Singer Fred Schneider is a founding member of The B-52s, the Atlanta rock band that taught the world how to get together in a "Love Shack" and warned of sunning at beaches where the "Rock Lobster" lurks. The B's are still raging, but Schneider has also been pursuing the equally kooky electro-pop side project The Superions, which last year released a self-titled EP and Destination... Christmas!, one of the darkest holiday albums in existence. In a tell-all I Should Watch That interview, Schneider opened up to us about his preference for excessive nudity over excessive violence, his undying love of Mama's Family, and why his friends refuse to watch science-fiction with him.

The Superions: “Fruitcake”

You know what? I don't go to the movies much because I hate the cell phones and I get recognized. I usually go see movies when I'm invited to screenings or premières. I have a long list of movies to watch, everything from The Queen to Slumdog Millionaire, the one that won an Oscar.

In that case, what's something you're surprised at yourself for having not seen by now? Maybe something you were excited about when it was in theaters and even now out on DVD but somehow just not gotten around to?

Milk. [Laughs.] I just don't go to the movies. I'm terrible. I still have some VHSes. I'm gonna get on Netflix, I just haven't gotten around to it. I have so many DVDs that I've bought in the past that I still have to get to.

Do they just sit around in their plastic?

Well, I get to them gradually. I watch movies, but I usually watch them on TV or on DVD. And if it's totally rare I'll watch it on VHS. I see as many as I can. The Cinema Society that Andrew Saffir does, I go to a lot of movies that he shows. I always enjoy them. But just the subject matter, Harvey Milk's life, I know all the basics but it'd be interesting to see what he did and how he accomplished it.

Milk

But things like It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia I want to see more of. I watched that on the bus. Keith [Strickland] was into it, so I watched a bunch of episodes. I thought it was great. It's wrong. It has really pathetic characters but it's so funny. It's sort of like that episode of Seinfeld where they wind up at a white-supremacist rally after they pop into a limo. I was just like, "Oof. Well, that's what you get!"

The Invaders, seasons one and two, because that was my favorite TV show growing up. I think I could sit through Lost In Space. It's gotten cornier and cornier. I'm kind of a sci-fi and comedy nut, but I also like foreign films.

If you're a fan of sci-fi and comedy, did you see Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog?

Basically, I sort of avoid the Internet because besides having a cell phone, a land line, and then keeping up with my Facebook, all the e-mails I get, all the junk mail I erase, it's just too much. If people send me a link to YouTube I'll go see it because I know it's going to be something ridiculous. But I usually just like to watch movies out of my house. I'll watch one every night. Let's see... tonight, tomorrow, and Sunday will probably be… hold on. [Noisily shuffles through boxes.] Elvis in Speedway, What's The Matter With Helen?, one of those crazy Shelley Winters movies, and then I have to watch something good. I'm just curious to hear the music in those. And then we'll watch some Weeds.

“If people send me a link to YouTube I'll go see it because I know it's going to be something ridiculous.”

How closely have you been following Weeds?

Not really, but I can watch five or six episodes at a time. I'm going to start. It looked really good. I mean, it's about a mother who sells pot. [Laughs.]

What else have you wanted to catch up on?

The Munsters? [Laughs.] I never saw those as a kid. I watch a lot of silly stuff basically just because I want to be entertained. I'm also watching old John Waters stuff again because it has expanded editions. Lolita, Dr. Strangelove, Clockwork Orange I watched so long ago, I want to see them again. Killers From Space I want to see again. I mean, I like bad science-fiction a lot. I want to see Alfred Hitchcock's early films, I know those are easy to come by and in better quality in those store-bought DVDs, so I'll watch those. I can't wait to see the remastered version of Forbidden Planet. That's one of my favorite movies. I mean, I like good science-fiction, too, but I'll turn something off it's just ridiculous. It has to be jaw-droppingly weird or crazy. If it's just mediocre, forget it.

Kronos

Do you remember when exactly you latched onto sci-fi so much? It seems like your favorite genre.

As a kid I read science-fiction all the time, but I do like all kinds of things. I'm gonna watch Mars Attacks again. That was hysterical. That RuPaul movie Starrbooty is hysterical. I mean, it's rated X but it's great. [Laughs.] Cartoon crazies that were banned or canceled. Ren & Stimpy. I like humor like that. South Park. Felix The Cat. I have the complete Betty Boop on video that I still haven't opened.

What's maybe something you might be embarrassed to admit that you want to watch?

Well, besides porn, I don't know. [Laughs.] Let me see what I have that I'd be embarrassed about. Oh, Pippi Longstocking. I want to get her movies. [Laughs.] I saw one Pippi movie and it was so surreal. It came on, I didn't watch all of it, but it just made me want to try to find out more about it. She did several. They're all dubbed, and they're all crazy apparently. They're just unbelievable. [Laughs.] I'll watch really good stuff with other people and when I'm my own, that's when I watch the sci-fi, the good sci-fi or the bad sci-fi.

No one will watch science fiction with you?

Well, I live out way out in Long Island and don't know many people. So, unless they come and visit. Maybe I'll hire a maid some weekend. [Laughs.] And I travel so much it's nice not to do anything, except get on the Internet. [Laughs.]

But you mentioned guilty pleasures. I like Mama's Family. My friends are going to be like, "You can't say that in interviews. You can't tell people you like Mama's Family." And then next year, "Oh, have you seen the new Mama's Family? It's hysterical." So I guess Mama's Family would be one, but I lived in Georgia so it reminds me of the people I knew.

“I like Mama's Family. My friends are going to be like, "You can't say that in interviews. You can't tell people you like Mama's Family." ”

Mama's Family

Everyone thinks I must watch a lot of TV but I don't. I'll watch things like The Real Housewives of wherever and be like, "These people are not real." Where do they find these people? And then there was The A-List about gay guys. Who'd wanna hang with them? I'll go with Kathy Griffin and the D-list. I like wicked humor. Whenever I would turn on a TV, it seemed like that Hugh Hefner thing [The Girls Next Door] was on. That was sort of a train wreck, so I watched that.

So for some reason that's just always on in your house?

Well, I guess that channel would be on, and when I'd turn the TV on that would be on and for some reason I'd get sucked into it even though I thought it was ridiculous. I wish I had the History Channel or PBS on, because I like that. I like dinosaur programs. I really, really like dinosaurs and prehistoric man programs because I was a dinosaur nut as a kid: Walking With Dinosaurs, Walking With Cavemen, Walking With Mammals. [Laughs.] Whatever people were walking with, I was walking with them.

Mentioning things you liked as a kid, have you been getting into all the superhero movies that have been coming out lately?

I thought The Dark Knight was dreary, Spider-Man was okay, though I want to see the new Star Trek. I can't believe I haven't seen that. I wanted to see it on the big screen, but like I said I don't get out. I mean, I liked Tim Burton's Batman but the new ones are just dreary to me. The Dark Knight was pretty dark. [Laughs.] I thought it was really well-acted, but it was just relentless. Senseless killing in movies, I just can't get into. I tried to watch Rob Zombie's House Of 1000 Corpses. It should be called House Of 1000 Murders. I don't like gratuitous violence. Gratuitous nudity I don't mind.

“I don't like gratuitous violence. Gratuitous nudity I don't mind.”

House of 1000 Corpses

So are you not getting too into all the zombie movies that are coming out lately then?

Oh, I like Zombie Strippers. I bought that. I'm gonna watch that. I like zombie movies. I like the old Night Of The Living Dead movie. In fact, when I was in high school I would make movies with my friends, and one of them was The Day After The Night Of The Living Dead. It follows the plot of the movie, only a lot sillier.

What was your role in the movie?

I played the hero who gets shot in the end. What was really weird was my friend's father had a shotgun. I said, "Oh, great! You have a shotgun? We'll just use this." That was one of the props. I'm running around the backyard with a shotgun. [Laughs.]

And how old were you exactly when this happened?

Oh, I was a teenager.

Well, that's still old enough to be reasonably responsible with a firearm.

I guess. I wasn't really thinking about it. I never checked to see if it was loaded or anything, I don't think.

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