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| Welcome to Funplex, the first record of the 21st century from the B-52s.
"It's loud, sexy rock and roll, with the beat pumped up to hot pink," says
guitarist Keith Strickland. Eleven fresh new songs, crafted by the
groundbreaking band that put Athens, GA on the musical map in the late '70s, and
conquered the world with its savvy hooks, unconventional approach to
music-making and original style. “Funplex sounds like us, updated," adds Fred
Schneider. "It's the B-52s now – or fifteen years from now."
From the opening
burst of Pump, with Keith’s garage-rock guitar and Kate, Fred and Cindy's
one-of-a-kind vocal interplay, Funplex is instantly recognizable as prime, yet
contemporary, B-52s. Vibrant selections including Keep This Party Going, Ultraviolet, and Hot Corner reaffirm the quartet's status as "the world's
greatest party band." Yet they continue taking risks, too, yielding future
favorites such as the transcendental Juliet of the Spirits and Love in the
Year 3000, where atmospheric introductions unfold into multi-layered harmonies
and burbling beats. On the propulsive title track and first single, the three
vocalists adopt distinct characters, running amok on diet pills and slinging
tacos in a sprawling shopping center. "It's the seedy underbelly of the mall,"
chortles Fred.
The creative odyssey of Funplex began with Keith Strickland,
who composes the music for the group. "I had been listening to a lot of
electronic dance music and early rock and roll. I was inspired to use these two
aesthetics together with our own sound to write some shameless dance-floor party
music." At home in Key West, FL, he commenced crafting new tracks that retained
iconic features of the band's sound – such as their primal guitar
hooks – while also emphasizing grooves. What emerged were originals like Eyes
Wide Open, with its throbbing low-end and oddball percussion, and the chugging,
unvarnished Too Much to Think About. Songs that can stand (or shimmy)
shoulder-to-shoulder with the best work by newer contemporaries like LCD
Soundsystem, The Rapture and the Killers.
"I'm trying to convey a feeling
when I write," Keith explains. "I like to think of my instrumentals as
landscapes. The chord changes, rhythms and sound quality of the instruments are
all aspects of a sonic space, which is designed for Cindy, Fred and Kate to step
into. I want them to feel inspired by the music and expand on that feeling with
their melodies and lyrics ... little did I know that with our new songs ... they
were going to get all sexy."
The other members of the band were busy
incubating new songs, too. "I'm always writing lyrics," says Fred, “I have
notebooks full of ideas, not just for songs, but cartoons, films, everything."
The band began meeting regularly at Nickel & Dime Studios in Atlanta, GA for
Stage Two of the writing process. Working with Keith’s foundations, Kate, Fred
and Cindy commenced with their trademark "jamming," creating melody lines,
lyrics, and vocal harmonies, turning over myriad ideas until they hit upon the
ones that served each song best.
"During the 'jamming' process Cindy and I
usually focus a lot on melodies ...then the harmonies start to flow....and the
magic begins," Kate elaborates. "Sometimes we start with title or subject ideas
but we often go to our laptops and jam out on lyrics while listening to the
music."
"Most people could not do this," confesses Cindy of their democratic
modus operandi. "What we're trying to do is rare, but it works out. And you get
a song that is multi-faceted, and has different senses of humor, and depth to
it." For instance, the initial spark for Juliet of the Spirits came from
Keith, according to Kate: "He made a suggestion to look to the Fellini movie" –
1965's Giulietta degli spiriti – "for lyrical inspiration, since his movies have
always been an influence on our look and our hair! Cindy, Fred and I took it
from there." The title Deviant Ingredient may have sprung from a line of
Cindy's poetry, yet the song's vocal twists, and vivid images of trawling the
martini mile, are born from all the members' intersecting imaginations.
To
help formalize the sound of Funplex, the band recruited producer Steve Osborne
(Happy Mondays, Doves, KT Tunstall), who had favorably impressed Keith with his
work on New Order's 2001 return to form, Get Ready. "Steve was strong, directed
everybody well, had great ideas… and he understood us, too," says Cindy. "A lot
of people wouldn't know what to do with our band, but he appreciated the
quirkiness, and made it work. Can you imagine what a hard job that must have
been?"
While Osborne and his team – programmers Pete Davis, Dave McCracken,
and Damien Taylor, and engineer Dan Austin – helped refine subtle percussion and
keyboard parts, enhancing the original tracks, they also made sure to retain a
hefty dose of spontaneity. "We didn't do a whole lot to the vocals," reveals
Kate. "The philosophy was to keep them a little raw. A lot of attention was paid
to the individual tracks, but we were careful not to sound too slick or
overproduced."
Recording took place in two locations, first at the Clubhouse in
Rhinebeck, NY, followed by John Keane Studio in Athens, GA. Working at the
latter venue, in particular, enhanced the good vibes that surrounding the making
of the record. "It felt like coming full circle," says Kate. The studio was
literally just a few blocks from the site of the house where the band played its
first show, at a party on Valentine's Day, 1977. "We were tapping back into that
wellspring of creativity," she continues. "It was like the spirit of when we
started. My voice teacher used to say tension is the enemy of all art, and being
in Athens melted away any tension. It's so easygoing there."
You'll find
glimpses of the band's Athens, GA roots in the lyrics of Hot Corner too.
"That was a real corner by our old studio, in the Morton Building, where a lot
of hot action took place," Kate recalls. "Like Love Shack, the song is a mix
of all things Athens: the bus station where Keith and Ricky worked, the dance
parties we crashed, the crazy outfits we wore."
The B-52s have come a long
way since their revolutionary 1979 self-titled debut, featuring the evergreen
Rock Lobster. Following the loss of founding member Ricky Wilson in 1985, the
group rebounded with their triumphant 1989 smash Cosmic Thing, which spawned the
Top 10 hits Love Shack and Roam. Although their last recordings to be made
commercially available were the songs Debbie and Hallucinating Pluto for the
1998 anthology Time Capsule: Songs for a Future Generation, the band has
remained a popular and active live touring act.
Looking back at band’s
pioneering fusions of punk, new wave, and vintage rock, it would be tough to
imagine the contemporary musical landscape existing without having encountered
the intersected spirits of Kate Pierson, Fred Schneider, Keith Strickland, and
Cindy Wilson. "We all cross-pollinate, and create a wonderfully crazy blossom,"
explains Fred. Botanists don't need a name for this stunning specimen, though.
It already has one, known around the world: the B-52s. |
Evan Lamberg
