BACK IN 1987, when R.E.M. were reaching a commercial breakthrough with their fifth album Document and its hit single “The One I Love,”Rolling Stone rightfully named them “America’s Best Rock & Roll Band.” But in the magazine’s accompanying cover story, drummer Bill Berry challenged this accolade. In his opinion, the best band in the US was Pylon, a broken-up outfit from their shared hometown of Athens, Georgia.
“I went back to them later and had to ask them, ‘You must really regret saying that,’ because it’s something that pops up all the time,” Pylon’s frontwoman Vanessa Briscoe Hay says. “But, no... They said they really meant it.”
Berry’s endorsement is just one example of the respect Pylon earned in the underground music scene of the early ’80s for their limber, anxious, and very danceable albums Gyrate and Chomp, as well as energetic live shows fueled by Hay’s growling vocals. The Athens band’s friends in the B-52’s gave their demo tapes to bookers, netting them gigs with Gang of Four and Talking Heads. They also landed on the Billboard dance charts with their 1982 single “Crazy/M Train.”