Local Review: Chausie — Chow!

Chausie
Chow!
Self-Released
Street: 06.07.2025
Chausie = Count Five + The Pixies

Chow!, the debut album from Utah County’s freshest protopunk quartet, Chausie, is full of energy, from hard to lighthearted and a lot of other vibes in between. The album wraps up in just north of 30 minutes, with most tracks barely cracking the two-minute mark. The pace doesn’t let up much from the get-go — a sliver of a chance to catch one’s breath here and there, but that’s what this type of music is really all about. I feel Chausie would be a hoot to watch live!

A lot of the album’s sound took me back to the ‘90s, when I dubbed cassettes borrowed from friends in a dual tape deck. These tracks seemed well-played, like old faves that had been listened to a hundred times. It sounded familiar, though I had never listened to any of it before. “A Man” felt a lot like the rating style of Craig Finn from The Hold Steady. I like that track a great deal. Another banger from the latter half of the album is the outstanding “Marla.” This one has a real Black Francis atmosphere, and I love it.

I was able to listen to this album to and from work and in between boring meetings for about a week. I found it to be refreshing and resetting; an invaluable, intangible and irreplaceable escape mechanism to pack in one’s back pocket as the world of deadlines and commitments strengthens its undeniable hold. Data and reports are mandatory, but voluntarily checking out of the collared shirt and jumping into something wild, something I sometimes forget to do, is absolutely priceless even for a brief 30 minutes.

I have to give props to Chausie. My week was a whole lot more fun than what I was expecting. Chow! was the reason for that, hands down. —Billy Swartzfager

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