Pileup - Lightning
Pleasure Tapes Ltd.
- 1Pileup - Lightning
PT-153
•
Open edition
Pileup is a guitar-forward alt-gaze band from Portland, Oregon, blending slowcore-inspired songwriting with the dense, immersive textures of shoegaze. Their sound ties together tightly wound, emotionally resonant compositions with close-mic’d, hook-heavy vocals and pounding, dynamic drum sections.
Their debut single, “Lightning,” from the forthcoming LP Leave The Light On (out February 24th, 2026 via Pleasure Tapes Ltd. and Flesh & Bone Records), channels banjo-accented arrangements, chorus-soaked guitars, and sharp, rhythmic breakdowns to create a sense of propulsive movement. The track draws together influences from both coasts in its off-kilter intimacy—deriving complex arrangements from the likes of Alex G, Blue Smiley, and Carissa’s Wierd.
Recorded during an immersive eight-day session at The Unknown in Anacortes—the church-turned-studio founded and run by Nicholas Wilbur (bassist for New Issue, and the engineer, mixer, and mastering hand behind Leave The Light On)—the band lived entirely within the space, sleeping, cooking, and creating in the same rooms where they tracked. The result captures Pileup at their most immediate and inspired.
Anchored by songwriter Nathan Urbach’s nuanced compositional approach, “Lightning” explores the tension between nature and modernity: the smog-dulled glow of a Southern California coastline, the violent percussion of lightning strikes along the sides of oil rigs, the immensity of a landscape both awe-inspiring and suffocated by its own looming death. The result is a song that reflects the smallness of being amid forces far greater than ourselves.
Their debut single, “Lightning,” from the forthcoming LP Leave The Light On (out February 24th, 2026 via Pleasure Tapes Ltd. and Flesh & Bone Records), channels banjo-accented arrangements, chorus-soaked guitars, and sharp, rhythmic breakdowns to create a sense of propulsive movement. The track draws together influences from both coasts in its off-kilter intimacy—deriving complex arrangements from the likes of Alex G, Blue Smiley, and Carissa’s Wierd.
Recorded during an immersive eight-day session at The Unknown in Anacortes—the church-turned-studio founded and run by Nicholas Wilbur (bassist for New Issue, and the engineer, mixer, and mastering hand behind Leave The Light On)—the band lived entirely within the space, sleeping, cooking, and creating in the same rooms where they tracked. The result captures Pileup at their most immediate and inspired.
Anchored by songwriter Nathan Urbach’s nuanced compositional approach, “Lightning” explores the tension between nature and modernity: the smog-dulled glow of a Southern California coastline, the violent percussion of lightning strikes along the sides of oil rigs, the immensity of a landscape both awe-inspiring and suffocated by its own looming death. The result is a song that reflects the smallness of being amid forces far greater than ourselves.
