This came out in 2000 — or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I said about it back then (with some minor editing):
Sometimes, you can hear a single lick of music and know instantly where a band is from.
Take Beachwood Sparks; five seconds into the jangling country-rock bounce and psychedelic steel-guitar shimmer of Desert Rose, the opening track on their splendid debut disc, and you know these space cowboys are from sunny Southern California. But not today’s SoCal of skate punk and power-pop; no, these boys are from the ’60s version of L.A. — the home of Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, Gram Parsons and The Flying Burrito Brothers. You can hear all their echoes it in the warm, desert-breeze vocals and folky, finger-picked guitars of tracks like Silver Morning After; in the loping rhythms and fringe-vest acid-country of Sister Rose; and even in the sparkling Beach Boys / Turtles harmonies and bah-bup-bah-bah vocals of This Is What it Feels Like. Sure, you know exactly where they’re coming from and where they’ve been —but you’ll still love the places they take you.
