Kate Pierson

Kate Pierson
Kate Pierson in 2009
Background information
Birth name	Catherine Elizabeth Pierson
Born	(1948-04-27) April 27, 1948 Weehawken, New Jersey, U.S.
Genres	Rock, new wave
Occupation(s)	Musician
Instruments	Vocals, keyboards, guitar, bass, percussion
Years active	1972–present
Associated acts	The B-52's Fred Schneider Cindy Wilson R.E.M. NiNa

Catherine Elizabeth "Kate" Pierson (born April 27, 1948) is an American vocalist, lyricist, and one of the lead singers and founding members of The B-52's. A multi-instrumentalist, she plays guitar, bass and various keyboard instruments. In the B-52s, she has performed alongside Cindy Wilson, Fred Schneider, Ricky Wilson, and Keith Strickland.

In February 2015, Pierson released her first solo album, Guitars and Microphones, featuring material co-written by Sia Furler.

Personal life

Pierson was born in Weehawken, New Jersey and raised in Rutherford.

She is the owner of Kate's Lazy Desert in Landers, California and Kate's Lazy Meadow in Mount Tremper, New York, a rustic modern lodge in New York's Catskill Mountains. She operates the businesses with her partner, Monica Coleman, whom she has been with since 2003. On August 3, 2015, Pierson married Coleman in a ceremony attended by the B-52's, singer Sia Furler and Furler's husband, Erik Anders Lang.

Collaborations

Pierson has collaborated with the following bands and singers:

• The Ramones, in the early 1980s on the song, "Chop Suey", with Cindy Wilson and Debbie Harry, the title is available as bonus track on the Ramones' re-release CD Pleasant Dreams.
• Cindy, Kate, and Keith were part of the group "Melon" and recorded two songs ("I Will Call You" and "Honeydew") for a Japanese TV show titled "Snakeman Show". The soundtrack LP from 1980 or CD from 1988 was only released in Japan.
• Fred Schneider, on his Fred Schneider & the Shake Society solo album from 1984 on songs "Monster", "Summer in Hell", "I'm Gonna Haunt You" and "Boonga (The New Jersey Caveman)".
• Iggy Pop, on the 1990 Top-20 song "Candy".
• R.E.M., on the songs "Shiny Happy People", "Near Wild Heaven" and "Me in Honey" from the 1991 album Out of Time, and "Fretless" from the 1991 soundtrack Until the End of the World.
• Matthew Sweet, on the 1989 album Earth.
• With Cindy Wilson on their common cover of the McFadden & Whitehead's song "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now", recorded for the soundtrack The Associate in 1996
• The soundtrack for The Rugrats Movie, released in 1998 contains the track "The World Is Something New To Me" and features, Kate, Fred and Cindy along with other artists.
• In 1999, a parody version of the R.E.M. song "Shiny Happy People," was created and titled as "Furry Happy Monsters". It was performed by R.E.M. and a back up singing Muppet that was created to impersonate and replace Kate Pierson's role on Sesame Street. Furthermore, the monsters from the Monsters in Day Care segments (and the Two Headed Monster) were also featured in this video clip. This song is about the monsters who have split personality by being happy, then sad and then happy again.
• "We Are Family", a single released to raise money for the victims of the September 11 attacks features Kate and Fred in the chorus and on the DVD documentation.
• Jay Ungar & Molly Mason have Kate singing on their 2003 album Relax Your Mind, on the track "Bad Attitude"
• Junior Senior, on the song "Take My Time" from the 2005 album Hey Hey My My Yo Yo (with Cindy Wilson)
• Peter Jöback, duet on the song "Sing" from the 2009 album East Side Stories
• David Byrne and Fatboy Slim, on the song "The Whole Man" from the 2010 album Here Lies Love.
• She was also a member of the Japanese group NiNa with Yuki Isoya and co-wrote and performed a complete album, with the hit singles "Happy Tomorrow" and "Aurora Tour". The album and singles were only released in Japan. Two songs were used as the ending theme song to the anime Arc the Lad.
• Appeared in Blondie's music video for "Mother".
• The soundtrack album Phineas and Ferb: Rockin' and Rollin' released in September 2013 features Kate singing: "Let's Spend Half A Day". The album is only available as download.

Albums

• 2015: Guitars and Microphones

Film and television

• The Rugrats Movie (1998, voice only)
• The Flintstones (1994, as "The BC-52's")
• A Matter of Degrees (1990)
• Athens, GA: Inside/Out (1987)
• One Trick Pony (1980)
• Pierson portrayed a club owner in the Flight of the Conchords episode "What Goes on Tour".
• The Adventures of Pete and Pete (1993, "What We Did on Our Summer Vacation")
• Pierson is credited alongside Fred Schneider in the Nickelodeon cartoon Rocko's Modern Life for the theme song vocals.
• Pierson, with The B-52's, appeared on an episode of the CBS soap opera Guiding Light in 1982.
• Pierson, with The B-52's, performed a parody of the song "Love Shack" titled "Glove Slap" in an episode of The Simpsons (1999, "E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)").
• Phineas and Ferb (2012): performed the song "Spend Half a Day" in the episode, "Perry the Actorpus".

External links

• Kate Pierson at the Internet Movie Database