Sneak of the Week: Michael Guthrie Band, “Stop and Go”

A power-pop explosion from Athens’ original underground heroes.

Thanks to bands like R.E.M, The B-52’s, Pylon, and Let’s Active, everybody with an interest in first-gen alternative rock knows about the late ‘70s/early ‘80s Athens, GA scene from which those artists emerged. But the legacy of The Michael Guthrie Band is an area of knowledge that’s largely limited to locals. The MGB were inducted into the Athens Music Walk of Fame, but their raw, riotous sound remains a secret to the world at large

That might be at least partly because they were older than most of the aforementioned acts. Guthrie began making music as a teenager in the ‘60s, and by 1970 he’d already released an album as the frontman for a sort of post-psychedelic outfit called Arnold Bean, which also included his brother Herb on drums. But by the late ‘70s, he was channeling his love of bands like The Kinks and The Who through the thrilling boom of punk/New Wave-informed power pop. After all, it was Pete Townshend who first coined “power pop” as a term for his own band’s terse-but-tuneful sound in 1967.

After a couple of DIY singles, the MGB, with Herb on drums, self-released their debut album, 1981’s Direct Hits. It’s arguably the quintessential example of both power pop in the strict, descended-from-The Who sense and of the power trio, with the Guthries and bassist Michael McNally blasting it out for all their worth and making a far mightier sound than their size would suggest.

Recalling the session on his website, MichaelGuthrieBand.com, Guthrie said, “With the high cost of studio time, we were under the gun with no time to experiment or fool around, so we played everything really fast!” But the most explosive song on the album is the rampaging “Stop and Go.” “We tore through ‘Stop and Go’ in one take,” said Guthrie, and that frenetic energy is palpable in every second of the song, which—like any true power-pop classic worth its salt—makes its point in under three minutes.

The frenzied beat, the feral riffing, and the near-manic vocal delivery add up to the kind of gut-level excitement that rock ‘n’ roll was invented for. Whether you’re 17 or 77, it’s impossible to listen without leaping up and thrashing your body around the room unless you’re physically constrained, and even then, it depends on the strength of the constraints.

You don’t achieve that level of rock ‘n’ roll thrill-making and then walk away from it. Even though Guthrie has had periods of musical inactivity at various points over the years, he always seems to come back around. In 2025, he played a special show in Athens celebrating 60 years of music. And with ragers like “Stop and Go” in his back pocket, it’s no wonder that Guthrie seems to have tapped into rock ‘n’ roll as an endlessly revivifying power source.

-Jim Allen

Photo: public domain