The flight of guitars that steer Pile's "#2 Hit Single" come on like a winnebago hitting 10 speed bumps at 90 miles per hour. Off the rising noise rock band's upcoming LP You're Better Than This, "#2" is the abrasive descendent of "Number One Hit Single", a song from Pile's 2010 debut Magic Isn't Real. Five years and 5,000 beers since then, the four-man band from Boston's thriving underground scene sounds savage and sincere as ever. "#2" sets an eerie tone with minor chord inversions punctuated by the backbone of Pile's rhythm players, guitarist Matt Becker, bassist Matt Connery and drummer Kris Kuss.-=-=-=-

Frontman and lead guitarist Rick Maguire drinks from the same self-denigrating glass as Parquet Courts' Andrew Savage. "My face is brushed with the devil's fruit/ And I don't have to think about tomorrow again," he wails right before the song's climax-finish. Pile walks the line of hard and soft playing, experimental twists and straight up melody. Maguire, the primary songwriter, affects the wry aggression of many early-'90s Touch & Go bands (think the Jesus Lizard, Polvo), but Pile's influences run deeper. The structured chaos of "#2", and the band’s flair for overtones, evoke noise pioneer (and fellow one-time Bostonian) Glenn Branca. "#2" has the skeletal tone of some Theoretical Girls/the Static tracks, making it clear that the raucous noise-heads of Pile inherited Branca's earth in more ways than one.