The B-52's

The B-52's

GOOD STUFF
The B-52's Celebrate 25 Years of Peculiar Pop and Wacky Wigs
A quarter-century since their inception in an Athens, Georgia, Chinese restaurant, the bouffant, bewigged B-52's are as giddily anachronistic as ever. Named for the high-altitude hairpieces worn by vocalists Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson, pop's kings and queens of camp celebrated their silver anniversary in 2002, with the release of Nude on the Moon. The two-CD retrospective traces their evolution from Peach State discount-shop denizens to hipster anthem makers, taking stock of the tragic death of original guitarist Ricky Wilson in 1985 and the band's startling rebirth with Cosmic Thing, their biggest album to date. Revisiting hits from "Rock Lobster" to "Love Shack" and unearthing some rarities as well, the collection touches upon every weapon in the killer B's arsenal, with plenty of chances to do the Camel Walk -- and the odd stop to ponder the universe. B-52's co-founder and multi-instrumentalist Keith Strickland gave B&N.com's David Sprague a peek behind the scenes of rock's longest-running Monster Beach Party.

Barnes & Noble.com: When the band first formed, there wasn't any real precedent for the high-concept quirkiness that you got into. Where did that come from?

Keith Strickland: Well, there were a few people attuning themselves to this sort of trash aesthetic. Part of it came from John Waters, part of it from Andy Warhol's concept of taking mundane things and finding the beauty in them. Musically, well, Ricky [Wilson] and I met in high school, and we both gravitated toward the dada elements of combining things like Captain Beefheart and African pygmy music.

B&N.com: That sounds pretty studied, but there didn't seem to have been a "serious artists" sign hanging above the B-52s.

KS: Not at all. We loved finding the ridiculousness inherent in everything -- going to thrift stores to find the most hideous clothes, doing whatever it took to be different, just for the sake of being different.

B&N.com: Hasn't that become a lot more difficult for people to do these days?

KS: Oh yeah. Now, everything is part of mainstream culture -- or gets to be part of it almost immediately. Being weird is just another part of the "normal" mainstream.

B&N.com: Especially at the beginning, you guys created a very minimalist sound. Was that intent or fate?

KS: A little of both. As far as things like the open tunings, Ricky and I were both big Joni Mitchell fans, and we took that idea from her, and then Ricky took things further, taking one or two strings off the guitar altogether. I played drums at the time and we didn't have a bass player, so the bass would come from the lower register of the keyboard. A lot of it was just coincidence, though: Most bands will audition people, since they want to get a sound. We got the sound based on what our friends were able to do.

B&N.com: Being friends first must have made the loss of Ricky [who died in 1985 after contracting AIDS] much more difficult. Was there ever any question of whether or not to continue?

KS: We did basically say it was over. At the time Ricky became very ill, we had Bouncing Off the Satellites finished, and we told our manager we were not going to tour. He wanted us to just hire another guitarist and go ahead, but we said no way. We have a different manager now, of course. It was much too difficult for us, especially Cindy, who'd lost her brother. But I moved to Woodstock, I began to write again, and I felt Ricky with me. I'd play something and think, What would Ricky do here?

B&N.com: Did you feel extra pressure taking on the bulk of the songwriting, changing instruments, and so on?

KS: I'm still learning, really. I mean, I always played guitar, but never in a performance setting. It took about a year and a half to write the songs for Cosmic Thing, which was the first one I had to do that way, and it's still not always easy.

B&N.com: Do you ever get tired of being pigeonholed as a fun party band, given the other aspects of what you do?

KS: We have a big enough core of fans that different people respond to different things. I've had people come up to me after a show and say, "I'm so glad you played 'Follow Your Bliss' because that's my favorite song," and that's about as pretty a ballad as we have. We've never let how we think that we're perceived have any effect on what we actually are.

B&N.com: And what is that, as of right now?

KS: Well, we're still friends, which is pretty great after 25 years. [laughs] Right now, we're all off doing the dreaded solo projects, for lack of a better term. We still do our show, and we love playing together. We'll see what the future holds.

January 15, 2002