Confusion is Nothing New: Beachwood Sparks

Posted by: steve | From: September 20, 2005

The idea of things becoming cliche is pretty amazing. The ability for something just to become cliche is a testament to the power of that particular concept, right, because it must have been something that was successful enough or enjoyable enough that it was repeated to the point where a pattern was spotted and it was declared cliche. I guess my real question is this: if someone does something that seems cool at the time but later becomes cliche in retrospect does it ruin that thing, OR OR if something seems cliche at the time it happens but then that sorta thing becomes in style does the part thing gain awesomeness in the pub eye?

I think that Los Angeles psychedelic past band Beachwood Sparks was at one point or is remembered being cliche. They are a band that showed it's influences (The Byrds, Flying Burrito Bros, American Beauty era Dead) on it's sleeve, but existed in a time in between the rennaissances of alt country and the current it trend of freaky folk music, two movements they could have more than likely been associated with. Instead they existed in this period where they were seen as this cute little anomaly, and I'm not quite sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing. In some ways, not being associated with these larger movements was probably good as so many of the bands associated with these movements are marginalized and written off immediately as followers and shunned to the ghetto of that subgenre movement. It just depends. If you look at the freak folk movement there are a couple acts that get all the notoriety (Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom) just because it's so easy to write about names that people are familiar with. It seems as if there is some fear in writers (and bloggers, music blog culture has a deep theme of having to write about that one hot band that everyone is writing about i.e. The Arcade Fire, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah) that if they don't write about those specific names that are written about time and again they will be seen as not having their fingers on the pulse of the industry. So many more bands are mostly dismissed quickly (in a way that seems foolish and mob mentality) by the media like Vetiver and Cocorosie. The whole hot trend (like freaky folk) business is hard because while a lot of bands names get tossed around, but only a few get really famous, and then the trend fades fairly quickly and the whole thing is looked back upon in a very dismissive light, "Remember that whole Freaky Folk thing? What was that even about? Six Organs of Admittance??? HA!!" You know, it's like remembering "grunge music" or "nu metal" or "idm" or something. It all seems very silly and the bands aren't really remembered that fondly.

In reality, the Beachwood Sparks existed in somewhat of a vacuum. They were on a big label (Sub Pop), and people sorta knew who they were, but really were mostly ignored as a bit of a novelty. The did seem to be leading their own hot genre trend, but there weren't really any other bands to go along with them. I'm sure there were bands with a somewhat similar aesthetic (most tend to have some sister of brother bands who they vibe off of and together with), but none that ever really came into the general indie rock media eye, leaving Beachwood floating out there like and unprotected island.

Before everyone starts weeping because of this very sad tale I'm weaving about the little nostalgic band that was goofed on and under-appreciated, these dudes did bring it on themselves. A number of the members of the Beachwood Sparks were in the already ordained Greatest Band of All Time, Further, which was pretty much a grunge band like sorta how Dinosaur Jr. was a grunge band, but weirder. The majority of the Sparks worked for many years at the seminal Los Angeles college radio station KXLU. I listened to "Farmer Dave" Scher's (pedal steel/keyboard) killer radio show for years. What I'm saying is, these dudes were hip to the jive. These dudes knew about the indie rock music industry, so when they started growing theire hair all long and wearing funny vintage cowboy shirts they knew what they were doing. I'm calling GIMMICK. I think the dudes were sincere in their appreciation and influences, but let's call a spade a spade. Gimmicks don't have to be bad, in fact, I think it works really well for this band. The first time I saw this band was in early '99 on the internet in some video of them playing live. It was 3 dudes playing acoustic in the shady very overgrown backyard of a house in Silverlake. It was so visually refreshing, the concept of this coming from Los Angeles. It looked nothing like the LA that I knew, and that was so attractive to me, so different than your 80s hair metal, than your punk rocks, than your weird old Beck, than your Britney and Backstreet that was so big at the time which was being recorded only miles away, but somehow these dudes have found a place that was the exact opposite.

The specifics of the Beachwood Sparks look like this: they released a couple of singles in '99 built some sweet buzz with lots of live shows in LA, signed to Sub Pop and their self titled full length debut was unleashed in early '00. The epitome of canyon music, the album was filled with great late 60s influenced melodies and dreamy instrumental passages. The more expansive and more original Once We Were Trees followed a little more than a year later. Main songwriter Chris Gunst found melodies that were more his own and less obviously influenced by those of The Byrds and helps the album attain a lovely forlorn melancholy. It should be noted that this album includes a brilliant cover of Sade's "By Your Side." In early '02, Make the Cowboy Robots Cry EP was released, and it showed the Sparks searching deeper for their own voice with great results. The EP was recorded by Jimmy Tamborello (Dntel, Figurine, The Postal Service) who also provided some instrumentation (some electronics). Having amuch more ethereal vibe that even garnered some Spiritualized references MTCRC was the band's most successful release to date, and unfortunately it has been the band's last release. Rumors of breakups followed after their tour for the EP, and the band has definitely been on hiatus with all the members working on other projects. There are some rumors of a new Beachwood Sparks album, but I wouldn't put to much faith in those.

It's hard for a band that is so styleized to continue on, so many times these bands come to an early demise, feeling trapped by their own style decisions. Beachwood Sparks began to try to break free of their own gimmick, but it might have been too little too late. In the end, I think it was better for this band to not be associated with a hot trend, and instead to have been a bit of a lone quirky oddity and been somewhat cliche in their time, as it allows for a kinder and more open look back. They can be viewed as under appreciated, and when people find out about them and how their visual aesthetic and their musical sound both projected a beautiful hazy earthness they will realize that the Beachwood Sparks left a wonderful legacy. Sometimes even The Greatest Band of All Time is gimmicky, and a little cliche, whatever that means.

Previous: "Funny Comedy Gags": Steve Martin | Next: A Bittersweet History: The Verve

Comments:

Post a comment:

URBN*HNKG | Design by YACHT | Using MT 3.33 | Subscribe (RSS)