THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Oklahoma City band Chat Pile’s 2022 full-length God’s Country was one of the year’s most talked-about albums, putting forth a harrowing, metallic version of noise rock that cut to the bone. Rather than brute force, Chat Pile use tension as its weapon. Industrial-strength drums and earthquaking bass are tempered by the eerie twang of guitar and vocalist Raygun Busch’s unmistakable voice — his mumbles and pleas are as intense as any scream.
Bassist Stin gives this context for the new material: “These tracks were written and recorded after we tracked God’s Country. We wanted to use this release as a deliberate excuse to switch gears and fully lean into our more indie and alt-rock tendencies. Slint, Sonic Youth, Guided By Voices and Starfish’s Stellar Sonic Solutions were certainly on our minds at the time.” Busch, meanwhile, states that the new songs were inspired entirely by Stephen King.
From Kansas City, kindred spirits Nerver wield punishing noise-rock in the vein of Unsane, bolstered by swells of melody that elevate the songs to majestic heights. “We met Nerver at a warehouse show back in 2019 in Oklahoma City and hit it off immediately,” says Stin. “They’re the biggest sweeties and their band kicks absolute ass. We’ve been talking about doing a split together since practically Day 1 but it took us a little time to finally get our act together and make it come to fruition. It’s Chat Pile’s hope that this union helps draw some attention to what is quickly becoming known as Braum’s Region Noise Rock, i.e. splattery bands from the Heartland, like Bighand//Bigknife, Big Water, Nerver, Abandoncy, Nightosphere, Whep and others.”
