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out of Georgia and North Carolina in
the early '80s, Atlanta-born quartet
Guadalcanal Diary often gets a deserved men
tion alongside R.E.M., Pylon and Let's Active.
As a guitar-based, melody-driven, twang-
infused power-pop band, guitarist and singer
Murray Attaway, lead guitarist Jeff Walls,
bassist Rhett Crowe and drummer John Poe
provided their own brand of excitement in the
coolest clubs in the region.
Guadalcanal Diary formed in 1981. Their
first gig was a friend's backyard wedding
party. Attaway chose the moniker from a dook
by Richard Tregaski about a U.S. campaign
against Japan during World War II.
Although officially from the Atlanta suburb
of Marietta, the band was’lumped in as one
of the major bands of the Athens/Atlanta
underground scenes of the early and mid-'80s.
"We always felt more akin to the Athens scene
than the Atlanta scene, which is why most of
us moved there," says Walls, currently of The
Woggles. "It was silly when journalists asked
us about the 'Marietta sound,' which didn't
exist...Listening back, you definitely hear that
Pylon, four-on-the-floor, Athens beat in a lot
of bands. There were certain rhythmic ways of
phrasing that sound very Athens-y to me."
In celebration of their 30th anniversary,
Guadalcanal reunites this week as one of the
headliners at AthFest's main stage. Walls,
Attaway and Crowe have already been prepar
ing for the show. Poe will be coming back to
Georgia from his home in San Francisco.
"It'll just be the four of us—the four
members that ever were," Walls says. "To me,
once you've done a reunion, the shock is not
so bad. The first reunion show we did in 1996
was tiie shock. At that time, we'd not played
together in seven years. The weirdest feel
ing came right before we went on, sitting in
the same room with the same people, about
to play the same songs we'd played a million
times before. The only thing that will be a
shock at AthFest is how young the people in
the audience are compared to us [laughs]."
Guadalcanal Diary's earliest recordings
came out on the Athens-based DB Records
label. In 1984 they released a full-length
titled Walking in the Shadow of the Big Man,
produced by North Carolina studio wiz Don
Dixon. The album earned critical praise and
college radio airtime. In 1985 Elektra Records
signed the band, reissued the album and sent
them out on tour.
"I remember when we signed with Elektra,
that was one of the things they were bitch
ing about. I remember [A&R executive] Kevin
Patrick saying, 1 don't know about those
glasses on Murray and Rhett... they might be
too nerdy.' Well, we were nerdy."
Their 1986 Elektra debut, Jamboree,
bounced with a slicker, more mainstream
production style, but 1987's 2x4 recaptured
the band's signature rock rhythms and guitar
an alternative-rock hit and enjoyed
rotation on MTV's "120 Minutes" program.
After they released 1989's Flip-Flop, the
band endured several lengthy tours before
amicably parting ways. "We didn't break up
because we didn't get along; we broke up
because we were tired of doing what we were
doing," says Walls. "But we all stayed friends."
Everyone dabbled in various projects and
collaborations over the years. Walls stayed
particularly busy, playing guitar in the theatri
cal rockabilly-pop band Hillbilly Frankenstein
and joining the garage rockers The Woggles.
This week's reunion took shape in a round
about way. "It really started in 2009 when .
I began playing in a soul and R&B band,"
says Walls. "I put it together with Phyllis
[Walls' wife] and Pat Patterson of Hillbilly
Frankenstein on bass and drums, along with
Doug Stanley on organ and guitar. We'd been
playing around town. We became Bomber City
with Murray on guitar and vocals and Diana
Crowe on vocals and percussion. It was family
thing when it came together, and it was fun."
After Bomber City got going, Attaway and
Walls started talking about the 30-year anni
versary and tossing around the idea of doing
another reunion. "You know how stuff like
that is; you get offers for stuff, but none of it
sounds like it'd be any fun," Walls says. "Then
the opportunity to play AthFest came up, so
everything lined up."
Walls says the band plans to play the
heavier fan faves from the catalog with
emphasis on their earliest material. "We
haven't reworked too many things, although
I've adapted some of my own guitar parts," he
says. "It does make you look back on som n of
the old stuff and think, 'Man, that was such a
goofy guitar part'—like an arpeggiated thing
Andy Summers might have done. It's funny
because I never liked to think of myself being
too influenced by new wave bands. To me,
they were my contemporaries, not influences.
But listening back, I was more influenced
than I realized."
As for the show, "It'll be rawer than you
know 'cause there ain't gonna be no sound
check on that stage," Walls adds. "It'll be like
being shot out of a cannon, you know? We do
have a solid set list together, though. Murray
and I wanted to put songs together for people
to dance, have fun and rock hard—that was
the only real doctrine we ascribed to. It's
•mostly the uptempo stuff—the cheeky^ rockin'
stufr m
T. Ballard Lesemann
18 FLAGPOLE.COM JUNE 22,2011
