This was an album my brother used to play a lot back in the early 80s. Anyway recently due to an old Spank Rock mixtape which features “Dance This Mess Around” I decided to snag the debut on vinyl. I forgot how friggin AWESOME this record was. Strange how the more horrible they eventually became the more records they sold?
I can recall when the ‘Rock Lobster/52 Girls’ 45 was all the rage, this before the first album was released.
Ministry actually opened for the B-52’s at a private bash at the University of Chicago in '82. The dressing room was quite posh. It wasn’t a dressing room at all but a beautifully furnished library complete with grand piano. I think that gig was in the student center.
I am a big fan of the B-52’s, I even saw them live ten years back and they still had it. I think it was pre-Funplex.
Anyways, I really think they were really ahead of their time with the music they made…they are a really unique mix of different styles, ranging from Ventures-esque surf to Talking Heads-esque post punk with different pop and rock influences in between.
I wouldn’t really say their later stuff in the 1980s was horrible, honestly it was very mainstream but it was what they were shooting for and it’s pretty obviously catered to that scene. A lot of great tracks on those records though, even if they aren’t similar to the debut.
It’s funny, a lot of bands in Athens really tried to make it big but never went anywhere, funny enough it took Matthew Sweet a few years after getting OUT of Athens to get big. Who knows if that is coincidence or not, though.
Oh and Fred Schneider’s albums are fucking great too!
I remember when that stupid Matthew Sweet “Girlfriend” video was on MTV. I hated it with a passion. And I was perplexed for a long time. Seriously!!! He left STRYPER to do this crap?
Later I realized I had him confused with Michael Sweet (singer for Stryper).
I remember when that stupid Matthew Sweet “Girlfriend” video was on MTV. I hated it with a passion. And I was perplexed for a long time. Seriously!!! He left STRYPER to do this crap?
Later I realized I had him confused with Michael Sweet (singer for Stryper).
Matthew Sweet was total sugary pop but I liked most of his stuff, he also dated Winona Ryder so of course he ended up where pretty much every guy she dated ended up (sans Johnny Depp)… absolutely nowhere.
Apparently his albums with Susanna Hoffs are pretty good. I don’t know if the two of them are, y’know, doing it, but if so he pulls some high class tail.
The first time I heard the B-52s was at a county fair on a ride and Private Idaho was playing. AWESOME!
At the same fair I won a game and chose a poster of a woman in a bikini? standing in front of a full length to the floor male urinal trough. My father was horrified that the carny let me take that at my age and made me return it. I swapped it for a poster of Christopher Reeve as Superman. haha.
Hmmm. While in Europe I saw what might be a female or unisex trough, for a male it runs up and down the wall, unisex it was a trough on the ground. would have to stand over it or squat if a girl couldnt aim.
It was a strange experience taking that poster back at age 14. “Uhhh my dad wont let me have this”. But he let me switch out. Havent been to a fair in awhile, I wonder if these days they would give something like that for a prize.
You’re young.