Athens GA Inside/Out
January 17, 2019 2:24 PM   Subscribe

Dancey post-punk legends Pylon 1980-83
Live: Danger/Feast On My Heart - Volume - Recent Title - Working is No Problem - Crazy - Danger - Weather Radio - No Clocks - Driving School - K
Studio: Beep - Yo-Yo - M-Train - Altitude - Precaution - Read a Book - Weather Radio - Cool - Italian Movie Theme

In the late 70s-early 80s Athens GA scene that produced REM and the B-52s, Pylon was the consensus best band (as REM drummer Bill Berry and B-52s singer Fred Schneider have said publicly). They broke up in 1983 after turning down a big tour opening for U2 because it started to feel like work. Singer Vanessa Briscoe Hay said "We were just going to perform as long as it was fun. So we broke up and it was a decision we all made together."
Pylon previously (though many links have died)
posted by msalt (17 comments total) 30 users marked this as a favorite
 
I somehow only learned about Pylon a couple of years ago when I heard them on Pandora. I was shocked to discover they were from the 80s, because they sounded so fresh and modern. I was doubly shocked because that era of music is my favorite era, and now I feel cheated out of 35 years of listening to Pylon.

Oh god. I’m old.
posted by ejs at 2:34 PM on January 17, 2019 [3 favorites]


It's not online anywhere that I can find (other than buying it on Amazon), but the 1987 movie on the Athens scene "Athens GA Inside/Out" looks pretty great too.
music selections
14 minute clip
The Bar-B-Q Killers (a M/F punk band) look especially interesting.
posted by msalt at 2:38 PM on January 17, 2019 [2 favorites]


I saw a show on their reunion tour in the late 80s and it was fantastic. It didn't hurt that I was close enough to the stage that Vanessa put the mic up to my mouth to do some of the whoops on "M-Train."
posted by doubtfulpalace at 2:47 PM on January 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


It's not online anywhere that I can find (other than buying it on Amazon), but the 1987 movie on the Athens scene "Athens GA Inside/Out" looks pretty great too.

It's uneven (as one would expect from a scene report), but the Flat Duo Jets stood out for me among the less-famous bands.
posted by doubtfulpalace at 2:49 PM on January 17, 2019 [3 favorites]


When Rolling Stone called R.E.M. to let them know they'd been voted America's Best Band, Bill Berry replied "No, that's Pylon."
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 3:00 PM on January 17, 2019 [7 favorites]


I discovered them around 1985 during college and already had a regret of missing out since they were defunct by that time.
posted by matildaben at 3:09 PM on January 17, 2019 [2 favorites]


Now wonderfully reborn as Pylon Reenactment Society, p.s.
posted by mykescipark at 3:11 PM on January 17, 2019 [5 favorites]


I don't know if I'd call them the best band in the area at the time, but I do love them and went through about 10 years ago an bought up all I could find, which appears to be all except one of their 80s releases that came on 12" (as some of their 7" did). Which is nice.

I certainly found out about them through the REM cover, but I see them as a US Post Punk band that has less in common stylistically with the College Rock that came after them as they do the Young Marble Giants or the Au Pairs (or Half-Japanese or or or).

B-52s are kind of in a league by themselves, like looking for "other Akron bands like DEVO."
posted by rhizome at 3:13 PM on January 17, 2019 [6 favorites]


If you like Pylon, check out Come On, another great, short-lived, very-much unchampioned New Wave band. (And also The Embarrassment.)

comeonnyc.bandcamp.com
www.discogs.com/Come-On-New-York-City-1976-80/release/875452
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Embarrassment
posted by soulchap at 3:16 PM on January 17, 2019


Yep.
posted by humboldt32 at 4:04 PM on January 17, 2019


The "consensus best band" thing is still in effect amongst townies of a certain age in Athens. E.g.: parts of town show lots of Pylon stickers on cars and the local weekly Flagpole celebrates them hard.
posted by cyclopticgaze at 4:10 PM on January 17, 2019 [6 favorites]


In 1993 when information was harder to come by, someone I barely knew, who heard I loved R.E.M. gave me a tape they’d made and said “Here. This is the band you should be listening to.” It was Pylon’s “Chomp” but the blank cover just said “Pylon Chomp” so I thought that was the band name, and for years couldn’t find out anything more about them. It didn’t help that I lived in Ohio and could only get my parents to take me to the mall to buy CDs, where the people knew nothing and could only tell me they didn’t have any more Pylon Chomp.
posted by heyitsgogi at 4:11 PM on January 17, 2019 [10 favorites]


REM released cover of Crazy on their essential but overlooked Dead Letter Office. Of course that was back in 1987, and I really had no way of being able to dive in deeper, short of catching a plane to Athens.
posted by morspin at 8:31 PM on January 17, 2019


In my brain, whose forming they impinged on via WNYU's airing of new releases, Pylon share a lobe with Gang of Four, Bush Tetras (and maybe ESG), though they were the funkiest of the bunch.
posted by progosk at 3:56 AM on January 18, 2019 [1 favorite]


I rarely miss living in Athens, but damn. Those were some years.
posted by catlet at 7:00 AM on January 18, 2019 [2 favorites]


I think I saw them at the Atlanta Arts Festival in the day, when they were stil having bands, but I'm not sure.....those shows were some of the first bands I saw play; I was in early high school. I can find video of some other bands at the festival on Youtube, but not Pylon.
posted by thelonius at 7:30 AM on January 18, 2019


I showed up in the Athens scene in the mid-80s via being an undergrad at Georgia Tech. A lot of amazing bands, but there were always folks who said "yeah, but Pylon...". I was a fraternity social chair back then, and there was so much great music. Those bands deserve more remembrance, but if I put a lot of effort into it, some mod will delete it.
posted by kjs3 at 8:06 PM on January 22, 2019


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