Cashier : The Weight
Every once in a while, a band shows up with the ability to musically turn back the clock in one way or another. For fans who long for a certain era or decade, they feel a certain sense of nostalgia while listening, while younger generations dig it for the overall sound and how it provides a pathway for discovering similar sounding acts. One genuine diamond in the rough is Cashier, who hail from the college town of Lafayette, Louisiana, comprising Zachary Derouen on drums, Austyn Wood on bass, guitarist Joseph Perillo and guitarist and lead vocalist Kylie Gaspard. And any enthusiast of ’90s-era indie rock sounds is going to immediately appreciate the quartet’s sonic aesthetic from the first note of their debut EP The Weight.
The group employ an uncompromising fusion of shoegaze and punk, with a distinct rawness as well. Yet while they evoke a familiar aesthetic on this brief debut, it should be mentioned that there’s a forward-thinking approach rather than Cashier attempting to be a retro ripoff. They’re taking a style that’s a few decades old and putting a modern spin on it with an emphatic and direct approach to their songwriting that excites the senses.
“A Curse I Know So Well” starts The Weight off with hard-hitting riffs and rapid rhythms with Gaspard making a stellar introduction via her no-frills singing style. Next up is “Like I Do,” the best track on the EP because of how the isolated guitars set the foundation for the bass, drums and harmonies to make their presence felt in feverish fashion. “Part From Me” is in that echelon as well, with its more forceful and poetic lyrics. After “For I Never Knew You,” a distortion-laden interlude, “Same Mistakes” more immediately embodies the sound of classic shoegaze than any other track here, heavy on the fuzz. The title track, meanwhile, instantly hits the senses like a wrecking ball with sheer volume.
While Casher’s latest release will pluck at the heartstrings of elder millennials and Gen-Xers who long for the days of acid-washed jeans and flannel shirts being the height of fashion, the EP speaks for the current generation of 20-somethings finding their way in this messed up world, particularly with Gaspard’s fearlessly personal lyrics covering subjects like the dissolution of relationships and self-awareness in the modern age. Traits like these are why The Weight is something worth carrying.
Label: Julia’s War
Year: 2026
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