Chat Pile | Artist
Chat Pile is an American noise rock band formed 2019 in Oklahoma City by Raygun Busch aka Randy Ruiz (vocals, guitar, synthesizer), Cap'n Ron (drums, guitar, synthesizer), Stin (bass, tape loops, synthesizer), and Luther Manhole (guitar, synthesizer, glockenspiel). Stin also acts as the band's manager. After finding online viral success with their 2019 debut EP, This Dungeon Earth, the group built their tense sound across the 2020s with acclaimed albums like God's Country (2022), Cool World (2024), and In the Earth Again, a collaborative album with guitarist Hayden Pedigo. Artistically, they attempt to make sense of a crumbling world through their sludgy strain of noise rock. With lyrics retelling horrific real-world acts and protesting social injustice frustrations, their art is both cathartic and deeply disturbing.
The band was founded in Oklahoma City, but its members grew up in other parts of the state; Raygun Busch from Ponca City, Luther Manhole from Moore and the brothers Stin and Cap'n Ron from Asher. The members initially adopted stage names to avoid being identified by their employers at the time. When starting up, the band was originally rejected by Oklahoma City's music scene, which then revolved around only hardcore punk and shoegaze. The band found successful when their debut EP This Dungeon Earth reached the top of Rate Your Music's weekly charts. Their second EP Remove Your Skin Please was released in November 2019, and the band released a compilation of both EPs on vinyl and cassette the following February. San Francisco-based label The Flenser signed Chat Pile in September and released the band's debut single, "Roots Bloody Roots", a cover of the song by the Brazilian thrash metal band Sepultura, in July 2021. A year later, they released their debut album, God's Country. The album received wide acclaim, receiving the "Best New Music" distinction on Pitchfork. Their recorded output to-date comprising three studio albums, one collaboration (with experimental guitarist Hayden Pedigo), and a raft of EPs and Singles, is of consistently excellent quality.Standouts include God's Country (2022), Cool World (2024), Who Loves The Sun (2026), Live at Roadburn 2023 (2025), and the 2020 EP compilation This Dungeon Earth / Remove Your Skin Please. In describing the band's sound, terms such as "pummeling riffs", Soul Crushingly Powerful This cemented Chat Pile as one of my favorite modern heavy bands. I was so lucky to catch them live. They were fantastic, even if they didn't have a long set. These guys manage to sound both pummeling and heavy, yet introspective and atmospheric at the same time. The production on this album brings out the best out of all the instruments too. The drums especially; they sound like they're being bashed as hard as humanly possible and the echo on them sounds incredible. Don’t forget the vocals too, they’re devastating. They tackle the dark side of the human condition in topics such as P.T.S.D. from war (Milk of Human Kindness) and watching in horror as human atrocities occur and world governments do nothing to stop the perpetrators (Shame). . The band takes its name from the byproducts of lead-zinc mining which are commonly found scaring the landscape of their home territory of Northeastern Oklahoma.
Artist Website: wikipedia/Koes_Plus
Featured Albums: Koes Plus
Related Artists: Koes Bersaudara