Cashier come straight out of Lafayette, Louisiana, where they have spent the last couple of years building their name the old-fashioned way, through singles that hit hard, live shows with giants of the modern guitar underground, and a sound that links grunge, shoegaze, post hardcore and alt rock without ever feeling pinned down by any one tag. Signing to Julia’s War Recordings (yes, I know, I know. I’m obsessed with this label) feels like a natural next step for them. It puts them among artists who understand how grit, melody and emotional force can coexist on the same record. What makes Cashiers The Weight EP stand apart is the directness at the centre of it all. Kylie Gaspard sings like every line has already sat in her chest for too long, while the band around her keep the songs tense, loud and sharply shaped. That band features on guitar Joseph Perillo, on bass guitar Austyn Wood and drummer Zachary Derouen.
Gaspard put it plainly when speaking about the title track.
“As the title track of the EP, I wanted to tie the themes of all the songs together. In this song, we wanted to create something that honoured the influences that came before us. While staying true to having the guitar as the focal point, the lyrics make this a coming-of-age piece, trying to find where we fit in this life, and how we long for connection.”
That sense of connection runs right through The Weight. Let’s dive in and see if we can connect too.
The first thing that hits you on ‘A Curse I Know So Well’ is the sense of urgency. It comes charging in with a wiry guitar line that feels ready to buckle under its own tension, then the whole band snaps into place around it. Gaspard sounds vital but measured, never overplaying the emotion, which gives the track even more bite. Perillo’s guitar work adds that extra scrape and sting around the edges while the rhythm section keep the song taut underneath. You can hear traces of nineties guitar music in the bones of it, but Cashier bring their own edge to it.
That energy carries into ‘Like I Do’, though this one feels leaner and more pointed. The guitars feel less like a wall and more like interlocking lines, each one pushing at the next while the drums keep everything moving with real purpose. This is one of those tracks where the band’s melodic instincts really show themselves. Underneath the distortion and grain, there is a song with real shape to it, one that sticks in your head long after it ends.
By the time ‘Part From Me’ lands, Cashier sound fully settled into their own language. The opening guitars have a clipped urgency that immediately raises the pulse, but the thing that stays with you is how emotional the whole performance feels without turning theatrical. The vocals have an ache that cuts right through the centre of the mix. The band sound huge here, but they also sound disciplined. Every chord, notably here played off the beat, feels chosen with care, every shift in volume there for a reason. It gives the track a sense of momentum that mirrors the song’s emotional subject, that painful back and forth of a connection starting to split while some part of you still wants to hold it together.
Then ‘For I Never Knew You’ changes the script. After three songs built around motion and melody, this brief noise piece feels like a jagged interruption.
‘Same Mistakes’ follows it with a slower, heavier emotional swing. This is one of the EP’s most affecting moments because it feels exhausted in a very human way. The guitars still swell and bite, but there is more space in the arrangement, more room for the weight of the lyric to settle. You can feel the song wrestling with repetition, with the frustration of seeing yourself stuck in old patterns and still walking back into them. The band match that feeling beautifully. The performance stays measured, letting the mood build gradually until the whole thing feels like it might cave in on itself.
The title track closes the EP with a sense of hard-won clarity. ‘The Weight’ gathers together the themes Cashier have been circling all along and gives them their fullest expression. The guitars soar more openly here, sounding broad and bright even as the song keeps its feet planted in uncertainty. Derouen’s drumming gives it a firm backbone, while Wood’s bass holds everything together beneath the swirl. It’s a coming-of-age song in the truest sense, full of longing, confusion, self-knowledge and the uneasy acceptance that growing older means carrying things you cannot simply shrug off. It closes the record on a note that feels both open and heavy, which is exactly where Cashier thrive.
These songs deal with desire, insecurity, disconnection and the awkward pain of trying to work out where you belong. Cashier give those feelings a physical form. You hear it in the guitars grinding against each other, in the rhythm section driving everything forward, and in the way the melodies still find daylight inside all that force.
What makes The Weight such a strong debut is the way Cashier keep emotion and volume in balance. They never let the songs collapse into murk, and they never sand down the rough edges that give this EP its character. You come away feeling like you have heard a band who understand how to turn messy inner life into something tangible, something you can feel in your chest as much as hear through the speakers. For a first statement, this is strikingly assured. Cashier sound ready for bigger rooms and even bigger stages, yet they still hold onto that DIY core that gives the songs their honesty. The Weight leaves its mark because Cashier know that growing up, falling short and carrying on all come with their own weight.
The Weight is out now on CD and Cassette via Julia’s War Recordings. You can check it out over on the Cashier Bandcamp page.
You can follow Cashier on social media here…
Photo Credit
Olivia Perillo
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