Raygun’s profitable from the very starting, and he cheers up. He manages to complete most of those holes in a few strokes. Whereas his hapless bandmates get hung-up on obstacles, or on busted putts the place the ball rolls across the lip of the outlet, Raygun thrives. It takes me a minute, however I heat up, and I begin to creep up on him. Stereogum’s Scott Lapatine doesn’t play, however he retains rating. By gap six, I begin to suppose perhaps I can win. I wish to win.

We don’t chitchat a lot whereas we play. The BoDeans’ mid-’90s alt-pop hit “Nearer To Free,” the theme track from Occasion Of 5, comes up in dialog by some means, and all of us idly sing it whereas enjoying. I’m not a golfer, and neither is anybody in Chat Pile. A few us have been to a driving vary a couple of times, however no one has performed mini golf in years. We’re on an equal enjoying subject right here, and we’re all feeling a minimum of slightly bit severe.

On the ninth gap, I’m wondering if perhaps we are able to end the course out in order that I can catch Raygun. It doesn’t occur. Scott provides up the scores, and Raygun has me beat by two strokes. (On Scott’s rating sheet, I’m tied with Cap’n Ron, however Cap’n Ron has taken to giving Scott some arbitrary quantity every time he finishes a gap. I don’t say something about it as a result of I don’t wish to violate the sporting nature of the exercise.) When the scores are introduced, Raygun is ebullient. He requests that I consult with him, in print, as “the Tiger Woods of Chat Pile.” He’s principally joking, however he’s not totally joking.

Throughout the road, comfortably ensconced inside a blessedly air-conditioned Starbucks, the members of Chat Pile mirror on the unusual turns of destiny which have led them to turn into globe-trotting profession musicians. “Making an attempt to do one thing full-time within the music trade these days, particularly at like 40 years outdated, looks as if the dumbest alternative ever,” says Stin. “However I don’t know, the way in which we’re it, it’s so uncommon. It’s like lightning in a bottle when individuals take note of your band or care about what you’re doing. It’s a slap within the face to the universe to not a minimum of attempt to see how far you can also make it. We’re going to provide it a go, and if issues fizzle out in a 12 months or two, there’s at all times jobs to return to.”

The Chat Pile guys have all been making music for years. In all that point, they’ve been inhabitants of the Oklahoma Metropolis underground, they usually by no means anticipated to go a lot additional than that. “For a few years in my late twenties, I didn’t even decide up a guitar,” says Luther Manhole, the band’s guitarist. “I used to be listening to music and maintaining with music, however I couldn’t discover anybody on the town. Anytime I met anyone on the town who I needed to play with, it ended up not working… I used to be like, ‘Nobody in Oklahoma Metropolis listens to the identical shit I take heed to or performs the way in which I wish to play,’ after which, serendipitously, [Stin] and I made a decision to jam one time as a result of I met him by way of my cousin.”

Raygun Busch lived close to the opposite Chat Pile members, and he favored what he heard of their practices. Fairly quickly, they invited him in. “I had been ready to be the singer of a band for a very long time,” says Raygun. “I used to be like, ‘Yeah, let’s fuckin’ do it!’”

Chat Pile got here collectively in 2019, they usually rapidly proved themselves to be extraordinarily good at naming issues. A chat pile is a phenomenon with actual regional significance; it’s a poisonous gravel-heap that comes from lead mining and that led to the whole desolation of the city of Picher, Oklahoma. Raygun Busch’s personal stage identify is likely one of the all-time nice snotty-punk pseudonyms. (It took me a minute earlier than I spotted that it was phonetically “Reagan Bush.”) When Raygun got here up along with his identify, his bandmates adopted go well with. “He had that within the chamber, and he needed to have an excuse to make use of it,” says Stin. “We have been like, ‘OK, we’ll all have Useless Kennedys names.’”

These pseudonyms have a sensible cause to exist, too. Luther Manhole explains, “Once I had my regular day job, I didn’t need individuals calling, like, ‘Ship my physique to Arby’s!’”

That’s a reference to “Rainbow Meat,” a track from Chat Pile’s dirty, punishing debut EP This Dungeon Earth. On that report, Chat Pile arrived fully-formed. The band cranked out free, juddering scuzz-rock-riffage whereas Raygun Busch caterwauled excessive, yowling out tortured-mind fragments, dispatches from a society that’s already mid-collapse. On “Rainbow Meat,” Raygun’s narrator fantasizes about changing into a “human flesh slider combo” after his demise: “Minimize me into skinny slices! Minimize me into microscopically skinny slices! Of meat! At Arby’s!”

Elsewhere, issues get even darker than that. This Dungeon Earth ends with “Crawlspace,” the track the place Raygun takes on the persona of a psychopathic Oklahoma Metropolis cop who considers himself a pillar of the neighborhood and who fantasizes about reducing open our bodies – each yours and his personal. A number of months later, Chat Pile got here out with their second EP, Take away Your Pores and skin Please. That’s one’s bought “Dallas Beltway,” the track the place Raygun sings from the attitude of a father who’s simply murdered his personal youngsters and who’s driving the titular loop again and again, with their our bodies stuffed within the trunk. Implausibly, “Dallas Beltway” now stands as Chat Pile’s hit, the band’s track with probably the most streams.

Not one of the members of Chat Pile have youngsters, however that doesn’t imply it’s straightforward for Raygun Busch to jot down lyrics as jarring and visceral as these. “It may be sort of psychically damaging typically,” he says. “It’s simply delinquent darkness.”

When Chat Pile self-released This Dungeon Earth, they hadn’t performed a single reside present. Oklahoma Metropolis, Stin factors out, has “an precise artwork tradition that folks aren’t conscious of.” However as a result of the music scene is small, it’s not straightforward to seek out like-minded bands. “These children over right here make shoegaze, and these children over listed below are into energy pop, and there’s not likely a cohesive factor occurring,” Stin says. “Proper now, beatdown tough-guy hardcore is de facto big.”

Lately, Chat Pile play DIY reveals with all types of bands. Early on, although some native venues weren’t remotely occupied with reserving them. “There’s a crappy venue referred to as the Speakeasy,” Raygun Busch says.

Luther Manhole cuts in, talking straight into the telephone that I’m utilizing to report the dialog: “The 51st Avenue Speakeasy! Off Western!”

Raygun continues, “Solely douchebag bros go there, they usually stated our music was not welcome. Actually! I performed there a few occasions in my outdated band. All our associates performed there.” He shrugs. Afterward, Raygun says, the Speakeasy tried to e-book Chat Pile. They weren’t . This band holds grudges.