Pile – “Uneasy”

We need to talk about Pile!

According to Wikipedia, Pile is “an American indie rock band from Boston, Massachusetts”. I initially felt as though “an indie rock band” is a rather reductive way to describe this group, but then I took a gander at the Wikipedia list of “Indie rock musical groups from Massachusetts” and now I realize that there’s something in the water causing indie rock mutants to spring up and form piles of mega-influential and highly idiosyncratic indie rock bands. So I suppose Wikipedia’s assessment of Pile stands.

When Jay Hosking introduced me to Pile many years ago, I hadn’t heard an indie rock band like them and I don’t believe that I’ve heard another like them since. Noisy, brooding, off-kilter, and deep deeeeep dark, I found the tunes to be ruthlessly compelling and extremely fresh. My interest in Pile kind of peaked with their 2017 mope masterpiece A Hairshirt of Purpose, still a high-water mark album for me in terms of albums that actually make a person feel like they’re drowning in… high-water. I have enjoyed their subsequent releases, but haven’t found myself drawn in to the extent that I’ll immerse myself in the nervy wastes of Pile-world for days at a time.

This may soon change! I listened to their new single “Uneasy” this morning, and it hit me like a sack of bricks and got me thinking that it might be the season for some Piletime. “Uneasy” hits the mark with briskly-paced songwriting, driving rhythms and deftly-handled guitar work. The chord progressions contained within are doubtlessly Pile-ian, never really heading in the directions that one might expect, but this track is unexpectedly hooky as well. It’s maybe as close as we’ll get to a “Pile pop song”, and I’m deeply here for it.

Pile’s music is heavy. Not heavy in the “heavy” music way. This isn’t like where some doofus might say: “Yoooo, have you heard the new Lorna Shore song, it’s so heavy”. Heavy in the sense that you might listen to a Pile song and feel rather than think that something terrible is sure to happen. Something terrible will happen, but you just might think about how beautiful life is as it’s happening.

If this sounds pretentious, it’s because I’M pretentious. Don’t blame it on Pile. Listen to Pile.

Sunshine and Balance Beams is out August 15, 2025.