Pleased to Meet You: Commercial Breaks
The perks of running this old site for as long as we’ve been at it are that the world, particularly in the Austin scene, comes full circle. For instance, Commercial Breaks, a brand new band with a handful of kick ass demos to share features a couple of brothers, one who I taught…and who I later put out on vinyl when he played drums in Tres Oui. His little brother is part of Austin’s super rad Gus Baldwin and the Sketch, so you can kind of hear a recent history of Austin’s garage tendencies peeking through from behind the curtains, particularly in some of the great guitar wiggles. Obviously, there are some production touches, like the real drums Doran promised, but a song like “The Cloud” has the fuzziness and the pop gifts to whet my whistle! They’re playing their debut show on July 12th with Guiding Light here in Austin at Hotel Vegas! See you there!
The year is in full swing, and there are tons of great albums already hitting the streets, so wanted to throw my weight behind a few great releases. We’re all over the world today, with one of my favorite Austin artists, Gus Baldwin and the Sketch, getting their new LP out there. Then we bounce over to Finland with our friends Soliti releasing a new Pink Chameleons album. Jump over to Australia with Shrapnel then come home to NYC with Rosa Bordallo. Got those streams below for you.
Seems like this year so far, it’s been one step forward and two steps back, but feel like I got locked in during this short week, allowing me to get a solid bit of rock n’ roll out from underneath my inbox. We had a lot of Austin stuff to go through…MIEN, Gus Baldwin, Edith Frost, Skloss, Midcard…and maybe we consider Cross Record still! Lots of other new things popped up including the latest from Accessory and the Golden Dregs, which were to of my favorite tracks we go under. Several of the jams are some slow-burns, so take your time and enjoy the rock around you.
Up until now, we’ve been presented with 
Just when we thought the year was dragging to a close, we managed to find enough hits to fall in love with and make you a proper playlist! We even have a few of the tracks we covered from Maneater and Boyracer missing, so be sure to check those out. I loved the opening song from Prism Shores; it’s definitely a bright spot on last week, along with the reemergence of Mogwai on the scene. We managed to get in some Austin love for Whalers and Gus Baldwin and the Sketch, not to mentioned representing for the local festival with Levitation interviews from Hello Mary and the Strange Lot. Plus, our pal Michael Maly was able to swing some coverage for Air‘s 25th Anniversary performance of Moon Safari, giving me a chance to slide “Sexy Boy” into yet another playlist. Check it all out below.
After what felt like a down week, things really took off over here, with another collection of great singles and albums we were stoked to hype up on our end of things. The Austin contingent came strong, with new tunes from Genuine Leather, The Sour Notes, Holiday Music, Letting Up Despite Great Faults and Gus Baldwin/the Sketch. Some long time favorites like Club 8, Nada Surf, and Icarus Phoenix made the cut too! Our pal Michael Maly added some words and photos on Slowdive, so of course we included their classic hit. A lot of great pop stuff too from Sad Eyed Beatniks, Laughing and This Is Lorelei, thus you’ll need to keep your focus when you spend some time below!
I’m not entirely sure there’s a single that can capture the live energy the drips from the stage when