Pitchfork

A Place to Bury Strangers may have been strangers to most of the world at this time last year, but their Best New Music-awarded self-titled debut LP didn't come out of nowhere. In addition to singer/guitarist Oliver Ackermann's previous stint in now-defunct Virginia band Skywave, the atmospheric Brooklyn rockers had already issued a pair of self-titled EPs and opened for Brian Jonestown Massacre way back in 2006. Non-album track "Deadbeat" has been part of their live shows at least since last April, when they played it at Brooklyn's Union Pool, and they recently gave a characteristically thunderous performance during an in-studio session for the University of Minnesota's Radio K. Ackermann's vocals aren't much easier to decipher here than in previous live recordings of the song, so "Deadbeat" probably won't be enough to convince doubters who'd still argue that A Place to Bury Strangers' songwriting doesn't live up to their Jesus & Mary Chain-like racket-- but what a dark, swirling racket, with a spy-movie guitar riff giving way into layers of textured effects. At the end of the mp3 is a roiling seven-minute version of album closer "Ocean"; Radio K has also posted a separate mp3 with live recordings of 2006 EP track "Never Going Down" and the face-kicking aggression of "To Fix the Gash in Your Head". A preview of what to expect from the band's in-the-works live album?

MP3/Stream:> A Place to Bury Strangers: "Deadbeat" / "Ocean"
[A Place to Bury Strangers is out now on Killer Pimp/Important]