Stereogum Home

 

August 18, 2009

New A Place To Bury Strangers - "In Your Heart" (Stereogum Premiere)

thubmnail icon: New A Place To Bury Strangers - "In Your Heart" (Stereogum Premiere)

There's no denying "It Is Nothing," the opening shoe-gaze anthem on A Place To Bury Stranger's sophomore album Exploding Head, is a massive nod to My Bloody Valentine: From the title's echo of Isn't Anything to the swirl of overdriven guitars, the Brooklyn trio offers up a tight homage to Kevin Shields & Co. before shifting into the darker, bleaker direction of "In Your Heart." It's a great, somehow moving transition. There a bunch of these moments across the 10 tracks: For this and other reasons the album really needs to be heard in its entirety. (And on good, loud speakers: Oliver Ackermann takes the name of his Death By Audio effects pedals and this Exploding Head title seriously.) For now, listen to "In Your Heart" with it's clanging Joy Division forward motion. We can all fill in the blanks later.

The tracklist:

01 "It Is Nothing"
02 "In Your Heart"
03 "Lost Feeling"
04 "Deadbeat"
05 "Keep Slipping Away"
06 "Ego Death"
07 "Smile When You Smile"
08 "Everything Always Goes Wrong"
09 "Exploding Head"
10 "I Live My Life to Stand in the Shadow of Your Heart"

Exploding Head is out 10/6 via Mute. There's a fairly extensive North American tour associated with it:

10/04 - Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brenda's #
10/05 - Washington, DC @ Rock and Roll Hotel #
10/06 - Chapel Hill, NC @ Local 506 #
10/07 - Atlanta, GA @ Drunken Unicorn #
10/08 - Tallahassee, FL @ Club Downunder #
10/09 - New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jacks #
10/10 - Dallas, TX @ Club Dada #
10/11 - Austin, TX @ The Mohawk #
10/13 - Tucson, AZ @ Plush #
10/15 - San Diego, CA @ Casbah #
10/16 - Los Angeles, CA @ Echo #
10/17 - San Francisco, CA @ The Independent %
10/18 - Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge %
10/19 - Seattle, WA @ Crocodile Café %
10/20 - Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret %
10/22 - Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge %
10/23 - Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge %
10/25 - Sr. Louis, MO @ Firebird %
10/26 - Chicago, IL @ Double Door &
10/27 - Toronto, ON @ The Mod Club &
10/28 - Montreal, QC @ Il Motore &
10/29 - New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom &
10/30 - Cambridge, MA @ Middle East Upstairs &

# w/ Darker My Love and All The Saints
% w/ All The Saints
& w/ Dead Confederate and All The Saints

Posted at 9:30 AM by brandon in ,
Tags:




17 Comments

Nice premiere, I have been listening to this album for a week already since it leaked. LOL
Anyway, this is the best shoegaze album since Loveless.

Posted by: lol? at 08/18/09 9:48 AM  | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

where can I find the torrent? I've been looking for weeks...

Posted by: d profile link  in reply to lol?'s comment at 08/18/09 1:56 PM  | Reply
Score = 1 Vote up Vote down

http://tinyurl.com/nwyo4f Was that hard?

Posted by: fatherchristmas  in reply to d's comment at 08/18/09 2:05 PM  | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

ya know what this record makes me think of? KATE EARL. did you guys KNOW that you can get her record for $5.99 today!?

who the F is Kate Earl.

Posted by: zoltow at 08/18/09 10:16 AM  | Reply
Score = 1 Vote up Vote down

I'll take Kate Earl ads over Amanda Blank ads any day

Posted by: artrckr profile link  in reply to zoltow's comment at 08/18/09 1:00 PM  | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

cleaner than the last record. pretty great.

Posted by: grover profile link at 08/18/09 10:17 AM  | Reply
Score = 1 Vote up Vote down

I like songs that sound better with distorted speakers.

Posted by: wingedgopher profile link at 08/18/09 10:59 AM  | Reply
Score = 2 Vote up Vote down

The best part about this band is that nobody picks up on the fact that their 'so loud it kills you' thing is completely ironic.

Posted by: john at 08/18/09 11:27 AM  | Reply
Score = 1 Vote up Vote down

SO Joy Division. It's hard to want to pick up this album when all that has been said is that they are just paying homage to other bands. Why not just listen to My Bloody Valentine and Joy Division??

Posted by: adam at 08/18/09 1:06 PM  | Reply
Score = -2 Vote up Vote down

This group does not sound like Joy Division, maybe the vocals do a bit but the rest is completely different. You probably think Interpol sounds like Joy Division also? They sound a bit like MBV Isn't Anything era but they aren't as derivative as bands like Serena-Maneesh.

Posted by: facepalm  in reply to adam's comment at 08/18/09 1:59 PM  | Reply
Score = 2 Vote up Vote down

though it's against popular conjecture, i must say, these guys suck live. fucking boring too look at. their stack of fender amps and the haggard bass player are all i remember. otherwise, looking forward to hearing this.

Posted by: eriq at 08/18/09 4:59 PM  | Reply
Score = -1 Vote up Vote down

"popular conjecture"? you were too busy reading a thesaurus to notice the show. remove your ear plugs next time.

Posted by: david at 08/19/09 10:08 PM  | Reply
Score = 1 Vote up Vote down

scratch what i said earlier. this record is even better than i thought, and we're all in serious trouble if it doesn't make any year end lists

Posted by: grover profile link at 08/19/09 11:02 PM  | Reply
Score = 1 Vote up Vote down

I guess it's a curse of new media that having all music ever made at our fingertips leads to boring, derivative dreck.

Also, why the hell is Ackerman trying to sing like a Brit? He's from Virginia for christ's sake.

Posted by: Dave at 08/20/09 8:10 AM  | Reply
Score = -2 Vote up Vote down

why is it that if a band pumps up the fuzz and drone its automatically a "nod" to MBV?
did kevin shields invent distortion/reverb???
i love alot of reverb/fuzz drenched music but just never really dug MBV...
i actually rather listen to APTBS than MBV, go figure.

Posted by: errrrr.... at 09/03/09 5:09 PM  | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

At least they are taking inspiration from good bands, and doing the genre justice. no one ever seems to mention that. How boring have the last 2 Interpol releases been, seriously? mid tempo jibba jabba. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Some of us grew up on MBV & Joy Division so it is cool when newer bands take inspiration from them. Also sometimes you want to hear something current/new but familiar. Burnt out on 13th Floor Elevators but still want a kinda similar guitar vibe- Black Angels, etc. Even the most diehard of fans cannot listen to Joy Division 24/7, do not care what anyone says.
Kevin Shields did not invent distortion but he does have a solid grasp on sculpting sound, electronics & tone. amazing tone at that. if you do not like MBV ya prolly do not comprehend what all is going into making the wall of sound associated.
Hate to break it to some of you but if you are listening to rock of any sort it is derivative. word

Posted by: chris at 09/05/09 7:57 AM  | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

"Hate to break it to some of you but if you are listening to rock of any sort it is derivative." smart!

Posted by: j  in reply to chris's comment at 09/10/09 4:24 PM  | Reply
Score = 0 Vote up Vote down

Leave a comment


Staff

  • Founder/Editor-In-Chief: Scott Lapatine
  • Executive Editor: Amrit Singh
  • Senior Writer: Brandon Stosuy

Info

Contact

Listomania logo
Haunting The Chapel logo
Progress Report logo
Commercial Appeal logo
Premature Evaluation logo
Where's The Beef? logo
Band to Watch logo
Quit Your Day Job logo
The 'Gum Drop logo