Maquiladora

Fans of the desert music of Giant Sand and Calexico should be drooling all over Maquiladora -- and some probably do -- but chances are the San Diego trio's stealthy profile has evaded their radars. Although the band has released two full lengths, What the Day Was Dreaming and the masterful A House All On Fire, on indie stalwart Darla Records, Maquiladora has remained staunchly DIY and rather media-shy since coming together in the mid '90s. Back then, the group was a loose knit collective, experimenting with a prickly brand of Americana filtered through hushed post-rock. (Or is that the other way around?) By the release of their 1998 debut, The Lost Works of Eunice Phelps, Maquiladora's line-up was set: Eric Nielsen, Phil Beaumont and Bruce McKenzie -- all three singer-songwriters. Over the course of five albums and two EPs, Maquiladora have refined their sound, dipping that post-rock Americana into a cloudy bath rippling with classic West Coast lysergia. There's some Band-inspired twang in there for sure, but ultimately the band likes to venture to the outer rings of Saturn (to visit Pink Floyd?) then return to Earth and land underneath the star-flecked skies of the Mojave.