Painted Hills

It's been a long time since I've heard a song on the radio and felt compelled to run out and buy a CD, but that's exactly what happened to me last week while listening to KEXP.  I had parked and was waiting for the song to finish to find out who it was, but of course they went right into something else.  Checking the online play list later I found the song - "Morning Light" by a band called Painted Hills.

Here's the PR blurb from Bird Song records:
Bird Song Recordings presents the self-titled debut album from Painted Hills, led by former Beachwood Sparks guitarist, singer & songwriter Josh Schwartz who was also a member of The Summer Hits and Further early on and more recently Northern Lights and The Tyde. Think pastoral psych-pop and starry-eyed Cosmic Americana, influenced by the 70s Laurel Canyon scene and the 80s Paisley Underground in L.A. The band, who call Sierra Madre, California home, also features members of The Whispering Pines.

Well, OK - "pastoral psych-pop and starry-eyed Cosmic Americana" it is then.

Let me say that I've never heard (or even heard of) any of the other bands mentioned in that blurb, but with names like "Further" and "The Tyde" it's not hard to figure there must be a whole genre of neo-psychedlic rock out there.  Who knew?

One of my earliest music-related childhood recollections is hearing the Byrds doing 'Eight Miles High' on my little transistor radio, a band and song I've loved ever since.  And I can hear an echo of the Byrds in Painted Hills, both in some of the guitar stylings and the vocal harmonies.  'Morning Light' and 'Kaleidoscope Eyes' stick closest to that psychedelic-folk-rock vein, while if you replaced the lead vocals on 'Everybody' with Neil Young's voice you could drop the track in the middle of Zuma and it would feel like it had always been there.  'Down Down' has some nice Neil-influnced electric guitar work as well.

'Painted Hiils' is a strong debut, and if late 60's psychedelia floats your boat then you'll probably enjoy this fine CD.