Chasing Fridays: The Callous Daoboys, Fakemink, Klein, more

It's halfway through February and I haven't seen a concert all month. I think this is the longest I've gone without seeing a show since COVID lockdown maybe? I saw a few gigs in January but for whatever reason my calendar for shows has been empty this month, and I've just been hibernating in my house, mostly. So, once again, I'm back with a Chasing Fridays column sans a live report. But don't worry, I know there'll be some sick gigs on the docket beginning March 1st, so I should have some tales of the pit to tell you all in just a couple weeks.

In the meantime, I wrote about a few new singles spanning shoegaze, post-hardcore, and internet rap. I also wrote about the new Klein LP, and then reflected on my relationship with stoner metal through the lens of Electric Wizard's Come My Fanatics.... That latter section belongs to the new-to-2025 segment of Chasing Fridays where I write about an older record I've been spending time with. That portion of this newsletter is for paying subscribers only, so you can toss me $5/month to read that and any other paywalled content on my site. I wouldn't be able to dedicate as much time as I do to Chasing Sundays if it weren't for my paying subscribers, so if you like my writing and can afford to support me monetarily, I'd greatly appreciate it.

The Callous Daoboys - "Two Headed Trout" / "The Demon of Unreality Limping Like a Dog"

Hating on the Callous Daoboys is like hating on Santa Claus. It's just not right. It's unchic to rag on a band as loveable as these freaks, who've journeyed from dizzying mathcore that makes your eyes spin like a slot machine to 4D metalcore to...sounding like Dance Gavin Dance? The Atlanta troupe hired DGD producer Kris Crummett (who also does all the associated "Swancore" stuff like Eidola and Hail the Sun) for 2022's Celebrity Therapist, and now he's returned behind the boards for I Don’t Want To See You In Heaven. Celebrity Therapist was inching in this direction, but the first couple singles from Daoboys' new joint sound like the project file could've been named Downtown Battle Mountain III.

"Two-Headed Trout" is the exact type of soulful, funky post-hardcore that could slot into the DGD multiverse. Which is a sound I have no interest in hearing from anyone, let alone The Callous Daoboys. "The Demon of Unreality Limping Like a Dog" rescues the vibes with a disgusting breakdown (Callous Daoboys are good at those when they want to be) and some dutch angle noodling that sounds like The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza or iwrestledabearonce. They're truly going for the 2012 weirdo scene-core sound, and I have to commend them for trying. Do they succeed in making post-hardcore that's challenging and outlandishly colorful? Yes. Is it good music? Ummm.

Again, it doesn't feel righteous to hate on the Callous Daoboys. Their videos are hilarious and I like that a band as eccentric and daring as them are able to find an audience in 2025. I find no pleasure in wincing when they drop songs that mine influence from some of the worst music I've ever heard. Dance Gavin Dance are arguably my least favorite band – and have been since, like, 2011, so I'm not just bandwagoning now that they're quasi-canceled. I was never a big Daoboys fan to begin with, since I'm also notably averse to tolerating mathcore of any kind. I've always rooted for them, though, and I'll continue rooting for them even if they're now making music that causes me to remember the band name Sianvar. In an ideal world, I'd never have to think about Sianvar. Alas, if "ethically sourced DGD" is what the kids want, who am I to deny them their fill?

Crate - "Necklace"

Crate released one of the best shoegaze songs of 2024, a trip-hoppy comet called "Julia" that feels like a modern take on MBV's "Soon" or Chapterhouse's "Pearl." Last week, the NYC band finally released another song. It's called "Necklace." It's OK. I wouldn't have guessed it was a Crate song if I didn't know otherwise since nothing about it resembles "Julia." The supple clean strums and metronome beat sound like Hovvdy or Slow Pulp. When the shoegazey distortion pours in during the chorus, the riff is grungier and chordsier than the cirrus cloud haze of guitars on "Julia." It's not bad. Nor is it particularly good. If this was the only song Crate put out last year then I certainly wouldn't have been pining for them to drop another track. OK, so one year-topping heater and one lukewarm dud; Crate are still batting .500. My interest is still piqued. I just hope the next song after "Necklace" is another homer.

Fakemink - "Easter Pink"

My family was a Miniclip household. Before my siblings and I had a proper gaming system, we'd spend hours on weekend mornings playing free flash games on the now-defunct Miniclip website. Heli Attack 3, On the Run – if you were a kid in the 2000s, you probably know 'em. However, some of our favorite Miniclip games were quaint platformers made by the British company Nitrome. Skywire and Off the Rails were probably their most popular games in the late aughts, but this one called Snow Drift was my personal favorite. You'd play as a smiling yeti sliding and leaping across icy structures in a wintery environment, and it was deceptively difficult despite its wholesome art design.

My favorite part about Snow Drift, and all other Nitrome games for that matter, were the soundtracks. Each one had a different, synth-based theme that was pleasant and whimsical in its own way, but the Snow Drift one was particularly engrossing due to its arch, European key plunks and four-on-the-floor drumline. To me, the Snow Drift theme is the most distinct encapsulation of what media sounded like in 2007, and something about fakemink's recent internet hit "Easter Pink" reminds me of it. The London rapper is clearly going for a Crystal Castles-y electroclash reboot with this hair-whipping club knocker dripping with indie sleaze. But the twinkling synth that arrives during the song's hook brought back immediate flashbacks of Snow Drift's glacial theme. The sound of icicle ornaments glistening on a Christmas tree, or neon signs reflecting off a fresh dusting of snow in a nighttime metropolis.

fakemink was two years old when Snow Drift came out. He doesn't remember the game and has likely never heard of Nitrome. There're so many zoomer artists trying to live vicariously through the late-aughts by mining samples from that time period and trying to recapture its specific aesthetic. Most of them feel like uncanny pastiches to me, but "Easter Pink" is convincingly retro in its lifting of 2007 musical motifs. I'm the furthest thing from a gamer as an adult, but this song makes me want to blow an hour watching Snow Drift speedruns on YouTube. Not even Snow Strippers can make me feel that nostalgic for 2008. Well done, fakemink.

Klein - thirteen sense

Klein's been putting out interesting music for nearly a decade now, and I'm not familiar with most of it. However, knowing the ins and outs of her back catalog isn't a requirement for appreciating thirteen sense, the London artist's droney, shoegazey new album that sounds like Fennesz if he ever got as loud and blistery as Flying Saucer Attack's primordial racket. On a cut like "double life," distortion leaks out of Klein's guitar like a tear in the ozone that's turbulent enough to suck high-flying planes up into outer space. "nobody sees what the tree knows" has drums that pound like a Tommy Lee drum solo, while the thicket of feedbacky guitars are so electrifying that they cause the whole song to chatter and wheeze like a computer suffering from memory overdrive.

While I'm certainly prone to stretching the parameters of shoegaze when it makes sense, it feels somewhat disingenuous to try and shoehorn thirteen sense in with that contemporary catch-all. The guitars smolder and sear with the stoic consistency of an eternal flame – a light that's more symbolic than it is functional. Even the gnarliest, noisiest shoegaze has a certain effervescence to it; a halcyon glow that illuminates a path skyward. Shoegaze at its best has a quasi-devotional tenor to it, whereas thirteen sense doesn't have that head-in-the-clouds weightlessness. "goodnight mommy, goodnight daddy" sounds like TV static howling into an empty living room, and "role of fear" clangs and clatters in a way that feels more earthly – dank and metallic, like manhole covers coughing up steam – than divine. Klein's avoidance of both drone and shoegaze stereotypes is precisely what makes thirteen sense so refreshing and, at its many peaks, brilliant.

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Electric Wizard - Come My Fanatics...