Kevin Dunn - Pylon & B-52s producer, early '80s GA scene

Anyone heard of this guy? I had not before this week.

Multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, producer, and self-styled “guitar egghead” Kevin Dunn was one of the most distinctive and influential figures on the vital southern new wave scene. As a producer, he helped guide the early recorded efforts of Pylon and the B-52s, while as a performer (both under his own name and as a member of Atlanta's legendary Fans) he crafted (and continues to create, to this day) startling music that bristled with invention, melodic wit, and exploratory zeal – a uniquely southern refraction of the textural and lyrical possibilities of avant-garde pop.

No Great Lost: Songs, 1979-1985
– A Deluxe Anthology of Pivotal Post-Rock Provocateur Kevin Dunn –
Due In Spring, 2010 on the Casa Nueva Imprint

Out of circulation for over two decades, the recordings gathered on the upcoming release No Great Lost: Songs, 1979-1985 shine much-needed light on the art of Kevin Dunn: insidiously influential unsung architect of post-rock and self-styled “guitar egghead.” Emanating from his home town of Atlanta, Georgia, Dunn’s music bristles with invention, melodic wit, and exploratory zeal – a uniquely southern refraction of the textural and lyrical possibilities first made apparent to him by the avant-garde pop stylings of such formative influences as the Velvet Underground, Robert Fripp, and Taking Tiger Mountain-era Eno.

http://robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=kevin+dunn

I'm digging "No Great Lost." I think Dan Selzer would like this -- almost seems like a companion volume to the Method Actors record he just put out on Acute (although they seem to be one of the only Athens / Atlanta bands that wasn't produced by this dude as far as I can tell)

http://www.nogreatlost.com/

Kevin was a member of the Fans, an excellent band that released 3 7" records back in the day. I highly recommend the "True" single. Kevin also had some success with Kevin Dunn & the Regiment of Women, and an excellent solo 7" w/ an AMAZING cover of Chuck Berry's "Nadine."

i misread thread title and was getting really excited about kevin drumm collaborating with pylon and b52s :(

Missed this thread (been sticking to bookmarks mostly), but I've been a big fan of Kevin Dunn since discovering him and the Fans around 2000 or so. There was actually a bit of talk back then about doing something on Acute, the Kevin Dunn stuff and The Fans...I even wrote Alfredo Villar (of the Fans) a letter but got no response, and the Kevin Dunn talks stalled for various reasons ranging from their frustration with the lack of master tapes and my laziness I'm sure. Glad to see this Kevin Dunn comp finally and will be writing about it on the Acute blog soon. It's really great...The backstory with the tapes is that the original masters were lost in a fire and Kevin didn't want to master from vinyl as the pressings weren't that great. However, they had the original multi-track masters so an engineer basically recreated the mixes. I've only listened to the new comp a bit but it didn't sound much different, just better. They didn't "remix" it, just mixed it following what can be heard on the vinyl.

It would be nice if the Fans singles ever got reissued as well...

Great story about one of those Fans singles, recounted in the book "Party Out Of Bounds": they pressed it to spin at 33 1/3, which then sounded like Alvin and the Chipmunks when played at 45 on the jukebox at CBGB. One of the tracks was a cover of The Tornados' "Telstar," which, being an instro, probably worked better than the vocal numbers.

... which is recounted on the Acute blog. Haha, nevermind!

Kinda vaguely recall "Nadine" and I like this review:

makes his guitars sound like angry animals and natural catastrophes,” rhapsodized
the late Robert Palmer in a New York Times column from 1984

seems like a companion volume to the Method Actors record

Agreed -- I'm loving both of those (thanks, Dan, for the Method Actors one btw.) I'd throw in Pylon's late '09 Chomp More on DFA), and the Endtables (from Louisville, on Drag City) and Raymilland (from St. Louis, on BDR) archival CDs, too -- this is turning into a surprisingly good year for resuscitated early '80s provincial post-punk music. Maybe I'll even see if somebody will let me write about it somewhere.

(Endtables technically very late '70s, I guess, but still.)

very excited about Endtables. Already loving Raymilland (also written about on the Acute blog, when I discussed it along with other archival releases, Flaming Tunes, Tape #1 and Interference.

I'm pretty sure Oh! OK! has also been re-issued recently, and Swimming Pool Q's definitely has.

Oh OK! Original Recordings CD I have is Collector's Choice 2002; Swimming Pool Q's The Deep End CD I have is DB 2001. That's a while, though it's possible there's been reissues by both bands since I hadn't heard of. (I liked The Deep End enough to pick up two later Swimming Pool Q's LPs on used vinyl the past few years; neither has done much for me, to be honest, but those don't count anyway.)

So how come nobody's ever reissued any Brains albums?? (Or have they?)

Oops, Oh-OK one is called The Complete Recordings, actually.

listening to No Great Lost and loving it

John Cale took a demo tape of the Fans around to try to get a record company interested, apparently without luck-- he didn't have a record contract himself at that time! The Fans' cover of Cale's "Guts" was a regular part of their set list back then (1977). Over 30 years later I can still remember a song Kevin sang live, in a very Eno-esque style, called "Sharp Boys", and one that Alfredo did about "we've got the guns, we've got the money."

A fair number of years ago, Peter Buck announced in Rolling Stone that he was intending to produce a Fans retrospective, but evidently nothing came of that either. I'm looking forward to getting "No Great Lost."

A fair number of years ago, Peter Buck announced in Rolling Stone that he was intending to produce a Fans retrospective, but evidently nothing came of that either. I'm looking forward to getting "No Great Lost."

What he said somewhere was that one of the things he wanted to do if he ever made money from REM was to release a Fans retrospective. I asked him about this years ago, chiding him for breaking his promise, as REM had certainly made some money. His response - as polite as he could make it - was something along the lines of the band members being fairly hard to pin down to anything, prone to odd demands and pretty unresponsive.

"Nadine" is so fucking good

Yes, sir. Kevin's version of "Nadine" is one of the best covers you're likely to come across. The Fans did a very respectable cover of "Heroin" at their gigs.

...from what I understand, Peter Buck got a long way towards finishing the "Fan-thology," but it never got the final seal of approval from the band. Apparently a few people have copies. I have the three singles, which are very cool. The two UK ones on Albion aren't impossible to find these days, but the self-released debut one is (I just have a dub).

The "No Great Lost" anthology has a couple of cool covers, in addition to "Nadine": there's the demented live guitar-freakout version of Bo Diddley's "Mona," which is pretty amazing, and an upside-down deconstruction of "Louie, Louie" which must be heard to be believed. There was also a cover of Arthur Alexander's (via the Stones) "You Better Move On" on his "Tanzfeld" LP, which also housed an amazing version of "Burning Love" sung by the Method Actors' David Gamble. You can get "Burning Love" and the Fans' "True" on the DB Recs anthology "Squares Blot out the Sun," which you can still find kinda cheaply out there. It has lots of other cool GA new ave on it, too...

The non-singles stuff that was to be on the Fans CD isn't quite as good as the singles. But listening to it now, I hear a huge John Cale solo influence.

this is turning into a surprisingly good year for resuscitated early '80s provincial post-punk music. Maybe I'll even see if somebody will let me write about it somewhere.

Done:

http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-07-13/music/the-endtables-emerge-at-last/

So what was to be on the Fans CD? I've got the singles and the EP, but it would be so nice to hear some of those other songs again after all these years... Sharp Boys... Adolescence... She Don't Understand Me... Heart of Chrome...

New covers of Cyndi Lauper and Lionel Hampton/Sonny Burke/Johnny Mercer:

https://kevindunn.bandcamp.com/track/midnight-sun-ft-h-e-l-i
https://kevindunn.bandcamp.com/track/she-bop-sive-pronominum-carmen

13 years later, realizing I never responded about the Fans CD. It's got the 3 singles, and then it has 7 unlabeled songs. Maybe I had the titles at some point but searching my old emails with John Falstaff I don't see anything.

Let's see, first two live but well recorded and clear, def soundboard w some applause at the ends, see if any lyrics match the titles above....

track 8 sounds like John Cale fronting the Byrds.

track 9, more John Cale, def kevin dunn melodies on the chorus, driving led zep immigrant song groove on verse. "just maybe, flowers in the house, walls caving, better do without" "cold forceps, try to drag it out...short memories, lots to talk about" "dark forces?"

track 10, lo-fi 4trk demo? Mostly solo guitar with some fripp guitar lead "he'll look through your skin"

track 11, live again, sounds like early Dunn solo stuff, staccato keyboard, droney guitar, Eno vocals

track 12, live, heavy velvets John Cale. If Cale sang Heroin. He even does the screaming bits like Cale. I assume this is Villar, he definitely spent a lot of time with Fear. More people should.

track 13, "boredom grabs you buy the hair"

track 14, lo-fi piano demo, "the halos hidden in the fade" "remember me, to who remembers you, we'll tell the rest just not to bother"

sorry was hoping it'd be clear that I'd hear some of these song names mentioned above but I didn't. I didn't listen super close though.

It's nice stuff and historically interesting and with the singles, def a worthwhile reissue. Sad I couldn't pull it off in 2005.

Ah, interesting