Newspaper Page Text
r
November 20,1991
Flagpole Magazine
Page 19
on DB Records in 1983 produced by Chris
Stamey and Gene Holder (two of the dB's).
The album was to be their swan song much
to the disappointment of their fans. Chomp
included “Crazy/ a song R.E.M. later in
cluded as part of their Dead Letter Office
album giving Pylon further attention. Peter
Buck wrote in the albums’ liner notes: "I
remember hearing their version on the radio
the day Chronic Town came out and being
suddenly depressed by how much better it
was than our record."
In 1987, Pylon appeared (though the
live footage is of an earlier show) in the film
Athens, GA. Inside-Outand Bill Berry stated
in a Rolling Stone interview that same year
that he thought Pylon was "the best rock n'
roll band in America" in response to the
magazine’s assessment of R E M. The
atmosphere was ripe for Pylon to rejoin
forces.
In October of 1988 the band played to a
capacity crowd of 3.C00 at the University of
Georgia, a sign that gave the band the
confidence they needed to continue to bring
their quirky-funk tc the clubs and airwaves
Pylon reformed in 1988 and released an
anthology of their hits from ’79-’83 aptly
titled Hits on DB Records. Upon reforming
the band began working on new material,
and then in 1989 Pylon opened for REM
on a segment of the Green tour introducing
a new generation of fans to their music The
band signed a recording contract with Sky
Records out of Atlanta in 1990 and pro
ceeded to record Cham with producer Gary
Smith (The Chills, Throwing Muses, Pixies)
"He was real excited about wanting to do it, ’
explained Lachowski. "He told his mother
that he was going to do Pylon because we
were one of the ’seminal’ new music bands.
He was really excited 1 1 guess he was a little
younger than us and had seen us play in
clubs in Boston in the early 80s. He was a
big fan as well, and someone that had, by
that point in time, become a producer."
With Smith’s background in rhythmic,
thrash-pop Chain remains true to the Pylon
sense of artistic musical direction and heaps
enough guitar-dance rock into the aibum to
make it a classic by cult-alternative stan
dards.
Pylon’s show Friday night will be fol
lowed on Saturday with a yard sale at the 40
Watt beginning at 2 p m. ‘‘We’re going drag
out everything from our studio that we don’t
need anymore to sell," explained Lachow
ski. “It will include some equipment and
chairs, other things like t-shirts and posters
We want to do it so that it’s fun and as a way
to hang out It'll feel like a yard sale We’re
making t-shirts for the last show and we
have to sell those at the show and at the
sale"
Though Pylon is playing their last show,
their music has become a necessity for any
alternative music fan’s collection There’s
no telling as to whether the bang will reunute
m the future ‘‘You can't predict something
like that," Lachowski stated Here's hoping
there may be a chance
Hillary Meister
Bands in Athens — heed this call 1 Send
in press kits or just type something up on a
piece of paper with a contact phone num
ber if you d like to be included in this col
umn Send it in c/o Hillary at P O Box 1027,
Athens, GA 30603 or call me at the Flagpole
office at 549-9523
Country According
To GReeo
Hello once again. How's everybody
doing this week 7 1 ain't doing too bad myself
The weather is getting colder and the coun
try music parks are closing for the winter but
that doesn’t mean country music is over
until spring No sir. There are still lots of
clubs and best of all, there are recordings.
Because country music is so popular these
days, there are multitudesof records, tapes
and CD's to choose from Tons of new
artists have re
leases but best of
allisthere-issues
and complete li
braries of older
artists that are
coming out. Rec
ord companies
such as Rounder
and Rhino are
helping to keep
great music alive and well. One prime
example of this is the Jimmy Rodgers
complete library on Rounder Records.
Jimmy Rodgers is considered, by many
people, to be the father of country music
And for good reason. Rodgers only made
recordings from 1927 to 1933 but those
recordings influenced some people that
helped shape the modern country sound
Merle Haggard, Lefty Frizzell, and Willie
Nelson, just to name a few. Rodgers made
yodeling popular when he mixed it with
country blues But he was more than coun
try blues. Jimmy Rodgers used black jazz
and blues musicians during the depres
sion. Quite a rare thing back in those days
The Rodgers collection on Rounder is
an 8 volume set. Each volume can be pur
chased separately to lessen the financial
crunch. I recently acquired volumes 5 and
Jimmy Rodgers
is considered, by
many people, to
be the father of
country music.
6 and they are nothing short of greatness
Packed full of songs (16 on one, 17 on
another), these CDs demonstrate the true
Jimmy Rodgers Each volume represents a
particular time period therefore giving a feel
for the amount of songs he released in that
period One interesting note is that there are
out-takes and non-releases included in
these sets. But any duplication of song is
not a duplication of style If a song is in
cluded twice,
it is played
two different
ways.
It is easy
to see how
Jimmy Rodg
ers made
such a great
influence on
— American
music. His singing style, guitar playing
method, and the themes in his songs show
case American life I get lots of requests for
his music on "Dirt Roads and Honky Tonks"
and that’s good because this music needs
to be heard Perhaps this Sunday I'll do a
Jimmy Rodgers album side. Call me be
tween 5 and 6 and tell me what you think
Request line number is 542-4567.
Shows on the way include superstar
Gene Watson at the J&J Center on Friday.
Nov. 22 and Neal McCoy will be doing a
special show there on Wednesday, Nov
27. What a better way to start the Thanks
giving Holiday season than with some good
country music. That’s it for this week. It's the
season tor apple brandy so be careful if you
find it. If brandy ain’t your style, ‘till next
week — keep it green.
GReece
NKKIC MIGHT
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OWL LOUNGE
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Exotic Dancers
W/27- Two Krieks Sliv
T/28 Closed
F/29 & S/30 - Fair Darning
M/1 - Monday >i^ht Football
bar Drink Specials
7/2 The Dixie Darlings
Exotic Dancers
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