On Nov. 14, noise rock band Chat Pile brought the live sound of their new LP, “Cool World” to Higher Ground in Burlington. The band’s nihilistic lyrics, downtempo cuts, and punk influences have also led to widespread characterizations of their music as sludge metal. Released on Oct. 11, the band’s second LP displays a continuing, intense focus on the present political moment: chock full of horrors with severities reaching the surreal.
The veteran performers played a request-only set, a strategy which must help keep their gig fresh during a tour of playing shows nearly every other day for three weeks. The crowd howls out song titles as the four men on stage survey eager fans vying for their attention — I am barking like a dog the title of my favorite Chat Pile track from “Cool World”: “Frownland.”
Jack Mitchell, a 27 year old wastewater engineer I met in the pit, remarked in an interview with The Campus on this performance style. This “democratic” process was fitting considering the ethos of the band.
At the concert I am in a prime position to cast my vote in this democracy: the middle of the narrow but open Showcase Lounge, Higher Ground’s 300 person capacity indoor venue. An unchanging red light casts the quartet in menacing crimson tones, which is sharply contrasted by their playful smiles and brotherly comradery.
Stin, the bassist, with his salt and pepper curls and permanently good-natured expression, leans towards Raygun Busch, the vocalist, and mutters. With his rounded shoulders and unconcerned gaze, Busch agrees that they’ll play my request next. He assertively shushes the drunk dad, who is almost toppling onto the stage while nagging for them to play “Three Little Pigs” (by Green Jelly) like he’s disciplining a devious child. Busch points towards me.
The people quiet. I make my request and dramatically drag my fingers down the corners of my mouth to make a frown.
Stin and his brother Cap’n Ron, the tall, gaunt drummer nod and begin the pounding rhythm. Twenty seconds in, Luther Manhole slams out the dreadful yet addicting guitar melody of Frownland. This fantastic sludge climbs for a couple bars and drops as Busch declares his desolation, marching his voice to the industrial beat,
“Shadow on the wall like I was never there
Pull the mask down, pull the mask down
And escape into the dark, and escape into the dark
And escape into the dark, and escape into the dark”
Alienation is a familiar theme in Chat Pile’s discography. Hailing from Oklahoma City, the band’s name refers to the piles of “chat” or byproducts of lead-zinc mining which are commonplace across Oklahoma. This anthropogenic pollution can be found in different forms throughout their discography, spanning from rageful confrontations to defeated monologues by Busch atop thunderous sludge-filled performances from the rest of the band.
The quartet performs new classics at Higher Ground from the “Cool World” such as the opening track, “I Am Dog Now.” The audience is led into the song with a heavy bassline and Luther Manhole’s relentless punching of one dissonant chord. Raygun Busch in his backwards cap staggers back and forth on the stage in a dejected yet threatening posture. Mitchell perfectly characterizes Raygun Busch’s performance: an effortless combination of theatrics and simplicity.
“He kind of takes on this very possessed puppety kind of persona, but he's very much just a guy being a guy on stage,” Mitchell said.
Oscar de Swaan Arons ’27 expanded on this persona in an interview with the Campus.
“The main singer didn't have shoes on, he didn't have a shirt on, and he was talking to the crowd as though we were just all in the room as friends. And he seemed very into the lyrics of the song - he was very much feeling the emotions that he was singing. As somebody who hadn't heard the music before, it made me relate to it more or understand it more, ” he said.
Busch grasps the microphone in his left hand, occasionally draping his shoulders down over his hip from the emotional weight of his vocal execution. The lyrics are simple, with the title, “I Am Dog Now,” consistently repeated among lines describing a squalor and sense of imprisonment. The delivery is an impassioned roar with a snarling enunciation of the poetry.
Within the context of their body of work, “I Am Dog Now” likely represents the exasperation of the average laborer, citizen and person toiling away each day under worsening economic and political conditions. To the crowd’s delight, the band agrees to play “Why” from their previous LP, “God’s Country”: a song which questions a world order in which devastating social issues are left unaddressed even in the most “developed” states.
“Why do people have to live outside
When there are buildings all around us
With heat on and no one inside?
Why?”
Just as almost every other contemporary musical genre has experienced, noise rock and metal’s political reputations have been marred by Nazis, sellouts and just plain garbage. Chat Pile and their brutal yet self-aware confrontations with burning social issues portrays the modern political experience with remarkable lucidity. The rhetoric of Chat Pile runs as clear and black as the revolutionary purity of heavy metal titans, Black Sabbath. This is especially evident in Chat Pile’s courage in discussing the horrors witnessed in Palestine.
“Shame” comes towards the end of the show and is another personal standout from “Cool World.” In an interview with Crack Magazine, Raygun Bosch remarked “At the time I wrote [“Shame”], I’m seeing the guy get run over by a f—king tank.” Similar to the band’s approach in “Why,” violence is discussed in “Shame” with a similar tone of disillusionment towards liberal institutions.
“In their parents arms, the kids were falling apart
Broken tiny bodies holding tiny still hearts”
…
“It stung hot in my eyes, the illusion of justice
It burned deep in my face, felt unbearably selfish”
Ultimately, Chat Pile cannot be categorized with any one element of their sound. While my greatest impression of the band comes from their political messaging, others like Mitchell gravitate towards the band for different reasons.
“I think that they said [“Cool World”] is mostly just an anti-war album, but it's kind of funny, because when I listen to it, that's honestly not exactly what I hear. I hear it as a more personal album,” Mitchell said.
“It was rambunctious, but also personal. I felt very close to the artist… While these songs are very dark and emotional, the performers themselves are actually just very fun and passionate about the music,” de Swaan Arons added.
June Su '27 (he/him) is the Senior Multimedia Editor.
He is a political science major also studying studio art and Spanish. June spent this last summer working for Artchange, Inc. as an intern working to release their new documentary, Cruise Boom, to academic and general audiences. On campus, he is a part of Students for Justice in Palestine and enjoys painting the Vermontese scenery.
