive voice. Two is Kate Pierson's voice, which is my favorite after Debbie Harry, and beauty (I have a thing for redheaded women) and I can't tell you how crushed I was when I found out that she was gay. Three is the musical hooks of guitarist Keith Strickland and Four is that this album features the return of Cindy Wilson who was one of the original members, along with her brother Ricky Wilson who died of AIDS back in the 80's, who left after Cosmic Thing.

2009 is the 30th anniversary of The B-52's first album and if this is the last album they make then I'm glad that everyone is back together doing what they do best.

30 years??? fuck im old...fuck...fuck....fuck

i do work for old age and rest homes...to entertain the folks, they bring in really crappy cover bands that do the standards...i keep thinking that there ill be, decaying in some wheel chair while some crappy middle aged singer does covers of the b-52s and elvis costello....oh please kill me now

Snowball @ 40:

My question is: When is "experimental" no longer experimental? Have we reached a certain apex where cultural product and social critique merely becomes redundant? If they did it at the turn of the last century during the upheaval of the Industrial Revolution, are we repeating history at the dawn of the information/computer revolution? Are we experiencing a revival of the Gilded Era and Robber Barons to be followed by a resurgence of popular Leftist uprising and reactionary Fascism by the threatened elite?

Any thoughts?

god...i hope so

i hope the kids of today rise up against the corporatists

but as hannah montana is the number 1 movie 2 weeks in a row...i highly doubt that will happen

X

White Girl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W35e_ztm3-I

X + Ray Manzerik from the Doors

Soul Kitchen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbGsaKlxUSw

BTW, X has reformed and is on tour. I saw a reunion gig in LA in 2001, it was awesome!

Check them out if they come near you

Tour Dates:

http://apps.facebook.com/ilike/artist/X

Snowball, do you do jobs for Zondervan Publishing, or do work for another publishing entity. Because, yeah, Zondervan is located here, and I have noticed every little religious niche genre.

I saw them back in the day at 40 Watt Club in Athens with REM.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcrYLwl9GwE - REM - The One I Love

That was one hell of road trip from Austin to Athens, as I vaguely recall.

I saw the B-52's at The Chance in Poughkeepsie, NY back in 83ish. It was one of the first concerts I ever went to where I new all of the songs already. Fred played a mean toy piano.

When it comes to 1980s college/indie bands, I still prefer Camper van Beethoven.

REM and the B-52s were good until 1991, but only Cracker (David Lowery) kept producing good work since then.

Pere Ubu

Come Home
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHE1klulvPs

Pere Ubu w/ Debra Harry

Waiting for Mary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F7ZLvWBZZ8

And now for something completely different.

:)

(full screen, please.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gukFvG8VbK4

I didn't have any Camper Van or Cracker video links handy, so here are some:

Camper Van Beethoven - Take The Skinheads Bowling (1985)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDB9oCgVHGw

Camper Van Beethoven - Ambiguity Song (w/ Anthony Guess)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6DcKeVbGCk

Camper Van Beethoven - Pictures of Matchstick Men - 1989
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-vFC0A5cfI
(It's not a video, but it's a great song.)

Cracker - Teen Angst (What The World Needs Now)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TybFyhlwdvU

Cracker - Low
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDPyep1Y0qE

And my favourite Cracker song of all, "Nostalgia":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9iLCklF_RI

1980 was a great year to be in college. The B52's, The Pretenders...Good Stuff!

1979 - Gang of Four - Anthrax

You are all wrong. The best act to come out of Athens will be Vic Fontaine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmXzamLDgFk&feature=related

KCRW's been playing this a lot. It's a fun tune.

I had a lot of fun in Athens in the '80s. There was (and still is) an immense amount of creative talent there, widely varied and almost always without aspirations of stardom. Just a bunch of people without two dimes to rub together, saying hey, let's put on a show.

In their own words, "just a tacky little dance band out of Athens, GA." But still I love them. First live show I caught was in Cornell's Barton Hall in the early 80's. The acid began to take over sometime during "Mesopotamia," so recollections are a bit spotty. Many years later, a much less chemically altered me greatly enjoyed what has to be the perfect venue for such an act: a minor league ball field in the city of Brockton, south of Boston.

I love the "the music I like rocks but the music you like sucks" attitude expressed by some here. Grow up (or not)! Music is highly subjective.

Another goodie

I always want to smoke a cigarette afterwards, and I don't smoke:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5GEg0D0ZY4