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• A Place To Bury Strangers

A Place to Bury Strangers (Submitted photo)

A Place to Bury Strangers is an apt name for the Brooklyn-based garage band that will visit Locals Only on Saturday, Feb. 16. It buries fans -- mostly strangers, no doubt -- in splendid blasts of ear-splitting distortion during every live performance. And although the noise is precisely the reason fans love the band, A Place to Bury Strangers kindly hands out free ear plugs at every concert.

Dubbed "the loudest band in New York" by more than one journalist, APTBS is strongly influenced by the "shoegazer" bands of the '80s and early '90s. Embellishing their pop songs with distortion, hazy guitar tones and blaring feedback, those bands produced some of the era's most enduring classics, including Jesus and Mary Chain's "Psychocandy" and My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless."

Similarities to those bands aside, A Place to Bury Strangers is no tribute act. Lacing its trebly guitar assault with manic drum loops and machine blasts of industrial noise, the band alternates between dreamy guitar meditations and nervy, concussive assaults.

APTBS singer and guitarist Oliver Ackermann recently spoke to Indy.com from his Brooklyn-based studio, Death By Audio, where he hand-wires the guitar pedals he uses to create the band's singular sound.

Is it fair to say APTBS emulates the shoegazer sound?

We're just exploring sounds and recording songs that kind of come natural. We are writing songs that we want to hear personally. Some of that is influenced by things from the past, but to some degree we are always taking past ideas and building something new.

You'll be playing a small venue in Indianapolis this time. Does venue size matter?

It really doesn't. We can have fun playing intimate settings; it's cool to feel like you are connecting with the audience. Some of these really big venues, you don't always feel connected. But other times you can feel and sound really good in a bigger place.

Do venues have a problem with the noise?

Some places have regulations about decibel levels, but it's not like we won't to play the show because of that. We will try to keep it reasonable for a while, and then turn it up. I have definitely played shows where someone has been like, "If you are going to play that loud, we are going to have to shut you off after one song," and it was a one-song show.

The whole "loudest band in New York" tag seems to have taken on a life of it's own.

I don't think we are necessarily trying to be the loudest band -- it's not any kind of competition. But I have played really loud music since 1995, and whatever was loud to me then isn't as loud to me now. We definitely hot rod things up to be extra loud and get the noise and effects we want. And I think sometimes it is perceived as loudness when really we are hitting these really weird frequencies. A Britney Spears concert is probably even louder, it's just this really clean loudness that you don't notice because it is crystal clear.

What do you think noise and feedback add to a song?

When you build something up and take it completely over the edge, you get a rush. It takes you someplace else. And when we're playing live we have these really intense, crazy lights, and we try to take it to a place that kind of messes with your mind and makes you sort of lose your s---. That's kind of the intention. We are trying to create a whole experience, like a drug where you can sort of get out of your daily life and feel like you are somewhere else.

What kinds of things have people said to you after shows?

I've read some writers say they blacked out after the show. I have had people who came to see the band playing after us, but then had to leave when we finished because they didn't want anything to interfere with the experience.

Could the live APTBS experience be harmful to my hearing?

I think so. But we usually don't play for a long time. I have heard you can handle certain decibel levels for 20 or 30 minutes without any harm. Plus, you can go to a techno club and hear music just as loud, and it can be just as harmful and you just don't realize it.