“They say people change their cell structure every seven years, so I’ve totally regenerated several times since we started Pylon forty years ago,” says Vanessa Briscoe Hay, frontwoman for that iconic Athens band and now frontwoman for Pylon Reenactment Society. “Over the course of your life, you’re going to learn new things. Your mind is going to change and expand. I’m a lot older now, and I can’t be something I’m not anymore. Pylon is our guiding star, but we’re not Pylon. We’re Pylon Reenactment Society.”
It’s easier to explain what Pylon Reenactment Society isn’t than what it actually is. It’s not a continuation or a reunion, because Vanessa is the only member in both groups. It’s neither a tribute act nor a cover band, although they do perform Pylon songs. Instead, this new band draws inspiration from that old band, taps into its motivating principles.
The 11-song set organically grew out of jams and writing sessions over several years. “Every now and then my lyrics are inspired by a meaningful conversation,” says Pylon / Pylon Reinactment Society’s Vanessa Briscoe Hay of their new single. “Several years back, Pylon Reenactment Society opened for Cindy Wilson at a small club in North Carolina. A young woman shared with me that having her father’s record collection available to her in the middle of nowhere Alabama had ‘saved her life.’ I remarked to her that ‘flowers grow everywhere’ — thinking of my own upbringing in a rural community where music and art had kept me going — I was inspired by the hopefulness of teenagers wondering about the future, no matter their circumstances.”
Pylon Reenactment Society’s “Magnet Factory” organically grew out of jams and writing sessions over several years. As the album took shape, the lyrics peeled away at the layers of time and shared spaces that make up a life. A pair of unrecorded songs by Pylon were brought in to round out this collective unspoken theme. All the music was recorded by the current four members of the band (Vanessa Briscoe Hay, Jason NeSmith, Kay Stanton, Gregory Sanders) with a stellar vocal duet with the incomparable Kate Pierson of The B-52’s.
“Magnet Factory” is set for release on February 9th, 2024 via Strolling Bones Records.
The Fat Angel Sings 