A Place To Bury Strangers - Biography
Brooklyn-based A Place to Bury Strangers is a noise-rock band with elements of shoegaze, psych-rock and classic indie rock. Derived from the band Skywave, who combined similar elements into their synth-driven music, the project formed when Tim Gregorio and drummer Oliver Ackermann got together in 2003. After a couple of rehearsals in which Ackermann switched to vocals and guitar, the pair played a show at New York’s Luxx before Gregorio left and ex-Mofo members Jay Space and Jono Mofo joined the group. Since that time, the trio APTBS has been called the loudest band on the scene in New York, playing increasingly raucous gigs that sweltered with reverberation, feedback and general drone. Their shows at Webster Hall opening for The Brian Jonestown Massacre (2006) and the iconic predecessors The Jesus and Mary Chain (2007) gained the band a lot of notoriety, and bigger shows at Coachella, the Seaport Music Festival and the Siren Music Festival. In 2009 the band signed to Mute Records.
APTBS recorded three unnamed EPs early on, which would later be distinguished by colors—the Red, Blue and Green releases. The fuzzy wall-of-sound bombardment and chaotic experimentation of white noise/beautiful noise earned them points with the brainier indie sect in New York. They gigged in 2006 with the likes of The Funeral Crasher and Read Yellow and solidified their status as, what The Washington Post called, “the most earth-shatteringly loud garage/shoegaze band you’ll ever hear.”
In 2007, the band released its eponymous full-length, A Place to Bury Strangers (Important Records), a pummeling assault on the senses with atmospheric undercurrents which drew apt comparisons to The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Psychocandy and Swervedriver. Behind the copious layers of guitar effects, synths and vox manipulations the tracks were well-crafted pop songs; like the sweeping opener, “Missing You,” and “Another Step Away.” Songs like “My Weakness” were the ones that revved best at higher volumes and had the trademark immediacy. The album earned rave reviews from critics, and catapulted APTBS’s status as a buzzband to watch.
After touring with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and doing a stretch of European dates with MGMT, A Place to Bury Strangers signed with Mute Records. Their sophomore album, Exploding Head came out in 2009, and, though the production quality was better (thanks to Ackermann, too, who mixed and engineered), the same ominous surge of buzzing, swirling guitar playing over gentle melodies litter the bulk. This time the shoegaze side was more pronounced, especially on tracks like “Keep Slipping Away,” but a continued drone plays throughout the album, which drew yet more comparisons to early-era Mary Chain and Chapterhouse. Tracks like “Ego Death” remind everyone that APTBS is still writing songs best played at ear-splitting decibels, and the closing track “I Lived My Life to Stand in the Shadow of Your Heart” is a chugging number with enough guitar to drown out an on-coming locomotive.