{"id":20651,"date":"2021-03-12T05:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T10:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=20651"},"modified":"2021-03-10T11:49:44","modified_gmt":"2021-03-10T16:49:44","slug":"album-review-pylon-pylon-box","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/12\/album-review-pylon-pylon-box\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Pylon — Pylon Box"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"With great and due respect to R.E.M. \u2013 and, to a lesser extent, the B-52\u2019s \u2013 there was a lot more significant musical activity going on in and around Athens, Georgia in the 1980s. For those who weren\u2019t there, a 1987 documentary film, Athens, GA: Inside\/Out<\/i> offered a glimpse into the college town\u2019s musical riches. Intriguing bands like Time Toy and Kilkenny Cats didn\u2019t make the leap into major-label status, but a few did make a mark outside the city, including Love Tractor and Flat Duo Jets.<\/p>\n

But along with R.E.M. and the B-52\u2019s, the most significant group to come out of the Athens scene would be Pylon. Like many of their contemporaries, the members of Pylon were students at the University of Georgia, and they combined an art school aesthetic with a punk perspective. The band \u2013 vocalist Vanessa Briscoe, guitarist Randall Bewley, bassist Michael Lachowski and drummer Curtis Crowe \u2013 was early out of the gate, playing its first show in 1979 and releasing its debut single (\u201cCool\u201d b\/w \u201cDub\u201d) in April 1980 on Atlanta-based DB Recs.<\/p>\n

Pylon\u2019s heyday continued through 1983; during that period, the group built a following and landed a spot as the opening act for U2 on the Irish band\u2019s War<\/i> tour of the U.S. By the end of 1983, Pylon\u2019s members amicably made the decision to break up the band.<\/p>\n

But prime-era Pylon would leave behind two superb albums, 1980\u2019s Gyrate<\/i> and Chomp<\/i> from 1983. Both records showcased the band\u2019s signature sound, one that built on the approach of arty minimalists like like Gang of Four and Pere Ubu but added a stronger dance-oriented sensibility. The music was atmospheric, heady and mysterious all at once, occasionally shot through with a sinister air.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

New West Music\u2019s lavish boxed set includes those two LPs in their entirety, adding two new discs. For both longtime fans and newcomers, each of the latter two is filled with important material. Razz Tape<\/i> is a quality 1979 \u201cfield recording\u201d of the band in its natural element, a rehearsal space in Athens\u2019 Myers Building. Two mics hanging above the band captured the Pylon sound in its unvarnished glory. Shorn of production sheen, it\u2019s a document of Pylon at its rawest. But it shows that the group\u2019s musical approach was fully formed long before it entered a proper studio.<\/p>\n

Extra<\/i> compiles the band\u2019s debut single, tracks that didn\u2019t appear on original releases of Chomp<\/i> and Gyrate<\/i>, alternate mixes and live tracks. They\u2019re all worthwhile, but the most interesting cut is \u201cUntitled,\u201d a 1978 instrumental by the pre-Briscoe lineup calling itself Diagonal. It\u2019s fascinating and catchy, bit it also serves to underscore just how important a role Briscoe would play in Pylon\u2019s development and direction.<\/p>\n

The boxed set also includes a 200-page hardbound book, lovingly and exhaustively filled with hundreds of photos, drawings and ephemera plus a detailed history of the band. If the case for Pylon\u2019s significance needs to be made, Pylon Box<\/i> can serve an a splendid Exhibit A in support of that argument.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With great and due respect to R.E.M. \u2013 and, to a lesser extent, the B-52\u2019s \u2013 there was a lot more significant musical activity going on in and around Athens, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20652,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,50,62,65],"tags":[3206],"class_list":["post-20651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-compilation","category-new-wave","category-rawk","category-review","tag-pylon","cat-19-id","cat-50-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20651"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20654,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20651\/revisions\/20654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}