Matt Caskitt & The Breaks has released their new album titled ‘California Dream Hearse’ digitally and on vinyl via Loud Circles. Hooks taken to the extreme awashed in glorious guitars and anthemic laden with fever dream level of feeling and drive take each song past the max and over the top in such a fashion that you can’t help but later say ‘Have you heard the new Matt Caskitt & The Breaks album?
What sticks out to me about ‘California Dream Hearse’ is that each song stands out on it’s own. You can literally pick a song at random and, boom, that’s the next single. It all works. The intricate lacing of vocal harmonies over seamless chord progressions really make each track it’s own thing and the album a future classic as a collective. Brilliant.
About ‘California Dream Hearse’
A testament to the optimistic enthusiasm that comes with fulfilling your dreams and desires while also living in the reality that nothing comes easy and many times what we want and what we need are not always symbiotic, ‘California Dream Hearse’ finds the group growing as songwriters and maturing in their worldview.
Reflecting on life choices and the difference between where you are and where you desire to be, the San Diego group relishes the heartfelt emotions of love gained, friends lost, and the gloriously dim spaces in our favorite neighborhood dive bars where we grow into ourselves.
About Matt Caskitt & The Breaks
The list of drummers who drive the band as the lead singer & main songwriter is a short one. A few come to mind, most notably Levon Helm of The Band, Don Henley of The Eagles, and Phil Collins of Genesis. And the list is even smaller among punk bands, although a few pioneers like Mikey Erg of The Ergs and Hüsker Dü’s Grant Hart helped shape the role and pave the path for drummer/singers like Matt Caskitt.
From 2013-2017, Matt created the band Caskitt and, in those short 4 years, he managed to crank out 30 songs completing Caskitt’s discography of an EP 2 LPs, an impressive list of shows, tours, and festival appearances.
When Caskitt came to an abrupt end, Matt pushed on and put together Matt Caskitt & The Breaks in 2018; composed of Michael Kelly and Ricky Martinez on guitars, and AJ Peacox on bass. The quartet quickly began playing shows and festivals around the US and released their debut full length album “Welcome Home” in 2021.
Now, with over half a decade of shows and festival appearances, Matt Caskitt & The Breaks entered the studio in 2023 with engineer and producer Raul “Riff” Cuellar (NOFX, State Champs, Suicidal Tendencies) to record their 2nd full length. Aptly titled “California Dream Hearse”, the ten songs showcase a blend of feisty up-tempo punk rock and dancy mid-tempo power-pop ballads with lyrical storytelling themes of self-introspection, old heartbreaks, new heartthrobs, and renovating an old house full of nostalgia.
LINKS:
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