The B-52's

Performer: The B-52's
Engineer: Robert Ash
Producer: Chris Blackwell
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: The B-52s: Kate Pierson (vocals, guitar, organ, keyboard bass); Cindy Wilson (vocals, guitar, percussion); Fred Schneider (vocals, keyboards, walkie talkie); Ricky Wilson (guitar, smoke alarm); Keith Strickland (drums, percussion, Claire sounds). Recorded at Compass Point Studios, Nassau, Bahamas. Also available with WILD PLANET on 1 cassette. Formed in Athens, Georgia, the B-52's emerged from this nominal outback with 'Rock Lobster', a quirky pop song that drew critical praise and engendered a major recording contract. The B-52's maintained the originality of that debut single, with staccato voices, vox guitar and surreal lyrics. Drawing on 60s kitsch ephemera, both aurally and visually, the quintet created a unified image, but one reflecting post-modernism rather than nostalgia. A cracked sense of humour lay at the core of this album, but the group's infectious joy and sense of purpose blend with danceable rhythms to ensure a quality more enduring than mere wackiness.

Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.131) - Ranked #152 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "They played toy instruments, and their thrift-store image was as inventive and colorful as their music..." Spin (p.104) - "At new wave's crest, nothing sounded as fresh and liberating as the B's." Spin (p.140) - "They've got repurposed surf guitar licks, cheesy organ vamps, [and] Pop-Tart girl-group harmonies..."

Eschewing everything but the pursuit of fun, Athens, GA's B-'52s burst onto the New Wave scene in 1979. Their mix of '50s/'60s kitsch and pure pop instincts produced some classic campy tunes ("Rock Lobster," "Private Idaho"). The band's popularity hit new peaks a decade later with the release of COSMIC THING and the huge hits "Love Shack," "Roam," and "Deadbeat Club," showing how fully the group had penetrated the pop-culture landscape.

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