Heartbreaking Bravery

Very few people working in punk-leaning music today have strung together a track record as strong as Casey Weissbuch. With a career that includes work with the likes of Mitski, Diarrhea Planet, Colleen Green, and Jaill (among a long list of equally impressive artists), as well as projects that operate as a clearer vehicle for his own distinct songwriting voice (Slanted, Gumbus, and Trapped all being fine examples) in addition to running Infinity Cat‘s consistently excellent cassette series. Now, he’s returned with a recording project that boasts his own name and, as a result, scans as Weissbuch’s most personal endeavor to date.

Before diving too much further into that project, it’s worth taking a beat to recognize some excellent songs to have emerged since the beginning of April. A small handful of those songs will be covered in this post while the remainder will be evenly distributed across the six fixed stream posts set to follow this one. Those songs came from the likes of Basement Revolver, Proto  Idiot, Crusher, Margaret Glaspy, Hurry, Ben Lukas Boysen, Gland, Walleater, and Gorgeous Bully– all of which constitute an extremely tempting slew of titles. As incredible as those nine tracks wound up being (and, make no mistake, they’re all very serious contenders), Weissbuch’s “Dream” was the number that secured this post’s feature spot.

“Dream”, appropriately, boasts several of Weissbuch’s most recognizable songwriting traits. A straight rhythm that finds a shocking amount of power in its relative simplicity, a melodic sensibility that’s deeply indebted to the slacker punk movement of the early ’90s, and sharply intuitive atmospheric work that manages to make the smallest details feel like enormous moments. In some instances, Weissbuch’s approach results in brief flashes of material that are as reminiscent of Elliott Smith as they are of Sebadoh.

While Weissbuch has an admirable tendency to embrace his influences to their fullest extent possible, it’s worth noting that he’s also cultivated them into something that can stand on its own. Beyond that, songs like “Dream” are recognizably Weissbuch’s. Every time he’s been granted the spotlight, he’s laced his material with honesty, self-deprecation, and a sense of deceptive liveliness buried in narratives that have a tendency to lean towards the mundane. It’s a formula that’s paid massive dividends for his work as a songwriter in the past and “Dream” sees Weissbuch dangerously close to perfecting its formula.

As an introductory song to a new outlet for Weissbuch, it’s extraordinarily promising. In addition to the song’s thoughtful composition and meticulous attention to detail, when it’s scaled back to an area devoid of critical dissection, “Dream” is still an engaging song. While it certainly rewards investment, it’s nearly as effective as a piece of music that just washes over the listener. All told, it’s a track that thrives off its own modesty but, upon close inspection, betrays something approaching greatness.

Listen to “Dream” below and keep an eye on this site for more updates from the project.