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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
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