New Wax Wednesday

“Tin roof, rusted.” That preceding phrase has been brought to you by the fine folks at IYKYK — a.k.a. If You Know, You Know — but I’m betting that you do indeed know exactly where it came from and in what song in which it appears. But if for some reason you don’t happen to know, no Googling, as I promise that I’ll circle back to ID it at the end of this story.

At any rate, the song from whence that classic line came from is but one of the many aural treats appearing in an exciting 9LP box set that’s the subject of today’s New Wax Wednesday column — namely, The B-52’s The Warner Reprise Years, which is slated for release from Warner Records/Reprise/Rhino on June 20, 2025.

All 9LPs in this massive collection, which spans the balance of the band’s recording career from 1979 to 1992, have been remastered and repressed on a literal rainbow variety of color vinyl options. The Warner Reprise Years is capped at a limited edition of 2,000 copies, and its SRP is $174.98. It’s available for pre-order now exclusively at the Rhino.com Store here.

In celebration of Pride Month, each album in The B-52’s The Warner Reprise Years box set showcases the pioneering alt-punk band’s kaleidoscopic catalog in full color, and here’s how they all break down. July 1979’s The B-52’s is yellow, August 1980’s Wild Planet is red, July 1981’s remix album Party Mix! is green, January 1982’s Mesopotamia EP is blue, April 1983’s Whammy! is smokey, September 1986’s Bouncing Off the Satellites is pink, June 1989’s Cosmic Thing is orange, and June 1992’s Good Stuff is purple. Good Stuff is the only album in the collection that appears as a 2LP gatefold set, with the music appearing on the first three sides, and a band logo etching and no music residing on the fourth.

The B-52’s PR team tells AP exclusively that all LPs in The Warner Reprise Years box set were, quote, “pressed at GZ” in the Czech Republic, “and it is a mix of existing metalwork from previous reissues and new DMM digital cuts for Good Stuff and Party Mix!” (No digital-related hemming and hawing here, please.)

I was honored to receive an advance copy of The Warner Reprise Years collection, and to make sure any of the splattery/tie-dye-like color choices didn’t compromise playback, I’ve spun all 9LPs, and can happily report there are no anomalies with any of the pressings in my box set — and every disc in it was also well-centered and flat to boot. Note that some of the LPs appear in plastic-lined inner sleeves, and others come in high-grade paper replicas of certain original sleeves that include lyrics and/or credits, so you may want to resleeve those, if you so desire.

Y’all know who’s who, right? Well, if not, here are the brief B-52FAQ’s. Formed nearly 50 years ago in Athens, Georgia, The B-52’s — vocalists Fred Schneider, Kate Pierson, and Cindy Wilson, late guitarist/bassist Ricky Wilson, and guitarist/drummer Keith Strickland — forged a sound that fused surf rock, punk energy, and retro-kitsch cool into many an enduring party anthem and album alike, and they’ve also seen fit to having sold over 20 million records worldwide to date.

Fact is, the magic elixir that constitutes The B-52’s eternal party vibes remain intact on wax. While I do have the 2011 Mobile Fidelity silver label vinyl series versions of both The B-52’s (MOFI 1-004) and Wild Planet (MOFI 1-014) as well as an admittedly poorly maintained Warner Bros. original of the Mesopotamia EP (MINI 3641), I only have the box set’s latter five catalog entries on CD, so these newly remastered vinyl editions are indeed welcome additions to my collection.

Those poo-poohing any of the involved digital stages can get over it, frankly, as each LP in this collection is worthy of their respective spins. While there are indeed many songs and sides to love in The Warner Reprise Years, I remain especially enamored with the Devo-esque Side One of Whammy!, with the sporadic Thomas Dolby-like channel-to-channel synth swooshes, echo and repeat on Kate and Cindy’s layered vocals, and right-channel percussive slaps in “Legal Tender” (Track 1), not to mention the full harmonies, turgid guitar, and individual roll-call segments on “Song for a Future Generation” (Track 3). Like Fred from New Jersey, I too freely admit that “I like record collecting and exploring the cave of the unknown.”

I’m also partial to the percussive opening and sci-fi/spy-theme churn to “Planet Claire” (Side One, Track 1 of The B-52’s), the upward register climb on the “she” that’s in the middle of the title phrase to (but not actually in the song title of) “Girl From Ipanema Goes to Greenland” (Side One, Track 2 of ), and the combination of the bent-note guitar twang, Charlie Drayton’s punishing snare, and the call-and-response vocal give-and-take on “Channel Z” (Side 3, Track 3 of Cosmic Thing). Ratings-wise, the Music for the The Warner Reprise Years box set averages out to 8.5 (as in, some of the LPs are 9s, some are 8s, and some are 7s), and the Sound is a solid 8.

Oh, and just in case you’re not a part of that IYKYK contingent I referenced in the very first paragraph of this story, the phrase “tin roof, rusted” is from, of course, “Love Shack,” the No. 3 hit single that appears as Track 4 on Side One of Cosmic Thing. Said phrase occurs at 3:50 into the song, and Cindy Wilson was kind enough to confirm its origin with me in a phone interview we conducted together back on November 10, 2017. Essentially, it was a line she repeatedly improvised during a jam-session rehearsal, and it was eventually culled from the first official recording session for what’s heard on the final track. Good stuff, to be sure — but for now, until you have your own copy of the box set in hand and in ear, please sing along with me: Everybody’s movin’ / Everybody’s groovin’. . .

THE B-52’S
THE WARNER AND REPRISE YEARS
9LP (Warner Records/Reprise/Rhino)

LP1: The B-52’s (1979)

Side One
1. Planet Claire
2. 52 Girls
3. Dance This Mess Around
4. Rock Lobster

Side Two
1. Lava
2. There’s A Moon In The Sky (Called The Moon)
3. Hero Worship
4. 6060-842
5. Downtown

LP2: Wild Planet (1980)

Side One
1. Party Out Of Bounds
2. Dirty Back Road
3. Runnin’ Around
4. Give Me Back My Man
5. Private Idaho

Side Two
1. Devil In My Car
2. Quiche Lorraine
3. Strobe Light
4. 53 Miles West Of Venus

LP3: Party Mix! (1981)

Side One
1. Party Out Of Bounds
2. Private Idaho
3. Give Me Back My Man

Side Two
1. Lava
2. Dance This Mess Around
3. 52 Girls

LP4: Mesopotamia (1982)

Side One
1. Loveland
2. Deep Sleep
3. Mesopotamia

Side Two
1. Cake
2. Throw That Beat In The Garbage Can
3. Nip It In The Bud

LP5: Whammy! (1983)

Side One
1. Legal Tender
2. Whammy Kiss
3. Song For A Future Generation
4. Butterbean

Side Two
1. Trism
2. Queen Of Las Vegas
3. Moon ’83
4. Big Bird
5. Work That Skirt

LP6: Bouncing Off The Satellites (1986)

Side One
1. Summer Of Love
2. Girl From Ipanema Goes To Greenland
3. Housework
4. Detour Through Your Mind
5. Wig

Side Two
1. Theme For A Nude Beach
2. Ain’t It A Shame
3. Juicy Jungle
4. Communicate
5. She Brakes For Rainbows

LP7: Cosmic Thing (1989)

Side One
1. Cosmic Thing
2. Dry County
3. Deadbeat Club
4. Love Shack
5. Junebug

Side Two
1. Roam
2. Bushfire
3. Channel Z
4. Topaz
5. Follow Your Bliss

LP8 & LP9: Good Stuff (1992)

LP8, Side One
1. Tell It Like It T-I-IS
2. Hot Pants Explosion
3. Good Stuff
4. Revolution Earth

LP8, Side Two
1. Dreamland
2. Is That You Mo-Dean?
3. The World’s Green Laughter

LP9, Side Three
1. Vision Of A Kiss
2. Breezin’
3. Bad Influence

LP9, Side Four
No Music / Etching – Band Logo