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With their second studio album, Cool World, Chat Pile continue to channel despair and dejection through grimy guitar riffs and brutally honest lyrics, recounting the subjugation of the lower classes by the well-fixed. Throughout, the Oklahoma City fourpiece warns of a population that allows itself to be exploited. On opener “I Am Dog Now,” singer Raygun Busch reminds us that “everyone bleeds,” a sentiment that’s echoed later on “Masc,” on which he begs, “Don’t tell your friends I trust and bleed.”

Musically and lyrically, Chat Pile aggressively argues for a fairer distribution of power, to tear down the systems that perpetuate cycles of victimization. These messages can feel a bit broad, as the band eschews specificity in favor of brute force, with screeds that are driven home by Busch’s gravelly vocals and Luther Manhole’s prodding guitar.

Chat Pile’s narratives resonate most when they’re more fully developed.

Chat Pile have announced their new album, Cool World, out October 11th via The Flenser. The Oklahoma City noise rock band also unveiled Fall 2024 North American tour dates and the video for lead single and album opener “I Am Dog Now.”

The outing kicks off with a hometown gig in Okc on November 1st and runs through November 22nd in Nashville. A rotating cast of support acts including Agriculture, Porcelain, Mamaleek, Traindodge, and thirdface will open select dates.

Get Chat Pile Tickets Here

A Live Nation ticket pre-sale for select dates begins Thursday (July 18th) at 10 a.m. local time using the code Strum. General ticket sales start Friday (July 19th) at 10 a.m. local time via Ticketmaster.

Cool World — named after the largely forgotten 1992 Ralph Bakshi film of the same name — marks Chat Pile’s second proper full-length album and the follow-up to their acclaimed 2022 debut LP God’s Country.

There’s nothing as sweet as discovering the inner cults behind modern America. Or so it seems to acclaimed cinematographer Sean Price Williams, who makes his directorial debut with twisted coming-of-age dramedy “The Sweet East” that stars a who’s who of millennial–Gen Z talent.

Written by Nick Pinkerton, “The Sweet East” follows a high school senior Lillian (Talia Ryder) who hails from South Carolina and gets her first glimpse of the wider world on a class trip to Washington, D.C. Separated from her schoolmates, she embarks on a fractured road trip in search of America. Along the way, she falls in with a variety of strange factions, each living out their own alternative realities in our present day.

Jacob Elordi, Jeremy O. Harris, Ayo Edebiri, Simon Rex, Early Cave, Rish Shah, and Gibby Haynes also star as the outrageous characters Lillian meets along the way home.

Featuring...

More than a dozen years (plus some change) since she premiered her feature debut Yeast (a 2008 SXSW Film Festival selection), Mary Bronstein is set to direct her sophomore feature If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. A project that first hit our radar back in 2021 is slowly simmering and moving into a possible August production start date. Casting news should trickle in via the trades shortly. Naturally we have Elara Pictures Safdie Bros. producing alongside Sara Murphy and Ryan Zacarias‘ new shingle, Fat City. A24 will distribute.

We could probably insert Ronald Bronstein (who saw his only feature Frownland hit Criterion last year) in some capacity here and possibly see cinematographer Sean Price Williams re-team with Bronstein.…...

A post-ironic picaresque born from a take-no-prisoners attitude so oppressive that it soon becomes its own kind of jail, Sean Price Williams’ “The Sweet East” amounts to something more than just a series of semi-connected trolls. But this sniveling little satire of modern American thought is never funnier or more sure of itself than when it makes you feel like an asshole for taking it too seriously.

Consider the film’s opening few minutes, which appear to tee up a lo-fi but legibly familiar sex comedy set on a high school trip to Washington, D.C., until things, uh, take a turn. We first meet Lillian as she lies in a hotel bed next to a blond mouth-breather who plays with his used condom like it’s a party balloon and brags about how he’s going to be a star. Later, after reuniting with the rest of her grade,...

Owen Kline is not the most obvious underground artist. The son of Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates may be best known for his performance as the younger sibling in Noah Baumbach’s “The Squid and the Whale,” a role he landed with zero acting ambition around the age of 13. Some privileged child stars follow such an impressive early turn by growing up in the public eye and amassing a filmography that would follow them into adulthood. Others have drug-fueled meltdowns. Kline, however, interned at Anthology Film Archives, dreamed of becoming a cartoonist, and eventually embraced a form of unfiltered, rough-and-tumble filmmaking that doesn’t exactly scream commerciality. Now, at the age of 30, he’s ready to explain himself.

“I always sort of reviled show business,” Kline said in an interview over lunch this month. “It was always repugnant to me. I’m really someone who’s resistant to showing my face in general.

This interview with Frownland director Ronald Bronstein (a 2007 25 New Face) by fellow 25’er David Lowery was originally published in 2006. It is being reposted this week as Frownland receives a rare NYC screening this coming Sunday at the Alamo Drafthouse — projected by Bronstein himself. Click for tickets. Traveling on the festival circuit and spending days in darkened theaters, one grows accustomed to the ebb and flow of certain trends in independent film. Talkative, shakily digital twentysomething dramedies; sensitive tone poems; documentaries both edgy and lyrical. Then a film like Ronald Bronstein’s Frownland comes out of nowhere and […]...

Paul Grimstad is one of the most insanely inspired polymaths I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, and his brilliant lunacy bubbles from every song and piece of score he writes. He provided music for two short films which are about to screen in the New York Shorts Program at the 53rd New York Film Festival: my film Riot and Jay Giampietro’s Hernia. His other soundtracks include Frownland (which he also co-starred in), Heaven Knows What, Tired Moonlight, The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga, my film Stinking Heaven, among many others. Screening information for the New York Shorts Program can be found here. [iPod dictaphone app begins recording] Grimstad: Baudelaire […]...

Paul Grimstad is one of the most insanely inspired polymaths I’ve had the pleasure of meeting, and his brilliant lunacy bubbles from every song and piece of score he writes. He provided music for two short films which are about to screen in the New York Shorts Program at the 53rd New York Film Festival: my film Riot and Jay Giampietro’s Hernia. His other soundtracks include Frownland (which he also co-starred in), Heaven Knows What, Tired Moonlight, The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga, my film Stinking Heaven, among many others. Screening information for the New York Shorts Program can be found here. [iPod dictaphone app begins recording] Grimstad: Baudelaire […]...

Last week, Robert Greene posted a “virtually unseen” mid-length documentary, shot and edited by Sean Price Williams in 1998, entitled Frantic Fran’s Jewish Stuff. Three years before the cinematographer’s first official credit, and nine years before his quasi-breakthrough with Frownland, the 16mm film presages the close-ups and striking compositions that earned Williams some of the best notices of his career with this year’s Listen Up Philip. And it’s pretty entertaining, as well.

Last week, Robert Greene posted a “virtually unseen” mid-length documentary, shot and edited by Sean Price Williams in 1998, entitled Frantic Fran’s Jewish Stuff. Three years before the cinematographer’s first official credit, and nine years before his quasi-breakthrough with Frownland, the 16mm film presages the close-ups and striking compositions that earned Williams some of the best notices of his career with this year’s Listen Up Philip. And it’s pretty entertaining, as well.

(Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo is now available on DVD through Factory 25. Visit the film’s official website to learn more. Note: This review was first published at Hammer to Nail in conjunction with the film’s theatrical release at Film Forum on May 12, 2010.)

The knowledge that Jessica Oreck is an entomologist at the Museum of Natural History in New York City who has never previously made a film might cause one to worry that Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo will be an unavoidably stiff and grueling piece of video academia. Worry not, skeptic. Oreck’s wildly precocious exploration of Japan’s ongoing fascination with, and connection to, insects just so happens to be one of the more exhilarating new documentaries of 2009. This is a shining example of when a filmmaker’s innocence has resulted in something much more vibrant and alive than it otherwise might have been coming from an experienced veteran.

When we watch movies, it's always filtered through our own experiences. I never had pets growing up, so violence against animals never bothers me. But for some folks, it's a deal breaker. I like depressing relationship "comedies" like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Lars and the Real Girl and Blue Valentine, but for folks who like sunshine and rainbows, it's a dreary experience. We all watch movies differently, based on how we've lived our lives, and so our reactions are different. But even more so than that, it's how we watch the movies. A comedy watched in a theater full of an appreciative audience might be funnier than when we watch it alone at home during the week. The first film you see with your father or mother in a theater is going to resonate much differently than if you are watching it with a group of friends,...

In the Alamo programming office, movies are sort of our thing. We watch ‘em, we fight about ‘em, and sometimes we even book ‘em for our theatres. We bring you the greatest and most bizarre movies from the past 100 years, and also highlight some of the greatest achievements in new cinema, too.

It’s a tough job…especially when it comes time to narrow down our favorites at the end of each year. But we do it all for you.

The lists below represent the most powerful and/or entertaining films of 2010, according to Alamo programmers Tim League, Lars Nilsen, Zack Carlson, Henri Mazza, Kayla Williams, Daniel Metz, Bret Neuman, George Bragdon, and Caitlin Stevens. We hope you have some time on your hands, because you’re going to want to read everything.

In case you’re interested, you can see our combined list as a group on Badass Digest.

The acclaimed indie drama Winter's Bone was the big winner at the IFP Gotham Independent Film Awards tonight, taking home the Best Film and Best Ensemble prizes. Director Debra Granik’s Sundance prize-winner was the front-runner going into the ceremony, having been nominated for four awards in total, and has an outside chance of snagging of one next year’s 10 Best Picture Oscar nomination slots. Winter’s Bone wasn’t able to sweep the awards, however. In somewhat of a surprise, Daddy Longlegs leading man Ronald Bronstein (a past Gothams winner for his directorial debut, Frownland) beat Winter’s...

Big congrats goes to the producers Frederick Thornton, Laura Ragsdale, Sierra Leoni and helmer Mike Ott whose Littlerock - a film that played at the San Francisco, Torino, Vienna and AFI Fest festivals receives a pretty sweet upstart package: a one week showing at the Cinema Village, and other cash prizes including some theatrical release strategy help from the fine folks at Donna Daniels PR.  Other Noms: Kati with an i Robert Greene, director; Douglas Tirola, Susan Bedusa, producers On Coal River Francine Cavanaugh and Adams Wood, directors; Jillian Elizabeth, Adams Wood, Francine Cavanaugh, producers Summer Pasture Lynn True and Nelson Walker, directors/producers; Tsering Perlo, co-director/co-producer The Wolf Knife Laurel Nakadate, director/producer Previous Winners 2009: Ry Russo-Young's You Won't Miss Me 2008: Nina Paley's Sita Sings the Blues 2007: Ronald Bronstein's Frownland 2006: Steve Barron's Choking Man...

Writer/director Michael Bilandic forwarded me this trailer for “a low-budget rave comedy executive produced by Abel Ferrara.” He writes, “It’s about a thirty-something owner of a struggling all-techno music record store who, in a last ditch effort to save his place, attempts to throw an ‘old school’ rave. It stars the comedian Tom McCaffrey and features Matt Pinfield! Cinematography by Sean Williams (Frownland, Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo).” Check out the trailer below.

Predators (15)

(Nimród Antal, 2010, Us) Adrien Brody, Alice Braga, Topher Grace, Laurence Fishburne, Danny Trejo. 107 mins.

Twenty-three years and three sequels after the original, the sub-Alien sci-fi movie at last gets a proper follow-up, and even if Brody barely has the bulk to fill one of Schwarzenegger's combat boots, this serves up the semi-guilty action pleasures you'd demand. Brody is one of a gang of random human badasses who wind up in a strange jungle and realise they're now training material for apprentice alien badasses. So who will survive to be the, er, worst ass?

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (12A)

(David Slade, 2010, Us) Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner. 124 mins.

Another teen-conquering exercise in sexless erotica, but at least there's an actual film around it this time. A new vampire threat and Bella's love triangle won't be enough to entice newcomers, but fans will enjoy the unconsummated fantasy thrills they crave.

Over at Huffington Post, Stewart Nusbaumer previews the upcoming Sundance Film Festival from the point of view of its New York visitors. Thelma Adams, Meira Blaustein, Karina Longworth, Mike Maggiore and I all pick some upcoming pre-favorites from the Sundance selection. Here's me on Josh and Benny Safdie's Daddy Long Legs, which, it was announced today at indieWIRE, will be available on VOD right after the festival via Rainbow Media's Sundance Selects (run by IFC). "One New York film I'm especially keen on is Josh and Benny Safdie's Daddy Long Legs, which stars Frownland director Ronald Bronstein as a hopeless, hapless, but entirely loving divorced father who, despite money woes and girlfriend issues, retains a childlike enthusiasm for...

Last year, American critics pretty fairly stood aghast and in awe of Ronald Bronstein's "Frownland" (2007), conjuring up some of the most intense superlatives ever thrown at a cheap New York indie (the New Yorker's Richard Brody called it "one of the most unusual and audacious American independent films ever made"), while still sweating bullets of qualification, as if holding a wolverine by the short hairs.

It didn't make much of a difference to audiences, who hardly noticed, but now that the film is being rather spectacularly DVD'd by the new Brooklyn outfit Factory 25, viewers can step up to this vicious peepshow and decide for themselves. Me, I'm not terribly convinced of the film's brilliance or of the necessity of deflating the hoopla; the impact of "Frownland"'s distinctive relentlessness has more to do, I think, with our expectations of film narrative than with the movie's aesthetic triumph. As in,...

Frownland, Ronald Bronstein’s award winning, very nearly unbearably bleak ode to the white blind rage inspired by the mundane, will be released tomorrow on DVD by Factory 25. It’s rare that I get a chance to drop the phrases “award winning” and “unbearably bleak” in such quick succession in conversation about the same film, but Frownland is a especially rare bird. Essentially a series of vignettes on the topic of hostility, particularly its manifestation amongst young, broke New Yorkers too mired in dreary, crippling solipsism to enjoy the dubious protections of the trappings of counterculture, Frownland’s greatest achievement is an absence: flipping the protagonist/antagonist relationship on its head several ...

2007 Gotham Award winner for "Best Film Not Playing At a Theater Near You" is playing at theater near you! (If you're in New York, that is...) Ronald Bronstein's Frownland is now part of the Museum of Modern Art's permanent film collection, and they're showing it on Friday and Saturday. Don't miss this rare chance to see one of the Filmmaker's favorite films, the one that the New Yorker called “one of the most unusual and audacious American independent films ever made." (Factory25 is releasing a Special Edition DVD in the Fall, for those who can't make it...)...

Matt Grady, formerly of Plexifilm, is launching a film and music distribution label called Factory 25, which has bought world rights (barring France) to Ronald Bronstein's Frownland. According to a just-dropped press release, Factory 25 "will concentrate on releasing films theatrically, digitally and on DVD, as well as in conceptualized limited edition DVD/Vinyl combination packages." For Frownland, the limited edition will include "in addition to extra footage (practically a given these days) ... a comic book written in character by one of the actors, art drawn by lead actor Dore Mann, a soundtrack on vinyl, and a newsprint film poster." Apparently intent on hitting the hipster sweet spot between indie music and indie movies, Factory 25 also have plans to release a DVD set of videos by Damon & Naomi, early 90s indie r ...

• One of the more enjoyable discoveries in covering a film festival is the uncovering of new talent: whether it be behind or in front of the camera. At this year's Cannes, I was introduced to a foursome of directors, several actresses and a genius performance from a French speaking newcomer you'll leave an imprint on world audiences. One honorable mention I have before we commence this top ten list, are the child actors from Michael Haneke's The White Ribbon who might pop up a couple of decades from now in a leading role as an adult (we never know). Look for a grid (below) with the faces corresponding to the ranking. Apart from my pending reviews, this is the last piece Cannes coverage piece. #10. Ronald Bronstein – Actor/Director (Go Get Some Rosemary). Who knew that Ronald Bronstein (the director of Frownland) had it in him? He is the life of the Safdie bros.

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As SXSW 2009 approaches we’ll be asking filmmakers to spill the superficial details about their films, to tell us all the deep personal details of what makes them tick, and –– new this year! –– reveal who they had to sleep with, in the incestuous conspiracy-minded secret society that is the wider SXSW community, in order to get their film programmed at the festival. Our latest installment: Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo, a documentary by entomologist Jessica Oreck (and shot by Sean Williams, the cinematographer of Frownland) about the affinity for insects in Japanese culture. You can watch the visually stunning trailer for the film on its website; Oreck answers The 5 Questions We Ask Everyone Below. Tell us about your movie. Who did you work with, why did you make it? Give us the reductive, 25-word or less, “It’s like [pop cult ...

Fans of Greta Gerwig are atwitter over the prospect of seeing the mumblecore It Girl on the big screen again.

The film is "Yeast," directed by Mary Bronstein, which had its debut in March at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, and then was streamed on the Web for a short time.

On Wednesday it will unreel at 7:30 p.m. at 92YTribeca (200 Hudson St., at Canal Street) as the opening half of a double feature.

The second half, at 9:30 p.m., is "Frownland," helmed by Bronstein's husband,...

• Variety opened their review of the film by calling it "a dark descent down the rabbit hole of a perturbed, fragile and intensely neurotic mind, "Frownland" is the indie equivalent of a stiff drink. The buzz will shake some auds to giddy wonder and excitement while making others toss it into the sink, but all will agree it stays with you".Among the three recently announced nominees for the Indie Spirit Awards' Someone to Watch Award and winner of the Gotham awards' Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You, Ronald Bronstein's and his first endeavor Frownland also carries the distinction of having won a special jury award this year at SxSW. Thanks to Mr.Bronstein himself, we've got a look at the poster one-sheet for one of the "it" indie films of 07' (which I expect will look for it to receive a wider distribution in

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• It was a night of multiple winners instead of winners with multiple wins at the 17th annual Gotham awards - where the Ifp recognize the best in independent filmmaking through 6 simple award categories. With only Todd Haynes' Dylan project as a possible threat, it was perhaps an easy win for Sean Penn's Into the Wild. And thought Craig Zobel got shut out in two categories, the director was rewarded with the Breakthrough director award. Michael Moore's popularity has not diminished as he picked up documentary film award of the year (evidently for Sicko) and Reitman's Juno continued its rise in popularity with Ellen Page picking up breakthrough actor award over Emile Hirsch's perf in Into the Wild. Voters were dead-locked in the ensemble category: Before the Devil Knows You're Dead was perhaps the favored of the category and people didn't forget Focus Features' summer

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