This Is Still It
Album | The Method Actors
Athens, Georgia's masters of minimalism.
Even those conversant with Athens, Georgia cult heroes like Pylon may not have known about The Method Actors, so consider This Is Still It a public service. It contains the 1980-‘81 studio recordings of the groundbreaking but criminally underappreciated Athens band, who made a splash in the post-punk underground in 1981, but called it quits soon after. A duo of singer/guitarist/bassist Vic Varney and singer/drummer David Gamble, the Method Actors were masters of minimalism whose first recordings bear a tense, terse, jumpy sound full of choppy guitar riffs and manic vocals, sort of like the early Talking Heads squeezed into a trash compactor, with only the essential elements left intact. The band evolved at hyper-speed, which becomes obvious upon hearing the tracks from their 1981 album Little Figures. By this point, they crafted a funkier, more groove-based sound somewhere between Gang of Four and Liquid Liquid, building atmosphere from empty spaces in a dub-like manner, with Varney playing more bass than guitar. At the time, only critics and cultists were aware of how much magic was being made by these two men, but now maybe the rest of the world can start catching up.
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