Tonight’s selections from the 1987 documentary film Athens, GA: Inside/Out.
In alternative rock music circles, Athens, Ga., has assumed a near-mythic status over the last decade as a place where bands can be independent and creative without considering commercial appeal. It's a small college town with more than its share of good bands -- the most notable being R.E.M., the B-52’s, Pylon and Love Tractor. A few years back, director Tony Gayton went there to find out what made Athens such a fertile breeding ground.
The result is "Athens, Ga. -- Inside/Out," a languid documentary on what one observer calls "one of the most Zen places on earth." So it may be, yet to judge from the music, Athens is a fairly typical college town that seems to have lucked into its few good bands without having done all that much to nurture them. The clubs seem as empty (or as full) as Washington's, but the Athens bands -- many made up of students and ex-students -- seem quite content to play without any chips on their shoulders. "It's not a steppingstone," one musician says, explaining that he plays for the "dignity and fun" of making music. [...]
The range of musical motivations range from the Barb-B-Que Killers' "We all met each other and said 'Hell, yeah!' " to Time Toy's "We played through his stereo for a while and decided we were a band." Sometimes there's a lack of motivation, too: Pylon, constantly referred to as an inspiration and the best band in town, called it quits "while we were still having a good time." One member now works in a photocopy shop, while another vegetates, not quite sure what to do, though she'll probably do it in Athens. "If I decide on quality of life," she says, "I'll be here a long time."
Interviews and performances are skillfully interwoven, but musicians aren't the only subjects in Gayton's free-form film. There's the primitive painter, the Rev. Howard Finster, explaining his intuitive art and strumming "When the Saints Go Marching In" with Dexter Romweber of the Flat Duo Jets (Romweber looks like Kurt Russell playing a punk Elvis). And there's Walter Rittenberg, MB (master of barbecue), and the Rev. John D. Ruth, another visionary artist compelled "to take nothing and make something." Some of the film's nicest moments come when Ruth and his wife sit down at his little pump organ to make some gospel music. — WaPo
B-52's
Bill Berry [R.E.M.] once told Rolling Stone that R.E.M. wasn’t the best band in America – Pylon, their Athens compatriots, were a better band according to Berry. Fronted by Vanessa Briscoe (now Hay), Pylon could have easily trumped Talking Heads as the punk outfit that managed to achieve mainstream success. The band’s inclusion on Athens, GA: Inside/Out, “Stop It”, is representative of Pylon’s penchant for rhythmical rock that constantly flirted with going off of the rails into punk oblivion. Although the song is the only track offered by Pylon on the soundtrack, it speaks volumes to the influence that the band continues to have on the Athens scene. — Pop Matters
Pylon
Other, less famous bands from Athens during the 1980s grace the compilation. Do the kids who listen to the White Stripes religiously know of the Flat Duo Jets? Probably not, but they ought to. Fronted by Dexter Romweber (a man MTV’s Cutting Edge once called “no poseur”), the Flat Duo Jets were a guitar and drums two-piece way before two-pieces were cool. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not calling bands like the White Stripes and the Black Keys phonies (trends in art are almost assuredly circular), but the band’s songs on Athens, GA: Inside/Out just proves how much groundwork Romweber laid with the Flat Duo Jets. If noise could be measured in weight, the Flat Duo Jets almost certainly produced it tons and their offerings here (“Jet Tone Boogie” and “Crazy Hazy Kisses”) are evidence of that heaviness. If there is any justice in this world, the release of Athens, GA: Inside/Out will spark a renewed interest in the rockabilly-blues legends that have unfortunately never received the credit they’ve quite deserved. — Pop Matters
Flat Duo Jets
The Bar-B-Q Killers, by far the most punk group on the soundtrack, are spotlighted for good reason. “His and Hearse” is a face-melting tune in under two minutes that is sure to capture the imagination of many who haven’t yet heard the song and incite dangerous levels of nostalgia for those that have. The fast riffs and chaotic drums are a perfect bookend to the perfect pop tune “Golden” by Dreams So Real that follows it. — Pop Matters
The Bar-B-Que Killers might just have the single best line in the documentary: “Smoke pot, drink beer, take LSD, Hell yeah!”.
Bar-B-Q Killers
Love Tractor was founded in 1979 by art students Armistead Wellford, Mike Richmond, and Mark Cline as a vehicle to entertain their art school pals in the then backwater college town of Athens. Love tractor first performed at a house party in 1980 at the infamous “Pylon Park” — a rambling and decrepit Victorian house buried on the back of two acres of land and inhabited by members of Pylon, (hence the name) and Love Tractor. Rocking, drunken, drugged house parties were par for the course with Athens’ art students and fitted nicely with the conceptual art movement popular at the time. Kit Swartz (the Side Effects) and Bill Berry (R.E.M.) Shared drumming duties. — Psychedelic Baby Magazine
Love Tractor
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No introduction needed here. Safe to say that without R.E.M.’s participation (and growing success during the mid to late 80s), this documentary would not have been widely distributed. Perhaps never even made.
R.E.M.
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Athens GA Inside/Out: A Panel Discussion
WHO’S TALKING TO WHO?
Jimmy Kimmel: Emma Stone, Nathan Fielder, Paul Mescal, Laufey
Jimmy Fallon: Jason Momoa, Elizabeth Debicki, Drew & Jonathan Scott, Thumpasaurus
Stephen Colbert: Jonathan Karl, Maria Bamford
Seth Meyers: Chris Tucker, Paul Dano, Clementine Moss
The Daily Show: Taika Waititi, guest host Leslie Jones
LAST WEEK'S POLL: BEST DECADE FOR MUSIC
1950s 7%
1960s 26%
1970s 26%
1980s 21%
1990s 14%
2000s 0%
2010s 0%
Pie 5%
