Elanso

The B-52’s are often thought of as “the other” great alternative band from Athens, Georgia. Like R.E.M. they have a pretty hot new album (Funplex) out (which we debuted here at the LNMC in early February). They’ve been around since the mid-70s and I got inspired to make a little clip for “Private Idaho” (from their second album, Wild Planet) when I was researching a story about a lunatic fringe candidate from Idaho who is running for office because another candidate had his elk herd shot. The powerful Gus Van Sant movie, My Own Private Idaho was made 10 years after the B-52’s released their song and Van Sant says he was basically remaking Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1 with an influence of John Rechy’s City of Night but Van Sant says he took the title from the B-52’s song, which he first heard while visiting the state around the time they put it out.