Party Out of Bounds: The B-52’s, R.E.M., and the Kids Who Rocked Athens, Georgia

215 Pages·2016·3.4 MB·English

by  Rodger Lyle Brown

Praise for Party Out of Bounds
“Party Out of Bounds really captures the rhythm and feel of the Athens music
scene. Rodger knows. He was there from the beginning.”
—Peter Buck, R.E.M.
“For fans of the bands, rock historians, and followers of the indie scene, this is a
‘Party’ worth attending.”—Billboard
“A book about the interconnected lifelines of the artists, students and musicians
who dominate the Athens music scene is a challenging project at best, and
Brown has done a better job than anyone would have thought possible. He
delineates the tangled spheres of influence and the hundreds of threads of
potential that kept—and keep—the Athens music scene alive.”—Athens
Magazine
“His foot heavy on the accelerator, Mr. Brown speeds his readers through the
Georgia darkness from keg parties in rural love shacks to packed warehouse
dance marathons in town. . . . Without turning maudlin, Mr. Brown captures
both the joy of Athens’s youthful exuberance and the pain of a generation’s loss
of innocence to cynicism and AIDS.”—Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Luminous . . . wittily written . . . Brown’s musical and sociocultural insights
unselfconsciously pierce like perceptual spears. . . . With a book like Brown’s,
as with the B-52’s Cosmic Thing, we can revisit, again and again, a mythic place
of lust, youth, music and eyeliner; fragments of our past, shards of our present,
refractions of our future.” —San Francisco Bay Guardian “Party Out of Bounds
is an entertaining and wistful work which chronicles the origins of Athens,
Georgia’s rock scene. . . . The book also recaptures the musical rush of the late
1970s, when challenging new sounds seemed to cut through the air like
determined stilettos.”
—Memphis Flyer
Party Out of Bounds
Music of the American South
PARTY
OUT OF BOUNDS
The B-52’s, R.E.M., and the Kids Who Rocked Athens,
Georgia
Rodger Lyle Brown
Foreword by Charles Aaron
Afterword by David Barbe
Published by the University of Georgia Press
Athens, Georgia 30602
www.ugapress.org
© 1991 by Rodger Lyle Brown
Additional materials © 2016 by the University of Georgia Press
All rights reserved
Set in Minion Pro by Treva Tam
Printed and bound by Thomson-Shore
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the
Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on
Library Resources.
Most University of Georgia Press titles are available from popular e-book
vendors.
Printed in the United States of America
20 19 18 17 16 P 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Brown, Rodger
Lyle, author.
Title: Party out of bounds : the B-52’s, R.E.M., and the kids who rocked Athens,
Georgia / Rodger Lyle Brown.
Other titles: Music of the American South.
Description: Athens : Published in association with the University of Georgia
Music Business Program, The University of Georgia Press, [2016] | Series:
Music of the American South | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016014381 | ISBN 9780820350400 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Rock music—Georgia—Athens—1971–1980—History and
criticism. | Rock music—Georgia—Athens—1981–1990—History and
criticism. | B-52’s (Musical group) | R.E.M. (Musical group) Classification:
LCC ML 3534.3. B76 2016 |
DDC 782.4216609758/1809047—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016014381
Originally published in 1991 by Plume
To the memory of
Richard Louis Brown Sr.
“Does not the true character of each epoch come alive in the nature of its
children?”
—Karl Marx
“It’s been a bad day, please don’t take my picture.”
—Michael Stipe
Contents
Foreword, by Charles Aaron
Preface
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Part One: Dirty Back Roads
Chapter 1
The Founding Fathers Crash a Party—A School Is Started—The Parable of the
Iron Horse—Keith Strickland Meets Fred Schneider
Chapter 2
Fred Meets Ort—Keith and Ricky—Ricky’s Little Sister Cindy—Kate Comes to
Town—They All Get Drunk at a Chinese Restaurant—They Start a Band—They
Give It a Name: The B-52’s
Chapter 3
The B-52’s Play Their First Party—Fake Fur Shag Carpet Muff Wigs—The B-
52’s Play Their Second Party
Chapter 4 Mike Green Goes to a Party—The Fans, Atlanta’s Premiere Art Rock
Band—Athens Still Latent Hip
Chapter 5
Curtis Knapp Comes to Athens—The B-52’s Go to New York—Danny Beard
Rides Along
Chapter 6
January 1978, The Sex Pistols Play Atlanta—The First Atlanta Punk Festival—
The B-52’s Outpunk Atlanta
Chapter 7
Danny Does The B-52’s First Single—The B-52’s Play the Georgia Theater—
The Incomparable Phyllis—The Tone Tones, Athens’ Second Band
Chapter 8
The B-52’s Are Blessed—Mike Green Disappears—The Fans Blow Their
Chance—Athens Dominates
Part Two: Speakers in the Window; Sprinklers in the
Yard
Chapter 9
Michael Lachowski Bloodies an Arm—The Scrapes Clean Downtown—Curtis
Crowe Gets a Loft—The Very First 40 Watt Club
Chapter 10
Michael Lachowski Rents a Studio—Randy and Michael Buy Guitars—Curtis
Plays the Drums—Vanessa Sure Can Sing—Pylon Plays
Chapter 11
The B-52’s Have Manager Trouble—They Settle It—They Sign a Record Deal
—Their First Album Comes Out
Chapter 12
Kathleen O’Brien Meets Bill Berry—The Story of Bill and Mike—The Girls in
the Subbasement—The Scene Heats Up
Chapter 13
Pylon Goes out of Town—Pylon Seals the Deal with New York City
Chapter 14
The Church—Peter Buck and Michael Stipe—The Punk Girls of Lexington
Highway
Chapter 15
Life at the Church—The Method Actors
Chapter 16
DB Recs—Pylon Does a Single