Day 31 – Beep Beep
The continuing adventures of “Eric’s Trip Around the Sun”. One final trip with the iPod.
I had heard a story that years ago in Athens, GA when R.E.M. was thinking of starting a band up, that a very shy and nervous Michael Stipe had walked up to Vanessa Briscoe, of the band Pylon for permission to start the band.
Now, I wonder what the world would have been like if Vanessa had declined this request. The truth was that Pylon was revered at this time in Athens, and Michael Stipe was a shy introverted artist-type.
Now maybe years later, if there wasn’t an Athens scene, that Pylon would be one of those forgotten bands, whose unorthodox dance sounds would have been a misplaced artifact.
‘Beep’ demonstrates that prototypical new wave sound that isn’t necessarily demonstrative of an amazing skill for the instrumentation but rather the stylistic inventions especially of Randy Bewley on guitar.
Like many Athens bands, Pylon was not out trying to change the world. They were just a bunch of art students in an emerging dance scene, figuring out their own quirky methods in how to engage bored students and playing shows. Their sound is just as fresh and inventive today as it was over 30 years ago.
• Moby – Beautiful
• St. Vincent – The Bed
• Lou Reed – The Bed (Live)
• Animal Collective – Bees