Chasing Fridays: Cryogeyser, flyingfish, Durutti Column, more

This was one of the most productive writing weeks I've had all year, and I mostly attribute my razor-sharp focus to me actively disengaging from scrolling Twitter, Bluesky, and Instagram every 30 minutes to keep up with the deluge of horrific events unfolding around the world. I'm not saying it's good to detach yourself from the news cycle, but I'm at the point where doomscrolling literally makes my brain feel sick. It's not natural. It's not healthy. I needed to make a change, and I'm telegraphing this necessary lifestyle adjustment at the top of my music newsletter to a) hold myself accountable so I stick with it and b) encourage all of you to do the same. Just shut the app. Simply do not look at it. Read something printed on paper. Go out into the world. Speak to someone directly. It helps. I promise.

But before you close your screen, behold: music criticism. Yes, I did some more of it. This week, I wrote about four new singles from various purveyors of independent rock music. Then, I chimed in on a new record I found to be a mixed bag. And lastly, I went deep on The Durutti Column's 1981 album, LC, which I've been fucking addicted to this week – a much healthier habit than rage-reading Elon Musk tweets. ​

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.

flyingfish - "pitching stones"

It's wild how 2023 is beginning to feel like an eon ago. The year shoegaze's momentous TikTok explosion began, a 15-year-old musician named flyingfish uploaded a song called "wonder if you care" that he had made entirely on FL Studio – midi guitars, sampled drums, no vocals. "wonder if you care" was flyingfish's first ever song, and it went viral on TikTok in a matter of hours, encouraging the then-anonymous teen to make a few more tracks in a similar vein. His first EP, the way night falls, dropped in October 2023, and all of the songs sounded more or less like a 15 year-old listening to Parannoul, Duster, and whatever other shoegazey flotsam was bobbing around TikTok, and then doing his best to replicate that sound himself. It actually wasn't bad (the song "forest green" is even pretty good), but it also wasn't great. Basically, imagine the lo-fi beats that pump out via chilledcow, except instead of J Dilla being the source material, it's Astrobrite.

In 2025, flyingfish is trying something different. After not releasing a song since late 2023, he returned last week with "pitching stones," a raw, shrapnel-spraying punk burner that simultaneously recalls Weatherday's ragged noise-pop, twikipedia's angsty emo-gaze, and, most surprisingly, the chest-beating indie-rock howls of Cloud Nothings. "pitching stones" definitely sounds like it was made with analog drums and organic guitar strums, and flyingfish is screaming his head off during the track's momentous climax. It's completely different than any of his previous songs, and I have no idea if this is what flyingfish's audience (the 1.5m monthly Spotify listeners he has) wants from him. But I like it. I like that it deviates wildly from where his fellow TikTok-gaze breakouts have ended up, and I like that no one could possibly mistake flyingfish for Duster anymore. I admire a risk. I respect a swing. I think flyingfish is headed in the right direction with "pitching stones."

Cootie Catcher - "Do Forever"

Have you heard the new Black Country, New Road song? The one called "Besties" that's whimsical and cutesy and sounds kind of like Blur if Blur were twee in a sort of Broken Social Scene-ish way but also in a Regina Spektor-ish way? I was setting up a comparison in which I'd say Cootie Catcher's new song, "Do Forever" succeeds where "Besties" fails. But then I listened to "Besties" again and realized I actually kind of like it, and that it also sounds nothing like "Do Forever" by Cootie Catcher. Soooo I guess while I have you, I'll just say that Cootie Catcher are one of the best twee bands going right now, and that their recent song "Do Forever," from their upcoming album Shy at first, is absolutely lovely. It's whimsical and cutesy and sounds kind of like Kero Kero Bonito if Kero Kero Bonito were twee in a sort of Frankie Cosmos-ish way but also in a Belle and Sebastian-ish way.

Cryogeyser - Cryogeyser

I don't know what a cryogeyser is, but if it does exist in the natural world, then I think it'd sound a lot like "Sorry" by the band Cryogeyser. The intro track on the L.A. group's new album erupts like a volcano of molten guitars and heaving vocals. The riffs are fucking gigantic, pounding, all-encompassing. The kind of riffs that make me turn my stereo up obnoxiously loud so I can try and snuggle up in the frequencies and nestle into the blankets of fuzz before my tinnitus kicks in. "Sorry" really is a geyser of cries, personified. It's instantly gratifying. It's powerful. It knocks. I wish the rest of the album did, too.

Musically, Cryogeyser lurks in the liminal space between grunge-gaze, Great Grandpa, and the kind of wind-sweeping indie-rock that Indigo De Souza excels at. The production is bright and lively, and the guitars sound fabulously huge on every song. It's just missing the character that's necessary for a band like this to win me over in 2025. When Wednesday frontwoman Karly Hartzman shows up for a guest verse on "Mountain," the dual-vocal interplay reveals what's been lacking on the prior four tracks. Hartzman's voice is warbly, sharp, animated, whereas Cryogeyser singer-guitarist Shawn Marom isn't as comfortable poking and prodding the boundaries of their limited range.

On "Sorry," Marom's uncannily steady delivery works to juxtapose the cement-pouring guitars and emphasize the stoney non-apology of the lyrics. It's a perfect execution of an icy/fiery dichotomy, but the remainder of the record chases that electric high without ever meeting it. The breathy harmonies on "Blew It" are a nice touch, but my ear tunes out the hook and hitches on to the jittery slowcore lick. "Cupid" has some chirpy falsettos and the bones of a great chorus, but the refrain never bangs the way I want it to. The wrecking-ball riffs on that track and "One" are staggeringly fun to drown in, but I struggle to latch on to the actual songs they're supporting. Cryogeyser isn't a bad record, and at several points, it's almost a great record. It just needs more songs like "Sorry." Come to think of it, every indie-rock record could use more songs like "Sorry."

Club Night - "Palace"

Club Night are a band from San Francisco who released some music in the 2010s that I love dearly. Their 2017 EP, Hell Ya, came out at a time in my life where I was more excited by the convergence of emo and indie-rock than I probably ever will be. I recently revisited the closing track on that project, "Work," an eight-minute noise-pop rapture that all the Weatherday fans on RYM would love if they knew it existed. In 2019, Club Night released an album called What Life that I never found a way into beyond the kick-ass singles. The band's knotty, mathy art-emo has been compared to both The Go! Team and Now, Now, and their oddball vocals sound like a middle-school choir singing Algernon Cadwallader songs. This is weird fucking music aimed at the highly limited audience that treasures The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die's Whenever, If Ever but also loves at least a few Xiu Xiu songs.

I wasn't expecting a new Club Night release after the six-year gap since What Life, but fortunately, people like myself who love TWIABP and Xiu Xiu's "Wondering" now have cause to celebrate. Club Night are dropping a new album on Tiny Engines this spring called Joy Coming Down, and "Palace" is a promising preview. It's a little smoother than the songs on What Life, with vocals that are barkier and less shrouded in kaleidoscopic effects. After a couple go-arounds of its rough-and-tumble emo refrain, "Palace" transforms into a tasteful, post-rocky crescendo during its second half. By the time it ends, my ears are suitably healed and hankering for another sack of firecracker noise-emo to get chucked in the bonfire. Hell ya, Club Night.

Horse Vision - "Chemicals" (Feat. Tiffi M)

Horse Vision keep dropping terrific singles and virtually no one in my orbit seems to be paying attention, so I'll just keep riding out for them until they're huge and everyone pretends they were there from the jump. The Swedish twosome linked with another Stockholm singer named Tiffi M for "Chemicals," which sounds as much like God Save the Animals-era Alex G as their other tracks, but more like The 1975's Being Funny in a Foreign Language than they ever have (I'm specifically thinking of the song "About You"). The squelchy synth carrying the melody on "Chemicals" sounds like an air horn dampened by whiskey bottle wax. Does it make me think of the ending of Camila Cabello's "June Gloom?" Yes. Is this the first time I've referenced a track from Camila Cabello's divisive 2024 album C,XOXO while plugging a Horse Vision song? No. Regardless of your opinion on Cabello's work, don't let that sway you from bumping "Chemicals." Horse Vision are on a goddamn tear right now.

Subscribe to Chasing Sundays for $5/month to continue reading the final segment of each Chasing Fridays column, where I go in on an older record that I've recently been spending time with.

The Durutti Column - LC