“Following the viral success of their first single, ‘Rock Lobster’, off their 1979 self-titled debut album, The B-52s had to prove they were more than just a wacky novelty act. Hailing from Athens, Georgia, the eccentric quintet had already won over New York’s downtown club scene and even inspired John Lennon to write again, but they had yet to get everyone to join their party. The group’s motley mix of surf rock, new wave, girl group and post-punk sounds confused critics and audiences alike, but The B-52s’ sophomore album, Wild Planet, was about to live up to their title of ‘World’s Greatest Party Band’. The B-52s don’t engender the same kind of cultural criticism as, say, Devo, Talking Heads and their other new wave contemporaries, yet they were post-punk pioneers in their own right. With their dissonant jams, absurdist lyrics and kitschy 60s aesthetic, the group ambushed the pop mainstream, and their influence now looms larger than their towering bouffants. …”
‘Wild Planet’: How The B-52s Partied Out Of Post-Punk’s Bounds (Audio/Video)
W – Wild Planet
Spectrum Culture (Video)
YouTube: Private Idaho (Live), Give Me Back My Man (Live)
YouTube: Wild Planet 9 videos