My Bloody Valentine Archives

Review: A Place to Bury Strangers’ Worship

A Place to Bury Strangers: Worship (Dead Oceans, 6/26/12)

“You are the One”

A Place to Bury Strangers: “You are the One”

Now on its third full-length album, A Place to Bury Strangers — previously called “the loudest band in New York” — remains fastened to its style, offering a modern take on European noise rock, post-punk, and shoegaze of the 1980s.

With Worship, the band’s core attributes still define it, emphasized by buzz-saw guitars, blistering feedback, Oliver Ackermann’s airy vocals, and a special dichotomy between noise and melody. But these 11 tracks, following the slightly poppier (but equally loud) Onwards to the Wall EP of February, might best capture the inherent tension in that balance.

A Place to Bury Strangers: More Than Just the “Loudest Band in New York”

A Place to Bury Strangers plays 1980s-inspired noise rock designed to blow your mind — a mission plainly evidenced by its blistering live shows.

Morrow vs. Hajduch: Bongripper’s Satan Worshipping Doom

Scott Morrow is ALARM’s music editor. Patrick Hajduch is a very important lawyer. Each week they debate the merits of a different album.

Bongripper: Satan Worshipping Doom 2xLP (August 13, 2010)

Bongripper: “Hail”
[audio:http://alarm-magazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Bongripper-Satan-Worshipping-Doom-01-Hail.mp3|titles=Bongripper: “Satan Worshipping Doom”]

Morrow: Chicago’s Bongripper makes the type of music that you might glean from its name — bleak, crushing doom metal that’s built on stoner riffs and down-tuned guitars. I will preface this by saying that I’m not a huge fan of the genre, but the band already has two strikes in my book for the lame pot-related name and the (presumably tongue-in-cheek) Satanism.

Fucked Up: Punk-Rock Social Experiment

Begun by recruiting the least-harmonious group of members, Fucked Up talks about in-fighting, fascism, and “riding the crest” of its own unstable wave.

BPM Counter: First Five of 2009

ALARM columnist Sean-Michael Yoder shares his first five electronic picks in 2009. The list includes Aether’s “melodic” Artifacts, London’s John Tejada with Fabric 44, the pop/dance beats of Hercules and Love Affair’s self-titled album, a Lollapalooza mix, and Jaga Jazzist leader Lars Horntveth’s 37-minute song, “Kaleidoscopic.”

Weekend Planner (9-19-08)

If you’re in New York or Chicago, you have some mighty fine festival options this weekend. Check out our recommendations for ATP New York and Chicago’s Hideout Block Party, including My Bloody Valentine (shown left), Tortoise, Plastic People of the Universe, Tim Fite, and many others.