Brooklyn’s A Place To Bury Strangers’ uncompromising 2009 album Exploding Head has been expanded and newly remastered, featuring ten bonus tracks, including rarities, unreleased material, and three blistering covers. Out now on Mute/BMG and available in Deluxe 2-LP, 2-CD, and digital formats, Brooklyn’s A Place To Bury Strangers’ uncompromising 2009 album Exploding Head has been expanded and newly remastered, featuring ten bonus tracks, including rarities, unreleased material, and three blistering covers of tracks by Love and Rockets, The 13th Floor Elevators, and David Bowie. Exploding Head is considered APTBS’ most notable record, garnering them critical praise and a cult fanbase.
In celebration of Exploding Head (13th Anniversary Edition), the current members of A Place To Bury Strangers went into Death Castle on Sept. 25th to film a special live performance of Exploding Head…the entire original 10-track album from start to finish. APTBS will also be performing songs off the album on tour in Asia (Nov.) and Europe (Jan./Feb.) Click here for a full list of dates and to purchase tickets.
Filmed by Ebru Yildiz and Mitchell King, with visuals by Heather Bickford, the recording proves the album has lost none of its intensity or power and serves as a timely reminder why the band (vocalist/guitarist Oliver Ackermann, bassist John Fedowitz and drummer Sandra Fedowitz is known for their explosive live performances with all-consuming visuals.
Watch the exhilarating live performance below:
Formed in Brooklyn, New York in 2003, A Place To Bury Strangers emerged on the scene out of Oliver Ackermann’s psychotropic vision. Combining post-punk, noise-rock, shoegaze, psychedelia, and avant-garde music, APTBS has been delighting and astonishing audiences for close to two decades. The band is known for their vicious live performances overloaded with all-consuming visuals, experimental sonic warfare, and treacherous stage antics.
Leading up to Friday’s (10/21) anniversary release, APTBS released two singles (accompanied by new videos for each), including the previously unreleased B-side “Take It All” and “Don’t Save Your Love (2022 Remaster),” as well as dropped a trailer for the album (watch here). APTBS also put together an Exploding Head centric playlist for their fans, titled Exploding Hits (listen here).
The limited-edition 2-LP set (available exclusively at the band’s web store) is pressed on transparent clear wax and housed in a numbered gatefold sleeve, featuring newly designed artwork, 12” original cover art, and new liner notes by music journalist Tris McCall. The 2-CD set is housed in a reverse board 6-panel DigiFile and features a 16-page booklet with newly designed artwork, as well as McCall’s liner notes. In addition, a 1-LP Standard Edition is being offered, featuring the newly remastered original 10-track album, pressed on transparent red wax.
In conjunction with the anniversary release, Ackermann’s hand-made effects pedal company Death By Audio announced their new EXPLODING HEAD Triple Delay Pedal and limited-edition EXPLODING HEAD BUNDLE (500 units worldwide) on Friday (10/21), in partnership with Reverb.com, which sold out in less than 24 hours. The bundle included the limited-edition 2-LP set of Exploding Head (13th Anniversary Edition), the EXPLODING HEAD Triple Delay Pedal (seen below), “Ego Death” enamel pin, “Deadbeat” iron-on patch, “Exploding Head’ guitar pick, 18”x24” foldout lyric poster w/artwork, and glow-in-the-dark-sticker.
Death By Audio’s EXPLODING HEAD Triple Delay Pedal (watch demo here) resurrects the spine-tingling digital echoes of the long-dormant Ghost Delay pedal with expanded controls and a streamlined, ultra-small, pedalboard-friendly footprint. It’s the ultimate triple-delay dream maker/destroyer. Ackermann shares, “This pedal improves on the sound I used around the time I was writing and recording Exploding Head. I would do this trick where I’d link multiple delay lines to give the guitar this spooky, weird metallic sound. It’s more intense than a chorus and has a real, unnatural sound. That sound exists in the EXPLODING HEAD pedal and was key to many of the songs on the record.”
Follow A Place To Bury Strangers:
Tracklist – Deluxe Edition (2-LP):
Side A
- It is Nothing (2022 Remaster)
- In Your Heart (2022 Remaster)
- Lost Feeling (2022 Remaster)
- Deadbeat (2022 Remaster)
- Keep Sipping Away (2022 Remaster)
Side B
- Ego Death (2022 Remaster)
- Smile When You Smile (2022 Remaster)
- Everything Always Goes Wrong (2022 Remaster)
- Exploding Head (2022 Remaster)
- I Lived My Life to Stand in the Shadow of Your Heart (2022 Remaster)
Side C
1. Hit The Ground (2022 Remaster)
2. Girlfriend (2022 Remaster)
3. It’s A Fast Driving Rave Up With A Place To Bury Strangers (2022 Remaster)
4. Alive (2022 Remaster)
5. I Lived My Life to Stand in the Shadow of Your Heart (demo) (2022 Remaster)*
Side D
1. Don’t Save Your Love (2022 Remaster)
2. Take It All (2022 Remaster)*
3. The Light (Love and Rockets cover) (2022 Remaster)
4. Tried To Hide (The 13th Floor Elevators cover) (2022 Remaster)
5. Suffragette City (David Bowie cover) (2022 Remaster)
* previously unreleased
Tracklist – Deluxe Edition (2-CD):
Disc 1
- It Is Nothing (2022 Remaster)
- In Your Heart (2022 Remaster)
- Lost Feeling (2022 Remaster)
- Deadbeat (2022 Remaster)
- Keep Slipping Away (2022 Remaster)
- Ego Death (2022 Remaster)
- Smile When You Smile (2022 Remaster)
- Everything Always Goes Wrong (2022 Remaster)
- Exploding Head (2022 Remaster)
- I Lived My Life to Stand in the Shadow of Your Heart (2022 Remaster)
Disc 2
1. Hit The Ground (2022 Remaster)
2. Girlfriend (2022 Remaster)
3. It’s A Fast Driving Rave Up With A Place To Bury Strangers (2022 Remaster)
4. Alive (2022 Remaster)
5. I Lived My Life to Stand in the Shadow of Your Heart (demo) (2022 Remaster)*
6. Don’t Save Your Love (2022 Remaster)
7. Take It All (2022 Remaster) (2022 Remaster)*
8. The Light (Love and Rockets cover) (2022 Remaster)
9. Tried To Hide (The 13th Floor Elevators cover) (2022 Remaster)
10. Suffragette City (David Bowie cover) (2022 Remaster)
* previously unreleased
Tracklist – Standard Edition (1-LP):
Disc 1
- It Is Nothing (2022 Remaster)
- In Your Heart (2022 Remaster)
- Lost Feeling (2022 Remaster)
- Deadbeat (2022 Remaster)
- Keep Slipping Away (2022 Remaster)
Disc 2
- Ego Death (2022 Remaster)
- Smile When You Smile (2022 Remaster)
- Everything Always Goes Wrong (2022 Remaster)
- Exploding Head (2022 Remaster)
- I Lived My Life to Stand in the Shadow of Your Heart (2022 Remaster)
