The Fresh & Onlys

San Francisco's the Fresh & Onlys got started ten years ago, before the most recent wave of garage psych. And while that aesthetic certainly informed the group's music early on, there's more to its sound than that. Sweeping through its center is a Smiths-like, incandescent guitar jangle, along with gentle...

By Tom Murphy

October 25, 2012

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San Francisco's the Fresh & Onlys got started ten years ago, before the most recent wave of garage psych. And while that aesthetic certainly informed the group's music early on, there's more to its sound than that. Sweeping through its center is a Smiths-like, incandescent guitar jangle, along with gentle but direct rhythms. You can hear shades of C86-era bands in the music, but there is a bright core to the songwriting that's uplifting rather than just being a transmogrification of melancholic moods. This is most evident on the latest Fresh & Onlys release, Long Slow Dance. An ineffable nostalgia still limns the atmospheres of the band's songs, but it's tempered by fiery guitar work that burns the maudlin from your mind.

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Tom Murphy is a writer, visual artist and musician from Aurora, Colorado. He was a prolific music writer for Westword and a documenter of the Denver music scene.

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