The first time I heard "Confusion is Nothing New" - the first real song on this album I listened to it about 70 times in in a row. I am not even sure how I managed to procure it on my dying low-tech 2004 computer, but something in it really spoke to me.
This is some very Los Angeles music. The band's name comes from an intersection here (I've heard, though I used to think it was a play on the Zombies song), and there sound is full of good vibrations and the local tradition (check out the Forever Changes-esque album art), mainly that of Gram Parsons and the Flying Burrito Brothers. Additionally, their sound owes a debt to previous California cowboys Camper Van Beethoven. The band's silence and eventual and very recent official demise was jsut another reason for the shortage of good music in this decade. This album, though does leave them with a pretty strong legacy. This is perfect psychedelic country rock, and perhaps even more than Gilded Palace of Sin lives up to Parsons' title of "Cosmic American Music." The perfect laid-back Saturday afternoon in the sun sound complete with alternating Western lap steel and trippy organ. The indie kid vocals could be tedious to some, but they are delivered with an alarming amount of sincerity for the sound and at times even excel. Inaddition to the aforementioned track other standouts include the harmonica melody of "The Hustler," the blissed-out "The Sun Surrounds Me," and the successfully romanitc Sade (!?) cover "By Your Side." This is the ultimate soundtrack to a bike cruise along the Pacific Coast, or a day spent folicking in Griffith Park, or even just floating in a broken-into Beverly Hills pool blazed. Enjoy.
Beachwood Sparks - Once We Were Trees (2001)
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