Forming in the summer swelter of 1997 - built on the bones of Further and Strictly Ballroom - Beachwood Sparks stood among the charmed few who picked up the yoke left loose as Alt-Country’s early ‘90s wave crested and cooled. While the whole world was wrapped in pop, nu-metal, and indie rock, Beachwood Sparks were aloft on winds with The Byrds, weaving harmonies like Starry Eyed and Laughing, and lost in the heat-ripple haze with the Flying Burritos. To the uninitiated they’d seemed out of step, but to those who’d already been scanning the Cosmic channels, waiting for kindred hearts to answer the call, they were far ahead of their time. The Cosmic American tide has finally caught up to their curl in the last few years, and it seems like it’s finally just the time and place for Beachwood Sparks to assume their rightful place at the forefront of the new wave of psychedelic country. Some heads were always clued in. Sharp ears at Sub Pop picked the band up after their debut single on Bomp! and set sail the journey of Cali’s most consistent sunbeam surfers. The group stuck out like a wild hair on the Sub Pop roster, but as the label eased into their reputation as indie rock’s rudder in the early aughts, the band laid down a celebrated string of albums — S/T (2000), Once We Were Trees (2001) and the EP Make The Cowboy Robots Cry (2002) — before slipping into the ether in favor of new projects like All Night Radio, Mystic Chords of Memory, and GospelbeacH. They’d return to form, and their home at Sub Pop, after a decade away for The Tarnished Gold (2012) and revisit some early material on Desert Skies for Alive (2013). Now the band’s three founders — Brent Rademaker, Chris Gunst, and Farmer Dave Scher — return to the fold once more for a new album that’s just in time to sweeten the Summer air.

Silver Synthetic

Apr 19, 2025

Beachwood Sparks

Silver Synthetic