It takes just seconds of Catcher’s music to see how they’ve managed to become one of NYC’s hottest guitar-wielding prospects. The fuzzy squall heard on their early singles is alive with the same gripping malaise that made Iceage and Protomartyr such pace-setting forces. And it’s made all the more impressive that the stony-faced gang have carved all this attention off the back of visceral live shows and just a handful of releases. Hop aboard early…While post-punk has never really left NYC, it’s fair to say it’s been enjoying somewhat of a resurgence of late thanks to bands like Nation of Language and Geese. But whereas most bands under the broad banner of post-punk take a more nuanced, formalist approach, Catcher deal primarily in blunt force trauma.
To build word of mouth off live performance is a challenge during normal times, but to do it when gigs are scarce takes a seismic force of nature. Enter Brooklyn’s Catcher, who have enjoyed a lightning quick ascent despite the pandemic-induced slowdown. In the past year and half since Austin Eichler and Wilson Chestney relocated from Texas, the now six-piece’s furious post-punk din has shaken venues across NYC to their foundations, with frontman Eichler leading the charge, stalking the stage with a singular, confrontational intensity.
Catcher seem to have arrived at precisely the right moment to remind a city of starved concert-goers how visceral and exhilarating a live show can be. And as far as Chestney is concerned, the feeling is mutual: “The first time I ever played a show back in Texas, I knew this is what I was going to do. It was almost like I had no choice anymore because it was clear nothing was going to fulfill me the way this does.”
Eichler and Chestney met in Texas while attending film school; Chestney because of a long-held interest, Eichler because he dropped out of a history course and was “already racking up student debt, so I might as well learn something I knew nothing about.” Both had previously dabbled in music and began to collaborate, though not with any specific intention at first.
The Fat Angel Sings 