By Mike Madavi
The Fresh & Onlys
“Endless Love” (mp3)
from “The Fresh & Onlys”
(Howells Transmitter)
More On This Album
Release Date: 7/14/09
UPC: 844185094900
Territories: Worldwide
San Francisco’s next great band The Fresh and Onlys have turned out a fantastic new self-titled record. Riddled with 60′s psych Tambourine jams, contemporary garage rock classics, and formidable pop sensibilities, The Fresh and Onlys is a record that doesn’t give everything it has to offer away on a first listen but rather reveals its true, multi-layered treats in a subtle, personal fashion. Their songs sound pretty simple initially (quality garage rock) but you’ll find yourself being drawn deeper and deeper in as you spend more time with the record. Those deceptively minimal and lo-fi recordings are actually incredibly well written by the six-piece including founders Tim Cohen and Shayde Sartin, who are no strangers to being in great bands, having spent time in Black Fiction and the Skygreen Leopards, respectively among many others. Both Cohen and Sartin are employees at Haight Ashbury’s legendary music Mecca Amoeba Records, and have clearly spent quite some time absorbing the wealth of musical knowledge within the store’s walls.
The new record sounds, of course, like good ol’ fashion garage rock, true to classic influences like the Monks with repetitive, catchy rhythm hooks accented by heavily reverberated guitar work and fuzzy vocals. A lot of it feels very psychedelic; it’s a good mixture of 60′s tripping, 80′s garage revival, and hits of addicting pop melodies. The opener “Feelings in My Heart” sounds like a slightly-less-fuzzy Times New Viking tune with some 60′s British invasion drumming. “Fog Machine” is classic garage attitude. “I Saw Him” is a psych number about looking into an abyss and finding a mysterious man within; very trippy.
Just when The Fresh & Onlys starts to feel a bit too psych-ie for the timid, the silly “Imaginary Friends” reminds you this is a lighthearted, lo-fi indie album. The next song and fantastic single “Peacock and Wing” is infectious to the core, showcasing the finest of the Onlys’ dual vocal attack from both Tim Cohen, ex of the underrated Black Fiction and now sometime supporter of Ty Segall, and his female counterpart. Both vocalists sing the same lines on top of each other which sounds unique, charming and disarming; it feels like the budding beginnings of a youthful attraction when the self-referencing hook “You should really be my fresh and only” melts away your tuff-guy shell. It’s damn hard not to like that song.
Overall, the Onlys are a fantastic and homely garage rock project with clearly evident talent and potential. They are definitely a group to keep tabs on as their newest album is honest and true to classic lo-fi garage recordings and only the beginning to what could quite possibly be San Francisco’s next big export. The Fresh &Onlys will be supporting the magnificently tender psych-soul legend Sixto Rodriguez once again for a West Coast tour that starts in Vancouver BC and ends in Los Angeles. Don’t miss this chance to see one of today’s best new bands with a hugely influential pioneer!
Check out this really cool/trippy video of the Onlys live at Amnesia (19th and Valencia for you locals!):
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Tags: Fresh & Onlys, Music Video, Rodriguez
