As a “weird guy that loves great obscure music,” I feel like I have the authority to declare that Chat Pile’s new album, ‘Who Loves the Sun‘, further solidifies the band’s place as one of the most significant torchbearers of heavy music in the late 2020s and more than justifies the fact that the color variants of their LPs sell out immediately and are subsequently listed on Discogs at prices that can only be described as exorbitant. What remains distinctive about the band is their ability to channel rage and despair into music that never seems to feel sorry for itself or—especially given all the screaming and rending of garments—never takes itself too seriously. Some of this can be chalked up to the fact that Chat Pile is from Oklahoma, a place where one’s survival is dependent on a strong sense of humor and where bands that aren’t called the Flaming Lips tend to get overlooked. It’s fair to say that if Chat Pile were from one of the coasts or even just a few hundred miles down the road from a city like Austin, Texas, they would lose some of their credibility, and their bleak sound and worldview could have ended up feeling like posturing or, god forbid, a bit. I’m not out here trying to shit on Oklahoma (shout-out to the Soundpony), but I mean, come on, there are geographical and material reasons why Chat Pile sound the way they do, and it’s not because their state is a secret tropical paradise. Think of it like this: One of the reasons Devo made such interesting music is that they were doing it in a place like Akron, Ohio, which was, at best, oblivious to their music and often downright hostile. Operating in a cultural backwater (you know, God’s Country) gave a group like Devo the opportunity to incubate and create a truly unique sound. I suspect a similar thing has happened with Chat Pile, and it’s this anomalous weirdness that listeners and audiences are responding to, whether they know it or not.
To be clear, it’s not just “authenticity” that makes Chat Pile worth paying attention to. It’s also that their music is transportive, cathartic, nihilistic, life-affirming, and, dare I say, even beautiful. What’s more, it often manages to be all of these things at the same time. This is kind of a big deal, especially considering there are precious few things to look forward to in this world, which leaves many people succumbing to the spiritual poison of nostalgia. (This is why so many people are excited that Chat Pile sound vaguely like a band who named themselves after a vegetable but couldn’t even get the spelling right). The strength of Chat Pile’s ongoing recorded output gives fans of heavy music a reason to get up in the morning and face the day. Yes, this world is a piece of shit that’s run by the worst people who have ever existed, but at least there will be new Chat Pile records and, at the rate these guys are going, we’ll probably get another one sooner rather than later. That may not solve anyone’s problems, but it’ll at least make living in the end times suck just a little bit less.
Links of interest:
https://www.instagram.com/chatpileband/
https://chatpile.bandcamp.com/album/who-loves-the-sun
https://nowflensing.com/collections/chat-pile
