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I keep insisting that APTBS reminds me of the intensity and brilliance of early Joy Division. I saw APTBS back in March and they were as good last week as they were in March. The next time they tour through your area, don’t miss them.
Archive for October, 2008
links for 2008-10-31
Friday, October 31st, 2008A Place to Bury Strangers links for 2008-10-30
Thursday, October 30th, 2008
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It’s rare that the hyperbole of an album’s press release is outdone by the plaudits of reviewers, but the fevered accolades cawing from such luminaries as Pitchfork for this debut from Brooklyners A Place To Bury Strangers makes their own PR seem almost indifferent.
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A Place To Bury Strangers @ Bowery Ballroom - I can’t get enough of them, so dark, so good, love. I see them every time they come to NY.
Political Cartoons - five days to the election
Thursday, October 30th, 2008Here is a selection of some that caught my eye
A Place to Bury Strangers links for 2008-10-29
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008
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I’m hearing a lot of fuzzed-out takes on proto-shoegaze come out of there these days. “I Know I’ll See You” by A Place To Bury Strangers does, in a lot of ways, take me back to shithole venues from the era — particularly the bass sound, which reminds me of something specific that I can’t put my finger on. The guitars are a fusion between midperiod Jesus & Mary Chain and midperiod My Bloody Valentine, the latter’s breakthrough point
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Crystal Antlers were a hard act to follow, though Brooklyn trio A Place to Bury Strangers mostly succeeded, with lead guitarist/singer Oliver Ackermann doing his best to out-shine Johnny Bell in the showmanship department.
A Place to Bury Strangers links for 2008-10-28
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008
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True to form, guitarist/vocalist Oliver Ackerman performed his signature de-stringing and swinging of his guitar at the end of the set. What makes the band particularly unique, though, is drummer Jay Spruce’s ability to accompany the other instruments’ feedback. For the guitar and bass throughout much of the songs, not a lot is going on. But, Spruce finds rhythm where there should be none and unearths nuances in the noise. As a trio, the band are keenly attuned to each other’s effects-laden improvisations—which are far more enjoyable when the listener’s ears are safely stuffed with hot pink plugs.
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She looks up and Oliver is staring at her, right at her with his enormous blue beacons beaming through her skull, and then the skull of the next person and the next. Is he thanking us? she wonders but he looks so somber, almost furious but more like concentrating desperately to push an idea out of his head into our minds and finally when he turns his back and switches the machine back on it is pure antimusic coming out of the amps, white shit, no soul and no mode and no end, just chaos with a broken backbeat
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Underneath the bombastic sounds of Oliver Ackerman’s homemade effects pedals, A Place to Bury Strangers writes honest-to-goodness pop songs in the vein of New Order and The Jesus and Mary Chain. The band both celebrates and subverts its danceable rock with layers upon layers of My Bloody Valentine-style white noise, without sounding anything like their influences.
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It is Ackerman’s understanding of the physical chemistry and specific design of his pedals transforms the band’s sound completely as he sets out to make the most brazenly beautiful distortion and muffled, foggy and authentic layers of shoegazer goodness that places the band in a category above other bands with the same intentions. Some songs hint at the darkness that creeps in while you listen to bands like The Knife and even Depeche Mode or The Cure.
A Place to Bury Strangers links for 2008-10-27
Monday, October 27th, 2008
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After witnessing the My Bloody Valentine reunion at ATP NY last month, I can’t watch a band like A Place to Bury Strangers the same way ever again. Through no fault of their own, nothing that they do could possibly live up to the gale force of MBV
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So you know when Keane are talking up their new 80s-inspired direction and the economy is starting, wearingly, to resemble that of twenty years ago, it’s probably time to find a new buzzword. But here, with one last, distorted, noise-drenched salute to the past, are A Place To Bury Strangers and their debut LP, finally being released in Britain after first receiving limited release in the U.S. over a year ago.
A Place to Bury Strangers links for 2008-10-26
Sunday, October 26th, 2008
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One things you need to know about A Place To Bury Strangers: they’re incredibly loud. Even with industrial-strength earplugs in, this Brooklyn trio has blown every band out of the water with a new twist on shoegazy rock—delightfully as melodic as noisy. After opening for the Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Jesus And Mary Chain, as well as releasing the critically acclaimed self-title album last year, this band is worthy of the spotlight for this show on the last night of their headlining spring tour. With All the Saints, Little Jakie, Marnie Stern, Vivian Girls, and Lord T & Elois
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The loudest band in New York is coming back to Philly for a show at Johnny Brenda’s. Bring your earplugs as A Place to Bury Strangers takes the stage. Joining them is Philly’s own psychedelic garage rock artists The Cobbs. Take the pop sensibilties of The Kinks and throw in Brian Jonestown Massacre with some psyche guitar and viola, The Cobbs. And a new album is in the works, so expect some fresh material.
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Oh, but there’s more to life than books, you know, but not much more, not much more: A Place To Bury Strangers, this generation’s living answer to the Jesus & Mary Chain AND drugs, are gonna make your ears bleed ecstacy at Johnny Brenda’s. It’s just going to happen.
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Dubbed “New York’s loudest band”, their debut UK shows this May were some of the most thrilling showcases of paranoia-seething guitar abuse these shores have seen since the heyday of their obvious heroes the Reid brothers. While much of the American nu-gaze school is starting to sound tired, APTBS lift themselves above the herd of Spacemen 3 worshippers by virtue of the rancorous ferocity of their sound – less dream pop than nightmare rock.
Windows Capture Software & Review of A Place to Bury Strangers in DC links for 2008-10-25
Saturday, October 25th, 2008
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Ackermann took a pull off a beer and scanned the crowd with large, whoa-dude eyes. And then the freakout began: With the band strobe-lit from below, the song exploded into astonishingly invigorating and still palatable noise as Ackermann went nuts with his guitar, flinging it and himself around until the instrument finally ended up on the floor, still squealing.
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http://www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/mwsnap.html
A Place to Bury Strangers links for 2008-10-24
Friday, October 24th, 2008
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A Place To Bury Strangers took the stage at midnight, which is a more likely reason than any on why this write up took so damn long. Hump day at midnight is a terrible time for information retention. My most vivid recollection was of an overpowering feel from the full assault of APTBS’s billowy noise. Not to get melodramatic, but it literally felt like I was getting blown away.
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The Indigos live return as they fulfil the re-arranged support slot with A Place To Bury Strangers at The Barfly, in Birmingham, on Saturday 29th November,
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Across town that same evening for the 21+ folks - the Best New Music anoited A PLACE TO BURY STRANGERS, the “loudest band on the east coast” will be headlining their first R5 show with THE COBBS and the much blogged about AMAZING BABY (from nyc - featuring former ink and dagger member don devore!)
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The New York three-piece - yes, that’s right, such a crescendo of noise that sounds like the planet caving in is made by just three human beings - had spent their formative years between 2004 and 2006 honing their repertoire, no doubt enhanced by frontman/guitarist Oliver Ackermann’s reputable Death By Audio effects pedal sideline that saw some of his handmade creations like the Interstellar Overdriver and Total Sonic Annihilation used and tested for the first time with his new musical cohorts after the dissolution of his last outfit, Skywave.
Political Cartoons - four days until the election
Friday, October 31st, 2008Tags: cartoons, Politics
Posted in Commentary, Politics | No Comments »