The Unheard Music (Volume XIII)

Who says I don't do requests?  Someone sent me a personal e-mail asking what happened to the unofficial Unheard Music logo/icon.  I totally forgot about it and haven't used it since September. Do we like this thing or not?  Also a few weeks ago, Jay suggested I focus on Pylon for an Unheard Music installment. Voila!

I've noticed a phenomenon prevalent in college towns and for now I'll call it the Legendary Local Band Syndrome™*.  It's pretty simple really, college towns are fertile breeding grounds for bands and among the bands in a particular scene/locale, one rises to the top and inspires a lot of the other bands in the same scene.  Problem is, the top band--great as they are--never make it past that locally legendary status.  One perfect example is Champaign's Poster Children (a perfect candidate for a future installment) who are huge to alumni of The University of Illinois and a few other Midwestern towns (like Chicago) but never became huge. In Iowa City we had House of Large Sizes, who always sold out Gabe's Oasis even though they were from Cedar Falls (90 miles away) and played IC every five or six weeks. Madison, Wisconsin had a band called Fire Town who were locally huge but never made a dent outside of the Midwest although their drummer (Butch Vig) would later make huge waves with his Smart Studios and producing the likes of Smashing Pumpkins, Urge Overkill and Nirvana.

*Editor's note: Legendary Local Band Syndrome (LLBS) is slightly different from a band with "Cult Status" which is a step or two above LLBS.  For example, from the same era, the dB's and Let's Active enjoyed Cult status, whereas Love Tractor shared LLBS with Pylon. Feel free to dispute these claims, I'm still working out the kinks.

In the late 70's/early 80's Atlanta, Georgia had a Legendary Local Band called Pylon.  Pylon's peers--B-52's, R.E.M.--were quite fond of them, R.E.M. even covered them and Pylon were asked to tour supporting U2, Gang of Four, Talking Heads and Mission of Burma. Now this sort of attention would certainly seem to push them into another level of fame and recognition and help them shed their LLB status, but while seemingly on the brink of stardom in 1983, they came to the realization that being in a band had become more like a business than the fun it originally was, so they called it quits.  Since 1983, they have released a 'Best Of' collection called Hits (1988) and re-convened to make another album of new material Chain (1990) but still barely register outside of the sizeable fan base that loved them way back when.  James Murphy (of LCD Soundsystem) re-released Pylon's great debut Gyrate earlier this year on his DFA Label a month ago, maybe now they'll finally get their due.

Among a bumper crop of edgy, angular songs on their debut Gyrate, the keeper for me is "Stop It" which also made a cameo in the great music documentary film Athens GA Inside/Out, which is now finally available on DVD. Yay!  Pylon are interviewed in the movie, here's a clip from it.

My first exposure to Pylon (and pretty much anyone's outside of Athens) was R.E.M.'s cover of "Crazy" which was a revelation.  You can find R.E.M.'s version on Dead Letter Office but here's the original version "Crazy"  found on Chomp, their second LP.

Enjoy the music, have a fantastic weekend!

Comments

[Scotty]

I like this thing. Even if I have heard the music, this reminds to get out the "dusties" and dance to the old tunes. I just pulled my wax copy of Chomp out. I wish I could blast it, but since its 4:30 a.m. I don't think my wife and our brood would appreciate it.

That is really great news about Athens GA. Inside/Out. I was looking for that not too long ago.

[Jeff]

Great tracks and good memories - but I actually could never get through Athens GA Inside Out. I've procured another copy recently though, so I'll try again...

Cult Bands, to me, are not well known but you stand a chance of finding a fan in unlikely places (like when Jay & I met a Jazz Butcher fan in Florida once). LLBs seem to lack that je ne sais quoi which makes their music interesting outside of a (somtimes very wide) circle of acquiantaces.

[freakgirl]

I've been listening to Pylon nonstop for the past week. I remembered they were touring, realized too late to get to the NYC show, and missed the Philly show this weekend.

"Athens GA Inside Out" is back on my Wishlist. I had it on VHS forever, but it must have gotten purged when we moved.

I was just reading an anecdote somewhere that "Chomp" and "Chronic Town" came out around the same time, and Peter Buck was very sad when he heard "Chomp," knowing it was that good.

[ken]

Freakgirl- I remember the same story which is why Buck said they covered "Crazy" because Chomp was that good.

[Jay]

Thanks, Ken! Great choice of tracks to feature, I've always loved "Stop It". I just transferred my vinyl copy of Athens, GA to mp3 a couple of months ago, let me know if you want a copy. I consider the soundtrack to be the #1 WGHS album of all-time, or at least during my years at the station. I love how threats had to be written all over the cover so no one would take it home.

I really enjoyed watching the film when it was re-released on DVD. Great to see interviews with bands like Flat Duo Jets. Glad the White Stripes gave them props in the extras too. I was surprised how sweet sounding the singer of Pylon is, I always imagined her to be a crazed skinhead by the way she sings the chorus of "Stop it". So primal.

The logo is OK, but I wouldn't miss it if you came up with something different. Looking forward to your Poster Kids post!