Mojave Desert-based band Starlight Cleaning Co. (Rachel Dean and Tim Paul Gray) seamlessly blend cosmic country and '80s alt-pop on the stellar "Sooner Than You Learn," the latest release from their forthcoming self-titled album (out May 21). "'Sooner Than You Learn' examines the helpless feelings of being caught in the riptide of self-medication and self-destruction," the band tells Wide Open Country. "'Striking like a match just shy of the burn' depicts the human recklessne

Frontman Erik Jacobs told Elmore, “‘California Sun’ is a track that has been with us for quite some time. We started writing it a few years ago and it has been through a few stages before it was finished. We recorded drums and guitars in Malmö, Sweden, and then continued with bass in Los Angeles. Mid-recording we took a break and went on a road trip. Even though we’d always seen this track as a ”car song” we hadn’t written any lyrics for it. So we were actually driving down H

The track we’re previewing feels like a rebirth. It takes us back to the Far West, to a cowboy full of energy who enjoys his freedom in the desert and then quenches his thirst in a saloon. A saloon where there is no piano, just Small Reactions playing “New Age Soul.” And mind you, this wasn’t a random example: the band themselves have stated that the concept of the song revolves around just that, the freedom you feel in a deserted western Texas – as, after all, the first vers