Pylon - NYC 1982

Danceteria

New York City  

April 10, 1982

audience recording (sound quality VG-; transfer from first-generation tape)

Chomp cover & dino postcard...

REPERCUSSION: Chris and Gene produced Chomp, Pylon’s second (and some say best) album, most of which was recorded at Mitch Easter’s Drive-In Studio. Have a listen to this show and hear why R.E.M. covered the Pylon song "Crazy" and R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry told Rolling Stone that Pylon (not R.E.M.) were “the best band in America.” Propulsive rhythms that you can dance to, jagged-but-hooky guitar riffs, yelping/growling vocals — how bizarre-cool can you get?? 

BIG OL’ THANKS to the taper and dclubok for sharing!

Pylon: early eighties indie rock heroes (& friends of The dB's)

SAMPLE: "Beep (Danceteria NYC 1982)"

DISC 1 (first set)

1.  intro

2.  Crazy

3.  Working Is No Problem

4.  Read a Book

5.  Cool

6.  Gravity

7.  Altitude

8.  Italian Movie Theme

9.  Reptiles

10. Beep (early version)

11. Stop It

12. Volume

13. encore applause

14. M-Train (brief cut repaired at 2:33)

DISC 2 (second set)

1.  Crazy

2.  3x3

3.  Gravity

4.  Dub

5.  Cool

6.  Danger

7.  Weather Radio

8.  No Clocks

9.  Stop It

10. Beep

11. Volume

12. encore applause

13. M-Train

14. Feast on My Heart            (brief cut repaired at 2:41)

15. encore applause

16. Driving School

17. outro

Someone at the torrent tracker had these comments about some of the tracks:

Set 1: Track 10 - Beep (from Chomp, but the lyrics seem a bit different, perhaps these were just working lyrics prior to completing the lyrics that ended up on the album)

Set 2: Track 2 - 3x3 (unreleased as far as I know, only performed live)

Set 2: Track 16 - Driving School (from Gyrate, was on original pressings, later pressings [as well as European pressings] used "Recent Title" instead)

MP3@320

Pylon:

Randall Bewley (R.I.P.) - guitar

Michael Lachowski - bass

Curtis Crowe - drums

Vanessa Briscoe – vocals

Here's Vanessa Briscoe Hay (Pylon vocalist), describing the recording of the band's second album, Chomp (produced by Chris Stamey and Gene Holder) to music writer Fred Mills in 2007:

"Working with Chris and Gene, they both had such different personalities and they really complemented each other. Chris was playing around with things, stuff we hadn't thought of, like noisegating the drums; he just thought outside the box, and he didn't look at anything like it was a problem, but more like, ‘Well, if this isn't going to work, what else can we do?'" 

The rest of Fred's great feature is HERE.  

Learn more about the music of Pylon

• at AllMusic
• Vanessa Briscoe Hay's personal recollections
• these fan pages
• and/or this retrospective at Georgia Music magazine
• buy the Gyrate & Chomp re-releases with amazing remastered sound quality (and/or the awesomely groovy 2011 EP "Cover + Remix") HERE