A Place to Bury Strangers

The first thing to know when you’re listening to Brooklyn’s A Place to Bury Strangers is that your speakers are fine. That strange hissing noise leaking out of them — y’know, the one giving you Tinnitus — is the band assaulting your speakers with a volume that has been known to destroy small woodland animals. (Be smart and make sure you don’t use them to test your new stereo or those woofers of yours will detonate Marty McFly style.) Yes, they earn their title as "New York’s Loudest Band” well. As they put it, their deafening sound is no accident, but "a carefully cultivated and well-maintained entity all its own, fostered by an unbridled passion that's clearly evident in every live show they play and each recording they make.” Their influences are obvious: the Jesus & Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Ride’s first two EPs, Swervedriver, Spacemen 3 — basically any act that regularly tested the devastating limits of feedback. So serious is this trio about their volume, that singing guitarist Oliver Ackerman spends his days building custom guitar pedals for a company called Death By Audio (you know it had to be named after some Scanners-like, real life accident — it’s that perfect). Most recently they were given the highly coveted "Best New Music" honours from Pitchfork (that's like getting a rose from The Bachelor), which has led to a frenzy that has seen the limited run of their debut self-titled CD, released by the Killer Pimp label, sell out (you can try and buy it at Brainwashed.com). Luckily for those who missed out, the band have made four songs available to download on their MySpace page. One of them, "To Fix The Gash In Your Head,” isn’t kidding with its title; it blazes it’s way in through your ear to give your brain a good stabbing. A Suicide-al programmed beat kicks into hyperspace, forcing the guitar/bass duo to buzz saw their way through the piercing hiss even faster, which only makes all the more bloody. It’s a spectacular racket, but at the same time, I'm thinking it'd be hilarious to hear this performed unplugged…

A Place to Bury Strangers "To Fix The Gash In Your Head”