Founded as a performance art experiment by art school students at the University of Georgia, Pylon became critical to the post-punk scene of late 1970s Athens, Georgia, which included fellow luminaries B-52s and R.E.M. The band’s jagged rhythm section and cheeky lyrics (“Read a book! / Don’t be a void!” shouts vocalist Vanessa Briscoe Hay in one song), are immortalized on their 1980 touchstone, Gyrate.