The name, A Place to Bury Strangers, calls to mind cemeteries and funeral processions, but the Brooklyn three-piece that bears the moniker is a riot of squealing feedback, lashing rapid-fire drums and undulating fuzz that leaves little room for gloom.
The earliest incarnation of A Place to Bury Strangers (APTBS) emerged at the end of 2003 when Oliver Ackermann was recruited to play drums for a band that aimed to sound like the seminal shoegaze band Slowdive. After Ackermann switched to guitar and vocals, APTBS slowly but surely morphed into Ackermann’s band, he being the last man standing from the original lineup. Now he’s flanked by Jay Space on drums and Jono Mofo on bass. Together, the three of them make an ungodly noise. The owner of Death By Audio, a combination custom effects-pedal business, recording studio and performance space in Brooklyn, Ackermann admits that his major pursuits happen to revolve around the theme of extinction.
“I seem to be obsessed with it unintentionally,” Ackermann explains. “I don’t know why so many things I do are focused on death and destruction.”
Despite his band’s bone-crushingly loud music and sometimes-violent lyrics (in “To Fix the Gash In Your Head,” Ackermann sings, “I’ll just wait for you to turn around to kick your head in,”), he says he’s really just a “happy-go-lucky kind of guy,” and he certainly sounds that way when we speak on the phone. Ackermann’s got every reason to be optimistic: The release of the band’s mind-blowing self-titled debut on the tiny Boston label Killer Pimp has brought the trio a slew of new fans and unexpected critical acclaim.
Ackermann says they hadn’t planned on releasing the songs they had been circulating on CD-Rs at gigs as a proper record. But when Jon Whitney of Killer Pimp approached them after a show, he made them an offer they ultimately couldn’t refuse.
“He wrote a contract on a napkin that said ‘I will release your CD and give you all the money,’” Ackermann explains, and voilà, it was unleashed in August.
Ackermann grew up listening to shoegazers The Jesus and Mary Chain, Lush and Ride and was influenced by their raw intensity, which his band’s debut reflects. “The recording qualities weren’t so great,” he says. “But the feeling and the emotion go beyond just making songs that sound good coming out of every stereo.”
And APTBS has become notorious for its sonically overwhelming live performances, with their ear-splitting waves of distortion and feedback.
“We like to play at a volume so that you can feel the music,” he says. “The point of the live show is to engulf your senses, to take you off to a different place so you’ll forget where you’re at.”
Dec. 21, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St. (betw. Bowery & Chrystie St.), 212-533-2111; 8, $13/$15.
The earliest incarnation of A Place to Bury Strangers (APTBS) emerged at the end of 2003 when Oliver Ackermann was recruited to play drums for a band that aimed to sound like the seminal shoegaze band Slowdive. After Ackermann switched to guitar and vocals, APTBS slowly but surely morphed into Ackermann’s band, he being the last man standing from the original lineup. Now he’s flanked by Jay Space on drums and Jono Mofo on bass. Together, the three of them make an ungodly noise. The owner of Death By Audio, a combination custom effects-pedal business, recording studio and performance space in Brooklyn, Ackermann admits that his major pursuits happen to revolve around the theme of extinction.
“I seem to be obsessed with it unintentionally,” Ackermann explains. “I don’t know why so many things I do are focused on death and destruction.”
Despite his band’s bone-crushingly loud music and sometimes-violent lyrics (in “To Fix the Gash In Your Head,” Ackermann sings, “I’ll just wait for you to turn around to kick your head in,”), he says he’s really just a “happy-go-lucky kind of guy,” and he certainly sounds that way when we speak on the phone. Ackermann’s got every reason to be optimistic: The release of the band’s mind-blowing self-titled debut on the tiny Boston label Killer Pimp has brought the trio a slew of new fans and unexpected critical acclaim.
Ackermann says they hadn’t planned on releasing the songs they had been circulating on CD-Rs at gigs as a proper record. But when Jon Whitney of Killer Pimp approached them after a show, he made them an offer they ultimately couldn’t refuse.
“He wrote a contract on a napkin that said ‘I will release your CD and give you all the money,’” Ackermann explains, and voilà, it was unleashed in August.
Ackermann grew up listening to shoegazers The Jesus and Mary Chain, Lush and Ride and was influenced by their raw intensity, which his band’s debut reflects. “The recording qualities weren’t so great,” he says. “But the feeling and the emotion go beyond just making songs that sound good coming out of every stereo.”
And APTBS has become notorious for its sonically overwhelming live performances, with their ear-splitting waves of distortion and feedback.
“We like to play at a volume so that you can feel the music,” he says. “The point of the live show is to engulf your senses, to take you off to a different place so you’ll forget where you’re at.”
Dec. 21, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St. (betw. Bowery & Chrystie St.), 212-533-2111; 8, $13/$15.
