The Method Actors
This Is Still It
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Label: Acute
One of the less mentioned side effects of the advent of the internet is how it has essentially ruined the concept of the regional scene. In an era where any band can easily make itself heard globally and every nascent trend is only a day away from becoming immensely overhyped and overanalyzed, it’s almost impossible to remain local and isolated. The globalization of music and pop culture has of course resulted in plenty of positive changes, but the death of the local scene is no less tragic when each year brings reissues like the Method Actors’ This Is Still It.
Like the recently resurrected Pylon (who were managed by the Method Actors’ own Vic Varney), the Method Actors were early pioneers of the fertile Athens, GA scene of the late ’70s/early ’80s. The Athens of that time of course yielded pop titans the B-52′s and R.E.M., but it was also a scene full of groups history hasn’t been as kind to. The Method Actors enjoyed moderate success on their regional circuit but in the days before Pitchfork it was all too easy for groundbreaking acts to disappear between the cracks, their legacy only apparent in the bands they inspired that latched on to some aspects of their sound and rode it to success. Several decades after the fact, it’s easy to hear the influence the chiming guitars and moody, mysterious vocals that the Method Actors mastered had on R.E.M.
Listening to the Method Actors now, it’s just as easy to spot their own influences- the Joy Division rhythms, the atmospherics of Siouxsie & the Banshees- and it’s easy to underestimate now the process that would have gone into that type of audio research. But tracking down those bands and their import-only releases was a feat in and of itself that gave the group an edge on its peers. Within the confines of Athens’ then unobserved scene, the Method Actors were able to develop a refreshing identity without having to worry about what was fashionable or cutting edge, instead being allowed to just create songs that felt vibrant and alive, a stark contrast to the bar bands that toured the local colleges at the time.
Without having to worry about the tastemakers or blogosphere and without knowing about similarly minded acts then popping up in Boston (Mission of Burma) or L.A. (the Gun Club), the Method Actors, and to a similar extent, Pylon, paved the way on their own terms. So why does it matter today? Well, the easy answer is because of that influence, because of that trailblazing; but none of that would even matter if the songwriting wasn’t there, if the group didn’t still sound unique and original.
Where Pylon sounds today like a distinctly Athens band and now any group can claim to be influenced by Joy Division (and does) there is something weird and unpredictable about the Method Actors. Unlike the danceably retro kitsch the B-52′s offered or R.E.M.’s aloofness, the Method Actors just sound unhinged, Varney’s guitars as often piercingly atonal and abstract as they are flat-out jangly. On “Distortion,” it’s as though the band distilled Siouxsie and the Banshees’ cover of “Helter Skelter” into a genre all its own, the vocals pleading with a jilted lover or an angry demon or both. “Dancing Underneath” is the hybrid of the Ex-Models and the Feelies you never knew you wanted but now can’t live without, its jittery rhythms and yelpy vocals enduring and alienating all at once.
The entire release is littered with these unnervingly ahead of their time moments, like the way “She” seems to predict the Kills’ guitar sound, and there are easily a dozen other tracks that’ll leave listeners wondering where they’ve heard it before. Unfortunately this also works against the band, keeping This Is Still It just this short of being essential. The haziness of the recording quality and the slightly more obviously ’80s turn the band takes on the second half means that this is primarily a release for bin diggers and those with a deep appreciation of American post-punk and the Athens scene in particular, but for those who are so inclined it is a necessary document that provides the missing link between R.E.M., Mission of Burma and the Feelies.
by Morgan Davis
