Pylon - 1988-12-31 Athens, GA (sbd M1)

40 Watt
Athens, GA
Dec. 31, 1988
  
soundboard recording (EX quality; from cassette copy of master)
  

SAMPLE: Gravity

An old Pylon gig flier I defaced.

LINEAGE: online download of 16-bit lossless file > Audacity 3.7 for Mac for normalization & DC offset, track splits, removing dead spots, fades, tagging, and 1 pass of EQ > FLAC16  *NO COMPRESSION, NO NOISE REDUCTION* 

Pylon:

Randy Bewley (R.I.P.)  - guitar
Vanessa Briscoe Hay - vocals
Curtis Crowe - drums
Michael Lachowski - bass

ROB SEZ: HECK YES: New Year's Eve with Pylon. HUGE thanks to the kind trader who shared this with me. He prefers to remain anonymous, and told me this is from a cassette copy of the soundboard master. As received, I only needed to split and tag the tracks, normalize, apply fades, remove dead spots, and apply one pass of modest eq to bring the high frequencies into better balance. No compression and no noise reduction were used in this edit. Vanessa announces Catch as "a new song" (a studio recording appears on the 1990 LP Chain). On this recording, Crazy features a minute-long Randy Bewley instrumental prior to the rest of the band joining in; I like it.

FLAC

MP3@320

  

Pylon - 1988-07-23 Athens, GA (sbd M1)

40 Watt

Athens, GA

July 23, 1988

soundboard recording (EX quality; from cassette copy of master)

00 stage entrance, tuning

01 Driving School

02 Cool

03 Working Is No Problem 

04 Gravity

05 Altitude

06 Show

07 Crazy

08 Danger

09 No Clocks

10 Read a Book

11 There It Is

12 Weather Radio

13 Volume

14 Beep

15 Stop It

16 pre-encore applause, etc.

17 M-Train

18 Feast On My Heart

19 pre-encore applause, tuning, etc.

20 Dub

SAMPLE: Cool

Pylon:

Randy Bewley (R.I.P.) - guitar

Vanessa Briscoe Hay - vocals

Curtis Crowe - drums

Michael Lachowski - bass

LINEAGE: online download of 16-bit lossless file > Audacity 3.7 for Mac for normalization & DC offset, track splits, removal of dead spots, adding fades, tagging > FLAC16   -NO EQ, NO COMPRESSION, NO NOISE REDUCTION-

Do yourself a favor: get Pylon Box

ROB SEZ: HUGE thanks to the kind trader who shared this with me. He prefers to remain anonymous, and told me this is from a first-generation cassette copy of the soundboard master. As received, I only needed to split and tag the tracks, normalize, apply fades, and remove dead spots. No eq, compression or noise reduction were used; no small animals harmed.

Vanessa not only thanks the 40 Watt, but also R.E.M. — the reason for which is not evident, since REMTimeline has the band in N.Y. state in this part of July, and they played no known gigs on 23 July. 

I like this recording a bit better than the 1983 soundboard I shared last week. Vanessa's voice is more prominent in the mix, and the band sounds tighter than ever. Please enjoy.

FLAC

MP3@320

    

Pylon - 1983-06-29 Athens, GA (sbd M1)

40 Watt

Athens, GA

June 29, 1983

  

soundboard recording (EX quality; from cassette copy of master)

   

SAMPLE TRACK: Buzz

Pylon:

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

Vanessa Briscoe Hay - vocals

Curtis Crowe - drums

Michael Lachowski - bass

The recording I'm sharing is pretty good.
But this official release is AMAZING.
A must have; go get it.

ROB SEZ:  HUGE thanks to the kind trader who shared this with me. He prefers to remain anonymous, and told me this is from a first-generation cassette copy of the soundboard master. Sounds pretty damn good to me! Apparently, two sets were played this night: Set 1 is comprised of tracks 1-9. The tape flip happened near the end of Yo-Yo and the start of K. About 30-45 seconds from the end of the former was lost as a result, but only a few seconds of the latter's opening notes are missing. Otherwise, this is the complete performance. 

 

As received, I only needed to split and tag the tracks, remove dead spots, create fade-ins and fade-outs, and apply 1 pass of modest eq to bring the high frequencies into better balance. No compression and no noise reduction.

Vanessa: if you happen to read this, please remember I did ask! 42 years later, I hope you'll agree there's no real harm in letting the band's fans hear this amazing performance. No one's making any money here. This is from a fan for fellow fans.

    

FLAC

MP3@320

Pylon - Danceteria, NYC 1982

LOSSLESS REPOST

Danceteria

New York City  

April 10, 1982

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

Pylon: early eighties indie rock heroes

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

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!

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)
               
FLAC

  
MP3@320

Pylon:

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

Michael Lachowski - bass

Curtis Crowe - drums

Vanessa Briscoe – vocals

MORE REPERCUSSION: 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?'" 

Learn more about the music of Pylon

• at AllMusic
• Vanessa Briscoe Hay's personal recollections
• these fan pages
• buy the amazing new 4-disc Pylon box set from New West Records HERE (single-disc remastered albums also available)

 

Pylon - Athens, GA + Columbia, S.C. 1981

LOSSLESS REPOST

Tyrone's O.C.
Athens, GA
March 15, 1981

soundboard recording (quality VG++; sounds like a master tape source; unlike other boots, this recording responds well to treble adjustment)

01 Driving School (fades in)
02 Information
03 Efficiency
04 Italian Movie Theme
05 Precaution

06 Working Is No Problem
07 Modern Day Fashion Woman 
08 Read a Book
09 The Human body
10 Recent Title*
11 Gravity
12 Cool
13 Weather Radio 
14 Reptile
15 Danger
16 Dub
17 Volume
18 No Clocks

19 Stop It

20 Feast On My Heart

21 3 x 3

22 Batman/Wipeout Medley (fades out)

*set two begins with track 10

TT: 1 hr. 15 mins.

 

Pylon: live 1981
fab photo by Jay Thomas

Von Henmon's

Columbia, S.C.
Summer 1981

audience recording (sound quality VG+; 2ng-gen tape source; quite listenable show [this was said to be a soundboard, but it can't be b/c crowd is as loud as the band])

01 Cool (fades in)
02 Crazy
03 Weather Radio 
04 Danger
05 3X301 Driving School (fades in)

02 Information
03 Efficiency
04 Italian Movie Theme
05 Precaution

06 Working Is No Problem
07 Modern Day Fashion Woman 
08 Read a Book
09 The Human body
10 Recent Title*
11 Gravity
12 Cool
13 Weather Radio 
14 Reptile
15 Danger
16 Dub
17 Volume
18 No Clocks
19 Stop It
20 Feast On My Heart 
21 3X3
22 Batman/Wipeout Medley (fades out)

*set two begins with track 10

TT: 1 hr. 15 mins.

Pylon at Little Kings, 2007.
Cool photos by Mike White via Flickr

06 No Clocks
07 Stop It
08 Driving School 
09 Gravity
10 Read a Book 
11 Precaution 
12 Crazy (repeated) 
13 Reptile 
14 Dub 
15 Volume 
16 Feast On My Heart 
17 M-Train 
18 Cool

TT: 1 hr. 2 mins. 

Pylon:
Randall Bewley (R.I.P.) - guitar 
Michael Lachowski - bass
Curtis Crowe - drums
Vanessa Briscoe Hay - vocals
   
FLAC

  
MP3@320

  

Pylon - New Year's Eve show 2004

LOSSLESS RE-POST

40 Watt Club

Athens, GA

Dec. 31, 2004

PYLON:  living large, in-charge, and reunited in 2004

Not just any New Year's Eve show, 

but a hometown gig by one of Athens, GA's finest bands.

audience recording (sound quality VG; transfer from master recording; just enough audience noise to remind you which night of the year it is...)

01 Cool

Pylon: The band & those orange safety cone thingies

02 Dub

03 Driving School

04 Volume

05 Italian Movie 

     Theme

06 Fluorescence

07 Beep

08 Read a Book

09 Danger

10 Crazy

11 Gravity

12 Working Is No 
     Problem

13 K

14 Feast On My Heart

15 Stop It

16 M-Train

17 Sloganistic

Too late into the new year for a New Year's eve show? Not for Pylon fans...

FLAC

MP3@320

BIG THANKS to SS, who recorded and mastered this fine show. More HERE.

PYLON:

Vanessa Briscoe Hay - vocal

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

Michael Lachowski - bass

Curtis Crowe - drums

There's another Pylon post HERE, where you can also find links to learn more about the band, its music & its connections to The dB's