Cool Town: How Athens, Georgia, Launched Alternative Music and Changed American Culture

by Grace Elizabeth Hale

In the summer of 1978, the B-52's conquered the New York underground. A year later, the band's self-titled debut album burst onto the Billboard charts, capturing the imagination of fans and music critics worldwide. The fact that the group had formed in the sleepy southern college town of Athens, Georgia, only increased the fascination. Soon, more Athens bands followed the B-52's into the vanguard of the new American music that would come to be known as alternative, including R.E.M., who catapulted over the course of the 1980s to the top of the musical mainstream. As acts like the B-52's, R.E.M., and Pylon drew the eyes of New York tastemakers southward, they discovered in Athens an unexpected mecca of music, experimental art, DIY spirit, and progressive politics--a creative underground as vibrant as any to be found in the country's major cities.

In Athens in the eighties, if you were young and willing to live without much money, anything seemed possible. Cool Town reveals the passion, vitality, and enduring significance of a bohemian scene that became a model for others to follow. Grace Elizabeth Hale experienced the Athens scene as a student, small-business owner, and band member. Blending personal recollection with a historian's eye, she reconstructs the networks of bands, artists, and friends that drew on the things at hand to make a new art of the possible, transforming American culture along the way. In a story full of music and brimming with hope, Hale shows how an unlikely cast of characters in an unlikely place made a surprising and beautiful new world.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, History, Pop Culture, Biography, Academic, Art

384 pages, Hardcover

First published February 13, 2020

Reviews

[Miguel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rarely does one read a book in which they felt that they got a glimpse of first hand. Having attended UGA and lived in Athens in the late 80’s and attended a lot of shows in the clubs there it was definitely a walk down memory lane, although not always a pleasant one.

First and foremost, no one in my two years there ever uttered the word ‘bohemian’ to describe anyone inside or outside the music scene. Yes, the author does point out the ‘townie’ pejorative that was more often used, but her overuse and abuse of the word bohemian was annoying and cringe-worthy at best. I suppose we should be grateful that she didn’t use ‘hipster’ instead?

Next, while the author was not factually inaccurate on any of the names and places, she presented a tale that had a much different lived experience than many others in that milieu. She captures the shared recollections such as many out-of-towners moving to town to see what all the fuss was about and leaving shortly thereafter (the quip about Gibby and the Butthole Surfers was a well-worn anecdote). These short stays had much to do with Athens’ social groups and circles in the music scene especially at that time being extremely insular and having a way overinflated sense of self-importance and egos for what was essentially a typical college town with many local bands; for the most part there was hardly any there-there. Certainly after the early bout of creativity in the late 70’s and early 80’s it had become a shell of its former self, running on the fumes of its former glory.

Having said that, credit should be given to highlight the names of bands and people that would otherwise have been forgotten – it was nice to see mentions of BBQ-Killers and Mercyland and Porn Orchard. It’s difficult for me to think that anyone with just a passing interest in the B-52’s or REM would want to read or much less listen to some of these present-day obscurities, but kudos to her for capturing them.

Much more critically, the book clumsily addresses race in Chapter 5 when the author goes into self-flagellation and historical revisionism mode on the topic of diversity and appropriation in the Athens scene. It feels as though the author is desperately attempting to cram a topical subject into a time and place where it held much less social relevance. Though she doesn’t accuse anyone of being overtly racist, there is attribution of guilt by absence. Look, to be clear, even though I wasn’t an integral participant of that scene, in my time spent going to many shows I never once detected anything untoward anyone with a differing skin tone and the ginning up of this issue is in the end very inept. Only one time was racism on display as some skinheads showed up to a show at the 40 Watt, and only because Fugazi was headlining their first show there and the draw was Ian McKaye. Now, of course there was overt racism in general in that dinky town because, duh, it was still in the deep South in that time period; but put blame where it was due - namely with the local hicks and the overbearing white frat population. And not that she posits this, but did she really think that African Americans or POC would look at these scene doofuses with their ratty clothes and crappy music and want inclusion in that? Good lord! I know of at least one POC who did want in, and Melvin was booked at the 40 Watt and the Uptown and his ‘band’ (loosely calling it that because he fronted a crappy noise outfit) got plenty of shows without any problem or hint that he was being treated differently. Again, the more likely reason for any Black absence in that scene is that like a lot of us, being in Athens meant getting an education, not dropping out and getting drawn into the drug and music scene. And to top it off in a different chapter the author has no problem with naming the Bells near Prince as “ghetto” Bells: um, none of us who shopped there who didn’t have cars given to us (whose parents also sent us to $40k / year Woodward Academy like the author did) had the funds to shop wherever we wanted all over town. I would have much rather have hit the Kroger outside of town, but guess what – I didn’t have the resources at that time to do that. Those of us who shopped at that Bells never called it that, but the author who in one chapter has fits about racial injustice has no qualms about using that pejorative term in a flippant manner. It would have been so much more insightful and interesting had the author instead examined the overbearing and historical presence of social stratification in the South as emulated and adopted by the local scene members at that time – it was similar in Atlanta as well. It wasn’t until moving to the Pac NW that I recognized this and it was a breath of fresh air to be rid of those overarching Southern social strictures.

Of course, the main omission in this book is that while the author bemoans the non-diversity and at the same time praises loose sexual norms (nothing untoward there), she fails to mention the glaring elephant in the room which was the well-known preying of underage boys (and likely girls too) by well-known older members of the scene. It didn’t quite seem to fit the narrative that the author wanted to tell – that the only warts would be those that conform to the hot culture war topics of today, but it was the worst kept secret in town of this activity going on and surely the author couldn’t have been unaware of its presence? It apparently didn’t fit into her shiny-happy narrative.

Hale did do a nice job with treating Chesnutt – it was hard to imagine that the sullen guy always on the right side of the stage in his wheelchair at every show I attended there would go on to get national recognition and she handled his end well. But too bad she didn’t mention some of the others lost along the way like Laura and Ted as I understand they're not around any longer either.

The book was an interesting reminder of the past and a small blast of nostalgia. That said, I don’t know who the target audience is besides those mentioned in the book and diehard REM / B-52 fans as it’s just so meandering and unfocused in scope after the first two chapters. I have long lost acquaintances that stayed in Athens and live there to this day – they seem to like it still and that’s just fine. Others of us couldn’t wait to get the heck out of there.

[Jan Bunten · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish I could give this book more than five stars. It’s refreshing to read about a place in time that is academically sourced. Hale’s participation in the scene and her academic background in history make her the perfect bohemian to write this book. If you were there, you get it. If you’ve never really experienced Athens I can see where this work might seem like so much name dropping. But those names are part of Athens’ story. The most important part of the Athens music and art scene was genuineness, and Hale’s genuineness graces every page. If, like me, you spent time in Athens in the 80s, you are going to love this book.

[Geoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really interesting history of the creation and fostering of the Athens, GA music scene, I missed the college radio years of indie so it was great to understand how the transition from hippie to indie (through punk) happened. I also didn't realize just how many artists I've enjoyed came from or through Athens (R.E.M., B-52s, Vic Chestnutt, Widespread Panic, Matthew Sweet).

Three things really struck me with this book. First, how important the geography, culture, economics, institutions, and people of Athens were to making the scene. Bands may have played up , played down, or alternated between accepting and rejecting the "southern" label, but Hale does a good job showing how the culture, contradictions, and relative isolation of Athens helped foster the scene.

The second was the unique point of view of the author. She is both a trained academic and was an active participant in the scene (playing in a band and co-owning and operating a cafe/performance venue). I actually think the book (as far as I can tell) does a good job both as an objective-ish work of history and as a personal look inside the scene.

Thoroughly enjoyable and interesting.

*I was given an ARC of this book via netgalley in exchange for an honest review.*

[Jay Gabler · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I loved most about this book is that it isn't just about Athens: it's about how a "scene" gets constructed in the public imagination. I reviewed Cool Town for The Current.

[Chris Angotti · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t want to hear the words bohemian or art ever again.

[Paul Manoguerra · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an American Studies person, I was destined to like this book. As someone who lived and worked in Athens for 11 years at the beginning of the 21st century, and who has a litany of friends, former colleagues, and/or acquaintances among the people Dr. Hale interviewed for her book, I knew I would enjoy reading it and learn some stuff I did not know about their respective “former” lives in the late 70s and the 80s. In spite of 11 years working at UGA, I was an Athens outsider who had grown up as a teenager in southern California during the heyday of the Athens Dr. Hale writes about.

This is not a strict (or well-thought out) review—of a book I truly had fun reading; it is a “cool” book—but a collection of thoughts, opinions, comments, and open-ended questions. Mostly, the thoughts are here in this “review” because Dr. Hale’s interesting book has me thinking about them.

As an aside, reading a book so heavy on personal connections, interactions, and experiences, as art, in our age of pandemic and quarantine felt extra sad.

The two strongest aspects of the book include the meticulous research about the Athens bands (who played instruments [for the first time?] with whom and where did they come from and where did they play music and when and what did it sound and/or look like and what did critics think and what happened next), and Dr. Hale’s personal story and connections to the Athens bohemia. I believe her book fully succeeds in answering one of the key questions she asks early on: “What exactly is it that makes us try [to make a new world, a utopia]?” I’m not sure she gives me enough of the “how,” however.

I’m also not yet certain that Dr. Hale was as successful as I wanted her to be in proving two other points she makes: “…what art can do in particular times and places,” and the idea that Athens “changed American culture” as in the book’s subtitle. (My typed thoughts and comments will become more random now…I apologize in advance…)

Athens, I think, has always been a bit weird and quirky: the double-barreled cannon, The Tree That Owns Itself, the Uga bulldog mausoleum, the Nuwaubians (who postdate the time of the book), etc. Dr. Hale touches on the Southern Gothic imagination, and Flannery O’Connor, especially as influences on the music and the lyrics, but the roots of quirky bohemia seem perhaps even deeper than she expresses.

All the Warhol and Pop Art stuff is awesome. But Warhol owed so much to Duchamp, and something like Pylon’s music and Briscoe Hay’s singing might be viewed as an extension of Dada/Surrealism, tone poetry, and the Cabaret Voltaire. The origins of art as performance are older than Warhol.

I think UGA gets shorted as a cause of the scene, as Dr. Hale calls it, in the early 80s, “a middle-of-the-road public university managed by good old boys.” Most of the university comes off as a fraternity- and sorority-loving business- and agriculture-school monolith (largely) in opposition to the art school and the bohemians. I wish Dr. Hale had presented the school as a more complicated and complex place; for example, Eugene Odum as the pioneer of ecology—the metaphor of “ecosystem” might have been nice to describe the 80s Athens scene? I don’t think Dr. Hale ever mentions “The Georgia Review” at all, clearly an important contributor to the bohemian-ness of Athens, and its literary culture, all with both a national and international impact. Or much about any of the other humanities at a vibrant public university.

The art school and the museum were always progressive, for the Deep South. Alfred Holbrook acquired a painting for the museum from the young Jacob Lawrence in 1947, essentially right off the artist’s easel and a decade and a half before desegregation of the university. Bill Paul organized an Alice Neel retrospective in 1975. The art school had been a progressive beacon, especially in the South, since its founding by Lamar Dodd in the 30s. Art Rosenbaum previously taught at Iowa, a flagship state school where the art program had been established by a working artist, Grant Wood. Wood, of course, a “regionalist” or American Scene painter, was a collector of Midwest vernacular history. Rosenbaum emerged from that tradition at Iowa to end up teaching at UGA, at an art school established by a southern American Scene painter, Dodd. Rosenbaum’s own paintings, filled with open-ended narratives, local characters, and attachment to place, could have made nice comparisons to R.E.M.’s music and lyrics.

Visiting folk artists might have been “a bohemian rite of passage in Athens” but Dr. Hale misses a chance to make deeper connections at this point, with Finster and Meaders in particular. Rosenbaum and Andy Nasisse might have been introducing students to folk art, but both Meaders and Finster were already world famous. Meaders had already participated in the Smithsonian Folkways programs, and been honored by the Library of Congress. He would be given a 1983 NEA National Heritage Fellowship. The Meaders family pottery was just one of several in the region; the craft’s literal use of the land, of place, would have worked as an extended metaphor for bohemia and the music. Meanwhile, Finster might even have been more famous; he would appear for two segments on the “Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson in 1983. “Black Folk Art in America,” including several Georgia artists, opened in 1982 at the Corcoran, with Nancy Reagan attending. The “Local Color” chapter had a chance to make stronger connections to the music and Athens bohemia than it did, I think; as a place where bohemia could flourish as an example of ingrained creativity.

I imagine others might end up upset with Dr. Hale’s comments on the top of page 206, but they seem brave and on point to me; but, again, I was always an outsider who came to Athens more than two decades after the scene began.

Does “quality” or “talent” in the incestuous and self-referential nature of any “scene” ever matter in a bohemia, or is R.E.M.’s eventual international success the answer to that question? Some of the music by secondary and tertiary bands is just bad. But is the act of creating more important than the creation?

Dr. Hale touches on mythologizing the past, but takes a passing swipe at Vince Dooley and the university’s athletic culture, especially football. This also feels like a missed opportunity to make a larger point: perhaps the mythologizing of R.E.M. (and Stipe) mirrors the myth making of college football (and someone like Herschel Walker). Walker and Stipe were (and are?) probably the two most famous people with Athens connections in the 80s. The rootedness-in-place and tribalism of college football, especially in the South, seems ripe with metaphors that would have helped Dr. Hale, I think, with her discussion of the ongoing impact of bohemian Athens and the culture created by all those bands.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first three chapters on The B-52s, Pylon, and REM are very good. I scanned much of it after that, as I'm not interested in the minutiae of the other Athens bands, and certainly not Vic Chesnutt. It's well-written and clearly well-researched.

[Allison Maier · Rating 4 out of 5]

i love my hometown 🫶🏻

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool Town is an academic deep-dive on the subculture that is Athens, GA. While the majority of the book is about the B-52s, Pylon, Love Tractor, R.E.M., and Vic Chesnut, it goes beyond just the music scene. Hale writes about the art, the restaurants, the clubs, the architecture, and the politics of Athens. My only disappointment is that the book ends prior to the advent of Neutral Milk Hotel and the Drive-By Truckers (though, both are mentioned in the conclusion).

As is always true with music books, I highly recommend listening to the music in the same time period that you are reading the book. It makes the experience richer.

[H Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating and detailed history of a highly creative and crucially localised scene. The fact that the author was an active part of it can't help but give elements a bit of a self-satisfied back-patting kind of vibe. But that's nitpicking, really.

[Shana Singerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have spent my adult life as a fan of R.E.M. and am fairly familiar with several of the other bands that have come out of Athens, GA and so was very interested to read this book. Champaign-Urbana, where I went to college, was a smaller version of Athens, had a scene within the context of a large football and greek oriented campus, and had the Vertebrats and the Outnumbered during my time there so when R.E.M. came along I was primed to appreciate them.

Athens, however, also had an influential art department which not only gave rise to many of the bands that came out of the town, but continued to fuel the alternative community there. Grace Hale gives us that history with well-drawn portraits of the major personalities involved but also of the institutions both official and unofficial that nurtured it. If you know about Athens, if only because of theB-52s and R.E.M., and always wondered how it became the center of so much music in the 80s and 90s, this is well worth your time.

[Andrew Dunn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enough of an insiders view to make it real but also a healthy critical distance of what made the scene what it was and is. A critique of how art school recalibrated middle class ambition at a state colleges to aspire to be more than middle mangers. Hale also dispels notions that Southern Art is simply the output of savant eccentricity (which was usually how Michael Stipe in particular was written about). This book takes in the combination of ambition and amateurism in Athens; and how UGa catalyzed the art scene. It is fair assessment of racial segregation in the Athens and ‘Alternative Rock’, and also unfortunately downward mobility for bands who weren’t as hardworking or thoughtful or lucky as REM. Never nostalgic but accurate and informative and pleasurable, this book was a good read.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first microhistory/ethnography of a music scene in a town (Athens, GA) that had not one- but TWO separate mentions about how strict my high school in Atlanta was (it really wasn't).

Anyhoo, this was really well written and researched and helped me discover a lot of new music that came and went while I was a literal toddler. PYLON?!!! OMG. I seriously considering dropping over 200 dollars for the 4-LP set that was released last year. Cooler (and more budget friendly) heads prevailed but damn, Vanessa Briscoe Hay's vocals are the shitttttt.

[Nathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hale crafts a veritable "There and Back Again" of Athens culture as we examine the genesis of the city's status into a music mecca, its power at the height of influence, and, of course, its legacy.

An elongated introduction helps acquaint you with the author's prose, which helps separate this from your rank-and-file music history book (with all due respect to those) and galvanizes her authority on this subject. A seamless transition into precisely the how and the who of Athens' burgeoning musical oasis follows before we lock arms with some straight-on music history of not just the most famous (B-52s, R.E.M.), but the most influential. Hale begins to explain her own role/contributions to the story as we settle in on a latter section that further explains the process in developing an environment conducive to making art.

If you want a drinking game, take a sip every time the word "bohemian" is used; seriously, though, it's been a word that I admit I didn't really know the definition of but, thanks to Hale, I'm pretty clear on it now.

A hip, packed, and illustrious account of a musical movement I had no idea about until Hale's work. A solid contender for the best music history book of 2020--the bar has been set high.

Many thanks to NetGalley and University of North Carolina Press for the advance read.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is meant for someone like me, which means someone who grew up learning to love the scene detailed herein, though from some geographical distance, and who went from early adolescent purchasing of R.E.M. cassettes to becoming almost gravitationally pulled to Georgia things well into adulthood.

[Antonio Depietro · Rating 3 out of 5]

fascinating book that really makes me want to find my own bohemian utopia!
i'm not sure the art holds up- but there's some definitely fascinating work. The B-52s should have a statue of them put up in Athens, GA.

[Jeff Raymond · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well done look at the Athens music/art scene during the late 1970s and 1980s. Lots of interesting tidbits.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Today’s post is on Cool Town: How Athens, Georgia, Launched Alternative Music and Changed American Culture by Grace Elizabeth Hale. It is 371 pages long and is published by University of North Carolina Press. The cover is a picture of the B-52’s in concert. The intended reader is someone who is interested in music history and how one small town grew new music. There is mild foul language, discussion of sex and sexuality, and no violence in this book. There Be Spoilers Ahead.
From the dust jacket- In the summer of 1978, the B-52's conquered the New York underground. A year later, the band's self-titled debut album burst onto the Billboard charts, capturing the imagination of fans and music critics worldwide. The fact that the group had formed in the sleepy southern college town of Athens, Georgia, only increased the fascination. Soon, more Athens bands followed the B-52's into the vanguard of the new American music that would come to be known as "alternative," including R.E.M., who catapulted over the course of the 1980s to the top of the musical mainstream. As acts like the B-52's, R.E.M., and Pylon drew the eyes of New York tastemakers southward, they discovered in Athens an unexpected mecca of music, experimental art, DIY spirit, and progressive politics--a creative underground as vibrant as any to be found in the country's major cities.
In Athens in the eighties, if you were young and willing to live without much money, anything seemed possible. Cool Town reveals the passion, vitality, and enduring significance of a bohemian scene that became a model for others to follow. Grace Elizabeth Hale experienced the Athens scene as a student, small-business owner, and band member. Blending personal recollection with a historian's eye, she reconstructs the networks of bands, artists, and friends that drew on the things at hand to make a new art of the possible, transforming American culture along the way. In a story full of music and brimming with hope, Hale shows how an unlikely cast of characters in an unlikely place made a surprising and beautiful new world.

Review- A well written history about music in Athens, GA and the bands who made it there. Hale was a student at University of Georgia, she was involved in this scene, and knew all the major players in it too; so she is writing from a place of knowledge and personal experience. Hale gives an excellent background for the culture of the area, the people who lived here, the kids who moved there, and everything in between. At times it is a little too much with so many people. Places, dates, and other information that it can be overwhelming but the overall narrative of counterculture and the musicians who made the music is very detailed. She explores her topic by time starting with the start of the Scene and the creation of the B-52’s and why they started making music. She ends the book with her time in Athens and how it changed the course of her life. If you are interested in musical history then you should give this one a try.

I give this book a Three out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book shines a spotlight at a short period in a small town that launched a seismic movement in American music culture. Cool Town: How Athens, Georgia, Launched Alternative Music and Changed American Culture is an exhaustive account of how Athens, Georgia, in the 80s was the right place at the right time to grow a scene out of which thrived bands like the B-52s, R.E.M., Pylon, Love Tractor, Mercyland, and more, as well as artists, zines, poets, and a new kind of bohemian lifestyle. The author, Grace Elizabeth Hale, was a part of that scene as a musician and University of Georgia undergrad and grad student specializing in American cultural studies. I myself caught a glimpse of Athens culture when I worked for Atlanta's alternative newsweekly Creative Loafing straight out of college. I was drawn to Hale's book because a lot of the bands, venues, folk artists, and characters on the scene were familiar to me. Hello, Rockfish Palace! It brought me back to a time when every night meant another chance to be a +1 on the list at the door. Another chance to hang with the cool freaks. Another chance to "discover" a folk artist's installation in the woods.
Cool Town skews very specialized, but if you're into meticulously crafted and researched cultural history of popular music, you'll want to read it.

[I received a temporary digital Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley, the publisher and the author in exchange for an honest review.]

[Jerry Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

3ish I really wish Goodreads would do a 1-10 it would allow for nuance.

I cheated and about halfway and read what some goodreaders thought about the book, particularly the criticisms. I found them to be spot on.

I am a music nerd and love learning about music scenes and the bands that make up the foundation but possibly didn't find success beyond their area. For this, the book was good.

The author is a Professor of American Studies and if you know anything about professors, their books are seldom good. Academic writing is all about pounding details and showing your peers what you've discovered. It doesn't make for an enjoyable read per se. Some have figured out how to take their foot off the gas when the audience is the general public. Sadly, Dr. Hale has not figured that out.

The book is very deep in the weeds, which if you're a superfan of the Athens scene or from that area/era you'll dig. For the rest of us it's just hacking through the minutiae to find nuggets of valuable info.

As with another reader I think the author greatly overused 'bohemian' and I also feel that she beat up on REM or reflected those that beat up on REM a bit.

Overall I actually liked it, it's a topic I can get nerdy about and I did a grad degree in History so I speak professor. I will say the book triggered some jealousy. Both in missing out on a music/arts scene that sounded amazing and that I didn't pursue a life in the creative arts.

So if you're like me and can nerd out you'll probably like it.
I would hit the library or wait for a used book seller or paperback. It isn't worth the hardcover price.

[Dan Ream · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting history of Athens, Georgia music culture since the late 1970s. Would have been better if more major figures involved (such members of REM and the B-52's) would have been interviewed for the book to understand their perspectives, as their motives at various points are given considerable discussion here. Interesting to be reminded that the Athens music scene of the late-1970s/ early 1980's was greatly influenced by gay culture and almost entirely missing participation by African-American musicians and fans. Much here about Vic Chesnutt, who I haven't listened to yet, and not much about the Elephant 6 collective, who I understand were influential in Athens in the 1990s. The author's perspective as a musician and part-owner of a local restaurant is interesting too. If interested in this corner of musical history, I definitely reading this book.

[John Lyman · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a long plod! I'm done! This book should’ve been about 50 pages shorter. I enjoyed learning the history of Athens and its music scene, which I have been a fan of since close to its inception, but man too many details! As an author I can appreciate having friends get angry at being included for the wrong reasons or, more often, for not being included at all, but imo Hale way overdid it in an effort to avoid hurting others' feelings. The Conclusion is a perfect example of this with the (introduction?) of Robbie Etheridge. I was a little put off by her deeply autobiographical moments, too. The Downstairs creation and day to day operations were one example of this. I would’ve loved this book if it had been pared down.

[Felicia Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book, and yet it took me a long time to read because I lived in Athens, GA, during the early days of the alternative music and generally bohemian scene. Some of the passages dipped my mind right back into my state of mind there, so I needed to dose myself with a nostalgia both winsome and warm. Athens, too, always been my "road not taken." I left an interesting life to pursue my dream of teaching college, leaving a job as a typesetter at the Athens Observer. Even after beginning my dream academic job, I had thoughts of returning to Athens. It is a remarkable place both in memory and in how it exists today. Still, the scene(s) captured in Hale's book in a narrative that combines documentary and personal stories are wonderful to read. Hale addresses the positive and the challenging, framing so much with just the right touch.

Would people who never lived in Athens love this book? I think so. Anybody interested in what happened in the late seventies and early eighties within the alternative music scene would love this book. Of course, now I need to read another book, Lyle Brown's Party Out of Bounds: The B-52's, R.E.M., and the Kids Who Rocked Athens, Georgia, published in 2016. I also recommend Athens, GA: Inside/Out, a 1987 documentary I bought back then and look at when I need my head to reside for a few moments in the spell-binding place I spent four formative years (on the fringes of, a witness to, a cultural phenomenon).

That road not taken? No regrets. I love the life I worked for while I also cherish the young woman who worked at the DuPont factory, baked biscuits and washed dishes at some place on the Watkinsville Highway, became a multi-lingual technical typist at the University of Georgia, and found such good company and support for pursuing my dreams while working as a typesetter (and writing the occasional newspaper column) under the leadership of editor Philip Lee Williams, whose own creative life has become legend. (I typed for extra money, dissertations, thesis, and once a manuscipt for Phil. Becoming a skilled technical typist gave me the ability to move to Austin, TX, hitching a ride with one of the artists mentioned in Hale's book, with $200 left in my pocket after I paid rent on a room with a curtain instead of a door and my first semester's tuition for the PhD program. I knew I would get a job. I did.) (Why I did not pursue the PhD at University of Georgia, where I did take a few graduate classes, is a story for another time.)

[Ken Hunt · Rating 3 out of 5]

If forced to pick a single band/musiscian/musical act as my one favorite, it would be REM. As such I have always been aware of the Athens music scene during that period but have never made the pilgrimage. I went to high school and college in the 80's in Texas and North Carolina, and grew up in California while family lived in England during college years. As a result, I found myself drawn to college/indie/alternative rock (and politics for that matter). I have now lived in Seattle since 2002 and dug into the history of the local music scene of the early 90s and beyond with an appreciation for what and how Athens was able to incubate so much creativity and music.

I have also been a fan of the original Athens catalyst the B52s and have seen Pylon warm up for REM, while aware of others like Widespread Panic. The Athens phenomenon was impressive during a time when musical or creative "movements" were really the domain of big cities. While in the middle of a very conservative part of the country, Athens became a progressive college town bubble with a supportive creative arts school that encouraged exploration creatively and beyond. Anything went, the thing was in the trying, which included sexuality and the trail blazing blurring of gender lines. As a progressive going to a southern school, this seemed a natural progression to me. Other progressive bubbles gratefully exist in the south in other college towns like Chapel Hill, NC and Austin, Texas to name a few.

What struck me as a contract to the Seattle early 90s, was the importance in Athens of street cred and being true to the spirit fo "anything goes" creativity but a lack of tolerance for those becoming commercially successful. REM was not the favorite outcome of Athens to the locals. While Seattle had some of that, there seems to have been a much more collaborative spirit of mutual support and experimentation during the Seattle grunge heyday.

For anyone interested in these groups, the progressive south, the genre of music, this is a worthwhile read. Parts seemed a bit unnecessary and somewhat overly memoirish, when I would have liked to have gone deeper into the lives fo the key players.

[Rupert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no intention of reading this book. Loved the first B-52s album, the first two REM releases, got to know the scene a little when a good friend moved there in the early 90s, but was never under the Athens spell.
Then a fellow bookseller gave me a copy and I’m a sucker for a free new hardback. Though there aren’t interviews with key scene players like Paul Thomas and Jeremy Ayers, the writing and details capture a grass roots creative scene taking off & spreading. It reminded me of how Baltimore was in the 80s, dirt cheap, lots of questionable buildings open to occupation because real estate people weren’t yet blowing rents up.
A big difference from Baltimore’s interesting experimental also vastly kooky scene was that it didn’t have its moment in the national limelight and bands weren’t making the hop to the bigtime after a show or two.
The author traces the Athens scene through the brilliant career & tragic death of Vic Chesnutt. He appeared just when I was wondering why I was still reading & was a poetic end.
Being a historian the author also shows how the scene affected their environment in the long run, in a positive way. Older scene people getting into local politics & fighting the far right religious stranglehold on the culture & laws of the region. She credits the local paper The Flagpole with rallying people to help shape their home, reduce the power of the far right and preserve the old buildings and natural spaces that they loved, not let it all morph into chain business America.
I guess it will take another book to get into the Elephant 6 collective & their time in Athens. I would like to read that.
But even not having a passion for many of the bands in here, the author’s passionate writing about youthful rebellion & DIY culture was the true story.

[Kevin Camp · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all, let me say that I enjoyed this quite a lot. My only criticism is that it isn't quite sure if it's an American Studies book, a history book, or a sociology case study. The narrative meanders a little, making sure to give every major band its due, but it makes for slightly disjointed reading. I'd have preferred it if Hale would have told the history of R.E.M.'s formation and eventual mainstream success set aside by itself. As the most popular group of the scene, it unintentionally takes center stage anyway, but this is clearly due to the fact that the author personally knows each band member.

Hale wants to preserve the glory days of Athens as a bohemian, small Southern college town. I can say that from my own travels that it's nothing like that today. Though much of its charm is still intact, Athens has become a hub of indie music since then, bringing to light a very different dynamic altogether. For example, sharing an old, poorly maintained house without hot water (and with four other people) might be feasible to someone in their twenties, but not so in later life.

Still, it's inspiring to hear the story of how an underground scene developed organically. True believers in the DIY aesthetic picked up musical instruments, regardless of whether they could play them at all. Athens bands were, simply put, extremely sincere and honest in a time where most popular music was comprised of faceless synth-pop. At the same time, they sought to be a counterweight to the new conservatism led by the Reagan Revolution, which changed the face of the country for the entirety of the decade of the 1980's--a time I don't remember as well as I wish I did, as I was a child at the time.

[Chris Hoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truth be told, as someone who was in Athens for a good portion of the timeline this book covers, I had expectations. What I soon realized were miscalculated expectations.

As a DJ at WUOG-FM during this time it would incorrect to say I was "hooked in" to the scene. I thought I was, but I wasn't. Ms. Hale's book brought that to clarity for me. And I missed a lot, or should I say, I missed "it". I was at some of the events described in the book but without clue one what was happening. I also wrote music reviews for the Red & Black - but I only say all this to simply prove how clueless I really was

So, as I read this book I didn't come at it from a "oh, I was there and 'blah blah'' arrogance. I soon realized that I really missed out on many experiences and cultural interactions that I'm sure that, knowing what I know now, would have made my time in Athens more special. And, make no mistake, I enjoyed my time in Athens and am thankful I was there during the time I was.

Sure, R.E.M., is a major portion of this book but, having grown up Austin, Ms. Hale captured how, what and why Athens was able emerge as cool town. Sorry Austin, I enjoyed my time there too, but you're no Athens. The clubs and restaurant - pretty much went to all of them. Legion Field, the i&i, Tyrones, The Mad Hatter, Allen's...Unfortunately, one of my fave bands from that time doesn't receive a mention (Arms Akimbo - but this isn't to criticize).

So, this is what the book did for me. And I'm not saying you to have to be from Athens or have gone to UGA in the early 80's to truly appreciate this book - but it sure helped.

[Aaron Martinez · Rating 4 out of 5]

an important artifact of the athens drag - southern rock bohemia. this book is filled with such vivid descriptions and graphic accounts that have a signature human quirk only able to be painted by individuals embedded within the scene. i felt as if i truly could recreate the individuality of your ayers, stipes, briscoe hays in the mix.

as a college radio austinite, i felt the direct resonance of a once emotionally charged era and could reflect the similar locations, events, venues bands in the remnants i see and have known around austin. i want to cry thinking how just like austin, athens has probably been afflicted by the same capitalist sludge to ruin and drive those diy spots to their graves. austin is now a consumerist parody of what it once was and i’m struck with a lightning bolt of horror to imagine athens just the same.

one issue i had with grace hale’s account is that she is very strongly a white woman. although she recognizes the privileges her and her peers had in being able to afford a diy lifestyle/the societal reasons (musical professionalism, finding like-for-like folks) many poc in athens didn’t jump into the alternative scene, i feel like grace hale was very outwardly an nonactor. to me i feel like grace hale brings this issue forward and shrugs it off indifferently like a bug on her shoulder. i would’ve liked more emotional vibrancy. not that it’s her responsibility to take on the weight of white georgian racism on her shoulders, but just do your due diligence.


//


my favorite part of this book is when the waiter calls the butthole surfers “asshole surfers” that was awesome.

[Thomas Thieme · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was curious about the rock group Pylon as they were so enthusiastically embraced by the B-52s and REM so I listened to them. Meh. I read further and was told you had to hear them live. So I listened to live recordings. Live meh. Reading further still, a fan said I guess you had to be there. And that about sums up this book for me. It not only demystifies Athens for me, I can cross it off my must-see rock list. It's a college town, alright? Little isolated college towns will have a mixture of townies, "bohemians", and students from well-to-do families who play at being "bohemians" while enrolled. What sets this town apart from most is it just happened to be the starting point for two major rock groups. Did the town make them who they were? Big fat no. They made the town whatv it was. They were the most interesting thing about it. Those two groups act as the marquee attraction of the book but it's not really about them. In fact the B-52's involvement is pretty much wrapped up in the first chapter. I did learn more about their early adventures and lifestyles but once they made it, they moved on from Athens, only coming back to visit. REM lingered longer but when a major label hands you millions of dollars, your bohemian days are over. The remaining characters live unorthodox but ultimately uncompelling lives. It would probably be of more interest to the people who lived there to read about themselves or people they knew. Kind of like an alumni magazine. The tidbits about the major groups were interesting, hence two stars. Just know, once you're past chapter one, you can breeze your way through the book pausing for the REM references and you're done.

[Marcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would like to give 3.5 stars, but I'll round up. This is a very detailed, well-researched, and lovingly executed history of the Athens "scene", circa 1978ish to 1991ish. It skews academic (for obvious reasons) but overall is very readable. Hale does a good job capturing what it was like to be a college student in the 1980s, even if you weren't in a cool town like Athens or part of a scene. She makes a big claim right in the title, and I wish she had followed through with some of the launching and changing beyond Athens (maybe just a one-chapter overview? something). While Athens was certainly unique in many ways, in others it was not -- lots of college towns launched indie rock bands and had music and art scenes in the 80s -- and I wish she had made some broader connections there. While I get what she was trying to do, I thought the analysis of sexism and white supremacy in the Athens scene was a bit much. I would be nice to think that a bunch of Georgia college-aged kids would break down the walls of sexism and racism, but the small inroads she describes were really huge for the time, and I think she does a disservice to the open and expansive ethos that was obviously present by suggesting that they should have been more actively "inclusive".

Hard for me to explain what I wanted from this book. In some ways it met my expectations fully, and in others it fell a bit short. Worth a read if you're interested Athens, R.E.M., and/or indie rock, or if you were a college student (especially in a small town) in the 80s.