We don’t all have to live like absolute fucking worms, carving out tiny moments of necessary personal relief in the short moments when we’re not engaged in the dehumanizing drudgery necessary to survive. Things could be different. We could all live fulfilling, interesting lives where work is merely one factor. We have the resources. We have the means. But that’s not the way shit works, and we know it. That is the message of Oklahoma City noise-rock titans Chat Pile’s latest burst of cheer, which is naturally called “PEN I S MALL.”
Chat Pile, one of the best bands currently operating, are in the midst of rolling out Who Loves The Sun, the latest album in what’s proving to be an absolute monster streak. We’ve already heard lead single “Deep Blue,” which rules. Today, the band follows that one with “PEN I S MALL,” which also rules. It’s a grinding, guttural stomper that leans even harder into world-exploding riffage than past Chat Pile nut-crushers. Frontman Ray B.’s unhinged growl takes things into even bleaker territory: “Hard to think but your whole life can pass as a series of acts of subordination.”
In a press release, bassist Stin identifies “PEN I S MALL” as “the heaviest Chat Pile song to date. The song and title refer to a stretch of time when Raygun was working as a maintenance man at one of the local shopping malls here in OKC. He screamed himself into a pretty brutal headache tracking this one, if I remember correctly.”
Ray B. says, “If survival wasn’t so brutal in the United States, a maintenance job at a local mall could in theory be a fun gig… Of course, the awful beast known as Capitalism is extremely rickety, with not enough to truly go around in fair share, as those in the lower and even middle positions know all to well.”
The Richard Pictures-directed “PEN I S MALL” illustrates that sentiment, casting Garrett Stanton Vandermark, of the Philly noise-rock band My Wife’s An Angel, as a working drone whose job is the disposal of dead human bodies. Pissed Jeans frontman Matt Korvette makes an appearance as another “body dragger.” It’s a great video for a great song about a not-great state of existence. Check it out below.
Who Loves The Sun is out 9/4 on the Flenser.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source stereogum.com ’
