Tulip Frenzy

Last week, S.F. garage janglers The Fresh & Onlys put out a six-song E.P., their first new music since the Long Slow Dance came out last year.  Of course it took us a few days to get to it, given that we took Kelley Stoltz’s Double Exposure, some sandwiches and a jug of water down to the Situation Room, with its massive speakers and comfy couch, only to emerge days later with a smile and a few day’s growth on our face.  The new Soothsayer E.P. is further evidence that The Fresh & Onlys deserve to be considered one of the Bay Area’s major league acts, able to hold up their end of the bargain — albeit in a quieter, less propulsive manner than stalwarts like Ty Segall* (whose L.P. with his metal thrashers, Fuzz, is out tomorrow), Thee Oh Sees, and of course Kelley.

But may we issue this hope? Tim Cohen’s principal “other” band is Magic Trick, and to our ears, nothing he’s done with The Fresh & Onlys is as good as Magic Trick’s astonishing Ruler of The Night, which also came out last year.  If the pattern was set as one Fresh & Onlys album for every Magic Trick long player, then our expectation is that Magic Trick will now put out more music this year.  After all, we know from correspondent reports that Magic Trick played a few weeks ago in San Francisco, even as The F & Ts were gearing up to tour with Tulip Frenzy faves Woods.  And all you have to do is compare Magic Trick’s “Weird Memory” to anything by The Fresh & Onlys to grok why we’re rooting for that Tim Cohen project to get cracking.

* We don’t care whether Ty’s moved back to Southern California; he is, like Rice-a-roni, to be permanently associated with San Francisco.

This entry was posted on September 30, 2013 at 12:07 pm and is filed under Music with tags Magic Trick, The Fresh & Onlys, Tim Cohen. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.