POLL if you want to...POLL around the world: The B-52's Cosmic Thing

i have a fond memories of seeing a team of classic cars stroll down the street to "So Alive" during a 4th of July parade in Greeley, CO. From Bauhaus to that within a decade, not bad guys.

fortunately college rock has never lacked for goofy dancing

Prior to its release, advertisements were placed in the personal columns of regional newspapers in the UK with the words "Your own personal Jesus." Later, the ads included a phone number one could dial to hear the song.[7] The ensuing controversy helped propel the single to No. 13 on the UK charts, becoming one of Depeche Mode’s biggest sellers. The single was particularly successful commercially thanks to the fact that it was released six months prior to the album it would later appear on. Up to that point, it was the best selling 12" single in Warner Brothers history.[8]

between this period and the ability of everybody from the Meat Puppets to the Butthole Surfers getting hits through the 90s, I can't help but be bummed that our current crop of college faves have uniformly failed to make that total crossover. Though the success of shit like the Lumineers and Of Monsters and Men suggests the Arcade Fire would have had several hit singles by now if they'd jumped to a major.

no need to crossover when in the bands' minds they've got a niche perfectly happy to keep'em in clover with publishing rights; and, hey, they can always sell their songs to Volkswagen.

who are the current college darlings who aren't completely terrible

MIA one of the last I remember crossing over the traditional way.

oh right, ha

everyone can ignore my last post, was being dumb

"Hi guys!"

http://i.perezhilton.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/aaohio__oPt.jpg

uh

shake your honeybuns!

http://b-52s.blogspot.com/2008/07/fake-nude-photo-of-kate-pierson.html

Hehehehe... it's so obvious where the face has been cropped... different colour hair was a bit of a giveaway :P

MIA one of the last I remember crossing over the traditional way.

― first I think it's time I kick a little verse! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), mardi 13 août 2013 21:32 (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Daft Punk ?

ROLLING THROUGH A FIELD OF MOLTEN FLOWERS

in the reeeeeeeeed muuuud!

Song For The Future Generation is better than anything on this album IMO.

Deadbeat Club is such a jam

that first side is gold

Always been impressed with Keith Strickland's guitar on this - really great rhythm stuff on here, wisely a completely different style to RW

I just noticed how different the first and second verses are melodically, almost as if Cindy and Kate each had a turn to improvise a verse melody and in the end they went with both. The effect is kinda extraordinary: the song is just lobbing new hook after new hook at you as nonchalantly as somebody dealing a hand of cards

Would have voted for 'Topaz.' Such a gorgeous song.

Xp my last post was about Deadbeat Club

SMOKE IN YOUR EYES

Was 'Deadbeat Club' a single? Am I crazy for remembering hearing it on the radio?

Yes. Third one to hit the top forty.

a comparative flop though -- one of those singles though you might remember as bigger than it was thanks to MTV play.

Well I was only 9, I'm surprised I remember it as vividly as I do.

This fucking album.

thank you for this revive, i am now stoked to put this on

Quite worth the listen:

http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/hit_parade/2018/07/how_r_e_m_and_the_b_52_s_became_legit_hit_makers_by_the_1990s.html

My go-to summer album. Timeless, and various other cliches.

I realized today that "Deadbeat Club" and Pet Shop Boys' "Being Boring," out within a year of each other, cover similar thematic ground.

They do rather! I've always found both ridiculously affecting. Very surprised to see "DbC = worst track" posts early in the thread.

Still never heard this album (I should) but the lyricless vocalizing they do at the end of Deadbeat Club is gorgeous. Hard to imagine it being the worst song here

The production of this album has aged very well, and 'Roam' remains one of my favourite tracks of all time - it never fails to boost my mood!

i love the sound of cindy and kate's backing harmonies on this. i mean i love it always but there's some pinch of something to the production, maybe just chorusing or a little flange? they get this extra shimmer to them that really fits the tone of the album. overall this record has such an amazing sound, so different from their 'classic' sound with the loss of ricky wilson, but totally distinctive and convincing in its own right. it's like george harrison going from the 12-string to the slide.

"deadbeat club" blows my mind more and more with the passing of the years.

Lately "Bushfire" has been a big jam for me

Topaz is still the most beautiful melody in music I know.

Yeah I wish I would've voted for it. Such a great penultimate track; really encapsulates the utopian gorgeousness and the shimmering sadness of the whole album

"Shimmering sadness" is OTM. It's a somewhat back-loaded album in my mind. Indeed I struggle to remember much about "Cosmic Thing" and "Dry Country" until they're playing, fairly or not. I'm invariably looking forward to that luvly melancholy final act of "Topaz"/"Follow Your Bliss". I've taken to interpreting "FYB" as a wordless tribute to Ricky Wilson, further entrenching the sadness.

overall it does such a great job of folding that sadness into something joyous, or recognizing that sadness and loss, or growing older and inevitably distant from the days of the deadbeat club, don't mean the end of joy, or that those days don't still inform something beautiful and precious about who you are. in that way the whole piece is a tribute. except maybe channel z i guess, but hey.

Expanded Remaster In June: http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2019/05/14/b-52s-cosmic-thing-30th-anniversary-reissue/

anyone want to justify the "roam" music video?

anyone want to justify your mom?

wanting. needing. waiting.

I now like "Deadbeat Club" a lot more than I used to

This album is really, really perfect

I've fallen for 'Deadbeat Club' so hard in recent years that I made it the subject of a Pop Con paper. They release it the same year as Pet Shop Boys' "Being Boring," which covers similar ground.

OH LIGHTNING, STRIKE TWICE
HEY EVERYBODY, BASK IN THE AFTERGLOW