Music You Should Know: Pile

Originally from Boston, Massachusetts, and now based in Nashville, Tennesee, the noise-rock indie band Pile has been one of my recently-discovered favorites. With only about 80k listeners on Spotify I think they are criminally underappreciated for their guttural, yet pleasing sound.

Since beginning in the late 2000s and releasing Demonstration in 2007 they have amassed 8 albums, a handful of singles, and quite a few self-released demos and mixtapes. I haven’t found many songs I thought were low quality (at least to my tastes) throughout the albums I’ve listened to, all of their officially released projects. My favorite of theirs has no personal skips.

I believe that their 2012 release Dripping is their magnum opus and puts their best work on display. Having their two most popular songs “Prom Song” and “The Jones”, which also happen to be my two favorites, Dripping has great production value for being self-released and has some of the most creative instrumentals in their discography. They show their three formulas for the majority of their songs: a strong buildup to a very satisfying extended climax with “Prom Song” and “The Jones” as well as a sort of balls to the wall throughout the whole song in songs like “Grunt Like a Pig”. With those two blueprints catering to their noise-rock talents, they also have a very good link into slowcore with songs like “Steve’s Mouth” and “Bubblegum” which both stay steady with some not-so-loud choruses in comparison to their other songs. I really like the minimalism of the drums, where I feel normal drummers would do a lot more and take away from the song. Kriss Kuss holds it down with what I think takes more skill than crazy fills and a complex beat.

Their discography is pretty consistent in terms of feel. I really like the vocals of Rick Maguire and the guitar work is chef’s kiss in my opinion. The entire band seems to be cohesive even with the two changes since their 2010 release of Magic Isn’t Real. This is definitely a band you should check out and make your own opinions on. If noise-rock and some slowcore with influences from classic country are up your alley, I think this would be the band for you.