About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 10, 2011)
of ^Ja/e of One ffh/ HowAthens Ke^s the Hits ctnriifig, 30 Years Going hen you come to live in Athens, you're arriving some place either very big or very small. For some incoming students (or otherwise recently arrived trans plants), the idea that within a square half- mile one can go to at least a dozen places on a normal Friday night to hear live music is simply insane. That much compressed activ ity is overwhelming. To others, that half-mile squared might be a fraction of the city bustle they're accustomed to—a tiny slice of city life nestled between a neatly pruned campus, charmingly dusty ranch homes and eerily same-y duplex housing. Two perspectives, one town. But from the beginning of the music-scene until today, many constants have remained in the in-between that is Athens, most significantly: a participatory lattice of enthusiastic weirdos. Let's investigate... “I moved here, like most people, to go to college," says Michael Lachowski, photogra pher, artist and onetime bassist for Pylon, indisputably one of the most important, pioneering and fun bands to have congealed in Athens. In 1974, Lachowski "came out of an Atlanta suburbia background, and came here as an art student and went straight into the art world." Alongside The B-52s and, later, fel low travelers R.E.M., Lachowski, with vocalist Vanessa Briscoe Way, drummer Curtis Crowe and gui tarist Randy Bewley, set about casually creating what wasn't before. In the social context of the art school and house par ties, a community was developing. Lachowski credits "a real high level of participation from a whole lot of really dedicated individuals" with the coales cence of what has become a widely renowned music scene. He adds, "It was a party; everything was a party, pretty much. There was always that aspect to it. And music was a really huge part of it, and [the] sharing of new music was just by bringing the music to a party at some body's house. Somebody would have some new records, and you were doing everybody a favor if you were able to bring this new music and share it in that context. There was no Internet, and there was no finding this kind of stuff on any radio station, so new music was shared through a social scene that was estab lished through the art students, pretty much. That's how it all kinda got going." Let's briefly cut to the 1987 documentary Athens, GA: Inside/Out, a must-see for anyone interested in Athens’ history, musical or oth erwise. Juxtaposed with totally wild-looking live footage of his band, Lachowski (post- Pyton's break-up) spoke glowingly (if laconi cally) of his adopted hometown. Well," he said in 1987, "I like it here a lot. And it just depends on what kind of balance I want to have between career and quality of life. If I just decide to concentrate on quality of life, I think I'll just stay here for a long time." Asked today, nearly 25 years later, about that quote, Lachowski maintains this stance. "What happened with Pylon was: as soon as I finished college, that's right around the time that the band started up," he says. "And it wasn't very long at all before we were able to start touring, and the very first cities that we played in after Athens were New York, Philadelphia, Boston and D.C. And it was a good while later before we even got around to playing in Atlanta. "We stayed together for three-and-a-half years, so we traveled a lot. And we went to all of these cities over and over again. And we went to cities like Ann Arbor and Bloomington, IN, but for the most part, we went to a lot of very big American cities. After doing that for three-and-a-half years, the band broke up, and by then it was like, well, we gotta live somewhere, and we've just seen all of these other places, and we've seen them sufficiently to know what they're like. And after seeing so many other cities, all of us in the band felt like this is home now. And we also felt a sense of ownership because three- and-a-half years later, there was a music scene here. And since we had been instrumental in making that come into being, we felt like, well, we helped make all this, and this is our city, and we've seen every other city, and not every other city has everything that we want." route to Chicago to perform at the Lollapalooza Festival, Andrew McFarland, drummer for up-and-up-and-up-and-coming electro pop quartet Reptar, recalls his introduction to Athens through a functional lens: here, he could actually go see live music legally. "It was cool because I hadn't really been able to get into clubs for very long, having just turned 18," he says. "Coming to Athens, there were a whole bunch of clubs that were '18 and up,' where there were actually cool bands play ing. Coming from Atlanta, a lot of the clubs there that actually have cool bands were all '21 and up,' which was a huge bummer. And as far as meeting people, it was really great because the town is so small that people are going to recognize you pretty immediately when you start going to shows a lot." Unlike Lachowski, McFarland and his bandmates—bassist Ryan Engleberger, vocal ist Graham Ulincy and keyboardist William Kennedy—hit the ground running hard before they'd even fully arrived in Athens. (McFarland interned while still in high school with engineers Asa Leffer and Eric Friar at the now-defunct Downtown Athens Recording Company). Since forming in December of 2008, Reptar have left a path of sweaty house parties in their wake. They recently released their debut EP, Oblangie Fizz, Y'all!, with Vagrant Records, making them labelmates with acts such as PJ Harvey, The Hold Steady, and J Roddy Walston and the Business. While Athens, as a small place, can have an insular feel, McFarland argues against the prevailing jaded wisdom. "I didn't really realize this, but people outside of Athens pay a lot of attention to what goes on in this town," he says. "We had people in New York talking about Reptar before we had people in Atlanta talking about Reptar, which is really weird to us. I think people pay attention to things happening in Athens; I definitely did not know that that happened. I think it's important to know: people defi nitely think that it's a bubble that you never get out of, but I think it's kind of the oppo site. It's a really great starting place." While the pipeline between Athens and other places may exist, the music is still made here. And like Lachowski, McFar'and credits the community with creating an atmosphere where that is possible. "It feels very homey to us," he says. "Having played a lot of different places in town, we can go into a place and be on a first-name basis with a lot of the people who work there, and I would imagine it's probably not like that in New York. It's a really comfort able environment. You're not thinking about all these superfluous things, just thinking about music." As a means of advice, McFarland says, "I think just talking to people is really impor tant, letting it be known that you're inter ested in doing it. Because there are lots of people in this town who are interested in helping; there are so many people who are into promoting shows and going to shows and seeing what you've got." Judging by the trend over the last few decades, even more people will be around to help in the future. Jeff Tobias Michael Lachowski Wkday $1 5-$20>Wknd/Hol<day REGISTER at 706-355-3161 www.G00D0iliiT.net r-- ttrlAY CU1\ £ turn's ’-*** asa.) **«! * U *T S20/PERS0* " Prisms DBiirn mam TASTE l OF INDIA FINE INDIAN CUISINE /iuycH DUIFfl MON-FRI 11 :30am-2:30pm $7.95 SAT & SUN 12pm-3pm $8.95 Dinner: Mon-Son Spm-lOpm Open 7 Days • 131 B East Broad St. 706-559-0000 • www.indiaalhens.com BroadRiverOutpost.com Slow Water WhiteWater FREE ! Parkins Camping AUGUST 10, 2011-FLAGPOLE.COM 15
