♫ Before I talk, I should read a POLL! ♪ ILM Artist Poll #93 ♪ B-52’s ♫

https://i.imgur.com/rlLB6vu.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/WHX6Vlj.jpg
8. Good Stuff (1992)

56 points, 2 votes.

now THERE'S an album cover
i like how the back uses the same style, so you know it was all on purpose

top-drawer graphic effects of 1992 there.

as i mentioned in the voting thread, this album baffles me. on the heels of a major comeback and massive success, which overflowed with life and energy, and then you get this, which feels like it should be three or four albums later in a deep rut period, down to the missing core member. maybe they'd just said everything they needed to say, idk.

https://i.imgur.com/h5dUSEp.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/HuIG430.jpg
7. Party Mix/Mesopotamia (released in 1991, comp of 1981/82 EPs)
191 points, 6 votes. 1 first place vote.

i love my sister, but i very much wish that she were the kind of older sister that would have given me this tape to listen to when i was a kid. it would have changed my 90s.

https://i.imgur.com/pdrnHiF.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/TfvNh3u.jpg
6. Mesopotamia (1982)

417 points, 13 votes. 1 first place vote.

mesopotamia is siiiiiick. one of the best musical discoveries of this year, for me. i found myself tempted to go back and change my ballot to reflect what i had learned, but decided it would be a breach of trust to do so.

funnily enough i think my b-52s fandom sprung from finding my brother's cassingle of "channel z" though it's possible i was already into "private idaho" from taping it off the radio.

https://i.imgur.com/JF9TN8u.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/nMbuL0v.jpg
5. Bouncing Off The Satellites (1986)

417 points, 13 votes. 2 first place votes.

this actually tied with Mesopotamia, but i gave it the prestigious 5th place edge since it received 2 first place votes

My big discovery from the voting period. Still need to sink some more time into it - "She Brakes For Rainbows" really hit me on my bus ride just now.

mine too

So underrated imo. All the songs are good to great. Was it the circumstances surrounding its release that gave it a bad aura ?

they understandably didn't tour or do much promotion of any kind, i think it just kinda got lost in the shuffle.

I've only listened to this twice, but really loved "Detour Thru Your Mind" and especially "She Brakes For Rainbows".

maybe BotS suffered from falling in between Whammy! (a drop-off from the earlier albums) and Cosmic Thing (which was mostly about the singles)

learned about this on wikipedia:

A backwards message was deliberately inserted into the album by the B-52's. The message occurs in the song "Detour Thru Your Mind", in the last 30 seconds of the track: Fred Schneider says (slowly and distinctly), "I buried my parakeet in the backyard. Oh no, you're playing the record backwards. Watch out, you might ruin your needle."

Ain't It A Shame and Wig are just two reasons this album should never, ever be overlooked

https://i.imgur.com/k0tgyJk.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/AeUmcg5.jpg
4. Whammy! (1983)

563 points, 18 votes. 1 first place vote.

whatever my mixed feelings about that album, i've always loved that cover.

Still need to hear this. From the discussion in the last thread, I'm surprised it outscored BotS.

Nice touch including the back images.

BotS is better.

for those of you with a printer at home, simply print out the front and back covers, staple them together, and it's like you own the album!

Lol

https://i.imgur.com/M5rDX8C.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/T8iPuyT.jpg
3. Cosmic Thing (1989)

805 points, 24 votes. 4 first place votes.

whaaaaaaaa

was sure that'd be #1 or #2

Huge uptick in points

https://i.imgur.com/LassFXC.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/fDX5CDW.jpg
2. Wild Planet (1980)

943 points, 27 votes. 4 first place votes.

https://i.imgur.com/SSEmaO3.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/XSZ8wcE.jpg
1. The B-52’s (1979)

1012 points, 27 votes. 16 first place votes.

What I was expecting for the Top 5.

interesting bonus consideration, though:



Mesopotamia 
votes
+ Party Mix/Mesopotamia
 votes
————————————

608 (4th place)

if i ever go to a party again, and the topic of the b-52's comes up, i am totally going to be that guy who is like "have you heard mesopotamia, though?"

xp That would have made the list close to chronological, with only Cosmic Thing out of place.

https://i.imgur.com/hIdAZM4.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/uMPNP2H.jpg
40. Butterbean

85 points, 5 votes. Highest position on ballot: 10

Whammy!

Pick 'em, hull 'em, put on the steam
That's how we fix butterbeans

Wow at the images!

Looking forward to this.

OH, i almost forgot! for those who would like to have the spotify playlist handy:

https://open.spotify.com/user/weinventyou/playlist/6I6dvoE1Vd3qOKe8fvRZRD?si=8R9kcvKwSDyimJoEFnvjyw

Yes, love the first of these images!

I play in a band that does mainly blues/roots rock kinda stuff, but I nicked the "pass me a plateful, I'll be grateful" line for a song I wrote.

the Whammy! images have less of a coherent style template than the others - really the only reference is just the colors of the track title. also, some of them i spent a lot of time and i'm pretty happy with how they came out, and others the product of rush-job solo drunkdom. but hopefully the enthusiasm shines through! really had a great weekend jamming all these songs and making weird cutouts

xp thanks dorsalstop!

Don't you wait, don't you linger
Butterbean don't slip through my fingers

BUTTAH BEAN
BUTTAH BEAN

― I like queer. You like queer, senator? (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

aaaaaaaalfreeeeed

hi!

butterbeans are tasty iirc

oh shit, i forgot to include this link for Butterbean:

Live 1983
i'm not linking to the actual songs, because they're all easy enough to find using your favorite streaming service, or by walking over to your cd collection or whatever. but if anyone has any cool videos or performances or whatever, please feel free to link to them (but please don't embed the actual videos in the thread - broken youtube videos will make this thread look like garbage in the future)

butterbean must have been fun as hell to perform

https://i.imgur.com/eRG9ZCp.jpg
39. Throw That Beat In The Garbage Can

92 points, 5 votes. Highest position on ballot: 7

Mesopotamia
Performance on Guiding Light, the soap opera (?!?!)

came across this today, and it made me laugh:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2pljSVp0Uk

$120....not bad

"we can bobble our heads, but we're not bobbleheads"

haha. I still have my original B52s fanclub comb.

"Trism" is my #1 but I didn't know enough songs by this band to vote.

Without checking Youtube, I think it sounds weirdly similar to the themesong of the Canadian Nickelodeon show "Fifteen."

God, I was just thinking about Fifteen a few weeks ago. First time in probably 20 years

Now you will remember forever.

is an ilxor djing in greenpoint tonight, cause I just heard "mesopotamia" transition into devo's "satisfaction" and it is sweeeeeet

This was so much fun

Listen to this Spotify all the time

Same! It’s a good road trip listen

i had a free three month trial to Apple Music that just came to an end and i missed Spotify. so today i was back on Spotify and this B-52's poll playlist was what i played first. such good stuff!

One of today's Dangerous Minds reruns: https://dangerousminds.net/comments/the_b_52s_bring_their_mess_around_to_the_popular_soap_opera_guiding_light_1

Apparently them doing "Throw That Beat In The Garbage Can" was the producer's idea, and during that period Guiding Light had regular musical guests.

how did I completely miss this

You can only atone by posting a late ballot imo

Hmmm...

It would look something like:

52 Girls
Rock Lobster
Junebug
Bushfire
Private Idaho
Channel Z
Follow Your Bliss
Girl From Ipanema Goes to Greenland
Love Shack
Strobe Light
Give Me Back My Man
6060-842
Planet Claire
Topaz
There's A Moon In The Sky (Called The Moon)
Whammy Kiss
Dance This Mess Around
Butterbean
Dry County
Work That Skirt

argh actually I want to redo the whole thing but I will stand by my impulse ballot

atonement achieved!

in retrospect, the biggest life-changer of this poll was permanently putting fred schneider singing "mesopotamia" in my head. it's ridiculous. i can't even look at a bookshelf now without thinking "before i talk...i should read a book!"

! this is a fun revive because THIS MORNING i threw my ballot/shortlist playlist on while walking the dog. just had to hear "Girl From Ipanema Goes to Greenland," "Nip It In The Bud," and all these other songs I really only got to know thanks to this poll.

I am completely in love with "Song For A New Generation" right now

sorry, Future

how did I completely miss this

― shout-out to his family (DJP), Friday, September 18, 2020 7:45 AM (five hours ago)

me too as i made the voting thread very loud: Surprise! POLL! Yeah, we just thought we'd drop in! - ILM Artist Poll #93 - The B-52’s (vote until November 10, 2018)

then my dad got sick and i had to postpone the poll, eventually Karl Malone stepped in and took over. so what i'm saying is voting did stay open for longer than normal. hope you have fun reading this poll. i'm going to put on this Spotify right now.

i'm sure this is posted up-thread somewhere but since this bumped today and i'm cursing YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WSenc2Z5OA

For Ruth Bader Ginsburg!

Keith Bennett B-52's Home Movie Collection

Hosted by Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection, UGA Libraries

... On Thursday, Oct. 15 at 7 p.m., another Facebook Live event features artist Keith Bennett, who will discuss his B-52s home movie collection from the 1970s and 1980s. In his home movies, Bennett chronicled the early rise of the Athens band on Super 8 camera, as the boyfriend and then husband of singer Cindy Wilson. Viewers will see his footage, now digitized and housed at the Brown Media Archives, featuring a behind-the-scenes look at the band as well as early performances in Central Park in New York and the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, as well as international tours.

https://www.facebook.com/events/793334338150287

won't be attending that e-event, but if anyone else does i'm curious ! too bad super-8 doesn't have sound...

This was... okayish. An hour of grainy, silent home movies grew wearisome.

agreed ... the touristy bits from Japan, Australia, and Paris could have been anyone's home movies

some of the show clips were interesting but the lack of sound was frustrating ... Pylon!

the fun parts for us were Cindy's high school "art films" and the party at the Georgian Hotel, where we recognized a few familiar Athens faces ... also the street scenes where they're loading the car to drive to their first NYC show

bombed, crashers getting bombed