The B-52s are, hands down, my all-time favorite band. Their debut album was the first non-children's/non-movie soundtrack album I ever bought. When CDs came around, that first album was my first purchase in that new format as well. Their music was like nothing I had ever heard before. It was fun, quirky, eclectic, over-the-top and o' so danceable. "Rock Lobster", "Dance This Mess Around", "Lava", "Private Idaho", "Strobe Light", "52 Girls", etc. Those first albums just captivated me with their cool, kitschy inventiveness and wild exuberance.
Their third album was kind of a flop, but I dug it. Heck, the song "Mesopotamia" had me, not only grooving to their tune, but actively researching the history of Mesopotamia as well. Ha! Thier 4th album, "Whammy!" was filled with great stuff, but their underappreciated and underplayed song "Butterbean" was my fave. Oh my stars! That was like my own personal anthem through my senior year of high school.
I got to see them in San Francisco in the mid-80's. (I remember the opening band was something called "Love Tractor". Zowie!) That was a great show and I am thrilled to have been able to see it as, not long after, guitarist Ricky Wilson died from complications of HIV/AIDS. But they bounced back with what would turn out to be their biggest album ever, "Cosmic Thing" with the monster mega hit "Love Shack".
Hi Fred. Here are your interview questions-a-go-go! Thank you for your help!
OK, HERE GOES. I MAY NOT HAVE TIME FOR ALL OF THEM
1) What interview question are you asked the most---and what answer do you give?
WHAT'S MY FAVORIETS B'S SONG. THERE'S SO MANY. RIGHT NOW I'M PARTIAL TO EYES WIDE OPEN AND DEVIANT INGREDIENT
2) You guys have been shaking your cosmic things since 1976 (is that right?) and recording since 1979 (I think I may have mentioned that the very first non-movie soundtrack album I ever bought was your debut album...and then again, it was the first CD I ever got). How have you guys been able to stay relevant in the changing music scene over the last 30 years and how have the B-52s evolved?
WE LOVE MUSIC AND WE'VE ALWAYS MARCHED TO A DIFFERENT BONGO PLAYER. EVERYONE EVOLVES WITH TIME. SOME LIKE US, FOR THE BETTER.
3) I'm guessing that, since the first album, you've done ROCK LOBSTER at every show and since COSMIC THING, you've performed LOVE SHACK at every show as well. How do you keep those tunes fresh and fun for yourselves instead of letting them get monotonous and stale?
WE HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR AND THOSE SONGS AREN'T BORING
4) The B-52s always seem to be on the road performing. You are off to South America not long after you hit Fresno, in fact, and you've circled the globe several times. How much time do you get to spend at home??? What is it like living out of a suitcase and hotel rooms so much of the time?
WELL, THE PHYSICAL TRAVEL IS THE WORST PART OF TOURING. I HATE OVERNITERS ON THE BUS. BUT, THIS IS MY CAREER AND I'M HOME AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE AND I HAVE LOT'S OF HOBBIES.
5) Your home is in New York state, right? What is Fred Schneider the homeowner like? You mentioned shovelling snow on MySpace and all of your backyard plantings that the deer devoured. What are you like at home when you are not on tour?
BITCHING ABOUT THE DEER AND THE SNOW. WE TOUR SPRING TO FALL SO I GET HOME TO WINTER AND FIND THE DEER STILL EATING EVERYTHING. BTW, I'M SORT OF A SLOB SOMETIMES...
6) You've had two solo project (Fred Schneider & The Shake Society and Just Fred) as well as the new Superions thang "Totally Nude Island". How did these projects come about? What do they mean to you? (And --GASP!--whatever happened to the Shake Society???)
I JUST HAVE LOTS OF IDEAS TO WRITE ABOUT AND FIND OTHER OUTLETS BESIDES THE B'S.
7) There were 16 years between GOOD STUFF and FUNPLEX. Is another album in the works and will we have to wait another 16 years to get it?
NEXT UP IS A REMIX CD OF FUNPLEX
8) You are all in your 50s---with Kate now 60! (NO WAY!!!) Yet you're still out there dancing and singing and groovin'. You certainly don't seem like a band in their 50s+. What is your secret to staying eternally hip and groovilicious?
I'VE BEEN A VEGETARIAN SINCE THE EARLY 70'S. I NEVER THINK ABOUT AGE SINCE I HAVE THE SAME NUTTY SENSE OF HUMOR I HAD WHEN I WAS 10. AND I GO TO THE GYM AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, THOUGH I USUALLY SPEND MORE TIME SWAPPING DIRTY JOKES WITH FRIENDS...
9) Are you at all surprised at the amazing longevity of The B-52s---considering that many of your contemporaries (DEVO, Blondie, Oingo Boingo, Talking Heads, etc.) are no longer around (at least to the scale The B-52s are)? What was your back-up plan had the B-52s crashed and burned after the first CD? What would you be doing today if you weren't in a band?
NEVER HAD PLANS AS I HAD NEVER PLANNED TO BE IN A BAND. IT'S MY CAREER, AND SINCE I DROPPED OUT OF COLLEGE AND HAVE NO MARKETABLE SKILLS (ANYONE WANT A MIDDLE-AGED MODEL CHEAP?...)
I'M VERY FORTUNATE
10) What the heck took you so long to come to Fresno (and, out of all of the venues you could have played, WHY Table Mountian? Hmmm...)???
NO IDEA. NO ONE BOOKED US.
11) Because the B-52s have been so successful and so well loved, you've gotten to do and see things most people wouldn't get to do/see. You've also gotten to meet very important people. What are some of your favorite perks from life with the band?
WELL A LOT OF RECORD STORES GIVE ME A GOOD DISCOUNT AND I TRAVEL AND GET TO SEE FRIENDS AROUND THE COUNTRY
12) The name has changed...which is correct? The B-52's or The B-52s??? (with or without the apostrophe???)
WITHOUT
13) You've gone from vinyl to CD to digital. With Funplex and Totally Nude Island, how has digital releasing (iTunes) been for you guys? Is your core audience (40s--up) getting it (the digital thing?) How have the albums done?
FUNPLEX WAS THE 4TH BEST SELLING VINYL OF LAST YEAR [THOUGH NOWHERE NEAR LIKE THE PAST] TOTALLY NUDE'S DOING GREAT AND THE VIDEO BY TOM YAZ IS A HOOT
14) The band has always supported various causes. What causes are you very interested in now? Why?
WE'VE ALWAYS BEEN SOCIALLY CONCIOUS AND POLITICALLY LIBERAL. I SUPPORT TOO MANY TO NAME
15) If someone has never seen The B-52s play live before (and since you've never played here before, that is very possible), how would you describe the show???
ISN'T THAT A WRITERS JOB?...
Okay, Fred---that's 15 questions (in no particular order). THANK YOU for your help with this. When the preview article posts (about a week before your show), I'll send you a link to it.
I am looking forward to the show! Yes, of COURSE I'll be there. I am also going to try to do a recap of the show (not a review---but just talk about the show and talk with people who go to see it), but am still trying to work things out with Table Mountain about doing this (I want to take pictures of some of the people attending to use in the recap article and possibly get backstage before/after the show to get some shots of the band). So, MAYBE I'll see you there.
Again, THANK YOU for your help with this!
Shawn Gadberry (Monster A Go-Go)
The B-52s....LOVED the show, but had the worst seats. Did you hear the story? When the show was announced, I put off buying tickets because I was hoping to get to interview the band / get backstage...and sometimes they give reporters tickets for the shows. I was shut out all over. I DID get to interview the lead singer, Fred Schneider, via email over MySpace---whoopie. I had planned to use his quotes interwoven in this elaborate article---only I got sick and had to end up doing a quicky Q&A-type article just to get it done. Blah!
Then, with tickets, once I found out the backstage interview was not going to happen, I was asking friends if they wanted to go---no one committed and I put it off, waiting to find a companion to go with me. Trin said she'd go with me and I went to buy two tickets, but they were sold out! UGH! I found a pair at the last minute on Craig's List for $20 each. I went out to Madera Ranchos to pick them up. It was this big ranch-style house that had apparently been split in two and the guy lived on the garage side. He didn't have a front door! He comes and goes (and accepts visitors) through the garage! He was very heavy and had the nastiest fragments of rotting teeth. EEW! I bought the tickets and saw that they were originally "comps" he'd gotten for free (he looked like a guy who'd frequent Table Mountain)---whatever. I was just happy to get them and be able to go.
Except, at the last minute, Trin cancelled on me. UGH! Fortunately, Chris Lavagnino's wife Shookie went with me. We got there early as we had "general seating" and wanted to get good seats. Ha! The bingo hall The Bs were appearing in was much bigger than I remembered from when I saw Don Ho (REALLY) play there 10 years earlier or so. General seating was on some bleachers way in the very back. UGH!
The show was great--but the audience was dead. They just sat there---until the very last encore song, which was "Love Shack"--and then they got up and danced. I got the feeling that NO ONE there really knew the B-52s aside from that one song (which is played at every wedding reception and high school prom). Jinkies! But, this IS Fresno... I am just glad I got to see them again (withOUT traveling hundreds of miles to do so), though.
And that was that. Later, when the Village People were coming to town, I tried my "I'm doing an article" trick yet again---and crashed and burned before getting out of the gate. The publicist realized that any article like I was proposing would be useless as it would come out after the show, instead of before. It would not help ticket sales at all. Rusted (as Cindy says in "Love Shack")! She didn't even send me publicity shots. And this was for the Village People for crying out loud. Oh well. After that, I learned my lesson. No more trying to meet the band for me. Sigh...
Thanks for looking.
CHEERS!
Their third album was kind of a flop, but I dug it. Heck, the song "Mesopotamia" had me, not only grooving to their tune, but actively researching the history of Mesopotamia as well. Ha! Thier 4th album, "Whammy!" was filled with great stuff, but their underappreciated and underplayed song "Butterbean" was my fave. Oh my stars! That was like my own personal anthem through my senior year of high school.
I got to see them in San Francisco in the mid-80's. (I remember the opening band was something called "Love Tractor". Zowie!) That was a great show and I am thrilled to have been able to see it as, not long after, guitarist Ricky Wilson died from complications of HIV/AIDS. But they bounced back with what would turn out to be their biggest album ever, "Cosmic Thing" with the monster mega hit "Love Shack".
When I heard they were coming to Fresno in 2009, I knew I had to see them. I had caught other performances of theirs through the years--in Las Vegas, at Tahoe and the Bay Area--but as far as I could tell, this was their first-ever performance here in town. Yowza!
I was determined to not only see the show, but I wanted to meet them as well. I had to, right? After all, The Bs were MY group. Since I was working at The Fresno Bee, I planned to use the old "I'm doing an article" ruse that had worked well with getting me to meet David Cassidy (See HERE) and Gunther and the Sunshine Girls (See HERE). No problem-O. Right? WRONG!
I sent out messages to their publicity people. Nothing. As it got closer to the date, I contacted them again and was told that they could send me publicity photos, but an interview was not going to happen. I later asked about getting backstage perhaps and meeting with the band after the show. I got a polite "no way" and that was that.
In desperation, I turned to MySpace. I had recently discovered band member Fred Schneider's MySpace page. I sent him a long, gushy, complimentary note begging him to please do an interview with me for the article. I was also hoping that, by reading my letter and my interview questions, he'd think I was hip, cool, friendly, intelligent, knowledgeable, and fun--and he'd invite me to the show or at least get me backstage. None of that happened. But he did consent to an interview, so here is the final note with interview questions and his response to them:
Hi Fred. Here are your interview questions-a-go-go! Thank you for your help!
OK, HERE GOES. I MAY NOT HAVE TIME FOR ALL OF THEM
1) What interview question are you asked the most---and what answer do you give?
WHAT'S MY FAVORIETS B'S SONG. THERE'S SO MANY. RIGHT NOW I'M PARTIAL TO EYES WIDE OPEN AND DEVIANT INGREDIENT
2) You guys have been shaking your cosmic things since 1976 (is that right?) and recording since 1979 (I think I may have mentioned that the very first non-movie soundtrack album I ever bought was your debut album...and then again, it was the first CD I ever got). How have you guys been able to stay relevant in the changing music scene over the last 30 years and how have the B-52s evolved?
WE LOVE MUSIC AND WE'VE ALWAYS MARCHED TO A DIFFERENT BONGO PLAYER. EVERYONE EVOLVES WITH TIME. SOME LIKE US, FOR THE BETTER.
3) I'm guessing that, since the first album, you've done ROCK LOBSTER at every show and since COSMIC THING, you've performed LOVE SHACK at every show as well. How do you keep those tunes fresh and fun for yourselves instead of letting them get monotonous and stale?
WE HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR AND THOSE SONGS AREN'T BORING
4) The B-52s always seem to be on the road performing. You are off to South America not long after you hit Fresno, in fact, and you've circled the globe several times. How much time do you get to spend at home??? What is it like living out of a suitcase and hotel rooms so much of the time?
WELL, THE PHYSICAL TRAVEL IS THE WORST PART OF TOURING. I HATE OVERNITERS ON THE BUS. BUT, THIS IS MY CAREER AND I'M HOME AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE AND I HAVE LOT'S OF HOBBIES.
5) Your home is in New York state, right? What is Fred Schneider the homeowner like? You mentioned shovelling snow on MySpace and all of your backyard plantings that the deer devoured. What are you like at home when you are not on tour?
BITCHING ABOUT THE DEER AND THE SNOW. WE TOUR SPRING TO FALL SO I GET HOME TO WINTER AND FIND THE DEER STILL EATING EVERYTHING. BTW, I'M SORT OF A SLOB SOMETIMES...
6) You've had two solo project (Fred Schneider & The Shake Society and Just Fred) as well as the new Superions thang "Totally Nude Island". How did these projects come about? What do they mean to you? (And --GASP!--whatever happened to the Shake Society???)
I JUST HAVE LOTS OF IDEAS TO WRITE ABOUT AND FIND OTHER OUTLETS BESIDES THE B'S.
7) There were 16 years between GOOD STUFF and FUNPLEX. Is another album in the works and will we have to wait another 16 years to get it?
NEXT UP IS A REMIX CD OF FUNPLEX
8) You are all in your 50s---with Kate now 60! (NO WAY!!!) Yet you're still out there dancing and singing and groovin'. You certainly don't seem like a band in their 50s+. What is your secret to staying eternally hip and groovilicious?
I'VE BEEN A VEGETARIAN SINCE THE EARLY 70'S. I NEVER THINK ABOUT AGE SINCE I HAVE THE SAME NUTTY SENSE OF HUMOR I HAD WHEN I WAS 10. AND I GO TO THE GYM AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, THOUGH I USUALLY SPEND MORE TIME SWAPPING DIRTY JOKES WITH FRIENDS...
9) Are you at all surprised at the amazing longevity of The B-52s---considering that many of your contemporaries (DEVO, Blondie, Oingo Boingo, Talking Heads, etc.) are no longer around (at least to the scale The B-52s are)? What was your back-up plan had the B-52s crashed and burned after the first CD? What would you be doing today if you weren't in a band?
NEVER HAD PLANS AS I HAD NEVER PLANNED TO BE IN A BAND. IT'S MY CAREER, AND SINCE I DROPPED OUT OF COLLEGE AND HAVE NO MARKETABLE SKILLS (ANYONE WANT A MIDDLE-AGED MODEL CHEAP?...)
I'M VERY FORTUNATE
10) What the heck took you so long to come to Fresno (and, out of all of the venues you could have played, WHY Table Mountian? Hmmm...)???
NO IDEA. NO ONE BOOKED US.
11) Because the B-52s have been so successful and so well loved, you've gotten to do and see things most people wouldn't get to do/see. You've also gotten to meet very important people. What are some of your favorite perks from life with the band?
WELL A LOT OF RECORD STORES GIVE ME A GOOD DISCOUNT AND I TRAVEL AND GET TO SEE FRIENDS AROUND THE COUNTRY
12) The name has changed...which is correct? The B-52's or The B-52s??? (with or without the apostrophe???)
WITHOUT
13) You've gone from vinyl to CD to digital. With Funplex and Totally Nude Island, how has digital releasing (iTunes) been for you guys? Is your core audience (40s--up) getting it (the digital thing?) How have the albums done?
FUNPLEX WAS THE 4TH BEST SELLING VINYL OF LAST YEAR [THOUGH NOWHERE NEAR LIKE THE PAST] TOTALLY NUDE'S DOING GREAT AND THE VIDEO BY TOM YAZ IS A HOOT
14) The band has always supported various causes. What causes are you very interested in now? Why?
WE'VE ALWAYS BEEN SOCIALLY CONCIOUS AND POLITICALLY LIBERAL. I SUPPORT TOO MANY TO NAME
15) If someone has never seen The B-52s play live before (and since you've never played here before, that is very possible), how would you describe the show???
ISN'T THAT A WRITERS JOB?...
Okay, Fred---that's 15 questions (in no particular order). THANK YOU for your help with this. When the preview article posts (about a week before your show), I'll send you a link to it.
I am looking forward to the show! Yes, of COURSE I'll be there. I am also going to try to do a recap of the show (not a review---but just talk about the show and talk with people who go to see it), but am still trying to work things out with Table Mountain about doing this (I want to take pictures of some of the people attending to use in the recap article and possibly get backstage before/after the show to get some shots of the band). So, MAYBE I'll see you there.
Again, THANK YOU for your help with this!
Shawn Gadberry (Monster A Go-Go)
I did go to the show and I did write an article. However, none of it was as I had hoped or planned. I found an old email from my friend Mallory Moad asking how it had went. This was my response to her:
Then, with tickets, once I found out the backstage interview was not going to happen, I was asking friends if they wanted to go---no one committed and I put it off, waiting to find a companion to go with me. Trin said she'd go with me and I went to buy two tickets, but they were sold out! UGH! I found a pair at the last minute on Craig's List for $20 each. I went out to Madera Ranchos to pick them up. It was this big ranch-style house that had apparently been split in two and the guy lived on the garage side. He didn't have a front door! He comes and goes (and accepts visitors) through the garage! He was very heavy and had the nastiest fragments of rotting teeth. EEW! I bought the tickets and saw that they were originally "comps" he'd gotten for free (he looked like a guy who'd frequent Table Mountain)---whatever. I was just happy to get them and be able to go.
Except, at the last minute, Trin cancelled on me. UGH! Fortunately, Chris Lavagnino's wife Shookie went with me. We got there early as we had "general seating" and wanted to get good seats. Ha! The bingo hall The Bs were appearing in was much bigger than I remembered from when I saw Don Ho (REALLY) play there 10 years earlier or so. General seating was on some bleachers way in the very back. UGH!
The show was great--but the audience was dead. They just sat there---until the very last encore song, which was "Love Shack"--and then they got up and danced. I got the feeling that NO ONE there really knew the B-52s aside from that one song (which is played at every wedding reception and high school prom). Jinkies! But, this IS Fresno... I am just glad I got to see them again (withOUT traveling hundreds of miles to do so), though.
And that was that. Later, when the Village People were coming to town, I tried my "I'm doing an article" trick yet again---and crashed and burned before getting out of the gate. The publicist realized that any article like I was proposing would be useless as it would come out after the show, instead of before. It would not help ticket sales at all. Rusted (as Cindy says in "Love Shack")! She didn't even send me publicity shots. And this was for the Village People for crying out loud. Oh well. After that, I learned my lesson. No more trying to meet the band for me. Sigh...
Thanks for looking.
CHEERS!
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