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The B-52's raise the roof on 'Funplex'
The B-52's are putting the finishing touches on their first new studio album in 16 years and will preview some of the material during a handful of live shows in the coming months.
The new-wave rockers will begin with a Halloween show in New York City and then head for California and Utah in November. The band has also started to assemble its 2008 schedule, with a Feb. 15 date booked in Jacksonville, FL. Details are listed below.
The B-52's, who toured the US and played a few European festivals this summer, are gearing up to drop their new album, "Funplex," Feb. 26. The set's 11 songs were written by original members Kate Pierson, Fred Schneider, Keith Strickland and Cindy Wilson, and recorded in their native Athens, GA, with producer Steve Osborne (New Order, KT Tunstall).
The record is said to stay true to the cutting-edge, danceable party rock that The B-52's introduced with their 1979 hit single "Rock Lobster" and continued in the '80s with party classics "Love Shack" and "Roam."
"It's loud, sexy rock and roll for your pleasure zones, with the beat pumped up to hot pink," Strickland said of the new album in a press release.
At the same time, "Funplex" has the band heading in a more modern direction.
"There's more electronica on it," Schneider explained in the band's bio. "It's up-tempo and a bit sexed-up. It's sexier than ever."
The new release is The B-52's first studio set since 1992's "Good Stuff," which is the band's only album recorded without Wilson. The vocalist returned to the fold in 1998 to record two tracks for the best-of album "Time Capsule."
