The BOSTON GLOBE
Beachwood Sparks, ‘Desert Skies’
By Steve Morse

It’s often a mixed bag when bands dig out their first, previously unreleased studio tracks and thrust them upon the public. But in the case of Beachwood Sparks, these “lost” recordings are generally better than anything the band has done since. The Los Angeles-based psychedelic country-rock band has made some acclaimed albums for Sub Pop, but these 15-year-old, unmastered tracks from the vault are rawer and more fun, harder-rocking and less meticulously crafted. The group shows its debt to the Byrds’ trippy “Notorious Byrd Brothers” album (as on “Sweet Julie Ann” and “Canyon Ride”) but also bounce into garage-rock terrain with “Midsummer Daydream” and “Watery Moonlight,” which sounds like a lost Beau Brummels tune from a “Nuggets” compilation. Two songs here would go on to appear on their first Sub Pop album, both of them longer and looser. Singer-guitarist Chris Gunst comes into his own and Farmer Dave Scher excels on lap steel and organ. Beachwood Sparks fans will love this release.

Beachwood Sparks: Desert Skies
By Eric Swedlund

The story of Beachwood Sparks is written across three albums of psychedelic Americana, a distinctly West Coast sound in the heralded tradition of The Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers.

Now comes the prequel, an unexpected batch of long-shelved recordings that show the band less reliant on laid-back harmonies and bristling with more rock energy.

It may be no surprise to find the band at its wildest, loosest and most varied in the first phase of a trajectory that mellowed significantly in the course of three Sub Pop albums, but what marks Desert Skies as much as its distinct sound is the quality of its songs.

What’s most exciting about the record is the fact that these aren’t demos. Desert Skies isn’t a vault-clearing exercise that rounds up every stray scrap the band ever recorded. This is the album Beachwood Sparks, in the band’s earliest days, intended to release, recorded with an eye toward taking their heralded live show and rapid LA ascendancy and putting it on record.

And the band—a six-piece at the time—was as deep into 1980s and 1990s underground rock as it was the revered greats of earlier generations. All the core elements of Beachwood Sparks are here, but there’s also more, and less, at the same time.

A broader range of influences can be heard. The Byrds and Burritos are clear from the start, but strains of underground rock borrowed from Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. are prevalent as well. And yet, the Beachwood Sparks hadn’t zeroed in on the identity that made the band memorable and instantly recognizable, instead sounding a bit scattered, not quite able to mold all the musical ideas they had into a cohesive whole.

Desert Skies is an eight-song LP, but with four bonus songs on the CD and digital versions that help tell the story. Of the bonus songs, three are different versions and indicative of what sort of decisions the band faced.

The two directions are both mapped. “Sweet Julie Ann” and “Canyon Ride” (the latter also re-recorded for Beachwood Sparks) are the most similar to what the band would become. Elsewhere, “Charm” is contained and catchy, and in both versions, “Make It Together” is straightforward in its Beatles influence.

“Desert Skies,” which would show up in another form as the lead song to the band’s 2000 self-titled debut, is represented twice, the two versions nearly as different from each other as they are from Beachwood Sparks.

But on the nearly eight-minute “Midsummer Daydream,” the wild side sounds just as promising, while “This Is What It Feels Like” pivots from a peppy throwback to British Invasion rock to an unhinged psychedelic jam, enough to question whether it’s the same band, let alone the same song.

Like any prequel, this brings its own set of “what if?”s. And it’s hard to imagine how differently the story of Beachwood Sparks would have played out if the band had chosen to follow Desert Skies.

FILTER MAGAZINE
Desert Skies
By Daniel Kohn

After last year’s surprise return after 10 years on the sidelines, Beachwood Sparks have another unexpected treasure to unearth for fans. Recorded in 1997 with the original sextet, Desert Skies is technically the Sparks’ debut, a glimpse into the infancy of the psych-country outfit. The heavy chords of the album-opening title track are a surprising jolt, yet maintain the same breezy Laurel Canyon harmonies for which the band later became known. The rockin’ riffs continue throughout and, in fact, this “lost” record sounds less like a blueprint for a budding outfit and, instead, has the warmth of a freewheelin’ jam session between friends, blending throwback ’60s blues and psychedelia, especially on songs like “Watery Moonlight” and “This Is What It Feels Like.” It all raises the obvious question—why didn’t they release this thing in the first place?

Beachwood Sparks Unearth a Lost Album Recorded 16 Years Ago
The L.A. alternative country pioneers unearth Desert Skies, an album they recorded in 1997 and nearly lost forever.
by Theis Duelund

When bassist Brent Rademaker met guitarist Chris Gunst at a party in Burbank in the mid-1990s, the two immediately bonded over their mutual love of ’70s West Coast country pioneers Flying Burrito Brothers. After working together in a string of more or less successful bands, Rademaker and Gunst founded Beachwood Sparks intending to explore that special brand of California country that emanates from the canyons and hills. Ever since, the band has existed in different iterations centered around the trio of Rademaker, Gunst, and multi-instrumentalist Dave Scher.

Reminiscent of The Byrds, The Eagles, and Flying Burrito Brothers, the psychedelic country rock of Beachwood Sparks has inspired countless other musicians. November 26 marks the release of the band’s fourth studio album, Desert Skies, even though it was recorded in 1997. Here are eight facts we learned about the alternative country trailblazers.

READ THE ENTIRE LA MAG FEATURE HERE