Seen at CMJ 2014: Pile

From Jake Saunders’ report of Day 5 of the CMJ 2014 Music Marathon. " The first set I caught [at the Exploding in Sound unofficial CMJ show] was Rick Maguire of Pile‘s solo set.  Now Pile might be the king of all Exploding in Sound bands, having possibly been around the longest (don’t quote me on that; Aaron Maine of Porches might’ve been around longer going under many different names since settling on Porches). They’re a band whose live show has more soul and power than I’ve seen possibly ever.  A lot of that energy comes from Rick Maguire, whose songs are like daggers to the gut; honest and thought provoking, he’s got a presence on the stage that’s hard to match.  Pile is a band that has come a long way, and is a band worth researching because they bring something special out in people, take my word for it. ‘