Rising up on a breeze of three-part harmonies and twelve-string acoustic guitars comes Maplewood, evoking a joyride up the Pacific Coast Highway. Like the scent of night jasmine in bloom, the Maplewood sound wafts from the canyons to the beaches and out into the desert, an ode to a Californian ideal mapped out by such precursors as America, Bread, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Gene Clark, 70s Beach Boys, late-period Byrds, The Stone Canyon Band, John Phillips, Neil Young, Hearts and Flowers, and even CSNY. Maplewood are one toke away from the cosmos, the press says, and harbingers of a movement already afoot.

For the five dudes who make up Maplewood, lost gems like "Ventura Highway" and "Make It With You" evolved from guilty pleasure to buried treasure: In such castoff anthems of mellowness, Maplewood managed to find improbable inspiration. Call it canyon rock, call it breezy, call it desperado dust. Maplewood is like a desert sunrise, like a dappled afternoon up in the orange groves, like a moon-lit walk on the beach and a swig of dandelion wine with the one you love the most.

Maplewood is Mark Rozzo, Steve Koester, Craig Schoen, Ira Elliot & Brian Filosa.

Maplewood?s self titled debut will be released June 2 on Tapete records.