Pylon (band)

Pylon
Pylon performing at AthFest 2005 in Athens, Georgia, USA, June 24, 2005.
Background information
Origin	Athens, Georgia, United States
Genres	New wave, post-punk, jangle pop, alternative rock
Years active	1978–1983, 1989–1991, 2004-current
Labels	DB Records, DFA Records
Associated acts	Supercluster Sound Houses previously known as The New Sound of Numbers
Members
Michael Lachowski Curtis Crowe Vanessa Briscoe Hay
Past members
Randall Bewley

Pylon is an American rock band from Athens, Georgia. The band's danceable jangle pop sound influenced the Athens music scene and the 1980s American pop underground. Allmusic wrote that Pylon's "role as elder statesmen of the alternative rock explosion is unassailable".

History

All four members of Pylon were art students at the University of Georgia in Athens. Guitarist Randall Bewley and bass guitarist Michael Lachowski began playing music and attempting to form a band in 1978. They practiced in a studio in downtown Athens which Lachowski rented from Curtis Crowe, upstairs from the current location of the Grill on College Avenue. The room was lit by a single 40-watt light bulb, so the band referred to it as the "40 Watt Club." Crowe soon joined the band as a drummer. On February 14, 1979, the three held auditions for a singer. Vanessa Briscoe (now Vanessa Briscoe Hay) was chosen. The group was named for a novel by William Faulkner

Pylon onstage, 1981.

Pylon played their first live show at a party on March 9, 1979. Members of The B-52's attended Pylon's third show. Fred Schneider and Kate Pierson of the B-52's were particularly supportive and helped promote Pylon's music in New York City, getting them a gig at Hurrah. Soon Pylon opened for Gang of Four in New York. Pylon's debut single, "Cool," appeared on DB Records in early 1980, and received many positive critical reviews. From 1980 to 1983 Pylon toured parts of the U.S., Canada, and the UK, playing with groups such as the B-52's, Gang of Four, Mission of Burma, Love Tractor, R.E.M., the Talking Heads, and U2. Pylon was the opening act for the first part of U2's first U.S. tour. Crazy/M-Train charted at #61 for Club play singles in 1982 according to Billboard Magazine entry in All Music Guide. At that time the members of Pylon were beginning to feel that playing together was becoming less fun and more like a business. They decided to break up the band in 1983.

With some help from the members of R.E.M., Pylon's reputation as one of the great underground bands of the New Wave era was solidified in 1987. When Rolling Stone named R.E.M. "America's Best Band" in November 1987, R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry said, "We're not the best rock 'n' roll band in America." Pylon, he said, was the best. In the same year, R.E.M. released their compilation album Dead Letter Office (1987):the album opens with a version of Pylon's "Crazy", which had been the b-side to their single "Driver 8". Confirming this judgment, numerous musicians from the Athens rock scene publicly attest to their deep reverence for Pylon in the film Athens, GA: Inside Out.

After a six-year hiatus punctuated with a smattering of reunion shows, Pylon officially reformed in 1989, and opened for the final leg of R.E.M.'s "Green" tour, The group recorded with Sky Records, and released a new album Chain, and a single, "Sugarpop". They played several more shows including the South by Southwest Festival in 1990 and 1991, but when guitarist Bewley decided to leave in 1991, the band broke up again.

Pylon came out of retirement again in 2004, and played their first set in more than a decade in August 2004 at the then-fledgling Little King's Shuffle Club. The band officially reunited for the second time when they played the New Year's Eve (2005) show at the 40 Watt Club; they later headlined the first night of the Athens music festival, AthFest (June 2005). In 2006, they recorded a so far untelevised segment for "Pancake Mountain".

On April 4, 2007, they performed an impromptu show at Little King's to announce the reissue of "Gyrate" on DFA Records, called "Gyrate Plus", which was released on October 16, 2007. They performed several key shows in 2008 including the Part Time Punks Festival in Los Angeles, a show taped for Georgia Public Radio in Athens, Georgia, and at the Revolve Film Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, with Mitch Easter.

On February 25, 2009, guitarist Randall Bewley died, two days after suffering a heart attack while driving his van.

DFA Records re-released Gyrate and Chomp with extra tracks as Gyrate Plus (2007) and Chomp More (2009).

Members

• Randall Bewley (guitar)
• Michael Lachowski (bass guitar)
• Curtis Crowe (drums)
• Vanessa Briscoe Hay (vocals)

Discography

• Cool/Dub 7" single (Caution Records 1979)
• Gyrate LP (Db recs, Armageddon 1980)
• Pylon !! EP (Db recs, Armageddon 1980)
• Crazy/M-Train 7" single (Db recs 1981)
• Beep/Altitude 7" single (Db recs 1982)
• Four Minutes/Beep/Altitude EP (Db recs 1982)
• Chomp LP (Db recs 1983)
• Hits LP/CD (Db recs 1988)
• Chain LP/CD (Sky records 1990)
• Gyrate Plus CD (DFA Records 2007)
• Chomp More CD (DFA Records 2009)

Other Recordings

• Dead Letter Office (LP) LP (IRS Records 1985) (Cover of Crazy by R.E.M.)
• Cover + Remix 7 inch single (DFA Records October, 2011) (Cover of Cool by Deerhunter, Remix of Yo-Yo by Calvinist)

Filmography

• Athens, GA: Inside Out (1987), archive footage

External links

• Pylon official web site
• PARTY ZONE: a tribute to Pylon
• Pylon unofficial web site
• AllMusic entry on Pylon
• Pylon MySpace web page
• Interview with Pylon on Well-Rounded Radio
• Interview with Vanessa Briscoe Hay on Chelsea Zine (in spanish)
• Village Voice Interview with Michael Lachowski and Randy Bewley
• DFA records official website
• [1] Robert Christgau review for Rolling Stone
• [2] Trouser Press review