The 10 Best Fictional Laboratories

Great post! This band is one of my greatest guilty pleasures.

Fred Schneider and the Shake Society was his 1984 solo effort. now THIS is neatorama!

oh, Ricky played a Mosrite Ventures model guitar and it was usually equipped with only 4 strings, predating the Presidents of the USA by 16 years. He also used a strange tuning, known only to him and Keith Strickland!
Another little tidbit....Fred and Cindy met while working at the Whirly Q which was the lunch counter found at some Kress stores. I have fond memories of the crappy food at the Whirly Q...everything tasted the same. jeez, anyone out there remember Kress? My all time favorite B 52s song is "Private Idaho".

Good post Jill :) I liked the last one too. Keep em coming, preferably more quirky bands

"Candy" was Iggy Pops only commercial success?
While I love the B-52's (Channel Z rocks), Iggy needs a bit more respect here.

Songs by Iggy: China Girl (recorded by David Bowie), Lust for life (Trainspotting made good use of it), I'm Bored....C'mon, if Candy were his only commercial success, he'd be living in a dumpster by now....

Lemonion: It's his only billboard success. That's all.

B52s are one of very few bands that took a genuine underground artsiness and built a bridge to the mainstream: Devo, DeeeLite...who else?

"B52s are one of very few bands that took a genuine underground artsiness and built a bridge to the mainstream: Devo, DeeeLite…who else?"

who can forget Timbuk 3, Wall of Voodoo, M, the Presidents of the USA, Aqua, the list goes on forever!

You forgot to mention that they suck.

Ricky Wilson and Keith Strickland met in Athens, Georgia in the summer of 1969, and in the fall of that year they began writing music together.
They had a group called Loon, which was strongly influenced by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band.
Ricky played guitar and sang and Keith Played bass guitar.
Sometimes Ricky's sister Cindy Wilson, would sing with them.
They had a song titled I'm Not Looking For Myself.
After the B-52s formed in 1976, Keith and Ricky would write the music, together for the band.
Ricky Wilson played guitar on Tom Verlaine's first, self- titled solo album.
After the death of Ricky Wilson in 1985, Keith moved from drums to guitar and wrote the music for Cosmic Thing, Good Stuff and Funplex.

Oh here's a tidbit of my own.

If you had sent away your ten dollars to become a member of their fan club back in 84-85 all you got was a few photocopies of a newsletter and a piece of paper with your name on it. After that Frau became disenchanted with the band.

Fred Schneider and Keith strickland had a very short lived group with Megan Timberlake and John Higgbee called Night Soil.
They had only one public performance in 1975 at a place called The Station.
People walked in off the street with instruments and joined them on stage. Keith wore a little red pixie wig and blue velvet peddle pushers and played noise guitar.
Fred wore blue lipstick and recited poetry and sang.
Megan sang and may have been nude.
One of their songs was called Dead Mink.
It may have been their only song.
They projected scenic views of Canada on a screen behind them.
Kate Pierson was in the audience.
Some say that this performance was the beginning of the Athens music scene.

Rock Lobster by Peter Griffin from Family Guy is better than the original...

;)

.-

Thank you, Jill!
Whammy was the first cassette tape I ever bought, back in the early 80's. I was in sixth grade and my friends thought I was such a weirdo for going so gaga over them. I have loved them to pieces ever since. There are few bands that feel like best friends, too, and they're definitely one of them.
This post made my day!