The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Athens’ Pylon rocks the ‘Box’
Influential band’s early recordings get a deluxe reissue.
How do you measure musical success? Athens' Pylon never bothered the Top 40 charts. The quartet didn't sell millions of albums.
But their influence and stature have grown over the decades among fellow musicians and fans. Listen to the independent musical underground and you'll hear their imprint still woven into its fabric today, more than 40 years after the band got together as students at the University of Georgia.
There's never been anything else quite like the sound of Pylon. As art students, the musicians in Pylon knew the value of space. They created minimalist masterpieces that sounded like visual art translated into sound, all sharp angles and sensuous curves.
Listen to “Beep,” from the band's second album, “Chomp.” It's like barreling down a steep mountain road, taking the twists at a dangerous speed. Propulsive and rhythmic, it's music that commands you to dance.
Today, “Pylon Box” will be released. It includes the band's studio albums “Gyrate” (1980) and “Chomp” (1983), newly remastered from the original tapes. There are 47 tracks with 18 unreleased recordings spread over four vinyl albums. “Razz Tape” is a previously unreleased 13-track session that predates the band's 1979 debut single. The remaining unreleased songs are on “Extra,” an 11-song collection that includes one recording made before frontman Vanessa Briscoe Hay joined the band.
The set also includes a beautiful 200-page, full-color hardbound book with the original run autographed by the surviving members of the band: Hay, Michael Lachowski, and Curtis Crowe. In the book, you'll find the words of friends and fans of the band, including members of R.E.M, Jon King and Hugo Burnham of Gang of Four, Kate Pierson of the B-52s and Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein of Sleater-Kinney.
It all started with the 7-inch single “Cool”/”Dub,” as the '70s became the '80s. “I have it in my calendar that we had a signing party at Chapter Three [Records in Athens] in January 1980, but the label says '79,” says Hay. “There were plans for it to be out (in 1979), but I don't think it actually made it out. And not too long after that we went to New York and took it around from record store to record store and sold it to them.”
“I love that song; I love that record,” Pylon bassist Lachowski says. “Sometimes I think that if those hadn't been the two we picked, that Pylon might not have ever really gotten the same attention that the band got. Although things were going pretty well with us just playing live.”
“But having a single really did have an impact,” Lachowski says. “There were so many record stores. There were actually still jukeboxes in clubs.”
In the summer of 1980, the band went into the studio to record “Gyrate,” one of the most aptly titled debut albums ever. It was recorded at the long-gone Stone Mountain Studios on Buford Highway.
They followed the November release of “Gyrate” with a U.K. tour. They were in London the day John Lennon was shot, and in Liverpool a few days later.
“It was kind of difficult for a few days to be an American there,” Hay says.
After more touring, the band began recording “Chomp” near the end of 1981. That album has been particularly difficult to find on vinyl before the new reissue in the box set, with copies selling for $70 or more in some places. The box set makes “Gyrate” available on vinyl for the first time in 32 years and marks the first vinyl pressing of “Chomp” in 37 years, according to New West Records, which is releasing the set.
“It is much rarer, and one reason is because when it came out in '83, it's not too long after that that we made the decision to stop touring,” Hay says. “It never got released in other countries.”
Lachowski cites “culminating fatigue” as a contributing factor in that decision to stop touring. “There were just expectations being put on us that we just weren't really that interested in. We wanted this to be really fun, and so let's just maybe call it quits while we've had a really good time with it and been really successful on our own terms.”
“It's not like Pylon fell apart; it was just Pylon chose to have a nice clean break,” he says. That first farewell show at the Mad Hatter in Athens was documented on “Pylon Live,” released in 2016.
But that wouldn't be the end for the band. In 1985, R.E.M. recorded
a version of Pylon’s “Crazy” and released it as the B-side of their single “Driver 8.” Then in the summer of 1988, the band began rehearsing again and would continue to tour through 1991 before playing a farewell show at the 40 Watt Club in Athens on Nov. 23 of that year.
Between 1992 and 2004, the band members went back to their regular life — Hay became a nurse, drummer Curtis Crowe worked in the film industry, Lachowski in art and graphic design, Bewley as an elementary school art teacher.
In 2004, at the prompting of Bewley, the band began performing again. Sadly, that all came to an end when Bewley died of a heart attack in February 2009. It would be the end of the original quartet.
Even with that, the band’s eventful ride wasn’t quite a wrap. Though the original quartet is no more, in recent years Hay has led a troupe of Athens musicians as Pylon Reenactment Society, keeping the legacy of the band alive by playing the Pylon classics for modern audiences. The new band has also recorded original music of its own, including a brand new track, “Compression,” released on Halloween 2020.
With the box set coming out, Pylon’s music is returning to streaming platforms, too, giving a new generation of fans a chance to discover the band’s music.
Sadly, due to the pandemic, there won’t be any events surrounding the release of “Pylon Box,” but the University of Georgia’s Special Collections Libraries is hosting Pylon Collection, an exhibit that showcases photographs, artifacts and other memorabilia through Dec. 24.
After the vinyl version of “Pylon Box” was announced, Hay says they heard a lot of interest in putting out a CD version. That’s now coming in March. But for now, fans are just thrilled to have these classics and some new material on vinyl in a set that was obviously put together with incredible care.
“I want to say how generous everyone was who was involved in helping us find tapes, helping us find art, helping us find photographs,” Hay says. “That’s all across the board. This whole thing has been a great experience. It just shows how generous people are.”
“I guess maybe they love us, too, and I love them.”