Tom Lawson: Before He Wore The Pants

By Zachary Ward 

There once was a band called Chainsaws of Babylon. Four guys from UVM who banded together to create an unique and virtually undefinably quirky urban folk sound. The Chainsaws packed rooms like Burlington’s border and 242 and recorded several brilliant projects before moving to California and eventually disbanding. As part of our effort to chronicle and document the Vermont music scene throughout the years, we’ll be targeting bands that we feel made a real impact on the history of our musical world, So we sent Eef’s Zach Ward to find the Chainsaws and get the story. 

Tom Lawson was one of those Chainsaw guys. He is now in The Pants, one of Burlington’s hottest alternative acts. I caught up with Trim on an evening when the Pants were playing at Club Toast on lower Church Street. Tom took some time out of his busy evening to answer some questions. The following interview took place within the cold confines of Club Toast's “Band Room”.

G.C. -So how did it all begin?

T.L. -The Chainsaws started in Living And Learning (a UVM dorm) in the year of 1989, I believe , if I’m correct, with Doug North, myself, and Jason Young playing acoustic guitars. And we started playing at Slade Hall. We did that for a year or so, maybe more than that. 

G.C. -Did you play open mics?

T.L. -We played open mics, we played around town a couple of times, at City Hall, The Last Elm, a couple of parties and things like, and then we did a tour of rest areas all around the United States one summer, When we returned back to Vermont we decided to get a little more serious. 

G.C. -You really went on an acoustic tour?

T.L. -well… we did the rest areas so no one heard us.

G.C. -What were the dates?

T.L. -Well, we went North, We were in…well, I remember Pennsylvania, I remember parts of Ohio, I remember Mt. Rushmore, we played on the banks of the Colorado River, in Arizona, and California. We played in Texas.

G.C. -You don’t remember some of the tour?

T.L. -I don’t remember any of it; the whole trip.

G.C. -It sounds like a fun trip.

T.L. -Yeah, it was. I don’t remember much about it at all. That was where we got the name The Chainsaws Of Babylon. Before that we were the Zen Masters Of Warp Drive. It was on our first night of that trip that we decided that we would be the Chainsaws Of Babylon. So we came back to Burlington, hung out, and started practicing more and more. We started playing with the bass and electric guitar. We advertised for a drummer, and Billy Glassner hopped on board. 

G.C. -I heard that he was the only dummer who auditioned.

T.L. -Yeah, he was the only guy. He called us two hours after we had put up the poster. So we started playing with him and things really took off. 

G.C. -Were you three guys all from Vermont?

T.L. -Yes, we were all from Vermont, and Jason and Doug lived together in Living and Learning, They were doing their thing, and I was there drinking their beer and hangin out. Sleeping on their floor (laughs). So one thing led to another and we ended up in a band. 

G.C. -So Billy signed on…

T.L. - So Billy signed on and we started playing Slate hall and downtown. We opened up for Ninja Custodian at the Border…

G.C. -I remember the first time I saw The Chainsaws with Billy. It was in the Marsh dining hall at UVM. 

T.L -Marsh. That’s right. With Malayalam.

G.C. -Right.

T.L. -We recorded Electric #1 and we also had a couple of other things we were screwing around with. And we are all psyched about it so we decided to move out to California. And we moved out to California. Oh yeah, before we moved out to California, Paul, who had done the engineering on Electric #1 and a couple other things we did, moved out to California. He was going to help us get some gigs out there and stuff. Before we left, things with Billy came to sort of a crossroads, and we all decided that it was time to part ways. We didn’t know what we were going to do, and so I decided to play drums, and Pistol was out in California, so he hopped on bass. 

G.C. -So push came to shove and Billy didn’t want to move to California?

T.L. -Well, as eventually happened with the Chainsaws, too, we didn’t feel comfortable expressing our ideas to each other. After a while you can’t really operate that way.

G.C. -So take me back to Oakland. 

T.L. -Well…I moved out there, and for four or five months Postil and I lived in San Francisco. We were looking for a warehouse space and we found one in Oakland, And then the other guys moved out and we started playing and practicing in this kinda cool renovated warehouse space in deepest, darkest Oakland, 

G.C. -I’ve heard it was grim while you guys were there. 

T.L. -It was fairly grim, It was mostly grim because the section of town that we were living in was in the process of being “gentrified”, and we were definitely a part of that. And we didn’t know it at the time. And our landlord was kind of crazy, and we didn’t know it at the time. We didn't really know what was going to happen. We all lived in this warehouse and it was one big room. We all thought it was going to be big enough, but by the time we moved out it felt like a little tiny room because there weren’t any walls or anything like that. 

G.C. -Did you have a studio set up there? 

T.L. -It was a recording studio at one point in time so there was a control room, soundproofed, that we used as our practice room. And we did some recording there that was alright, but I think the Chainsaws kinda pushed it a little too hard. We started out as really good friends, and, creatively, we reached a point where we weren’t talking to each other. We were worried about hurting each other’s feelings. All kinds of shit. 

G.C. -And trying to deal with the city at the same time. 

T.L. -And we were living in a crazy, crazy, crazy neighborhood, trying to get jobs in a place where we didn’t know what the hell was going on. Big city. Huge music scene. We were just totally unprepared for what we found, And personally we were all at points where we were re-evaluating where we were at, top. So I decided to split. I couldn’t handle California anymore. 

G.C. -Doug North said you decided to split and then you changed your mind.

T.L -I decided to split, and then we were talking about it and thinking about different options as a band, and what we could do. Because I always, definitely have attention deficit disorder, so I was getting sick of playing drums. We tried to work it out for awhile, and figure it out, and we finally talked about it and I decided to stay. And five hours after I decided to stay I got mugged in San Francisco, so I took it as an omen. 

G.C. -So Doug and Jason were out there?

T.L. -No. Doug came back with me. He was planning on going to school and stuff like that. And Jason stayed out there so J is still out there, and Pistol came back about six months later. And we started fooling around, messing around, And the same thing happened with The Pants as happened with The Chainsaws, We wanted to see what it would be like to play electrically. Try to see what was going on . So we had a gig before we had a band. We started working on the CD and once again attention deficit disorder set in. We said “Let’s make a band!”’ so we did that. We’ve been working that way ever since. We are really starting to solidify. We’re going to start recording our new album in a couple of weeks. We’re going to do it at Andrew from Chin Ho!’s. At least the basic tacks there. We’re not really sure how it’s going to go. We’re hopefully going to pop that one right out. Finish it and release it. Quickly.

G.C. -Let me ask you how things were written.

T.L. -You mean The Pants or The Chainsaws?

G.C. -The Chainsaws. 

T.L. -The Chainsaws were a mixture, Some of the songs were all done by me, some songs were done by me and J, some things were all done during practice. It was pretty collective. 

G.C. -Do you have any favorite songs.

T.L. -Chainsaws songs? Definitely, “Belt”, “Never 2 Late 2 Spend”, “Benoit” I think is a great song. I like all those songs.

G.C. -Are there any Chainsaws shows that stand out?

T.L. -Our best show, without a doubt, was the Rock and Roll Rumble at The (now defunct) Front. The second night of the Rumble…I didn’t know how many years ago.

G.C. -You guys took second place.

T.L -We took second place. We deserved first. We made our second tape, “Sharla”, after that. That’s the best Chainsaws tape. 

G.C -Who won the Rumble that year?

T.L. -Motel Brown, We did all the original material, we thought we did a great gig. And they did six out of ten covers. And it was reggae. I don’t know. We were upset. But that’s all right. That was a long time ago. The fronts gone, I’m still here. You know what I mean?

G.C -I know what you mean.

T.L. -I’ve gotten over it. 

G.C -At the time you guys were playing I was very excited by what you were doing. 

T.L. -I was very excited by what was going on. I thought we were doing some interesting things.

G.C. -And the impression I got from Doug was that he was very excited about it, too.

T.L. -I think we were all psyched, I don't know, It's nice, We definitely got our niche in the Burlington music history. 

G.C. -Yeah, I think you really did. 

T.L. -That was fun and that was a large part of why we started. We were so sick of all these bands that we saw we thought, “Wouldn’t it be funny to make the ridiculous band we could possibly think of and take over?”. 

G.C. -It was pretty fun. That was the whole attitude. 

T.L. -We always wanted to have a pretty good time. And that was the reason it ended, too. You can only sustain that for so long. You grow as a person and you’re dealing with all of these hard things, and you’re trying to be this “fun band” and “quirky band” and I just didn’t feel like being quirky anymore, I just wasn’t into it. So it was hard. And now I’ve got the Pants. 

G.C. -But, as you told me earlier, The Pants are not The Chainsaws Of Babylon Part II. 

T.L. -That’s exactly right, The Pants are not The Chainsaws Part II. The Pants are an ever evolving musical entity that will, umm…as far as I’m concerned I;, much more mature as far as the way I’m approaching this whole creative endeavor. Expectations et cetera. I know how I write the best. So far they’ve all been my songs, except for a couple of collaborations. Everyone has to look out for the new album. Everyone has to buy it. 

G.C -We’re all really excited about it. 

T.L -I’ve got a really good feeling about it, It will be in the record stores by March 20th. My birthday. 

Sadly, for those who missed The Chainsaws' experience there is little to go on now. No Cds, no more cassettes. Just old war stories that may or may not mean anything to those who were not there. Scenes come and go, But those who were there remember that they used to rule this town. If anyone out there is interested enough and wants to take a listen to this band, call me or harass me at Toast and will dub some for you (with The Chainsaws permission, of course). 

Zach Ward is a member of Burlington’s brilliant Guppyboy and has formed a new project called Eef with Mike Barrett, Bread Searles and Jedd Kettler.