I was genuinely blown away by the music of the Coffee Sergeants when I first heard it - no small feat, considering how I jaded I was becoming during the cynical, cacophonous post-Nirvana 1990's. The Coffee Sergeants with their gentle, intense songs and swirling slide guitar - coupled with their trippy stage presentation (replete with a light show worthy of Winterland, circa 1967) - were a breath of fresh air. They seemed altogether new, and yet firmly nostalgic in the way they invoked vintage psychedelia.

Later, I came to appreciate that the Sergeants were, while great, not that original. Rather, they were heavily grounded in several influences, particularly the spacey music of Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd and the "Paisley Underground" modern rock of Dave Roback (Rain Parade, Opal, Mazzy Star). But, that didn't lessen the impact of leader Carey Bowman's melodic, intelligent songs or the affecting, imaginative, accomplished performances of the band - all of whom were Austin indie scene veterans.

The Coffee Sergeants' first CD, Moonlight Towers (1993) reprised several cuts from early cassette-only releases, Autumn Days (1990) and Songs from Minaret (1992), and met with uniformly excellent press. It was, in fact, a wonderful, powerful record that deserved every bit of the praise. Unfortunately, the Sergeants' record label, the Austin-based indie Dejadisc, soon folded and the album went out-of-print. In the wake of this disappointment, the band broke up in 1994.

(A moonlight tower, by the way, is a huge, antiquated streetlight used around Austin during bygone days. A few still stand, however; you can see them in the movie Dazed and Confused and occasionally on the TV show Friday Night Lights.)

After a reunion gig in 1996 - being "unwilling to resume their status as ex-bandmates" - the Coffee Sergeants picked up where they left off with The Blessing House (1996). Their later records - most recently Coffee Sergeants (2006) - have all been self-released (perhaps wisely, considering their history). They may be tough to find in record stores (which, as of this writing, still exist...) outside of Austin, but Amazon usually has them. Last time I checked, the Coffee Sergeant's own website, www.coffeesergeants.com, still offered their whole catalog - all the way back to their Autumn Days cassette - plus generous MP3 samples of the same.