Now Streaming: Fred Schneider, “This Planet’s a Mess”

36 years ago, Fred Schneider – best known as the flamboyant frontman for The B-52’s – released his debut solo album, an LP attributed at the time to Fred Schneider and the Shake Society. (These days, it’s attributed to just Fred...as opposed to his second album, which is actually called JUST FRED.) At the time of its initial release and, if we’re to be completely honest, pretty much ever since, it’s been remembered most fondly for its first single, a little ditty called “Monster.”

You know the one: “There’s a monster in my pants / And it does a little dance...”

Coming back to you, is it? Yes, we’ve found that it really only takes that couplet to bring back a flood of memories.

But what you may not remember is that the album also features a song which makes Schneider seem like the Nostradamus of the Athens, GA music scene: “This Planet’s a Mess.” Talk about a prescient piece of work...so prescient, in fact, that Fred has opted to put together a new video for the song to remind people about it.

We’ve heard from the Schneider camp – and this likely won’t surprise you in the slightest – that Fred has no interest in shying away from the fact that it’s a political statement and, indeed, he explicitly wanted it out with the pandemic raging and while Trump remains in office.

So here it is:

Spread the word: “This Planet’s a Mess,” and it’s up to us to do something about it.