This ! Band ! Is ! So ! Good !!!!! If it weren’t for this band, my boyfriend and I would never have started messaging on tinder[1]. This was also the first band through which I experienced that specific brand of misogyny when a guy says, “how can you call yourself a fan if you haven’t heard this album by them??”. This was not said by my boyfriend, although he did just now reference it as a joke when I told him I was writing about Pile today. The boy who said that was talking about Pile’s album Dripping, which is definitely a masterpiece, he wasn’t wrong! But Jerk Routine remains my favorite.
Pile combines a country twang with
rock music, occasional screaming, and in their earlier releases, gorgeous piano
and finger-picked guitar melodies. My boyfriend and I often talk about how much
we love the lead singer (Rick)’s crooning voice. He can go from soft and gentle
singing to yelling in seconds, a feat that is very impressive and deeply
satisfying to sing along to. My favorite track, and possibly my favorite Pile song
of all time, is “Raised by Ghosts”. This song is a great example of Rick’s
range. The lyrics are beautiful. I love the slow build up. It’s a perfect song.
One of my favorite memories of this
album is when I gave my boyfriend a tattoo. He wanted to get “Pile” on his leg,
and someone else had given him the “P” but hadn’t finished. He and I had only
been dating a few months at most when we sat in his sun-filled bedroom with
this album playing as I stick and poked our favorite band permanently into his
skin. I remember thinking how risky it was that we were giving each other
tattoos so early in our relationship, but it’s been four years since then and
we’re still together, so I don’t think it did too much damage[2].
A lot of Pile’s music can feel like
too much at first listen- sometimes their instrumentals overlap the lyrics too
much, or the songs are loud and fast and manic. But when you sit with it, when you
read through the lyrics (which Rick is always happy to email over if needed)
you realize that they’re so great at telling stories. The saga of Mr. Fish in
their album You’re Better Than This, or the nightmare of having spiders crawl
out your butt in the absolute jam of a song “The Browns” on their famous album
Dripping, are such wild adventures into both music and storytelling. There’s
also “The Soft Hands of Stephen Miller” a biting commentary on the shitty politician
on their latest album Green and Gray. From their older releases like Jerk
Routine to their latest ones, Pile just absolutely fucking rocks.
You can listen to Jerk Routine here.
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