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February 05, 2007
A Modest Request: Give me "Cool"
it's not often that I throw myself to the mercy of the lurking readership as I do now, but we all know how frustrating it is, in our continually coddled music consumption orgy, to not be able to find something. I believe this is known as a "bleg." Much like "blog" itself, which we've all had to live with, this is a horrible word.
Anyway, I've been punching myself in the head trying to find the song "Cool," by eighties Athens band, Pylon. I've searched means both legitimate and shady. I've drawn a total blank. So if anyone out there has it, if you could drop me an e-mail, or leave some sort of You Send it link in the comments. I'd be much obliged.
I'm not coming to you empty handed, though. No, perish the thought. I will offer up, in the accepted mp3 and video drenched currency, some background on my shameless demand...
Love of Diagrams - "No Way Out"
I've spent a good chunk of time listening to the Love of Diagrams EP that was just released on Matador Records, for the purpose of an upcoming Prefix review. It'll pop up sooner than later, but for the sake of brevity: Pretty good, not quite there, keep an out for the full length, Mosaic. Above, I've included the video for their decent single, "No Way Out." It'll give you a sense of the nouveau post-punk sound we're dealing with. There's a bit of the old, audio not quite synched thing that You Tube throws at you now and again, but I trust you're sophisticated enough to just look at the pretty colors.
Included in the Aussie group's place holding EP is a live cover of "Cool" by the afforementioned Pylon, who I'd definitely heard of but never actively investigated. A quick allmusic search gave the necessary frame of reference, placing them as more of an inspiration for than a contemporary to Georgia's favorite sons R.E.M. By the time their city of Athens had emerged as a college rock factory, they had disbanded. They reformed briefly to capture a bit of the spotlight that had eluded them, and then quickly dissolved again within a few years. All of their records now appear to be firmly out of print, with a greatest hits compilation fetching 32-60 dollars used on Amazon.
Love of Diagrams - "Cool" (live Pylon cover)
Now, I don't want to knock Love of Diagrams' version, because it's super faithful and the necessary musical energy and muddled vocal delivery that the track demands is well handled. The only thing knocking it down a peg is the murky live recording, no match for the bare bones delight of the 1980 single. A single I've only been able to hear, mind you, via this clip...
Dance-O-Rama featuring "Cool" by Pylon
Here is the original song in its natural habitat. According to its You Tube parent, who goes by the eminently trustworthy name "Mr. Pussypants," this clip is taken from an Atlanta region public access show, recorded on some date in the early eighties. Pylon are not present, but a cross section of diverse paleo-hipsters "dance" in their honor. Also, according to "Pussypants," the roughly 8 foot tall gentlemen dressed as a maraca player is a young non-drag RuPaul. That passes the eyeball test. My favorite participant is the bearded shimmier in shorts who has his star turn in the middle of a questionable video production wipe. That guy is probably somebody's dad right now, and I can only hope that those kids stumble across this clip as proof that their old man was once an unimpeachable badass.
As for the track itself, it falls into the arty, squeaky, female fronted dance monster category where records by the Slits, Bush Tetras, Delta 5, Kleenex, Malaria!, and many others rest. I love that stuff. The vocals here have that off-kilter Raincoats thing going on as well, which is harder to pin down than either the flatly disaffected or stridently angry/political poles that music of this sort usually gravitates towards. So, it's great, and I want it. No, eMusic or iTunes or LimeWire or aggregator or record store can help me. I take my sense of obscure track entitlement directly to the people...
// Love of Diagrams - Love of Diagrams EP buy
// Pylon - Hits get gouged by Amazon
UPDATE: "Bleg" success! From one of our columnists, but still. Thanks, Klein.
For all...
Posted by Jeff Klingman at February 5, 2007 10:50 AM
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Comments
Yes! Props for the Pylon post.
Posted by: Jeff at February 5, 2007 03:27 PM
Hey Swanky!
The Pylons clip came from DANCE-A-RAMA, a fab cable access show from 1981-82 outta Atlanta, GA. Nothing questionable about it!
xomrpp
ps-RuPaul stands about 6'7", not eight feet, unless he is in stilettos.
Posted by: Mr. Pussypants at March 5, 2007 08:19 PM
