Back after a 16-year hiatus from recording, the cheerfully hedonistic party band The B-52s returned to the public eye last month, releasing the appropriately titled Funplex. Though the group's sound has been updated with more electronic sounds, there's no mistaking these B-52s for anyone but the fun-loving oddballs behind "Love Shack" and "Rock Lobster." The band performed a concert from WXPN and the Electric Factory in Philadelphia.
The B-52s became an underground success shortly after forming in 1978 — thanks in large part to the campy "Rock Lobster" — but it took a decade for the Athens, Ga., group to become a bona fide pop sensation. The album that did the trick, 1989's Cosmic Thing, spawned major hit singles in "Love Shack," "Roam," and "Deadbeat Club." After 1992's Good Stuff, The B-52s mostly disappeared, resurfacing only on the occasional soundtrack or greatest-hits package. Sixteen years later, Funplex instantly makes it clear how much the band's music has been missed.
Copyright 2008 XPN
