Download: The Parson Red Heads, ‘To the Sky’

Kevin Bronson on
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Long before the current revival of hippy-dippy collectivism, the Parson Red Heads were breathing new life into the spirit of the 1960s. It was 2006, and a group of Oregon transplants and their new L.A. friends – typically dressed in all-white and sometimes packing as many as a dozen people onstage at places like Spaceland – played big-hearted, harmony-filled Americana that felt Age-of-Aquarian without (somehow) the druggy afterglow. The band, anchored by the husband-and-wife team of singer-guitarist Evan and drummer Brett Marie Way and featuring guitarist Sam Fowles and bassist Charlie Hester, relocated back to (affordable) Oregon a couple of years ago and has carried on with distinction. The Red Heads’ new album “Orb Weaver” was produced Scott McCaughey (The Minus 5) and captures the quartet’s onstage energy as previous releases never quite did. The foursome’s musical touchstones are the same as, say, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, but in place of over-the-top indulgence the Parson Red Heads handle with care. Whether it’s McCaughey’s touch or the Red Heads’ whole-grain Oregon living, “Orb Weaver” feels crisp and urgent.

||| Download: “To the Sky” and “Every Mile”

||| Live: The Parson Red Heads headline the Satellite tonight.

||| Previously: “Times,” “Another Chance,” “Seven Years Ago,” “Burning Up the Sky”