Live This Month: August 2017 — an audio guide to upcoming Bay Area concerts
http://media.libsyn.com/media/thebaybridged/LTM_August_2017.mp3 Download: Live This Month: August 2017 (Podcast #412) In Live This Month, we sample some of the great local and out-of-town bands performing in the coming month in the San Francisco Bay Area. There's an even stronger concentration of local bands than usual in this month's mix, including promising new artists Pardoner, Mane, Illa, and Mars Today. The mix also features tracks from the latest albums by Bay Area mainstays The Fresh & Onlys and Sleepy Sun, as well as the new supergroup Less Art, comprised of members of Thrice, Kowloon Walled City and Curl Up and Die. On [...]
A “Fresh & Onlys Divorce Reunion” is at Night Light tonight
Grace Sings Sludge (Grace Cooper) and Earth Girl Helen Brown (Heidi Alexander) have been a part of some great San Francisco bands, namely The Sandwitches and The Fresh & Onlys. Tonight they're sharing the stage with their old bandmate, Fresh and Onlys' front man Tim Cohen for a great cozy show at the Night Light in Oakland. Of primary importance tonight is the release of Grace Sings Sludge's LP Life with Dick, out now on vinyl via Empty Cellar Records. Cooper's voice is always strong and alluring, yet very dark on Life with Dick. I picture her confidently delivering her [...]
Tim Cohen of The Fresh and Onlys playing Rickshaw Stop on Wednesday
Aside from a few scattered appearances here and there, The Fresh and Onlys — one of San Francisco’s longest-tenured and most-revered bands — have been dormant in recent times. Although chief songwriter Tim Cohen said the group is on good terms now, there is a certain whiff of uncertainty with the Fresh and Onlys (a situation that is not unfamiliar for any band that has been together for more than 10 years). Fortunately for fans of the group, the various members of the Fresh and Onlys have been active during the band’s recent dry spell. Guitarist Wymond Miles just released [...]
Wymond Miles to release ‘Call By Night,’ play album release show
Wymond Miles is releasing Call By Night on July 8, his first full-length album in three years. For fans of only the Fresh & Onlys, Wymond Miles' other project, this new solo material might be unexpected. It's slower, bigger, and more grandiose in several hard-to-distinguish ways, but I think the clearest and most fruitful difference between this album and the Fresh & Onlys' catalog is the obvious: It's largely the result of one person's vision, making for a pretty direct line from idea to sound to song. When I hear the word "singer-songwriter," a handful of associations pop into my head, most [...]
The Bay Bridged Presents: Fresh & Onlys at Hemlock Tavern this Saturday
“We’re stubborn assholes—down to the person, we all are,” said Tim Cohen, lead singer and guitarist of the Fresh & Onlys, perhaps San Francisco’s most beloved local band. “But that doesn’t take away from the fact that we’re talented, and unique and progressive — you can be all those things and still be an asshole.” Cohen used those terms to describe the tumultuous past several years for the band. The four-piece garage rock institution struggled to coalesce after Cohen moved to Arizona for a brief sojourn to raise his daughter, getting to the point where the band members hardly spoke [...]
Mixtape: Listening into San Francisco’s Recording Studios
http://media.libsyn.com/media/thebaybridged/SF_Studios_Mix.mp3 Download: Mixtape: Mixtape: Stepping Inside San Francisco's Recording Studios (Podcast #355) San Francisco's legacy of producing great music isn't just a function of supremely talented bands and inviting concert venues. Hidden behind the scenes is the Bay Area's rich array of recording studios, providing opportunities for artists, local and otherwise, to create great albums. An ideal studio isn't just a quiet room stocked with the right mixing board, microphones, and other gear. More than that, it's an environment in which musicians can elevate their songs, permanently capturing them at their best. There's a long history to a number of [...]
The Fresh & Onlys, The Tambo Rays do Commune
Commune Wednesdays are back for their last summer session of the year, and they've brought in some of our favorite acts to grace Elbo Room on Wednesday night. Armed with their subtle psych sound, San Francisco stalwarts The Fresh & Onlys will join the kaleidoscopic pop songsmiths of The Tambo Rays and the surf rockers of Hot Flash Heatwave for one radical, homegrown lineup. The party will also feature Popgang DJs, a pop-up shop by The Littlest Feather, a limited edition t-shirt and poster design by Elly Garcia and of course, true to Commune form, the entire night is super free. So RSVP here, grab your neighbor, and [...]
(((FolkYEAH!))) hosts August residency at Cafe Stritch
(((FolkYEAH!))), one of NorCal's most prominent indie concert production companies, is taking the show on the road and heading south. Starting in August, (((FolkYEAH!))) will hold a three-week residency at San Jose's Cafe Stritch, featuring weeknight performances from California favorites like Sonny and the Sunsets, The Fresh & Onlys, and The Entrance Band, with supporting acts to be announced. Though (((FolkYEAH!))) is broadly based in Northern California, it has made main hangs of places like San Francisco, Santa Cruz, and other various off-the-beaten-path holes-in-the-redwoods. San Jose, which is squarely on a beaten path, is unusual terrain for the famed production [...]
The Fresh & Onlys release ‘House of Spirits’, announce date at the Chapel
The Fresh & Onlys are as dreamy as ever. House of Spirits, last month's release, was partly penned during a stay in a sleepy horse ranch in dusty Arizona – lending to the album's wavering strength of lucidity. Tim Cohen sings as the unreliable narrator, especially on tracks like "Bells of Paonia", which placates Cohen on a bed of flowers within a pretty abstract pastoral. The album toys with, as Cohen says, the “idea that home is where your feet are,” and employs their classic psychedelic influences supporting their dreamy (and nightmarish, at times) new wave musings. Wherever Cohen currently envisions home, The Fresh & [...]
The Fresh & Onlys release “Animal Of One” single
Stalwart psych-garage rockers The Fresh & Onlys are back again with their first official single "Animal Of One" off of upcoming album, House of Spirits. Set to release on Mexican Summer on June 10, their press release says the fifth album "possesses the exemplary pop faculties displayed on the band's last two albums while also presenting experimental atmospherics and drum machine-anchored ballads." Until we can judge for ourselves, "Animal Of One" takes a step back from their normal fun-loving in the city hooks, and decides instead to envelope the listener in foggy reverb and fuzz. Check the single out for [...]