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

seriously, check out the guiding light performance, it is amazing. was that a thing on soap operas back in the day, to feature full performances by new wave bands?

no IT WAS NOT

Brilliant image.

it reminds me of that Incredible Hulk episode with Mackenzie Phillips as a Ziggy Stardust-like androgyne...in 1978. These shows were at least four years behind the times.

i mean, it's not even the regular band cameo kind of thing where they occasionally get featured while the camera focuses on the characters, who are usually holding a conversation over the top of the music. it's the opposite - it's just a straight up b-52's music video, with a few occasional shots of the actors. i love it

These images are amazing! So excited for this roll-out

hahaha take that beats!

thanks bunny (and hi bunny!)

OMG that performance! In a soap opera!

https://i.imgur.com/oFMshA8.jpg
38. Queen Of Las Vegas

96 points, 6 votes. Highest position on ballot: 14

Whammy!
alt version (outtake from Mesopotamia sessions)

kind of a weird photo (she kinda looks like tom cruise there), but i liked the reflection

https://i.imgur.com/l1lCDp7.jpg

Haha I hadn't recognized her!

yeah, plus it's possible that britney is the queen of las vegas. it's all very subjective

https://i.imgur.com/5Orcd8C.jpg
37. Runnin’ Around

99 points, 5 votes. Highest position on ballot: 4

Wild Planet
Live 1978

I think you got it right with Céline. Your images are amazing and super fun!

QOLV = as monolithic as I find Whammy I kind of love one of the central ideas, which is to re-imagine "52 Girls" as coldwave and then use that as a template for a few almost singer-songwriter-type songs about counterfeiting and gambling

(& that doesn't even get into the Mesopotamia gersion, which I actually like better. It's so fervorous!)

^ totally dig this notion.

I voted for at least three of this first four!

"Runnin' Around" hadn't really stood out for me before this exercise, oddly.

images are so good i almost can't take in the results, karl you are spoiling us

yeah, plus it's possible that britney is the queen of las vegas. it's all very subjective

Bobbie Gentry is the queen, all others are residents of principalities

https://i.imgur.com/vbapyDE.jpg
36. Deep Sleep

105 points, 5 votes. 1 first place vote.

Mesopotamia
♫ Walking backwards into the sea /
Bodies, angels, like musical peaks♫

1 first place vote (!)

https://i.imgur.com/CQDyGQh.jpg
35. Whammy Kiss

107 points, 6 votes. Highest position on ballot: 6

Whammy!
Live 1983

I always have this song stuck in my head, thought it would be higher

tie for 33rd!

https://i.imgur.com/xVWekjo.jpg
33. (tie) There’s A Moon In The Sky (Called The Moon)

108 points, 6 votes. Highest position on ballot: 9

The B-52’s
Live in Rio, 1985, with Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz

https://i.imgur.com/YbwpQhR.jpg
33. (tie) Theme For A Nude Beach

108 points, 6 votes. Highest position on ballot: 5

Bouncing Off The Satellites

great rollout so far, these images <3

excited to see Deep Sleep place, stuck it on mine at the last minute. I always find the ending weirdly intense, it creeps up on you.

way fonder than expected of Whammy! on relistening. in my head it sounds a bit like it looks - a flat, pop-up B-52's, lots of arid black space between bright cut-out sounds.

first Bouncing of the Satellites track!

https://i.imgur.com/QX6lVZg.jpg

32. Nip It In The Bud

115 points, 5 votes. 1 first place vote.

Mesopotamia
Live 1983 (audio only)

You have done an amazing job today, so glad this ended up in your hands.

thanks Bee, it's been fun!

https://i.imgur.com/GGYNyqS.jpg
31. Dry County

121 points, 6 votes. Highest position on ballot: 8

Cosmic Thing
Live 1990

MTV Clip, 1989 (B-52's give tour of Athens)

last one for today! we'll do #30-16 tomorrow, then the final 15 on wednesday.

and i'll post the spotify playlist, one more time:

https://open.spotify.com/user/weinventyou/playlist/6I6dvoE1Vd3qOKe8fvRZRD?si=2NW2gSvzTOa1it-AGiv3mg

in that tour of Athens clip you can tell they've been out of town for most of the 1980s

"Nip It in the Bud" is wonderful.

karl the b-52's need to hire you to do all their typography and layouts. love these.

"dry county" is underrated but i can understand it placing here, it's definitely got that "album track" vibe. the backing track always gives me a STRONG whiff of Sonic the Hedgehog music.

but it's an important part of the album i think, and a perfect tee-up to "deadbeat club" which is also about young people killing time and being grateful for having friends in an often-dumb, conservative town. here though we're getting the mostly happy, lazy, daytime version of that memory: there are blues, but they're as easily canceled as the heat of the day: the blues may kick you in the head, but they require no more drastic remedy than lazing around on the porch and wait for some of the people who live your same lifestyle to come ambling up the road, laughing and grumbling about how they can't get their hands on any booze. some of my love of this is ineffable and idiosyncratic, as this whole porch-bumming thing resembles very much the athens i knew in the early 2000s and is a huge part of what us athens expats tend to reminisce about and miss now that we live differently. my porch didn't have a swing, and i wasn't drinking yet, but i remember friends struggling to scrounge up drinks, or anything much to do, on some lazy sundays of summer. it was good.

just checking in, amazing rollout.
happy for the Whammy! and Queen of Las Vegas showings.

seeing this on a computer for the first time and not my phone, i'm even more impressed. listened to the Spotify on the way home from work tonight, i feel like i don't even know these songs.

is that Julian Casablancas in photo 35?

The quiet triumph of the B-52's is how Keith Strickland adapted to the death of their primary songwriter: he taught himself to play guitar something fierce.

Good, er, stuff so far. I almost voted for "Deep Sleep" - I quite like that one. Only a couple from my ballot have placed yet.

Not much of a shock with the album rankings. In retrospect, I should probably have voted for Party Mix/Mesopotamia instead of Mesopotamia itself - the CD remix is better than the original EP.

xp
that is julian, yep. it was a last minute re-do. before that it was a really intense close-up shot of a dog making out with its owner, tongue waaay out there.

i've got the final top 40 on a separate playlist and this may shock you all, but...there are some really good jams on there. it makes for a fine listen

Really enjoying the rollout. The images all look great.

No real big shocks so far, although I was expecting/hoping that Cosmic Thing would be in the top two albums.

I regret leaving Dry County off my list, but I already had six Cosmic Thing tracks on there.

these images are superb!

SUPRIIIIIIIIIIIIIZE! PAAAAAARTY!

where's the icebox?

and where's the punch?

:/

Ewww, BALLOT-osis!

^^YES^^

https://i.imgur.com/6hH6vCd.jpg
30. Is That You Mo-Dean?

122 points, 7 votes. Highest position on ballot: 7

Good Stuff
Music video