B-52s, Bim Skala Bam, Abdul Baki, Dylan, Ani

(WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., June 18, 1998) -- Ever wonder what it would be like to be a member of the world's greatest party band?

"It's fantastic," says Pat Irwin, who plays guitar and keyboards with The B-52s, the seminal new-wave group that performs at the Saratoga (N.Y) Performing Arts Center on Sunday, June 21, at 7. Also on the bill are fellow new-wavers The Pretenders, led by the original angry chick- rocker, Chrissie Hynde.

In a recent phone interview from his New York City studio, Irwin -- who has been associated with the B-52's since the beginning and who has been playing with them since 1989 -- talked about what it's like to be a B.

"First of all, I'm a fan, so that's really fun," he said. "I like it because any time there's a rule the rule can be broken. It blows my mind when I look at this band. I look at a singer like Fred [Schneider], and it's just fantastic."

As a co-founder and leader of bands including the punk-surf outfit the Raybeats and the Lydia Lunch-fronted, avant-garde troupe 8 Eyed Spy, Irwin was part of the same late-'70s/early-'80s downtown scene that helped spawn The B-52s. In fact, he says, the group borrowed his amp for its very first gig in New York at the legendary Mudd Club.

These days, when Irwin isn't gigging with the B's, he keeps busy as a composer for TV and films. Currently working on the score for the new Disney cartoon "Pepper Ann" airing on ABC-TV, Irwin composed the critically-acclaimed score for the Nickelodeon cartoon "Rocko's Modern Life." His feature film credits include Robert Bella's "Colin Fitz" and the cult favorite "My New Gun" by Stacy Cochran.

How does Irwin find playing in a band with such a strong identity of its own?

"I get to be myself," he said. "I wouldn't stay in the group if I wasn't able to bring something to it. The band has never done anything like follow any rules anyway....It's sort of like make up your own rules."

The B-52s have just released "Time Capsule: Songs for a Future Generation" (Reprise), an absolute must-have compilation including such classics as "Rock Lobster," "Planet Claire," "Private Idaho," "Mesopotamia" and "Love Shack." Listening to these tunes, some of them nearly two decades old, one is struck by how subtly subversive they are. They might SOUND like good-time party songs on the surface, but beneath that surface lurk hidden meanings as ominous as the jellyfish and stingrays that swim through "Rock Lobster."

In addition to Irwin, The B-52s (www.theb52s.com) include founding members Fred Schneider, Keith Strickland, Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson. Rounding out the band are bassist Tracy Wormworth and drummer Charlie Drayton.

"I didn't think I'd be doing this twenty years ago," said Irwin. "It's a gift -- fantastic."

Jamaican Invasion

This weekend sees a rare invasion of Jamaican-based dance music at area clubs, beginning on Friday night when the Pioneer Valley-based, roots-reggae group Abdul Baki and New Roots is joined by Jamaican rapper Preacha at the Old Egremont Club in South Egremont, in a show previewing their upcoming release, "The Other Side of Slim," a tribute to the late Jamaican singer-songwriter Slim Smith. Vocalist Baki, a native of Bali who now lives in Charlemont, plays keyboards and teaches at area colleges.

Long before the commercial triumph of contemporary pop-ska bands like No Doubt, Sublime and Save Ferris, Bim Skala Bim was on the front lines of American ska. Formed in Boston in 1983 in the wake of the two-tone ska invasion led by English bands Madness and the Specials, Bim Skala Bim was one of the first American groups to combine punk, pop and R&B with the herky-jerky, horn-drenched Jamaican dance rhythms that form the basis of ska music.

Over the years the group has met with varying degrees of success and lack of such, including watching fellow Bostonians the Mighty Mighty Bosstones garner nationwide recognition while pretty much remaining a regional phenomenon themselves. But the group has stuck to its guns, continuing to perform and record its original brand of ska, even when it had to release its records on its own label.

Bim's latest album, "The One That Got Away" (Beatville), is an archival retrospective, gathering B-sides, outtakes, previously unreleased recordings, remixes and covers. As such, the disk is a great introduction to the band's wide-ranging approach, which is broad enough to embrace the rock-fueled "Burning Underground," the swinging cowpunk of "In This House" and a ska version of the Beatles' "Rain." Bim celebrates the release of its new CD with an all-too-rare performance right here in the Berkshires at Bogie's in Great Barrington this Saturday, June 20, at 9.

Backstage bits

Ani DiFranco sites on the Internet are aflame with anger and cries of betrayal since the reported marriage of the independent-minded singer-songwriter to her sound engineer, Andrew Gilchrist, known affectionately as "Goatboy." Recommendations that those who take DiFranco's nuptials as a personal affront might want to "get a life" of their own seem to be falling on deaf ears. Imagine that?....

The long-promised, on-again off-again, official release of Bob Dylan's so-called "Royal Albert Hall" concert with the Hawks (who later became The Band) is on again, according to inside sources. The recording, which will be released as part of the "Official Bootleg Series" by Columbia Records in the fall, actually captures a concert that took place not at Royal Albert Hall but in Manchester, England, in May 1966, during which the crowd reacts violently against Dylan, who at one point is heard to say "You're a liar!" to catcalls of "Judas!" Most recently, the recording -- which boasts superb sound quality and includes a solo acoustic set as well as a gripping, ferocious program with The Hawks -- has been available unofficially under the title, "Guitars Kissing and the Contemporary Fix." Whatever they call it, to these ears it's the Holy Grail of rock 'n' roll, and it will be a welcome if long overdue addition to Dylan's official catalog....

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