Kevin Bronson on April 27th, 2009

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Castledoor’s first album is titled “Shouting at Mountains,” but members of the Los Angeles sextet had to feel as if they were climbing them the past three years. After they arrived on the scene with a winsome tune and a smile, Castledoor’s career has proceeded by fits and starts, with two EPs (“‘Til We Sink” and “Follow the Dove”), a single (“Dumpster Diving”) and dozens of high-energy live shows marking them for bigger things while a handful of unfruitful business alliances stalled their progress.

• ||| Download: “Skipping Stepping Stones”

No wonder, then, “Shouting at Mountains” – released digitally last week and physically this week – deals in a large view with finding your place in the world, and remaining resolute in the face of Brobdingnagian challenges. “Everybody goes through a lot of different things,” frontman Nate Cole says. “Everybody has their mountains and you can react any number of ways. Shouting at them sounds a little punk rock.”

But what do you shout? “That’s a good question,” he says. “I don’t want it to come off as whiny, but the first thing you usually shout is ‘Why?’ Then you kinda get over it. You stop asking why because what’s important is what you do next.”

What Castledoor has done is regroup and keep moving. Two years ago, I’d have bet the band would have been signed and well on its way by now, but whether it’s the volatile industry, the mercurial artist or simply the absence of the “right fit,” it hasn’t happened. “There are times it can be discouraging,” Cole says, “but as long as we’re a band it’s not a matter of if but a matter of when.”

“Shouting at Mountains” is a combination of a handful of older songs along with new material written “during a burst of creative energy” last summer, Cole says. “The waiting was killing us – we felt we had to do something new, something fresh. It ended up being the most collaborative thing we’ve done, and it was a big step within the band to do something like that.”

Even so, the album did not go as planned. The band – which includes the husband-wife tandems of Nate and Lisa Cole and Gabe and Coury Combs, along with Brandon Schwartzel and Joel Plotnik – spent parts of October, November and December recording with a local producer, but for one reason or another (Cole declines to give details) the project was never finished. Then Castledoor met Robert Schwartzman of Rooney, who had recently built a studio in his home.

Starting recording from scratch, Castledoor laid down the tracks in eight days. “Robert gave us a confidence boost, and he captured our songs,” Cole says. “One of the things I’m most proud of is that it shows all the elements of our band very naturally. My vocals, for instance, are unaffected the whole album. It was very empowering to get this all down.”

As with Castledoor’s body of work, “Shouting at Mountains” leans heavily on Cole’s pristine vocals, whether it is backed by stabbing guitars (as on “Skipping Stepping Stones”) or twinkling keyboards (“Hush”). The album occasionally gets tangled up in its own labrynthian arrangements, but its unvarnished emotions, couched as they are in sweet melody, make it worth negotiating the maze. “Bad Day in Monterey” is sweet nod to Monterey and Morro Bay, two places Cole and his wife favor. “Free” sounds as if it were inspired by an uncomfortable dinner with a man in a suit. “Fifth Tambourine” is a simple but infectious pop anthem.

On the title track, Cole sings “Oh, I’m still drunk on a dream,” and as sobering as Castledoor’s reality has been the past couple of years, you want him to stay on that high a little bit longer.

||| Live: Castledoor celebrates its album release with a show Tuesday at the Echoplex, supported by the Parson Red Heads and Princeton.