Pylon was an American post-punk band formed in Athens, Georgia in 1978. For most of the band's career, they consisted of Vanessa Briscoe Hay (vocals), Randall Bewley (guitar), Michael Lachowski (bass) and Curtis Crowe (drums). The group released three albums, "Gyrate" (1980), "Chomp" (1983) and "Chain" (1990). All four members of Pylon were art students at the University of Georgia in Athens. Guitarist Randall Bewley and bass guitarist Michael Lachowski began playing music and attempting to form a band in 1978. They practiced in a studio in downtown Athens which Lachowski rented from Curtis Crowe, upstairs from the current location of the Grill on College Avenue. The room was lit by a single 40-watt light bulb, so the band referred to it as the "40 Watt Club." Crowe soon joined the band as a drummer. On February 14, 1979, the three held auditions for a singer. Vanessa Briscoe (now Vanessa Briscoe Hay) was chosen. The group was named for a novel by William Faulkner Pylon played their first live show at a party on March 9, 1979. Members of The B-52's attended Pylon's third show. Fred Schneider and Kate Pierson of the B-52's were particularly supportive and helped promote Pylon's music in New York City, getting them a gig at Hurrah. Soon Pylon opened for Gang of Four in New York. Pylon's debut single, "Cool," appeared on DB Records in early 1980, and received many positive critical reviews. From 1980 to 1983 Pylon toured parts of the U.S., Canada, and the UK, playing with groups such as the B-52's, Gang of Four, Mission of Burma, Love Tractor, R.E.M., the Talking Heads, and U2. Pylon was the opening act for the first part of U2's first U.S. tour. Crazy/M-Train charted at No. 61 for Club play singles in 1982 according to Billboard Magazine entry in All Music Guide. At that time the members of Pylon were beginning to feel that playing together was becoming less fun and more like a business. They decided to break up the band in 1983. With some help from the members of R.E.M., Pylon's reputation as one of the great underground bands of the New Wave era was solidified in 1987. When Rolling Stone named R.E.M. "America's Best Band" in November 1987, R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry said, "We're not the best rock 'n' roll band in America." Pylon, he said, was the best. In the same year, R.E.M. released their compilation album Dead Letter Office (1987):the album opens with a version of Pylon's "Crazy", which had been the b-side to their single "Driver 8". Confirming this judgment, numerous musicians from the Athens rock scene publicly attest to their deep reverence for Pylon in the film Athens, GA: Inside Out. After a six-year hiatus punctuated with a smattering of reunion shows, Pylon officially reformed in 1989,[6] and opened for the final leg of R.E.M.'s "Green" tour, The group recorded with Sky Records, and released a new album Chain, and a single, "Sugarpop". They played several more shows including the South by Southwest Festival in 1990 and 1991, but when guitarist Bewley decided to leave in 1991, the band broke up again. Pylon came out of retirement again in 2004, and played their first set in more than a decade in August 2004 at the then-fledgling Little King's Shuffle Club. The band officially reunited for the second time when they played the New Year's Eve (2005) show at the 40 Watt Club; they later headlined the first night of the Athens music festival, AthFest (June 2005). In 2006, they recorded a so far untelevised segment for "Pancake Mountain". On April 4, 2007, they performed an impromptu show at Little King's to announce the reissue of "Gyrate" on DFA Records, called "Gyrate Plus", which was released on October 16, 2007. They performed several key shows in 2008 including the Part Time Punks Festival in Los Angeles, a show taped for Georgia Public Radio in Athens, Georgia, and at the Revolve Film Festival in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, with Mitch Easter. On February 25, 2009, guitarist Randall Bewley died, two days after suffering a heart attack while driving his van. DFA Records re-released Gyrate and Chomp with extra tracks as Gyrate Plus (2007) and Chomp More (2009). There are other artists with the same name: 2. Pylon (UK) Pylon is a five piece rock band from Wakefield, UK. Info - http://www.pylonline.co.uk/ 3. Pylon (drum n bass) Twenty two year old Lukas AKA Pylon is part of a rapidly rising generation of producers currently making serious modifications to traditional drum and bass. using blueprints left by the tech pioneers of the late nineties and combining them with a flurry of electronic influences including techno, hardcore and freeform to create a unique hybrid of styles within his tracks. In just under 2 years producing he has caught the attention of many respected labels and djs and has already secured releases on Sinuous, DSCI4, Venom Inc & Nerve. Pylon is part of the M3CH4PL3X collective, a group of polish producers working together to push through groundbreaking ideas and concepts, he is joined by Soccom & Yabol, together the trio have an arsenal of tracks and are working hard to keep Polish drum and bass firmly in the spotlight, expect to hear a lot more from M3CH4PL3X in 2008 and beyond! Pylon has collaborated with artists including Allied & Switch Technique, both tracks were picked up quickly and receive plays from Proket, Masheen, Kano, Nphonix & more, further collaboration projects are planned with various artists this year, keep watch for audio updates via this page as they happen. Info - www.myspace.com/pylonpl 4. Pylon duo from Finland “we (pylon) was predecessors…for avarus. Avarus was formed in 2001 as a fusion of the anaksimandros, pylon and some other space universum peace people. pylon not cobras was recorded in 2000 and it was first self-released as a cd-r with a very small edition and it was sold mainly in tampere, finland. it followed two self-released cd-r:s and the rocks and whips cd-r on boing being. after that our 7” came out on same label.” —Roope Eronen discussing Pylon on the “Routes for War and Travel” list “damn, another breath of fresh air blowing over from the finnish cloudfort. pylon sends echoing flutes & ram’s horn trumpets over fragmented folk & space-rock marching junkshop drums, maybe there’s an untuned guitar flailing along or a fuzzy casio organ, someone beating out a morse code on an oven tray or a an old typewriter. muffled abstract vocals are performed with earnest by muppets, zombies & monks & are shrouded in effects pedals. this shares something in common with related-groups Avarus/Anaksimandros/Maniacs Dream, but it’s just two guys, so there’s more space around each clang & groan. dance with goats & green maidens, run wild with robots & monsters.” 5. Pÿlon (Switzerland) Formed in 2002. Plays Traditional Doom Metal. Four full-length albums until now: Natural Songbirth (2004) Th' Eternal Wedding Band (2006) Doom (2009) Armoury of God (2011) metal-archives: http://www.metal-archives.com/bands/P%C3%BFlon/79198 official: http://www.pylon-doom.net/de/news/index.asp