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■ BEST BEt
Athens: The Past Is Ever Present"opens at the Georgia Mu
seum ot Art this Saturday. The exhibit features over 100 draw
ings, paintings, prints, and sculpted images of Athens
architecture created by students In K-12. Free admission.
The Red and Black • Thursday, August 2, 1990 • 6
A&E
The Earthworms play local scene
Pylon: Local favorite signs new contract
By DAVE WILLIAMS
Entertainment Writer
Pylon: Reunited since 1989 they plan a tour in the fall to
coincide with n v recording contract
By NOEL MURRAY
Entertainment Writer
Pylon has been a favorite with
then8 audiences for years, and
tdw they are going to have a
chance to reach a national audi
ence. The band has signed with
Skv Records, an Atlanta based
independent label, and plans to
release their third album
“Chain" this fall.
Pylon released their first two
albums, “Gyrate" and “Chomp”
along with a greatest hits album
called “Hite” on Db records, a
smaller Atlanta label.
‘The main appeal (of Sky Re
cords) was that they could put
something together fast,”
Lachowski said. “We had been
looking at bigger companies, but
it seemed to be taking too much
time. We wanted an independent
company who could get the
album out quickly, but would still
be able to distribute it well," he
said.
Pam Cross, a spokesperson for
Sky Records said/The record will
be available everywhere, in
cluding all of the major record
store chains, in October. The dis
tribution companies that Sky
deals with are nuge."
Pylon completed “Chain” last
week, and immediately started
working on the video for “Look
Alive.” The video was produced
by C-100 films, which is jointly
owned by REM vocalist Michael
Stipe and filmmaker Jim McKay.
‘The video will be dene in a
month, and we would like to have
it on 120 minutes and any other
programs we can,” Lachowski
said.
The band doesn’t feel that they
are rushing to put out “Chain”
despite the hectic pace of their
production schedule.
“We aren’t so much in a hurry,
it’s that we have waited too long,”
Lachowski said. “We have been
working on material for the last
year and a half and we wanted to
get this album out.”
“Chain” will be Pylon’s first re
cord since they regrouped in
1989.Tt wasn’t just for a reunion
or a get together,” Lachowski
said. “If we were going to waste
our time doing this since three of
us have families, we had to do it
right."
Pylon will be taking their
funky, thrashy, brand of dance
music on the road in October.
“We’re going to Florida first to
get it out of the way, because it’s
such a large state and it’s in the
wrong direction(from the rest of
the tour)," Lachowski said. “We
don’t have the rest of the tour
worked out yet.
‘The reaction we’ve gotten
from the material we’ve played
live so far has been great,”
Lachowski said.
Here’s one from ‘ V >w-did-
you spend-your-summ- vaca
tion?” file. While most < j.s stay
home, work and maybe t k a trip,
the members of Buffalo, N.Y.’s The
Earthworms decided to combine
the two concepts and move to
Athens.
“We’d been playing around Buf
falo for a couple of months, but we
weren’t really concentrating our ef
forts there because we knew
Athens was where we wanted to
go," said singer Joe Guerzo during
an interview last weeknd.
“I actually lived in Atlanta for
about six years, but I’d never really
been to Athens until we came down
here to live," explained guitarist
Ed Connolly. “It was sort of a fan
tasy of ours, and then it became a
plan.”
Over Spring Break Guerzo and
Connolly traveled down to Athens
and began to set up gigs and a
place to stay.
“David Levitt from The Down
stairs was really nice. We gave him
a demo tape and he said he liked
us,” said Guerzo. “We thank The
Dashboard Saviors, too. It’s nearly
impossible to get a gig at a bigger
club like the 40 Watt unless you
have an established band to sup
port you.”
Guerzo and Connolly had been
in two seperate bands in Buffalo,
when simultaneously both groups
broke up and both guys broke up
with their girlfriends.
“It was sort of weird,” said
Guerzo.
“Yeah, it was like suddenly we
had no ties and no reason to stay in
Buffalo, so we started talking
about getting away for the
summer," added Connolly.
“We started talking about taking
this acoustic duo thing we had
been doing late at night in Buffalo
and bringing it to Athens, just
playing around. We had no plans to
become a four piece band," said
Guerzo.
As it happened, though, they
hooked up with Matt Casey and
Paul Alberti (on baas and drums
respectively), initially for recording
purposes and then for perfor
mance. They began gigging around
at small clubs and parties and
then, in early May, The Earth
worms tied for first in a 'Battle of
the Bands’ contest sponsored by a
Buffalo radio station.
“We have a definite fan base
back in Buffalo,” said Connolly.
Can The Earthworms work up a
similar positive response from
jaded Athenians?
“So far, everyone’s been real en
thusiastic,” added Connolly opti
mistically.
“Everyone keeps comparing us
to A Few Kids With Bicycles,”
Guerzo pondered. T don’t know
why. I never heard them, but I’ve
heard they had an Asian lead
singer and Pm Filipino so maybe
that’s it.”
Actually, The Earthworms do
mime the same jangly pop vein as
Fit*
The Earthworms move to
town for change of pace
the late Few Kids W*>h Bicycles.
They claim their iniiuences and
tastes to be along the lines of The
Wonderstuff and The Waterboys.
“But we don’t really sound like
them,” insisted Guerzo.
Athens has a chance to decide
for itself what The Earthworms
sound like August 6th at the
Rockfish Palace’s Hoot, Aug. 7th at
the 40 Watt, and yet again at Club
Fred Aug. 10.
“It’s a fun show. Really en
ergetic*,” said Guerzo.
Or, for the recording-minded,
the band has a nine-song cassette
available at record stores down
town.
Artist sees beauty beyond the green menace of kudzu to find dragons
Lions and tigers and bears, oh my: Tom Hammond’s kudzu
inspired lithograph
By BEVERLY COX
Entertainment Writer
It makes it’s way along the road
side, swallowing trees in its path.
Nothing can stop it, it’s every
where, it’s...it’s...kudzu, that de
ceitfully beautiful foliage currently
taking over a vacant lot or highway
near you.
Lurking around in that green
menace and in the mind of artist
and Associate Professor Tom Ham
mond are monsters, dragons,
“dawgs,” deserted drive-ins, and
other forms that have inspired
nearly 25 drawings, etchings, and
lithographs.
Kudzu has been called a vege
table form of cancer, and with this
in mind, Hammond plays on the
evil qualities of the vine with car-
toonish humor.
‘The curse of kudzu is portrayed
with a simplicity and introspective
comedy that belies a more serious
and cynical concept,” said Ham
mond in an interview in his office
last Monday.
Hammond primarily uses etch
ings, lithographs, and drawings as
his mediums and kudzu has
proven to be highly conducive to
work in these types of art.
‘The bold forms and intricate fo
liage pattems(of kudzu) provide
excellent detail for print making
and drawings,” Hammond ex
plained.
Etchings are produced by using
acid to draw on copper or zinc
plates. Ink is then wiped onto the
surface and the drawing is printed.
Lithographs are similar except
that the drawing is etched in lime
stone.
As an artist, Hammond hopes
that,“the viewer can look from a
distance and see what the forms
are, but that the work invites in
spection because of its intricate de
tail.”
One such work that fulfills this
hope is “Kudzu Interiors,” a 30 X
36 inch work in color ink on japan
paper.From a short distance, the
interior of a room and its contents
overtaken by the creeping green
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vine are readily apparent. A couple
of steps closer and the viewer can
literally become lost in the kudzu.
The varying shades of color(blues,
reds, and yellows) become en
twined with the green vines and
the effect is similiar to trying to de
cipher an object on a test for color
blindness.
“It’s fun to lose yourself in this
kind of drawing since it’s such an
intricate style. It’s very medita
tive,” he said.
Hammond may seem to like
kudzu, but the leafy subject is only
one of a series of ideas that he has
focused on. Hammond’s subject
matter has ranged from global is
sues such as the ozone layer,
bombs, and the black hole theory,
to his most recent preoccupation —
spikes. One of his pieces features a
man with a spike stuck is his head.
T like to play on the uncomfort
able, menacing qualities of a sub
ject. By repeating spikes through a
work, the effect is textured and un
easy,” he explained.
Hammond’s subjects might seem
a tad bit dour, but longtime friend
and colleague John English, a pro
fessor in the College of Journalism
and Mass Communication, ex
plained the artist’s style.
“Hammond’s approach is satiric,
witty, and wryly humorous. His
works communicate his serious
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concern for the perils that menace
modem man...Yet no matter how
apocalyptic Hammond’s images be
come, he still playfully sails paper
airplanes through them.”
Hammond’s work is currently
being exhibited at the Forty-first
Biennial Print Exhibition at the
Taipei Fine Arts Museum in
Taiwan and also the “Cow Show”
at the Madison—Morgan Cultural
Center in Madison, Ga.
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