Song of the Day: The Fresh & Onlys - Animal of One

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Midday Show with Cheryl Waters, is "Animal of One" by The Fresh & Onlys from the 2014 album House of Spirits, due June 10 on Mexican Summer Records.

The Fresh & Onlys - Animal of One (MP3)

Over the years, San Francisco has become an alternative meeting-place for lo-fi, psych-pop musicians and fans alike. Bands like Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, Kelley Stolz, The Sandwitches, Sonny and The Sunsets and The Fresh & Onlys all intermingle, promoting their allies' music to the public by touring relentlessly and sharing their in-home recording studios, connections to venues, and instrumental expertise. Untangling the messy, interconnected web of creative artists can prove to be quite a challenge, but this is just to say that, in San Francisco, the blood of the garage-rock scene runs deep, and it shows. Today's Song of the Day podcast highlights SF favorites The Fresh & Onlys and their fuzzy, scuzzy, retro-testaments to the wild 60's.

Like many of the famous SF bands, the prolific Fresh & Onlys already have quite a strong body of work under their proverbial belt. Their most recent release, the dream-influenced House Of Spirits, presents itself as a more mature, garage-psych jam-collection. Compared to the songs on their past records, "Animal of One" is a sad expression of dejection. With lines like, "the point of forgiving is so you forget," and "your soul is a prison, your soul is your mind," the song's lyrics show their heavy thoughts and fascinating pessimism. The meat of the track, Tim Cohen's echoed bellows, Kyle Gibson's muted drums, Shayde Sartin's infectious baseline, and Wymond Miles' daze-like strumming and ascending riffs, aligns itself into a complex pattern, and the song moves into an fervently psychedelic guitar solo, eventually fading away like the moments of consciousness before sound sleep.

Featuring Cohen et al., The Fresh & Onlys will be psyching-out Chop Suey on July 12th, as well as performing for the Woodsist Festival in California's own eclectic Pioneertown on August 16th. To keep you entertained throughout the summer, you can follow The Fresh & Onlys on Facebook and Blogspot. As you wait for House of Spirits to come out on June 10, check out this other single from the forthcoming LP: