Oklahoma City noise-rock crew Chat Pile made a brutal breakout with their 2022 debut, God’s Country, and they’ll return with its follow-up, Cool World, on Oct. 11 via The Flenser.
Bearing the same name as the ’90s film, Cool World reaches for a sludgy, unsettling atmosphere, just like their first record, but this time widens its scope to examine a decaying planet. “Cool World covers similar themes to our last album, except now exploded from a micro to macro scale, with thoughts specifically about disasters abroad, at home, and how they affect one another,” vocalist Raygun Busch says. “If I had to describe the album in one sentence, it’s hard not to borrow from Voltaire, so I won’t resist — Cool World is about the price at which we eat sugar in America.” You can hear that on lead single “I Am Dog Now,” which comes with a gritty video directed by Will Mecca.
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Bassist Stin adds, “Will’s vision captures the essence of ‘I Am Dog Now’ by channeling his specific style of low-fi, exploitation cinema aesthetic into a dusty, religious bad-trip exclusive to the southern plains of America. Eagle-eyed viewers may actually notice shots of the literal chat piles from which we take our name.”
See the video for “I Am Dog Now,” plus the tracklisting and upcoming tour dates, below.
Cool World tracklisting
“I Am Dog Now”
“Shame”
“Frownland”
“Funny Man”
“Camcorder”
“Tape”
“The New World”
“Masc”
“Milk of Human Kindness”
“No Way Out”
