‘Comparing Saviors and Friends’ by Catcher | Debut Album in 2022
Exclusive video premiere of ‘Comparing Saviors and Friends’ by NYC post-punk band Catcher.
Ramping up with sludge-y bass and frenetic guitar chords, the track charges forward like an angry bull out the gate, accompanied by vocalist Austin Eichler’s deep-seated drawl. The single is regarded as one of the first singles they’d written with the genesis of the band.
This year, their first year as a band, Catcher shared four singles — ‘Yesterday’s Favorite’ / ‘The Skin’ and ‘Only Advice’ / ‘Fallen Stones’ — and played countless sold-out shows across the city, in addition to going on their first headlining tour across the U.S. with fellow NYC rockers Been Stellar. The band are closing out their debut year and welcoming the next by playing a gig with Hello Mary at Mercury Lounge on Sunday, January 2, 2022. More information and tickets are available here.
The band has a reputation for visceral and powerful live performances. Drawing comparisons to Iceage and Protomartyr, Catcher delivers music with a driving and inundating low-end, provided by childhood friends Cameron McRae and Wilson Chestney, on bass and drums respectively. Guitarists Jack Young and Christian Reech — each having been recruited earlier this year via a Craigslist ad and connection via the band’s shared Tinder — interweave melodies and noise to create an environment that manages to be at once both bleak and moving, desolate but hopeful, violent but tender. Vocalist Austin Eichler commands listeners with a domineering and chaotic presence. From drawing croons to powerful screams, Austin’s narrative lyrics invoke a wide spectrum of emotion while creating a world of their own. Through endless hours of practice and work, the band has crafted a gripping and tight live performance and a growing international fanbase.
While concocting Catcher’s general ethos, Austin explained their process as, more or less, taking each of their individual interests and combining them into a stew, flavored with bits of post-punk influence and dashes of noise and art rock. With this project, they retained a sense of dedication to switch things up as well, gaining ideas from listening to music that didn’t sound similar to anything they’d personally done before — this included anything from the noisy chaos of Puce Mary and T.P. Orchestre Poly-Rhythmo, to free jazz, dub, and even the likes of Johnny Cash “to draw back to [their] southern roots.” Thematically, their lyrical material comes as a result of influences from films (such as Wake In Fright and Until The End Of The World) and books (like The Power and The Glory by Graham Greene and The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov), but also everyday life experiences.
Catcher’s debut album is due in 2022.
Headline photo: Kevin Allen
Catcher Official Website | Instagram | YouTube | Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music
