See You in September

Out of office. Gone fishin'. Smell ya later. You get the picture.

Stevie enjoying the dog days.

When I started this newsletter, it was to return to my passion for writing during the darkest days of the pandemic. In the three years since, it’s led to me meeting so many great people and ultimately acting on my decades-long want of starting a record label, something I thought of as a pipe dream while working desk jobs not long ago. I am grateful every day for the positive changes that Check This Out! has provided in my life. At the same time, I’ve never had a more challenging time getting newsletters out than during our current summer.

Everyone I’ve talked to in the last month seems to agree that the summer of ‘23 is the busiest we’ve collectively been in four years, and it’s not always easy to tap back into that space that allowed our brains to function at a fast-moving clip. I’ve worked on so many cool projects in the past few months, but August is where everything is catching up. While I don’t miss those desk job days, I’ve been pining almost daily for those long-gone New York summers when the eighth calendar month meant everyone was at the beach. And if you were broke, as went my first few summers there, it seemed you had the city to yourself while everyone was on vacation. It was a pleasant existence, even while walking past a gutter full of stinking standing water.

So, I’m bringing back that lost tradition of taking the week before Labor Day off, which includes the newsletter. With the loaded schedule, I’ve missed a handful of entries. This is something that I don’t want to have happen, especially when I have another lovely wave of new subscribers (thank you!). I’ll be back in September and ready to bring you rejuvenated reviews, fresh playlists, and hopefully, some more interviews because those make me happy, and you all seem to enjoy reading them.

I can’t drop an out-of-office without a few recommendations if you're still reading this far down. A few records I’ve really enjoyed this month that I haven’t had a chance to write about include Mapache’s Swinging Stars (for California cosmic country fans), Domino by Diners (power pop), and Death is Nothing To Us by Fiddlehead (veteran punks with 12 songs in 27 minutes? Yes, please.)

As for today, we’ve got more excellent “otherground” hip-hop from my favorite, Open Mike Eagle, on another triumph of ghetto engineering. There’s a good chance I’m not the first person to tell you this, but also make sure you listen to The Window by Ratboys. It easily meets the hype that has quickly been built for the Chicago-based indie band.

Everyone enjoy the last week of summer, and we’ll see you soon!