Civil Society is proud to announce the debut Australian tour of New York’s loudest band, A Place to Bury Strangers.

Having run levels into the red on sound desks across the world A Place to Bury Strangers finally bring their mesmerizing mix of pain and pleasure to Australia for the Exploding Head tour.

The band, commonly known by the initials APTBS, formed in 2003 when Oliver Ackermann offered to drum for a friend’s band but by the end of the first practice Ackermann had switched to guitar and vocals and APTBS was born. Line up changes saw Jay Space and Jono Mofo, both from NYC outfit Mofo, join the group and by 2006 APTBS had already garnered acclaim from their stunning performances with Brian Jonestown Massacre. Throughout their career it has been the band’s increasingly chaotic live performances that built their legion of fans and seen them applauded as the revival of “the ominous, feedback-drenched drones of the 1980s” The New York Times.

While sporting the dubious moniker of the loudest band in the loudest city in the world APTBS have never been loud simply for the sake of it. The sonically overdriven sound they’ve accomplished is no clumsy accident, but a carefully cultivated and well-maintained entity all of its own. Fostered by an unbridled passion that’s clearly evident in every show they play and each recording they make, APTBS does not so much play songs as allow them to pour out. These are songs about longing, heartbreak and confusion all played extremely well and at a passionately loud volume…

“I love the interplay and contrasts between something that’s pretty and something that’s scary,” explains Oliver Ackermann (guitar/vocals). “Taking people to different places – even in one song – is so important, whether it makes them cry or pissed off.”

While Phil Spector‘s Wall of Sound approach makes its presence known in their hazy harmonies and the seared surf guitar there exists deeper elements like their recurring hey-ho-let’s-go Ramone’s enthusiasm that work their way out from behind the curtain of sound creating deeply textured and diverse sounds. Sinewy, slightly sinister APTBS suck you in with their paranoid pop only to be blow you away again by the gate-crashing melodies and the sputtering percussion. This February A Place to Bury Strangers finally bring their ear shattering nuisances to Sydney and Melbourne.