Artist Blue Sky Blackout

Slick-as-oil, radio-ready alt-rock unit Blue Sky Blackout makes catchy, impeccably clean pop songs in the vein of über-produced rock ’n’ roll lite bands like Silversun Pickups. Co-helmed by designer and ad-man Christian Erickson, Blue Sky Blackout released a calculatedly catchy, big-pop EP from earlier this year, called John Hughes. The EP sounds like it was made by professionals who rock out after 5 p.m., and who bring the same attitude to the studio that they do to office. Even if this is hobby rocking, there’s still something kind of enduring about it. The band’s purported influences of ’80s and early ’90s shoegaze and Britpop, however, seem about 50,000 miles away from songs like “Jesus Hits The Airwaves,” but we’re not complaining.

Updated 12/06/2011