Kevin Dunn
(Casa Nueva Industries)
Alongside the likes of Method Actors, Pylon and Love Tractor, Kevin Dunn is an integral part of the secret history of the Athens, Georgia, music scene, one that was obscured by the runaway success of local luminaries R.E.M. and The B52s. In 1975, Dunn helped to form The Fans, a group out of Atlanta who earned their place on the map as one of the very first Southern rock bands who drew more inspiration from the likes of David Bowie and Roxy Music than the Allman Brothers and the Marshall Tucker Band. In the thick of the new wave era, he then started hanging out in Athens and became embedded in the famed college town's growing music scene, co-producing Pylon's influential 1980 debut Gyrate and releasing his own solo album, 1981's The Judgment of Paris, which serves as the anchor for this excellent collection anthologizing Dunn's inventive artistry.
Spanning the years 1979 through 1985, No Great Lost is an essential introduction to the artistry of this unheralded hero of American post-punk, whose combination of hyper-literate lyricism, angular, envelope-pushing guitar playing (think Glenn Phillips of the Hampton Grease Band meets Gang of Four guitarist Andy Gill meets Bill Nelson of Be-Bop Deluxe) and a voice that brings to mind a Dixie Tom Verlaine is long overdue for rediscovery. In addition to the entirety of Paris, famously hailed by Trouser Press publisher Ira Robbins as "a striking modern-music pop album", this set also features a trio of songs from Dunn's 1983 EP on Press Records, C'est toujours la meme guitare (which was lauded by the late, great rock critic Robert Palmer in the New York Times), four cuts from his synth-heavy 1985 full-length Tanzfeld, both sides of a 1979 DB Records 7-inch featuring a cover of Chuck Berry's "Nadine," and one sole Fans track, the '79 single "Cars and Explosions."
For anyone going deep into the cavernous crevices of ‘70s post-punk and new wave, No Great Lost is a must-own with the hopes of a similarly exhaustive anthology of The Fans to shortly follow. Just be forewarned: If you intend to read Mr. Dunn's Master's level quality writing in the liner notes, make sure you have a collegiate thesaurus on hand. This is a guy who definitely knows his prose as well as he does his way around that guitar neck.
DOWNLOAD: "911", "20,000 Years in Sing Sing", "Sharks", "Mona", "Cars and Explosions" RON HART
