"This new full-length release caps off a manic couple of years for this Boston four-piece that seethes, fumes, and detonates with the best of them. Pile rolls with a select crew of local bands — Speedy Ortiz and Grass Is Green, among others — that have been digging through the riffs and dissonance-heavy rock of the ’90s for treasure. It doesn’t get much better than this new set of recordings, though.
Pile has a clumsily effortless way of smashing together misshapen wads of song (some discarded Weezer here, stillborn Nirvana there, some Slint scattered around the edges) that gain momentum the more unruly they get. Opener “Baby Boy” performs a mad scientist analysis on itself, freeze-framing uncomfortable moments and examining them for extended, tense moments before ushering in a bombastic release.
“Prom Song” has been making the rounds for a month, and it’s the perfect distillation of a archetypal Pile tantrum: Guitars skitter about in numb little figures while singer Rick Maguire heaves through lurching, wandering vocals. Before it’s fallen apart, a tide of roiling bass and Melvins drum batteries rises up from underneath and bashes the whole thing to oblivion. The key, oddly enough, is a steady grasp on a crafty, shifting chord progression that sneaks below the surface the whole time. It’s a skill they pull off again and again on “Dripping.” (Out Oct. 23)
Matt Parish
ESSENTIAL “Prom Song.”
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