Album Review: Jet Lag Motel – No Vacancy

San Antonio duo Jet Lag Motel have assembled friends and collaborators on their powerful new EP, the action-packed No Vacancy.

The band – Brian Salmon on vocals and bass and Steven Jasik on guitars – looks to some classic sounds on the EP’s six tracks, but even with those flourishes, No Vacancy sounds fresh, in large part down to the fun that you can tell the two are having here.

They met in late 2024, and quickly found that they worked well together, establishing their signature sound with the debut single Mexico, heralding them as one of the newest and brightest prospects on the San Antonio music scene.

That is no doubt helped by the fact that Brian Salmon, who earned his stripes on Sunset Strip, has the rock looks of Michael Hutchence and a voice that has a taste of Tobias Forge’s romance and wildness. Jasik, meanwhile, has a mean way with a guitar hook, able to bridge The Rolling Stones and Suicide with ease.

Better Place hits all those points and more, 60s meeting modern rock, the lyrics tackling the age-old subject of relationships. And it’s where you first hear the wit of the lyrics, Salmon inhabiting a role that is part-sage and part-lothario. Mexico, by contrast, is a tale of misadventure, a whirl of noise that suddenly takes you somewhere dark. The arrangement flows into following track, Never Again, so much so that you can imagine its tale of regret tying directly into Mexico.  

Listen is rock and roll with a punk-meets-Springsteen attitude, so the lyrics come as a pleasant and poignant surprise. Salmon sings of a love that doesn’t seem to be going to plan. The protagonist doesn’t seem to apportion blame, but talks of slipping away, searching for an answer, but not finding one just yet. It’s a rocker of a tune but tinged with sadness and very cleverly done.

The nearest the EP comes to a conventional power ballad is London Pub, but even then, Salmon’s smoky vocals dovetail nicely with the flickers of Americana that give the track a subtle, wistful presence. It marks the passing of time, how some things in life repeat, whether you want them to or not. It’s the track that’ll anchor the live sets for sure, thanks to the lyrics’ singalong nature.

Ending with One, the Jet Lag Motel explore once again the strong sonic themes of the album, blues and rock and roll, allied with a power pop/punk sensibility and the unmistakable sensation that Salmon and Jasik are a great musical partnership. We will hear more of the band when they release their debut album, Baythorne Days.

No Vacancy was released on the 5th of June via SSK Records and can be heard on Apple Music and Spotify. You can get to know Jet Lag Motel better by joining them on Instagram.