A perpendicular fierce panda one sheet

The Band: PILE

The Release: ‘FIRST OTHER TAPE’

The Formats: CASSETTE ONLY

The Release Date: OCTOBER 7TH 2016

The Label: FIERCE PANDA RECORDS

The Truth: The indisputable heroes of Boston's burgeoning indie rock scene hardly need a re-introduction, but we’ll give them one anyway. Earning the reputation of "your favourite band's favourite band," the quartet known as PILE (Rick Maguire (vocals / guitar), Kris Kuss (drums), Matt Connery (bass) and Matt Becker (guitar)) have been setting the DIY indie punk scene ablaze since 2009, developing a treasured back catalogue in the form of albums ‘Dripping’, ’Magic Isn’t Real’ and ‘Jerk Routine’ and a legion of diehard fans in the process. Last year they released the excellently anti-epic ‘You’re Better Than This’ and played the Panda Gig Of The Year at The Lexington.

Next up that DIY indie punk ethos is pushed to the merry limit with their forthcoming release: as Pile pile back on over to Europe for a tour (including a show at the 100 Club on November 2nd) they are releasing a kind-of-new album called ‘First Other Tape’. It’s called ‘First Other Tape’ because it is a cassette-only release, and it is a cassette release only on October 7th, which rather handily is the day before www.cassettestoreday.co.uk

To add to the DIY spirit ‘First Other Tape’ doesn’t bother with song titles per se, consisting of just two musical crusades which make up a Side One and a Side Two and which last for a round total of 30 dusty, dizzying, disorientating, thoroughly discombobulating minutes. We would say that Side One is the slightly more mournful of the two and Side Two the more raucous and unhinged, but all things are relative. We’d also suggest that in the midst of the trademark soundscape of aggrieved post-hardcore clangings and low-slung convulsing laments we can hear the sound of The Walkmen being played backwards and of Afghan Whigs falling down a flight of stairs, but maybe that’s just us.

Rather impressively, there is a single being taken off the album. It’s called – perhaps - ‘Cut From The First Other Tape’, it’s looser limbed than Usain Bolt lapping up the love on his victory lap and it has some lovely ragged outbursts of noise and emotion. Plus there’s even a video featuring cigarettes, strawberry pies and a neatly demented turn from singer Rick. See it here: http://www.punktastic.com/news/pile-reveal-video-for-demo-from-last-years-first-other-tape/

“The tape doesn't really have a track listing,” the frontman beams, casually. “It was recorded in July of 2015 at The Sex Dungeon in Philly, PA (where ‘Dripping’ was recorded) and it was mostly for workshopping new ideas and to get out some stuff after many months of touring on ‘You're Better Than This’. Some of the ideas will be on the next record, some may be on the one after that, and some may just remain self-contained ideas that I had during that period.”

Another limited edition tape fear mystery solved, then. Now go see Pile stack it up here, here and there:
OCTOBER 14TH AMSTERDAM OCCII (Netherlands)
OCTOBER 15TH BRUSSELS Magasin 4 (Belgium)
OCTOBER 16TH COLOGNE Underground 2 (Germany)
OCTOBER 17TH BERLIN Urban Spree (Germany)
OCTOBER 19TH TUBINGEN Pausenhof (Germany)
OCTOBER 20TH ZURICH Keller (Switzerland)
OCTOBER 21ST MILAN Spazio Ligera (Italy)
OCTOBER 22ND ILIRSKA BISTRICA MKNZ (Slovenia)
OCTOBER 24TH VIENNA Chelsea (Austria)
OCTOBER 26TH PARIS Olympic Café (France)
OCTOBER 27TH AALST Cirque Mystique (Belgium)
OCTOBER 28TH LIEGE Le Garage (Belgium)
OCTOBER 29TH CARDIFF Four Bars At Dempseys (UK)
OCTOBER 30TH LEEDS Brudenell Social Club (UK)
OCTOBER 31ST BIRMINGHAM Sunflower Lounge (UK)
NOVEMBER 1ST LEICESTER The Cookie (UK)
NOVEMBER 2ND LONDON OXFORD STREET 100 Club (UK) + Brunch + Modern Rituals
NOVEMBER 3RD NOTTINGHAM The Chameleon (UK)

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