Crib Notes

The reissue of Pylon’s second album, Chomp, arrived like a thief in the night in October. Like the DFA-sanctioned reissue of its predecessor, Pylon’s debut full-length Gyrate,  the sound qualities have been greatly improved and some strange odds and ends have been tacked on as well.

Dubbed Chomp More, the reissued album benefits a good deal from the remaster treatment it received for this first-time CD appearance. The brighter cadences and darker nuances of opening number “K,” along with “Yo-Yo,” “Italian Movie,” “Buzz” and the album’s undisputed classic “Crazy” unfurl with the bounce, hazy disco, punk and funk angles that defined alternative rock when Chomp was initially released in 1983.

It’s a natural instinct to blather on about the group’s Athenian cohorts R.E.M. and the B-52’s when trying to qualify what made Pylon such a revered part of Athens’ musical heritage. But Pylon wielded a darker sexual, emotional and cerebral edge. The only thing they had in common with those other bands was time and place. It’s more fitting to drop names like PiL, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Gang of Four and Wire if you’re attempting to peg the group’s post-punk and raw new wave aesthetics. But even those comparisons don’t quite add up either. “No Clocks” and “Reptile” are rigid songs by design, underscoring the group’s signature styles — mechanical rhythms, sparse and chattering guitar lines and Vanessa Briscoe-Hay’s growling mantras that all compliment each other with balanced precision. But there’s a looseness to it all that swells within these songs, and an element of simplicity that taps into the higher functions of musical cognition.

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Shortly before 5 p.m. this evening (Wednesday, February 25) Pylon guitarist Randy Bewley died in the I.C.U. at Athens Regional Medical Center. He was 53 years old.

A blog post on the group’s Myspace page reads,

“Today, our bandmate and brother passed away at a little before 5 p.m. with his family and friends at his side. He will be missed, even as we celebrate his life and creativity. His guitar sound was as special as he was and always will be. Randy’s guitar work defined not only a generation of sound but Randy himself. His visual art, painting and photos, combined with his signature sound formed a loose set of boundaries that helps understand him. His quiet devotion to family and friends will become a benchmark for those he leaves behind.”

Earlier today Crib Notes reported that Bewley had suffered a heart attack while driving on Barber Street in Athens. According to an e-mail from the group’s vocalist Vanessa Brisco-Hay, “His van drifted off the road and tipped over. No other people or vehicles were involved. Rescue workers did CPR at the scene and he was taken to Athens Regional Medical Center. He is in ICU.”

This is a very sad day.

(Photo courtesy of Pylon’s Myspace page).

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Early in the evening on Mon., Feb. 23 Pylon guitarist Randy Bewley suffered a heart attack while driving on Barber Street in Athens. According to an e-mail from the group’s vocalist Vanessa Brisco-Hay, “His van drifted off the road and tipped over. No other people or vehicles were involved. Rescue workers did CPR at the scene and he was taken to Athens Regional Medical Center. He is in ICU.”

More information will be posted on Crib Notes as it develops.

(Photo courtesy of Pylon)

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This week Rob Trucks posted an interview with Pylon on the Village Voice’s Sound of the City music blog. The group is in New York to play WNYU’s 35th Anniversary Celebration’s at the Knitting Factory this Mon., Dec. 15th.

Three of Pylon’s four members–drummer Curtis Crowe, lead singer Vanessa Briscoe (now Briscoe Hay), bassist Michael Lachowski and guitarist Randy Bewley–still live [in Athens], playing in their third incarnation (seemingly final breakups in 1983 and 2001 didn’t quite take) of one of indie-rock’s most important collectives.

Pylon- 2007 from dawnbridges on Vimeo.

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Two shows over the weekend delved into equal but opposite ends of the outer reaches of vivid, noisy and arty psychedelic rock, yielding vastly different and equally distinctive sounds.

On Halloween night I hid out in the balcony during the Deerhunter record release party for their third album, Microcastle. Times New Viking opened with a crackly, noise-afflicted pop dirge of brain-teasing hooks swimming in ugly but beautiful overdrive. Jay Reatard followed with a face full of hair-thrashing, shot-gun punk energy, playing a little longer than his typical 20-minute set, but not by too much.

From a smaller stage it’s much easier to get swept into the moment of sheer, cathartic punk rock release during Jay’s shows. But from the safety of my perch in the balcony high above Variety’s stage, Jay’s typically sped-up tirades did the songs a bit of a disservice. He peeled through dozens of songs, spanning his “solo” singles pre-Blood Visions all the way through his recent spate of Matador 7-inches, but he just couldn’t get through them fast enough. Songs like “Hammer I Miss You,” “My Shadow” and “Screaming Hand” were played so fast that the delivery felt cartoonish… Intense to be sure, but they could definitely benefit from a dose of Xanax.

Afterward, it took Pylon a minute to reach cruising altitude with opening song “Cool,” but they hit stride soon enough. The sparseness and dub-like tension in their pop/new wave pop arrangements gives the group both strength and a timeless sense of intrigue, which was made all the more intense following Jay Reatard’s spastic energy. or whatever that’s worth, a few youngsters within my earshot grumbled that Pylon went on for too long… but the rest of the steadily building crowd seemed no worse for the wear.

Deerhunter closed with a performance that empowered songs from Microcastle with a much greater punch than anything the record offers. “Cover Me (Slowly),” “Never Stops” and “Nothing Ever Happened” unfolded behind a stunning barrage of lights as each song transformed from elegant order into chaos; culminating in a massive, all-consuming drone. When the audience demanded more, the group obliged with a menacing “Lake Somerset” stomp that bled into a few other more recent songs before segueing back into the drone and putting a cap on a weird and sensory overloading Halloween night.

The following night I made my way over to The Earl to catch “an evening with the Legendary Pink Dots.” I always forget about the gothic appeal this group holds, until I’m confronted with their audiences… That and when the door guy asked, “what’s up with all the goths here tonight?”

It’s nothing more than a coincidence as far as I’m concerned; a byproduct of the Pink Dots pairings with the members of Skinny Puppy for the Tear Garden albums… That and Edward Ka-Spel does posses a certain dark and mystical quality that doesn’t fit easily anywhere else. But I still maintain that throwing around words like psychedelic, avant-garde, post-industrial folk, experimental and just plain weird are more fitting of the group’s sound and vision. It’s an age old dilemma that has followed the group since their inception in 1980, and it’s not a bad thing.

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Pylon’s DFA associates Mogg & Naudascher have perpetrated a remix of their song, “Danger!!,” which appears on a 14-track mix by Supersoul’s Paul Mogg for Fact Magazine in the UK. You can hear this mix by downloading it at the link below.

The original version of “Danger!!” appears on DFA’s expanded reissue of Pylon’s first album, Gyrate, which is appropriately titled, Gyrate Plus. The song itself is a remix of “Danger” that the group remixed in a dub style for the B-side of a UK 10-inch vinyl release of the songs “Cool,” “Dub” and “Driving School” back in 1980.

To hear the Paul Mogg remix of “Danger!!” click here to download the comp. and jump down to track number 11.

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