Eat America

1985–1988

originally published May 9, 2007

There's always tales of great lost Athens bands and, by all measures, Eat America seems to be one of them. Indeed, attempting to dig up information on the band was a hard task and so there may well be a few holes in the following story. Still, it seems almost fitting that little can be revealed about a band that today is still, musically speaking, both mystery and surprise to those who come across it.

Guitarist Errol Stewart, originally from Charlotte, NC, had played in multiple bands before coming to town. "I was in a couple of really mediocre cover bands in high school and college: the Cubes in Charlotte while in high school; The Bedspins/ The Generics while in college at Western Carolina University. The first all-original band I was in was called Also Known As and we did a show at The Uptown Lounge in front of the dart board in 1983 or 1984. We opened for [Athens band] Art In The Dark," says Stewart. This gig led him to meet Athenian Bryan Lilje and Stewart wound up moving into Lilje's apartment on Barber Street. After forming and disbanding the band Mantra Factory with Lilje and musician David Watkins, Stewart says he "jammed with Vic Varney and Juan Molina in Go Van Go… I also jammed with Time Toy. Needless to say, they were all better musicians than I and things didn't quite gel.

"Eat America's first incarnation was pretty much me, Gene Lyons on drums, Haynes Collins on bass and Dru Wilbur on vocals," says Stewart. "Gene Lyons and I met, through a friend of my partner Donna Lindermann. Donna and I had a theatre/ performance collective going with Neil Bogan called Meridian. Gene was the roommate of Monty Greene [of Damage Report]. He played drums and [I played] guitar. We were both totally broke and Dexter Romweber [of the Flat Duo Jets] said we could practice at his place for like five or 10 bucks a session or if we left booze or whatnot. We get there and it's a 6' ceiling - and I'm 6'1" - crawl space underneath a house with a dirt floor and a cord coming down from above for electricity. After a few practices with just drums and guitar, Haynes Collins came down and played bass."

Collins remembers Eat America forming the way most Athens bands form: just a case of chance meetings and shared connections. "I guess Athens being a small place had a lot to do with meeting each other. Dru Wilbur and I worked together at Sons of Italy. We met Matt Hanson and John Rogers mainly through Vic Chesnutt. I played in Is/Ought Gap and the Kilkenny Cats before Eat America, and the others all had bands going as well."

Stewart says, "We did a fuck-all gig as Asleep Shopping Bible Cart with Kenny Aguar on vocals. As was my penchant at the time for tilting windmills, there was to be no banter in between songs and the titles of the songs as well as snippets of certain lyrical motifs and concepts were handwritten on a flip chart. It was half improv and half songs. I thought it went well, but was also concerned that Kenny was in like two to three bands already and wouldn't work as a full-time frontperson. Haynes knew Dru Wilbur and we liked his take on music/ noise, words and whatnot. Then we moved into the space under the Morton Theatre where Vic Varney and The B-52's used to rehearse and the ceiling there was another 5'10"."

At the Time

Eat America, with its guitar-driven, discordant and often freestyle rock was a perfect contemporary for the other bands known loosely as DRG (Dominant Rock Gods) bands. This designation is strictly this writer's creation, but comes from the bands included on the DRG compilation Some, and those who played on the DRG bus tour. Collins says, "In terms of playing with 'big bands,' I can't remember playing with as many as compared to when I was in earlier groups, but we did play a lot with the Bar-B-Q Killers, Time Toy and various David Barbe bands."

The bandmembers eventually all moved into a house together behind the Athens bus station and legend has it that the landlord always referred to the patch of kudzu and briars between the station and the house as the "heeshy patch." Realizing he was saying "he-she patch" (as this was where local transsexual prostitutes would operate), they said, "We'll take it!"

Guitarist - and longtime Flagpole staff member - Larry Tenner joined the group near the end of its run after Hanson left the band. “I believe it was the last band I was in before [Athens band] Waylaid," says Tenner. "I don't think I was in the band more than a year before it broke up. I do remember we practiced in a house the three of them shared. It was a run-down shack in a heavily wooded lot on the block of Reese west of Finley that's now the Marriott Courtyard. I think it was the only house on the block at the time, across from the bar Daddy's Dollar.”

Stewart remembers, "We played with Porn Orchard, Mercyland, Damage Report and Bar-B-Q Killers. Also, some high-school kids from Atlanta opened for us once and they had an R.E.M. cover and rip-off band. They were to the point of wearing Greek fishermen's caps and Swedish Army shoulder bags and everything. They were Mr. Crowe's Garden, who morphed into The Black Crowes. I had a lot of fun verbally riffing on them when I was in Seattle between 1991 and 1995."

Locally, the band played mostly at parties and The Uptown Lounge. The group did a benefit for then-campaigning, and now-former, U.S. Senator from Georgia Wyche Fowler with Porn Orchard at the 40 Watt. Stewart says, "I believe Jesse Helms wrote up papers of censure on him for that." Eat America also shared the stage with San Diego roots-rock act The Beat Farmers and a very pre-fame Sonic Youth on its 1986 tour.

Why the Split?

Eat America can pretty much be divided into two eras: with Stewart as guitarist and post-Stewart. "I quit 'cause I wasn't emotionally equipped to live in the same house and play in a band with the same people, even though it was my idea," says Stewart. "Also, Haynes walked in on me pinching Gene's weed one day and I felt like the only honorable thing for me to do was to resign and address my 'state of the Errol' issues."

After Stewart's departure, musicians John Rogers and Matt Hanson joined the band. Rogers' tenure was short-lived, though and he says, "Those guys asked Matt to join and Matt and I had played together quite a bit, but it was sight unseen. So I just didn't stay very long. I would've liked to see them with Errol. I probably only played with them live once or twice. I think I did record a little. I think a guitar part of mine is on the DRG compilation."

Collins recalls the split of the band this way, "We were never going to be a group that was heavily consumed by the masses, and after driving around the South of the USA in a bus with no windows and playing shows to mostly small audiences, we realized it would be difficult to sustain. We were probably also a bit naïve about the economic side of the music business."

Says Tenner, “I believe the band's conclusion was typical of most bands. Everyone seemed to be more interested in other things like partying, school, girlfriends, etc., and it became more of a chore to maintain the band and generate new songs. Even though I could see it coming, I was still surprised when they told me the band was breaking up.”

These Days

After leaving Eat America, Errol Stewart moved to New York, worked at Murdoch Publications and once auditioned for Yo La Tengo ("I blew chunks!" he says).

He then moved down to Charlotte, NC, and played with popular band Fetchin' Bones which enjoyed moderate success until its deal with Capitol Records finally imploded circa 1989. Stewart then moved to Los Angeles and played in the earliest incarnation of Courtney Love's band Hole, which he quit because, "Hole was Hole and I wasn't going to get any publishing, so I bailed on that. Not to mention way too many band meetings and biz drama versus actual creating/ playing time… I may have made a million bucks just doing shows, [but] I'd probably be dead if I stayed in it, what with my addictive personality and penchant for partying."

After playing with former members of The Screamers and The Divine Horsemen, Stewart moved to Seattle to teach, but wound up starting another band, Lava, which split after a short time. He became disillusioned with the Seattle grunge scene, finding the sweaty mess no different than Southern rock. Stewart eventually left for San Francisco for personal reasons and wound up meeting his wife there. He still plays music - Fetchin' Bones is due to play a couple of reunion shows this summer - and he has a two-year-old son.

John Rogers owns Mr. Sparky electrical contractors (the former Red Electric) here in Athens and operates out of the old Cantrell Grocery building on Cleveland Avenue. Tenner, who also played in local bands like Magneto, continues to work at Flagpole as the production director, and occasionally plays in live karaoke band Knight Seeker and is married with two young children.

Haynes Collins moved to Japan after Eat America split, but not before trying his hand at several other acts. "Dru and I had a couple of bands there called Love Sauce and Proud Flesh," he says.  "After that, I moved to lots of different countries and have finally settled in the north of England with a wife and two kids. Most of my life is now devoted to work and childcare, with a bit of cycling for kicks."

Gordon Lamb

That Beat in Time is a regular feature examining dearly departed local acts worth digging up.