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New West Fest Guide - New West Fest Guide |
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Written by NEXTnc Staff Reports
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Wednesday, 16 August 2006 |
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Page 1 of 5 You do the math: 55 bands, 20-plus performers, 8 stages, 30 food vendors, two full days of music.
You better have a plan.
That’s why we’re here to help with a comprehensive guide to the free music and entertainment that will fill downtown Fort Collins throughout the weekend. In this guide, you’ll find features and biographies on the bands, as well as their Web sites if you want to know more, what kind of music they play, and when and where they can be seen. There’s also a map of the festival and a performance schedule for each stage on pages 6 and 7.
Whatever your music taste, there will be something to fit your style at the 18th annual New West Fest in Fort Collins. In addition to music, there will also be food vendors, arts and craft displays, a kid’s area, carnival rides and beer gardens to keep everyone in the family happy. The celebration in Old Town marks the 133rd birthday of the city.
— NEXTnc staff reports
THE B-52s: The Party is Still Out of Bounds
Could this dance band do it any other way?
By Glenn BurnSilver
For NEXTnc
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Eika Aoshima | for NEXTnc
The B-52s.
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Let’s examine some of the more remembered aspects of the 1980s for a minute, especially now that this time frame has become the latest to be mined for inspiration by “new” bands: bad clothes, bad haircuts, bad synth-pop, hair metal (to say that’s bad would be redundant), and Rick Springfield.
On the other end of the spectrum there is the B-52s, one of the few enduring musical acts, along with R.E.M., the Pixies and U2, that has managed to survive and prosper through the grungy ’90s and pop-punk-copycatting ’00s.
More like cult favorites during their first decade, pop stardom came in 1990 with “Cosmic Thing,” which spawned “Love Shack,” “Roam” and “Deadbeat Club” — all Top 40 singles.
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“If I told where I was I’d have to kill you”
department
“Please don’t tell anyone where we are,” B-52s founder Fred Schneider pleads. “We have some really weird fans. Just say we’re working near Decatur, Ga. There are certain people we don’t want showing up.”
You have stalkers?
“A few, but let’s just say we’ve been stabbed in the back by a few people we don’t care to see again.”
Does the wackiness of the band bring them out?
“We’re not talking wacky. Funny’s funny, but we’re talking really, really creepy. Just say we’re in an undisclosed location.”
— Glenn BurnSilver
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Even B-52s singer, keyboardist and founder Fred Schneider admits he was surprised by the albums success.
“Yes, it was (surprising),” he said from Decatur, Ga., where the band is recording a new album scheduled for a summer 2007 release. “The record company wasn’t really behind it, but luckily college radio loved ‘Love Shack.’ Believe it or not, it was only a college single; everyone thought it was too weird for Top 40 radio. But one station played it and then another and then it was like, ‘We always liked it…yada yada yada.’ Yeah, right.”
Schneider’s sarcasm is well founded. Back the late 1970s, when the B-52s were just getting their footing with funky beats, grooving guitars, staccato horns, space-age keyboards and the twin harmonies of Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson, songs like “Rock Lobster,” “Planet Claire” and “52 Girls” were considered toss-off party songs.
The band was repeatedly written off as a novelty, one that would go the way of mood rings and pet rocks.
“When we started out we were just so different from everybody else that all the middle-aged white male critics dismissed us as a fluke,” he recalled. “But we’re a fluke that’s lasted 27 years. We started out playing local parties and ended up
playing parties around the world.
Fuck the critics.
“We just don’t try to follow any fads,” Schneider explained of the band’s continued popularity. “We all listen to what’s going on, but we don’t ever try to be like anyone else. … We have our own way of doing things. …”
And after a brief pause:
“And we’re all crazy,” he laughed. “Luckily, we’ve kept our fans.”
Crazy. Wacky. Whatever it is, many of today’s fans are middle-aged, baby boomers with receding hairlines and growing midsections. But critics today shouldn’t write off the B-52s as a nostalgia act.
Schneider is adamant the band is not a “rehash of the ’80s in any way shape of form,” and says the band’s new album will prove — once again — that the B-52s are right for the now generation.
“It’s us updated, but updated in a modern way,” he said. “It’s a real dancer. We’re really focusing on getting the groove on. People know when it’s the B-52s.”
PERFORMING
• 8:30-10 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 19 on the Mountain Avenue stage.
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|  | "Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one, and only truth." | |
|  | We're not that bright, even though in our own little world, we're geniuses. We like 80s hair bands and one-hit wonders, but among us we have respectable tastes, too. Metallica, Iron Maiden, U2. Pursuit of all things trivial is a lifestyle, not just a game. We like some sports, love other sports, and can find something to say about anything. We watch TV and movies and we've read a book or two, even a few classics (Yes, Classic Comics count!)
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|  | Felix Wong is an outdoor enthusiast living in Fort Collins. A mechanical engineer by day, he is especially passionate about bicycling, running, and backpacking. | |
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I am a recent college graduate of Minnesota State University Moorhead. After recieving my B.A. in English and Mass Communications this past August I moved down to Colorado.
I enjoy long walks on the beach, candlelight dinners, and heavy metal. My hobbies include reading and writing, music, movies, and getting drunk. Some of my favorite contemporary authors include Bret Easton Ellis, Chuck Palahniuk, and Kurt Vonnegut. My top movies are anything directed by Kubrick. I enjoy listening to anything that rocks.
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