The band known as Porn Orchard came like a fist to the gut of the idyllic Athens scene in the 1980s. Born, literally, out of necessity when the 40 Watt called their communal house one day needing an opening band for that night's gig, the guys who happened to be home that day got the job. Sam Mixon recalls, “The band started when the 40 Watt called one day  in 1985 and said they needed an opening act for  Die Monster Die that very night.  The first four guys who walked in the door got the  job.  At the time, we lived communally and jammed  with lots of musicians from around town.”

When describing the band's sound,  guitarist Curtiss Pernice says, “Our stuff was pretty heavy and complex. We were very riff-oriented and generally crushingly loud. People applied the term "math rock" to us… though I think that term has come to mean something different these days. When we first started, I was obsessed with loud, heavy music and American hardcore.”

Mixon recalls, “Our sound in the beginning was almost straight L.A. hardcore, a la Black Flag and Dag Nasty.  After our first bass player left in 1989, our sound opened up with Ted [Hafer] on bass and became even more like  'math rock' than ever while keeping the  hard edge  that we adopted  from the beginning. The neck-snapping changes in odd time signatures caused people to sometimes mention jazz in our reviews, so 'jazz-core' might aptly describe it. Curtiss wrote repetitive, odd-metered guitar riffs  over which  Ted and I could hit the downbeat in any number of places to make for a sick cannon effect.”

At The Time

The name alone is enough to fill one's head with ideas of exactly where the band fit in the Athens scene, but the members tell the story so much better. Mixon says, “We were the first local band that I know of where there was a mosh pit.  We played a lot with the Bar-B-Que Killers.  Curtiss landed in Athens carrying a Fender Twin that cranked like no other around at the time. I went out and bought a drum set with power toms just to keep up.  Most bands sounded like R.E.M., Pylon or The B-52's, so our volume alone turned heads, as did our aggressive sound and controversial posters that featured everything from a mass-murder scene in McDonald's to satirical attacks on anything considered holy.”

For his part, Pernice says, “I was an annoying little shit with a one-track mind, but I had just moved from a provincial outpost in upstate New York, so I had my excuse. I used to go see The Plague, Mercyland and the Bar-B-Que Killers every time they played. I think the most fun we ever had was playing with our pals here in Athens and out of town. We played a lot with Mercyland, Bar-B-Que Killers, Time Toy, Jack-O-Nuts, Black Cop, Ray Ugly, Magneto, Pure, Waylaid, Twinkie, Feltch, Damage Report, Harvey Milk, Jarvik 8 and War Party. We played the Uptown Lounge and 40 Watt and later Club Fred and the Rockfish Palace. I used to go to Kinko's a few days before our gigs and create the most offensive flyers I could possibly think of and piss everyone off downtown. Very fun. We played several shows with the Melvins when they came through. They were great. I think we played a zillion shows with All here in Athens. Their lead singer even ended up marrying a girl who lived at our house.”

Why The Split?

All in all, Porn Orchard simply came to a very natural end. “As far as splitting up... Ted [Hafer] told me he wanted to do other things," says Pernice. "Porn Orchard was a big commitment of time. We would practice three or four nights a week for hours. We'd been together for six years at that point, and it was as good a time as any to move on. Looking back, I'm happy with what we did as a group. We traveled a lot, put out a bunch of records that some people actually liked enough to buy, and nobody in our band died.“

These Days…

Members of Porn Orchard have stayed moderately active musically. Pernice describes his post-Porn Orchard activity by saying, “I played in a couple other local bands, Subtraction and Poolside. I did a lot of traveling around the country as a tech and driver for touring bands. Sam [Mixon] and Ballard [Lesemann] and I played on and off with Vic Chesnutt and traveled with him on his Silver Lake tour in 2003. I played guitar on a couple Lambchop records, played on a CD by The Bruces and did some playing and recorded with another band from Nashville called CYOD.”

Mixon’s activity has been no less packed. “Since Porn Orchard I have played stand-up bass in a few bluegrass outfits and  co-founded Poolside  in 1996 with Curtiss, Ballard and Frank MacDonnell.  I joined the Sunshine Fix in 2001.  I released a solo CD in May of 2005 called Final 8 Demo and hope to record a full-length album by next year featuring a return to drumming.  I still do the occasional studio or live gig, teach music and work from home as a freelance copywriter. I am also a wedding minister.”

Although everything the band recorded is now woefully out of print, Porn Orchard is a perfect example of an Athens band whose catalog is worth hunting down. That is, of course, if you want to know what was punishing the ears, and pleasing some hearts, of local club goers back in the day.