B-52's Cindy Wilson, Fred Schneider & Kate Pierson
Photo: Denise Truscello/WireImage.com

NEW YORK — "This is our 25th anniversary — that makes us 30," the B-52's' Fred Schneider joked from the Irving Plaza stage Monday night. Thirty they're not, but their minimalist lunatic art-dance music remains joyously unstoppable a quarter of a century after they exploded on the downtown New York club scene in 1979.

The B's are playing a smattering of dates in support of their anthology Nude on the Moon, and performed to a packed house filled with both Cosmic Thing-era fans and folks who were old enough to have seen the original band in its heyday. (Click for photos from the event.)

Old-school aficionados were treated to guest appearances by members of B-52's contemporaries and art rock scene-masters Talking Heads, as well as by Yoko Ono, widow of the late Beatle John Lennon, but more significantly here as an artist whose vocal experimentation in the '70s was an influence on the B's sound.

The band was the "Love Shack" configuration, with original members Fred Schneider (vocals, percussion, walkie talkies), Kate Pierson (vocals and keyboards), Cindy Wilson (vocals and percussion) and Keith Strickland (guitar) supported by Sterling Campbell on drums, Pat Irwin on keyboards and Sara Lee on bass, formerly of Gang of Four (founding member Ricky Wilson died in 1985). The group put down a 90-minute, balcony-shaking, 16-song set of its classics, with enough updated arrangements to keep it fresh for the audience and apparently fun for the band. Yet the Immortal Truths of the B-52's live ritual remained. Every soul drawing breath in the room sang the "Why don't you dance with me?" portion of "Dance This Mess Around." Anyone who thought that the subject of "Planet Claire" may be from Mars or one of the stars had that misconception cleared up. And the band still gets the audience to crouch down onto the ground when commanded during "Rock Lobster."

It was at that precise moment in "Rock Lobster" that 68-year-old Yoko Ono hit the stage, to warble and screech with the rest of the band for the show's finale. Coming immediately after "Planet Claire," when Talking Heads (and Tom Tom Club-ers) Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz joined the band to punctuate the Peter Gunn bass and drum line, it was an appropriately bizarre ending for the band that made bizarre fun so many years ago.

B-52's set list:

• "Dance This Mess Around"
• "Good Stuff"
• "Lava"
• "Roam"
• "Hero Worship"
• "Quiche Lorraine"
• "Private Idaho"
• "Revolution Earth"
• "Deadbeat Club"
• "Hallucinating Pluto"
• "Strobe Light"
• "Love Shack"
• "Whammy Kiss"
• "Planet Claire" (with Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth)
• "Rock Lobster" (with Yoko Ono)

Read about all of the shows we've recently covered in Tour Reports.

• The B-52's
• Yoko Ono
• Talking Heads
• Tom Tom Club

John Popper
Photo: Jason Campbell for MTV.com

NEW YORK — When many people think about jam bands, they picture tie dye, hacky sacks and earthy, organic music filled with instrumental noodling. But lately, musicians have been expanding the boundaries of jam music by infusing elements of techno, hip-hop, avant-jazz and prog rock into their songs.

The goal of the second annual Jammy Awards, held Thursday at the Roseland Ballroom, was to celebrate the growing diversity among jam bands and to encourage artists from different backgrounds to join each other onstage and let fly with the spirit of spontaneous invention. Bluesmen collided with alt-rockers, rappers joined pop stars, turntablists merged with bluegrass twangers, and three-chord punkers dueled with drum'n'bass artists. Regardless of the styles they explored, nearly all the acts held true to the jam edict of pinpointing an emotional moment and stretching it out for minutes at a time.

The house act for the proceedings was the Derek Trucks Band, fronted by the nephew of Allman Brothers Band drummer Butch Trucks. Derek, who replaced guitarist Dickey Betts in the Allmans last year, set the tone for the evening with music that ranged from soulful blues with slippery slide guitar leads to freaky Zappa-esque workouts and covered various strains of funk, free jazz and Latin music in between. During its various sets, the band was joined onstage by Col. Bruce Hampton, pedal steel player Robert Randolph and former "Saturday Night Live" comic Jim Breuer, who led the group through an impromptu blues rendition of his routine "Party in Your Stomach." First to take the main stage was the Del McCoury Band. Accompanied by Randolph and DJ Logic, they played a Southern-fried bluegrass version of "Swing Low Sweet Chariot." While the dense blend of mandolin, violin, keyboards, banjo and acoustic guitars left little room for Logic to scratch, Randolph's frenzied pedal steel playing gave the music a fiery charge even though the country-hick harmonies eventually wore thin.

With a career batting average of .304 and four Golden Gloves to his name, New York Yankees center fielder Bernie Williams won't be in need of a new job for years to come, but during his brief (by jam band standards) set he showed that when he leaves the majors he can probably find work in the music biz. Joined by the Jazz Mandolin Project, Williams batted out some impressive John Scofield-style guitar licks on a version of Ornette Coleman's "Ramblin'." Adhering more closely to traditional notions of jamming, the Steve Kimock Band and Trucks played extended and sometimes overly indulgent funk-jazz excursions.

One of the highlights of the Jammy Awards was the Tom Tom Club, who performed a percussive reggae-fueled version of Phish's "Sand" before being joined by Michael Franti of Spearhead for the Club's "Genius of Love" and "Wordy Rappinghood." The most incongruent performance came from spontaneous combo Lake Trout, who played moody music that incorporated elements of ambient electronica, drum'n'bass, prog rock and avant-jazz. The band's first jam ended with torrents of distorted vocals and epileptic beats that sounded like a slightly less amped-up Atari Teenage Riot. Then the combo was joined by Ramones drummer Marky Ramone and Misfits bassist Jerry Only on vocals for two storming Ramones tunes, "I Wanna Be Sedated" and "Blitzkrieg Bop." An ambitious but ultimately unsuccessful collaboration between Meters bassist George Porter Jr., Roots vocalist Black Thought and Soulive on Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" and James Brown's "Soul Power" ranked as the only major disappointment of the show.

Far more kinetic was Les Claypool's Frog Brigade performance with "Late Show" keyboardist Paul Shaffer and string-slinging maverick Junior Brown. The combo burned through a bizarre, uplifting version of the Beatles' "Taxman," slipping in snippets of Primus' "Wynona's Big Brown Beaver." During maniacal solo breaks, Brown strangled a whirlwind of sound from his double-necked guit-steel guitar, Shaffer played intricate organ runs and Claypool thrummed out a variety of rhythmic, funky bass passages. Claypool ended his band's set with a galactic version of King Crimson's "Thela Hun Ginjeet." The last band of the evening was Disco Biscuits, who along with Blues Traveler singer John Popper and jazz virtuoso guitarist Stanley Jordan played Jane's Addiction's "Three Days" and Led Zeppelin's "Bring It on Home." On the former, Jordan provided angular texture to the band's dusky, moody playing and Popper filled in the sonic gaps with wailing harmonica solos.

The Jammys concluded with various artists including Popper, Jordan and the Derek Trucks Band jamming to the Meters' "Cissy Strut" after Porter won the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Other award winnners included:

• Release of the Year - Ladies and Gentlemen, the Grateful Dead
• Jam of the Year - Phil & Friends with Mike Gordon (12/31/00)
• Live Performance - Phish at Deer Creek in Noblesville, Indiana (7/11/00)
• Live Album - Live Frogs, Set 1, Les Claypool's Frog Brigade
• Studio Album - Farmhouse, Phish
• Mimi Fishman Memorial Award - Mockingbird Foundation
• Festival of the Year - Gathering of the Vibes
• Fan Website - www.etree.org
• Radio Show - "Jam Nation"
• New Groove of the Year - Yonder Mountain String Band

• Phish
• The Allman Brothers Band
• Col. Bruce Hampton
• Del McCoury
• Jazz Mandolin Project

Medeski Martin & Wood
Photo: Danny Clinch

An all-star jam featuring former Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek and Jimi Hendrix drummer Buddy Miles will cap the second night of the June 29-July 1 Gathering of the Vibes festival in Red Neck, New York, with a tribute to Jim Morrison, Hendrix and Janis Joplin.

The "Terrapin Thirty Year Jam" will honor the three legendary musicians, who all died within a 10-month period 30 years ago.

House band Blue Floyd will lead the jam, which will also include Bernie Worrell, Woo Warriors leader and a founding member of Parliament-Funkadelic, according to a spokesperson from festival producer Terrapin Presents.

Blue Floyd consist of Gov't Mule percussionist Matt Abts, former Allman Brothers Band keyboardist Johnny Neel, former Black Crowes guitarist Marc Ford and Berry Oakley Jr., son of original Allman Brothers Band bassist Berry Oakley and a longtime member of the Robby Krieger Band.

DJ Logic, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth (of the Tom Tom Club and, formerly, Talking Heads) and Deep Banana Blackout's Fuzz will also take part in the tribute.

Manzarek, who will MC the "Thirty Year Jam," was the Doors' keyboardist, while Miles played in Hendrix's Band of Gypsys, the Electric Flag and with Carlos Santana.

The sixth annual Gathering of the Vibes will be held on a 500-acre farm.

Femi Kuti and the Positive Force, Medeski Martin & Wood, the Disco Biscuits, the Dickey Betts Band and the Tom Tom Club have been added to the lineup for this annual tribute to the memory of late Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia.

Previously announced acts include Bruce Hornsby, Les Claypool and his Flying Frog Brigade, guitarist John Scofield, Soulive, Nigerian drummer Baba Olatunji, Merl Saunders and his Funky Friends and Strangefolk. The previously announced Wailers canceled due to a scheduling conflict.

More information is available online at www.gatheringofthevibes.com.

• Tom Tom Club
• Femi Kuti
• Ray Manzarek
• The Disco Biscuits
• Dickey Betts

Junior Brown
Photo: Senor McGuire

The growing jamband scene's stars — Phish, the Allman Brothers Band, Ratdog and Widespread Panic — will be off jamming elsewhere when the winners of the second annual Jammy Awards are announced June 28 at Roseland Ballroom in New York. Event organizers have nevertheless lined up an eclectic group of performers for the celebration.

The Derek Trucks Band will serve as the event's house combo.

Primus' Les Claypool, Junior Brown, Spearhead's Michael Franti, the Tom Tom Club, Stanley Jordan, Soulive, Me'Shell Ndegeocello, Del McCoury, Col. Bruce Hampton, the Disco Biscuits, DJ Logic, Steve Kimock, Talib Kweli and the Jazz Mandolin Project will mostly perform cover versions drawn from the improvised-music tradition. The Tom Tom Club and Franti have so far agreed to play something by Bob Marley together. Soulive, DJ Logic and Ndegeocello will also perform together at some point. The Jammys were conceived in 2000 by Jambands.com editor-in-chief Dean Budnick and Wetlands Preserve club owner Peter Shapiro. Voting for this year's winners is underway at Jambands.com and relix.com.

Jammy Awards nominees: Jam of the Year

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Related Artists

• Meshell Ndegeocello
• Primus
• Junior Brown
• Tom Tom Club
• Stanley Jordan

]]> http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1444315/20010606/ndegeocello_me_shell.jhtml News Article http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1444315/20010606/ndegeocello_me_shell.jhtml 6 Jun 2001 08:38:00 EDT Tom Tom Club - Genius of Love

Genius of Love

• Artist: Tom Tom Club
• Label: Sire Records
• Album: Tom Tom Club

]]> Videos http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?artist=174&vid=106672 http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?artist=174&vid=106672 7 Sep 2006 12:00:00 EDT Tom Tom Club - Genius Of Love

Genius Of Love

• Artist: Tom Tom Club
• Label: Sire Records
• Director: n/a
• Album: Tom Tom Club

]]> Videos http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?artist=174&vid=322297 http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?artist=174&vid=322297 29 Nov 2005 12:00:00 EST Tom Tom Club - Sunshine And Ecstasy

Sunshine And Ecstasy

• Artist: Tom Tom Club
• Label: Sire/Reprise Records
• Album: Dark Sneak Love Action

]]> Videos http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?artist=174&vid=47570 http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?artist=174&vid=47570 2 May 2005 12:00:00 EDT