Chat Pile wrote the nine-minute closing track of their debut album God’s Country in the same manner as usual: by getting stoned and jamming. Weed is a constant presence in the practice space and recording studio for the Oklahoma City band, fueling the marathon sessions of improvisation and refinement that yield their metallic noise rock. It doesn’t often make its way into the subject matter of their songs, which are filled with stories of violent dispossession and grim humor set in the fringes of American society. But this song, dubbed “grimace_smoking_weed.jpeg,” was different. “It was just a funny combination of words,” recalls guitarist Luther Manhole—who, like all of his bandmates, uses a pseudonym that makes him sound like a side character in The Toxic Avenger. “That was the challenge: writing an extremely serious song with that title.”
