Little Wings - Light Green Leaves (Reissue) (2015)

Originally formed in the California seaside town of San Luis Obispo, the music of Little Wings completely imbibes the environment in which it was conceived. With a loosely assembled membership that revolves around Little Wings frontman and songwriter Kyle Field and sometimes includes drummer Adam Selzer, keyboardist Rob Kieswetter, and bassist Mark Leece, the band's debut on Walking Records, Discover Worlds of Wonder, was a dreamy, balladic tribute to the surreal aspects of the contemporary Californian landscape. Filled with slightly off-key tales of skateboarding legends, freeway traffic jams, and the hidden beach canyons of the West Coast, Little Wings' 1999 debut fused a postmodern Beach Boys ideology with warm alt-country. After collaborations with many regional artists, including Jason Lytle of Grandaddy, Kyle Field left his California musical family for the greener pastures of Portland, OR, to let the new chapter of the Little Wings almanac be influenced by the fresh naturalism of the Pacific Northwest and to continue the bands exploration of non-traditional song structures. With their Internet-exclusive sophomore effort, Wonder City, Little Wings added to the their loosely conceptual "Wonder Trilogy" in 2000, featuring the efforts of Kyle Field and Whitney Moon. Wonderue completed the trilogy in 2002; later that year, Light Green Leaves arrived. The following year, Harvest Joy appeared, and Field continued his prolific streak with 2004's Magic Wand. A year later, K Records released his next album of abstract bursts, titled Grow, and then he moved toward more traditional pastures with the sleepy Soft Pow'r in 2007. Subsequent full length outings include 2011's pastoral and heartfelt Black Grass, 2013's Last, and 2015's Explains. ~ Nate Cavalieri