Gollylagging brew their influences in a locally sourced witch's cauldron on "Red Fish"

There's something so utterly escapist about "Red Fish," the new single from Gollylagging, a mainstay Boston four-piece. It sounds like an alternative reality where that band you used to see live from your hometown actually wrote the hit they'd been chasing. Gollylagging is that band who played while you successfully smuggled Raspberry Rubinoff in water bottles into their sold-out album release show at the local college venue. Girls on tables, mosh pits, and crowdsurfers galore: the venue is way past capacity, and that guy who you might see in a lecture next week is an indie rockstar falling backward into the crowd.

Armed with a full quiver of ideas, the four members — guitarist and frontman Jake Regulbuto, guitarist and vocalist Jules Skiffington, drummer Andrew Garas, and bassist Joey Lorant — let the song effortlessly skate between their creative impulses. The guitar intro calls to mind Providence-born Deer Tick and their best head-nodding bluesy folk acoustic licks until the mix is beset with fuzzed-out electric guitars.

When asked about the use of programmed drums, Garas replied, “It was cool to just kind of experiment a little more with how you can make percussion sound. Whether it’s real or programmed, or just a mix of both.” He and Skeffington alluded to a number of production tricks they played around with, but every choice made still feels like it exists to serve the song. Languid vocals still sit comfortably in the mix, anchored rhythmically by Lorant and Garas who help carry the verses effortlessly into the chorus. The singing and chord changes of the chorus burrow into the mind to take up residence in whatever part of the brain oozes liquid nostalgia.

The Boston natives have benefited from nearly a decade of touring the fledgling 2010s and 20s Massachusetts music scene. Their approach to genre and stylistic shifts feel very intentional, yet whimsical, and Jules Skiffington, the band's guitarist, recalls the playful and experimental moment that influenced the making of the track, saying, "Jake wanted a drum machine on 'Red Fish,' so I was like fluttering the high hats and shit in logic, you know, like 'Back From The Dead 2' style, just like cutting them up and the big unnatural patterns and stuff, and I was like, 'do you want me to go this crazy?' Jake was like, 'Yeah, I think I want you to keep that.'"

The band members having such disparate influences which span the breadth of Dinosaur Jr. and Mojave 3, all the way to Chief Keef and xaviersobased. It allows a song like "Red Fish" to emerge out the other side of the writing and recording process like a triumphant tightrope walker that has pulled off a seemingly impossible task. It's the kind of song you could see getting name-checked in a spurious social media post from some new cultural phenom akin to Tyler, The Creator's "Heart Cooks Brain By Modest Mouse. Goodnight." tweet. This is all to say, Gollylagging's "Red Fish" sounds like a watershed moment in their career that's establishing their foothold in underground circles, while propelling them to new heights.