JULY 10, 1998 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 13

MUSIC

Named for a hairdo, this band keeps turning heads

by Harriet L. Schwartz

This was a band that started “on a lark," according to one band member. This was also a band named after a hairdo, a Southern slang expression for a mile-high beehive.

While the B-52's emerged out of rather whimsical beginnings, they went on to become one of the most unique forces in popular music.

The band is back with Time Capsule, a greatest-hits album and two new songs. While "Debbie," the band's tribute to friend and former Blondie front woman Deborah Harry is the first single, openly gay songwriter and guitarist Keith Strickland seems particularly fond of the album's closer, "Hallucinating Pluto."

The song harkens back almost to the band's very beginning, and to their original sound, Strickland said during a recent phone interview.

"The CD starts with 'Planet Claire' and ends with 'Hallucinating Pluto' and there's a real similarity in the sensibility, the stream-ofconsciousness lyrics, the sound,” he added.

Strickland says that the band's songwriting energy has remained as vibrant as it was back in 1976 when the group first started making music together.

"When we write, there's a particular chemistry, it just seems to remain over the ages," he says laughing. "The foundation was that we were friends to begin with. We all really love doing this and we feel blessed that this is our livelihood.

Despite garnering little radio play in the beginning, the B-52's-including Kate Pierson, Fred Schneider (who is also gay), Strickland, and siblings Cindy and Ricky Wilson established themselves as a vital force in popular music. Their self-titled debut album, released in 1979, included the ready-made party favorites "Rock Lobster," "Planet Claire," and "52 Girls."

Strickland remains amused that radio stations kept the band off their playlists in the late '70s. He notes that some of the more daring DJs would play "Rock Lobster" and other B52's songs when callers requested, but few stations would add the band's music to their regular rotations. Afraid to push musical and social boundaries, many station managers saw the B-52's as too extreme.

Stricklandremembers seeing amemo shown to him by a friend who worked at a radio station, outlining the station's approach to targeting its desired audience.

"They equated genres of music with what kind of car a person would drive,” he says. "The memo said if you play music such as the B-52's, the listeners are probably unemployed and don't drive. It was serious, but it was such a joke, how could you generalize like that?” By the early '80s the B-52's were considered part of the post new wave movement, often mentioned alongside bands like the Talking Heads and Blondie. The band's second studio album Wild Planet included seminal B52's hits like "Private Idaho" and "Party Out of

The B-52's.

Bounds." The band remained prolific, releasing Mesopotamia and Whammy before getting hit with a personal tragedy in 1985 when band member Ricky Wilson died of AIDS. Following Wilson's death, the band took a three-year break.

"At that point, we did not feel that we could continue without him,” Strickland says. “He was such a strong and important figure, as well as a friend. It just seemed that it would be very

Curbside

T X

IS THE NAME OF THE BAND, AND TONIGHT IS THEIR BIG STAGE DEBUT. MY NATHAN IS UP FRONT ON LEAD GUITAR AND I'M RIGHT BY THE STAGE, LENDING MORAL SUPPORT.

AND WHY IS IT ALWAYS SO HOT IN THESE PLACES? THIS CHAIR IS REAMING MY ASS, NO MATTER HOW I SIT IN IT... IT'S NOT ENOUGH TO ENDURE SONIC TORTURE, I'M BEING CRIPPLED AS WELL...WHERE THE HELL IS THE WAITER? I'M SO DEHYDRATED...MY TONGUE IS SHRIVELING UP.. IT'S GONNA BE A BLACK LUMP BY THE END OF THE NIGHT....

EIKA AOSHIMA

difficult to go on without him. After a couple years, we began to write. We warmed up to the idea of writing again and found it to be a very healing experience."

The result of that writing, Cosmic Thing, sealed the band's place into the 90s with "Love Shack" and "Roam" with both songs peaking at number three on the Billboard singles chart. In 1990 Cindy Wilson amicably left the band, however Schneider, Strickland, and

YEAH, IT'S THEIR BIG NIGHT. THERE'S JUST ONE PROBLEM. THEY SUCK.

BOUNCE DO NOT F WITH M

GOD, THEIR SONGS ARE SO STUPID..DID I REALLY ONCE SAY TO SOMEONE THAT BAD ART CAN BE AS INSPIRING AS GOOD ART? I MUST'VE BEEN SERIOUSLY OUT OF MY MIND... THIS SHIT COULD INSPIRE YOU TO BLOW YOUR BRAINS OUT, BUT THAT'S ABOUT IT... OH, MY HEAD IS GONNA EXPLODE... JESUS, NATHAN STOP MAKING THOSE GUITAR FACES!!

Pierson continued working together and released Good Stuff in 1992. Wilson returned to the fold in 1996 and that's when the band created the two new songs that would eventually round out Time Capsule.

Throughout their history, the B-52's have appealed to a range of fans who consider themselves on the fringe and thus identify with the band's wild style and original sound. The band has always had a strong gay following, even in the years before band members were open about being gay.

"We've always had a very gay sensibility," Strickland says. "Even though we weren't out when we started, we had a very gay following," says Strickland. “A friend of mine said, 'I didn't know if you guys were gay, but I just felt from you all that it was okay if you are, I just had this feeling it was okay that I was a lesbian.'

"A lot of our look came out of when we lived in Athens [Ga.]," Strickland adds. "Even before the band, we would go to parties together and we would dress up-put on wigs and wild clothing. That predominantly came out of gay culture—that kind of partying and playing with clothes, sort of spoofing everything. There's sort of a camp sensibility."

The B-52's will be appearing in Cincinnati on July 12 at the Riverbend Music Center, and on July 17 in the Cleveland area at Blossom Music Center. Tickets are available at the Blossom and Riverbend box offices, or at all Ticketmaster locations.

BY ROBERT KIRBY

I ESPECIALLY HATE THE LEAD SINGER... GIVE IT UP, DUDE, YOU'RE NOT NEIL YOUNG.. YOU'RE NOT EVEN.. HUEY LEWIS... JESUS, LOOK AT HIM EMOTE BACK IN THE OLD DAYS THEY THREW ROTTEN FRUIT AT GUYS LIKE THIS... WHAT I WOULDN'T DO FOR AN OVERRIPE TOMATO RIGHT NOW..

....

TOMBOY

DLIFE

I WONDER COULD I JUST LEAVE:"NATHAN, IT WAS ONE OF MY MIGRAINES; I STUCK IT OUT AS LONG AS I COULD... GOD! AN ENCORE? WHAT THE HELL? I'M GONNA HAVE A STROKE RIGHT ON THE SPOT! GOD, WHAT AMI GONNA SAY TO HIM AFTER WARDS?? I CAN'T LIE.. I JUST CAN'T... OH MAN.. SHIT.......

WELL, WHAT DID YA THINK ?

WAS

GREAT,

1998 BY ROBERT KIRBY

HONEY!

http://www.visi.com/~oprairie/

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