This year was one of the busiest eras of Fred Schneider’s 48-year career. With his B-52s bandmates Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson, he played a raucous “farewell” show in Athens, shimmied through two Las Vegas residences at the Venetian (with another run scheduled for next April), accepted an invitation to a White House gala, contributed to a “Save The Chimps” charity art project and co-headlined a massive alternative music festival in California.
“We still sound good,” he said recently via phone from New York, “So why stop now? We’re still kickin’ ass and we got the best reviews of any band at the Darker Waves Festival in Huntington Beach — including the younger acts. But I guess everyone there was younger than us!”
To cap off the year, “Destination … Christmas!” — Schneider’s delightfully zany holiday album recorded with his Florida-based side project band The Superions — is getting a deluxe re-release on vinyl from the crafty folks at Athens’ HHBTM Records. Originally issued in 2010 via a small independent company, the new edition has been pressed in three color variants with reimagined cover art and deluxe packaging promos, including a limited run of kitschy ornaments and buttons.
“Mike Turner at the label in Athens is really doing it right,” said Schneider, 72. “He does impeccable work on all his releases and, like me, he truly loves vinyl. I’m hoping maybe he’ll even do some dance mixes of it.”
Recorded in 2009, the soft-spoken entertainer said the majority of the tracks were created around the B-52s then-hectic touring schedule. “Anytime we were anywhere near Florida, I’d go down and work on some of it with Dan Marshall and Noah Brodie in Winter Park. We’d knock out one or two songs at a time.”
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
The result is an evergreen party set of bangers that run the gamut of topics from the expected (“Santa’s Disco”) to the hilarious (“Santa Je T’aime,” a winking ode to the infamous Serge Gainsbourg-Jane Birkin duet from the late ‘60s). In-between, the band grooves to tales of fruitcake, yetis and ugly trees.
“So many Christmas albums are just organ and chimes,” he said. “How boring and depressing is that?” But rest assured, the entire contents of “Destination…Christmas!” is strictly non-traditional. Schneider insisted he’d have it no other way. “I think we actually mention ‘Christmas’ once or twice in the whole thing. It’s definitely not whatever you’d normally get on a regular holiday album. I mean, I certainly couldn’t sing something like ‘Silent Night,’ though I have done ‘Ave Maria,’” Schneider recalled, laughing. “I segued from that to ‘Hava Nagila’ — and boy, was that ever a crowd pleaser!”
Label president Turner said the album is selling beyond initial expectations and, at press time, is nearly sold out. “I’d say, if you see one in the bins, you’d better grab it fast because next year we’ll have a different version and maybe even a run of CDs at some point. It’s been a pleasure to release any of Fred’s projects. He makes it fun and he’s one of the easiest people to work with because he’s always coming up with good ideas for new projects.”
Speaking of new projects, Schneider is currently working on contributions to a new tribute album for keyboardist and producer Bernie Worrell, a founding member of Parliament-Funkadelic, as well as sessions with members of Public Enemy and the Soup Dragons.
Farther down the road, he’d like to do a new Halloween record in addition to another Christmas collection and even a country album.
Wait, country music from Fred Schneider?
“Well yeah, I mean, why not,” he laughed in response. “Kids are discovering my voice, and I think they’re discovering that they might even like it, so why limit yourself to any genre?”
Earlier this year, the B-52s bid farewell to touring with performances at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta and the Classic Center in Athens, but Schneider said the band is not ruling out more shows in Georgia in the future. “Put it out there that we’d like to do an official residence in Atlanta — if only for a couple of shows or even a whole week, if we can make that happen.”
The B-52s are ready for the challenge, he said. “We still attract the crowds,” he chuckled. “I look out there and I can see the audience and they’re singing along to every song. Not often, but sometimes, I might forget the lyrics — but I know they’ll know ‘em and I know they’ll drown me out and sing it right. I think that’s part of the fun of whatever I do. It’s always a party that everyone’s invited to join — because that’s how it should be.”
Fred Schneider and the Superions’ “Destination … Christmas!” is available from most indie retailers and at www.hhbtm.com.
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