Thursday, October 29, 2015

Throw Back Thursday : Pylon

It doesn't get much better than this '80s Athens, Georgia band fronted by Vanessa Briscoe Hay. Their music is like brittle sticks snapping under rhythmic punches. There are guitar melodies but even the vocals accent beats as if they too are a percussion instrument. There is nothing extracurricular about their songs, every note and beat is measured and executed with a dancing precision. Imagine a small and powerful motorboat skidding through choppy, rough waters. This is what their pioneering sound reminds me of.

Their unique version of post punk was inspired by (and peers to) bands like the B-52s, Gang of Four, Television, and Talking Heads but in a decades time would become an influence to the next generations of bands like: R.E.M., Sleater Kinney, Deerhunter, LCD Soundsystem, Wedding Present, Life Without Buildings, Fire Party, and Love of Diagrams to name just a small handful of the artists.







1 comment:

  1. Love Pylon! I saw them in Boston back in the early 1980s. They were great, of course. It was a small club that didn't have much of a stage, and Vanessa looked like she wasn't too sure about the mosh pit in front of her. I even wrote a song about that show called "In the Pit" (where I was, trying to keep my balance). :)

    One of the first bands I thought of when I heard Positive No was Pylon, mostly for the instrumental interplay.

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