Singles Spotlight:
A Place To Bury Strangers – “Where Are We Now”

Hello reader,

How are you today?

We’re excited to discuss another artist who is making some great music: A Place To Bury Strangers. More commonly known as APTBS, the NYC-based experimental group, which has featured a Wall of Sound blend of noise rock, shoegaze, and space rock. APTBS has a current lineup (since 2021) of frontman Oliver Ackermann (guitar, vocals, bass), John Fedowitz (bass guitar), and Sandra Fedowitz (drums).

APTBS features an extensive discography that includes six studio albums and four studio EPs. Their studio album debut, the self-titled A Place To Bury Strangers (2007), was released to high critical praise and acclaim, and their second album, 2009’s Exploding Head, was met with critical praise as well. 2012 saw the band release an EP, Onwards To The Wall EP (2012), then Worship a few months later in 2012, followed by Strange Moon EP (2013), Transfixiation (2015), Kicking Out Jams EP (2016), Pinned (2018), Hologram EP (2021), and album See Through You (2022). In the band’s early days, they also self-released several EPs. And in 2013, APTBS released a live album, Loud and Live in 2012. And on release day in October of 2024, we covered their album Synthesizer in my review here.

The past few weeks have seen the release of singles for a collection of rarities by the band, titled Rare and Deadly, out April 3rd via Dedstrange. “Everyone’s The Same”, “Acid Rain”, and my favorite of the three and the one we’ll be shedding the spotlight on today, “Where Are We Now”. I really like the concept and execution of the album, and I knew the SWT audience would as well. So let’s look into it a bit more.

Learn more about this new album via the press release, “Rare and Deadly cracks open a decade-long vault of raw nerve and sonic chaos from A Place To Bury Strangers. Spanning 2015–2025, this collection of demos, B-sides, abandoned experiments, and forgotten fragments reveals the band at their most unfiltered—caught between breakthrough ideas and beautiful mistakes. What makes Rare and Deadly truly unprecedented is that every format tells a different story. The CD, cassette, vinyl, and digital editions each feature their own unique track listing, a fractured release strategy that is almost unheard of. No single version contains the “complete” album. Instead, each format becomes its own window into the archive, revealing alternate paths, missing links, and parallel versions of the band’s inner life. It’s a deliberately unstable document: the album shifts depending on how you choose to hear it, mirroring the chaos of its creation.”

The press release continues, “Rare and Deadly is less a compilation and more a documentary—an aural snapshot of how sound takes shape before it hardens into something finished. You hear the room, the accidents, the restless experimentation, the immediacy of a moment being captured before it disappears. It’s a reminder that A Place To Bury Strangers has always thrived in this in-between space: the tension between control and collapse, melody and noise, beauty and distortion. Across these recordings, you can hear the evolution of Ackermann’s restless mind. Some pieces feel like prototypes for future chaos, seeds that later bloomed on studio albums. Others are dead ends—ideas too volatile, too strange, or too personal to ever fit the frame of a proper release. But together they form a secret history of the band, a parallel world of possibilities that existed just outside the spotlight. The tracks contain riffs mutated by malfunctioning pedals, songs born from gear pushed past its limits, or delicate melodies overwhelmed by walls of feedback until only their ghosts remain.”

Talking about the song “Where Are We Now” the press release explains, “Ackermann says the song is about ‘looking back at friends you lost touch with. Wondering where they ended up. Remembering when everything felt possible.’ The accompanying video was put together by Ackermann with footage from the Library of Congress National Archives. Ackermann says he made the video because ‘I think we need to look at people more and see the value and wonder of life so we can be compassionate towards others.'” I couldn’t agree more. And when you see the footage, I think you’ll agree that it feels profound not only as a whole but also in its individual images.

Hyped up yet?  Let’s take a look at one of the songs, in my opinion, one of the best songs on Rare And Deadly, is “Where Are We Now.” That’s the single that we’re going to spotlight today. We’re so stoked to share it with you. It’s a powerful song that sets this melancholic, reflective mood with some distortion, Ackermann almost chanting from a far away distance, sounding almost like he’s in the past, which fits with the song’s theme perfectly. The lyrics do a great job at examining memory, time, and distance: “Where are we now // Is it too late // Should I reach out // Where we are now // caught in our lives //did our dreams fade” is a portion that sticks with you as you listen and afterwards as well. The bass groove continues throughout the song, never letting go. Love this. About a quarter in the song, a flourish with a melodic shift occurs, and then we repeat both patterns as the song continues. The result serves as a great introduction to ATPBS. And more than enough reason to give them and the song some Spotlight today. Check it out for yourself and let me know what you think.

The awesome video for the song, “Where Are We Now” from the APTBS YouTube channel:

(All credits and rights to the APTBS)

The cover art for Rare And Deadly:

The LP track list for Rare And Deadly:

1. Song For Girl From Macedonia
2. Crash
3. My Heart Is Chained
4. Everyone’s The Same
5. Heartless
6. Losing Time
7. Does It Grow In The Garden
8. Do It All Again
9. Time
10. Out Of Place
11. Lost
12. Where Are We Now

The CD track list for Rare And Deadly:

1. Song For Girl From Macedonia
2. Acid Rain
3. Everyone’s The Same
4. Losing Time
5. Do It All Again
6. The Nature of Your Heart
7. Dead Inside
8. You Know It When You Know It
9. Rearrange
10. Heartless
11. Crash
12. Does It Grow In The Garden
13. Lost
14. Everything Comes Back
15. Where Are We Now

You can connect with and listen to A Place To Bury Strangers at the following links:

Alex M Theel

Co-Founder, Reviewer, Content Creator, Business side, Editor at Scummy Water Tower Productions | Web

Scummy Water Tower Productions co-founder, reviewer, business manager, and editor. Thank you for visiting this site, scummywatertower.com, and YouTube for Water Tower Sessions and SWT Interviews. And all of our socials.
Questions, feedback, or more? Contact me: alex@scummywatertower.com