Blog Archives

June 19, 2012

The Daily Choice: Magic Trick – Invisible At Midnight

by

Tags
The Daily Choice

Things that Tim Cohen has done, or is in the process of doing this month:

1. Released the a new, surprisingly mainstream sounding, single from his first and foremost band The Fresh & Onlys. Listen to it here.

2. Stepped behind the boards for the upcoming album by TDC favorite Cool Ghouls. I honestly cannot wait to hear what this is going to sound like.

3. Released yet another single from his recently released Magic Trick album Rulers of the Night. “Invisible At Midnight” continues the idea that Magic Trick is an enormous blank canvas in which this prolific musical madman can splatter his brain paint all over. Where “Torture” the first single off the album, seemed to move down a poppier road, “Invisible At Midnight” is dark and cerebral, a somber jam punctuated by big swings of almost choral background noise. Oh Tim Cohen, what will you do next?

Ruler of the Night is out on Hardly Art now.

Magic Trick plays SF on the 28th of June. Keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming giveaway.

Magic Trick – Invisible At Midnight

May 23, 2012

The Daily Choice: The Fresh & Onlys – I Would Not Know The Devil

by

Tags
The Daily Choice

I go back and forth on my love of Fresh & Onlys. I’ll listen to certain tracks of every album and listen to them on repeat, until the needle is smoking, until my roomies complain. But as a whole sound -Tim Cohen’s deep vibrato, the tendency towards a sound that borders on pop – it often times just doesn’t click. Their newest 7″, in all its singular glory, hits me right in the soft spot though, with The Fresh & Onlys kicking it off with a sultry guitar riff before thundering in to a break-neck jam with Cohen’s powerful yoller leading the charge. Who knows what I’ll think of the next one, but for now, my Fresh & Onlys needs are sated.

“I Would Not Know The Devil” is the a-side of the band’s 7″ on SEXBEAT Records

The Fresh & Onlys – I Would Not Know The Devil

March 29, 2012

The Daily Choice: Magic Trick – Torture

by

Tim Cohen, I find it difficult to write about your music without commenting, each and every time, on your prolific nature. I cannot turn my head for a moment without you releasing some new album as some new band and I am confused, pleasantly so, by it. Do you have a time-stopping device? Is there perhaps two of you, both talented musicians able to conceive and record breath-taking songs along a varied spectrum of musical influences with hardly a blink of the eye? I imagine it doesn’t matter, I should just focus on how lucky I am that seemingly each and every month (my concept of time is a bit skewed) I find another previously unheard release from you gift-wrapped, floating in the ether of the internets. Yes, that’s what I’ll do.

Magic Trick’s new album (featuring members of Aisler’s Set and Kelly Stoltz’s band) Ruler of the Night will be released on Hardly Art, on June 12th.

Magic Trick – Torture

October 26, 2011

The Daily Choice: Wet Illustrated – Gypsy Town

by

Wet Illustrated’s “Gypsy Town” manages to do what so few up-beat bands can do these days: balance propulsive chirp with strong song-writing and a solid core of, well, something else.  ”Gypsy Town” kicks off with eager smiles and overwhelming hellos.  The vocals bust in and all of sudden your rushing down Wet Illustrated River trying to blink out the sunshine and grab ahold of anything to slow you down.  Halfway through though, the old river hits a lull, and the canopy stretches out above you, and you slowly open your eyes and sort of cool out in the darkness for a minute.  And then, boom, the river opens up in front of you and your dragged back in to the blistering catchiness of the song.

Wet Illustrated releases 1x1x1 on True Panther tomorrow October 25th.

San Francisco get out and see them November 17th at Amnesia with Tim Cohen. Seattle folk, get out and see them at Chop Suey with Devon Williams on the 20th of November.

Wet Illustrated – Gypsy Town

September 26, 2011

Win A Free Copy of Tim Cohen’s New Album The Glad Birth of Love from Empty Cellar Records!

by

Arvel Hernandez and the fantastic folk at Empty Cellar Records have taken a moment from their exceedingly busy days and given one of you lucky readers the opportunity to win the brand new LP (vinyl styles here folks) from Tim Cohen (of a little band called The Fresh & Onlys).  The Glad Birth of Love is sad and strange and long and beautiful and you’d all be damn lucky to end up with this waxy goodness noodling away on your record player.

Tell me your definition of “glad birth of love” in the comment section below and I’ll choose my favorite.

Tim Cohen’s Magic Trick – Daylight Moon

September 23, 2011

The Daily Choice: Empty Cellar Records

by

For a while now there’s been an entirely welcome little bird chirping in my ear about a bevy of amazing San Francisco releases.  That bird would be Arvel Hernandez of Empty Cellar Records, a label that deserves more credit for releasing some absolutely amazing stuff in the last few years.  You could, if you were looking with very small eyes, fit Empty Cellar in to the broader swath of San Francisco record labels producing amazing stuff right now.  The inclusion of Tim Cohen and Sonny Smith and the talented ladies behind The Sandwitches, prompts a superficial lookie-loo to lump Empty Cellar Records in to the sticky clay of San Francisco’s other, fantastic, scions of music.  Look closer though and Empty Cellar Records is doing its best to paint a new layer of sound on to the sonic landscape that’s been in the slow of process of construction for so many years now.

Empty Cellar released a Sonny Smith album, but not a Sonny and The Sunsets album.  Instead they chose to bring Sonny’s collaboration with The Sandwitches to the forefront, and it is a gorgeous pairing.  Where The Sunsets bring a sort of 50s swagger to Sonny Smith’s songs, The Sandwitches bring the melancholy and the sheer beauty of Smith’s voice jump to the forefront.  If there’s a sadder yet catchier song than “Throw My Ashes From This Pier When I Die” I haven’t heard it yet.

Sonny and The Sandwitches – Throw My Ashes From This Pier When I Die

Empty Cellar put out The Sandwitches newest but it’s a apples to the band’s first full-length How To Make Ambient Sadcake’s oranges. Oh sure, everyone always knew that this trio of talent wasn’t just another garage-y girl group trying to wring out a few albums from the current craze, but there’s a deep sense of strangeness on Mrs. Jones’ Cookies that stands out in sharp contrast from what we’ve heard from them before.  I was expecting jangly girl garage on my first listen, and the bizarre bits of sound sputtering from my bargain bin record player didn’t fit my preconceived mold.  It sounded off, but after many listens the album seems the natural progression.  A slight oozing in to a new range of genres with a slight hint of what came before.

The Sandwitches – Hey Joe

And most recently Empty Cellar Records has released a Tim Cohen album.  Tim Cohen of The Fresh & Onlys.  Tim Cohen of three-minute pop gems.  Tim Cohen of fuzzed out jams and lounge-like vocals.  But Empty Cellar Records didn’t release your standard Tim Cohen record, they released Tim Cohen’s Magic Trick album The Glad Birth Of Love, a four song EP that climaxs at about 45 minutes.  And this is no Tim Cohen album you’ve heard before.  This is Tim Cohen at his strangest, his most free.  Gone is the fuzz and the three-minute jams replaced by 13-minute epic love songs rife with space and sadness and a gentle good-nature lacking in The Fresh & Onlys and Cohen’s other solo works.  It feels like Cohen was given space to breath (or perhaps he just finally needed the time to do so) and that Empty Cellar is a place where artists are given a space to take a deep one.

Tim Cohen’s Magic Trick – Daylight Moon

And perhaps that’s what’s so brilliant about Arvel Hernandez and his little label: he’s giving artists an opportunity to strike out in a new direction.  In the cultural whirlpool we call 2011, removing yourself from the self-imposed type-casting of your first album can be a difficult stretch, but if record label’s like Empty Cellar Records continue to create a safe haven for inspiration and absolute creative freedom, there’s a glimmer of hope in that spinning whirlpool.

Check out the full spectrum of amazing over at Empty Cellar Records.

February 11, 2011

The Daily Choice: Tim Cohen – Don’t Give Up

by

I’ve been a bit obsessed with The Fresh & Only’s Tim Cohen lately.  Going as far as to concoct a special Tim Cohen playlist made up of his larger and larger oeuvre and playing this special compilation enough that my exceedingly understanding girlfriend asked me, “is it always going to be Tim Cohen hour?”  Hah, no no, that’s silly, just for a while.

My obsession comes with good reason though: Tim Cohen is a prolific genius.  A musical tornado that crashes his way through genre and style, his hat tipped at a jaunty angle.  ”Don’t Give Up”, the first single from his upcoming album Magic Trick on Captured Tracks, is a slowly jaunty doo-wop bit.  Cohen’s booming voice finds companionship in the “ooh-wahs” of a charming female harmony, and you’re suddenly reminded that this mastermind has a soft, melancholic, gooey heart.  An exceptionally talented ball of goo, but a goo-ball none the less.

Cohen’s already on a rampage this year, releasing Magic Trick on Captured Tracks with his double 7″ Bad Blood to follow shortly after.

Tim Cohen – Don’t Give Up

December 22, 2010

The Daily Choice: Secret Seven Records

by

All month long, all San Francisco/Bay Area bands.  That’s the rub.  Get with it.

—

When I decided to write a label showcase for San Francisco’s up-and-comer Secret Seven I dipped back in to The Daily Choice archives to see if by chance, I’d focused on this label’s output in the past.  And sure enough, I have, repeatedly, showered my fickle love on the releases of this fantastic little label.  There San Francisco compilation In A Cloud featured some of the rising stars that are currently bombarding the local and national scene with a canny mix of lo-fi, garage and sixties pop.  The Fresh and Onlys, Kelly Stoltz, Tim Cohen, Sonny and The Sunsets, Thee Oh Sees – this compilation hits nearly each and every nail directly on the head.  And if Secret Seven was just that, a chronicler of the new and fantastic as seen through the scope of San Francisco, I’d be happy.  Happy that they’ve released Sonny and The Sunset’s Too Young To Burn, happy that they’ve let Tim Cohen’s freak flag fly on both of his fantastic solo releases, happy that they’ve given The Sandwitches a home to expand they’re somber sound.

But, that’s not all Secret Seven Records are, they are also reissue masters of both a creative and stellar degree.  I wrote recently about the absolutely excellent, and surprising, Tiny Tim reissue they sent in to the world (a spectacular collection of the unreleased works of Tiny Tim that drags him from the jokey section our modern minds have pigeonholed him in to and showcases the true musical genius he was).  What I haven’t talked about is there recent reissue of Michael Yonkers Goodby Sunball, a dreamy bit of psych-folk recorded by the singer as he lay in bed after a major spine surgery.  Yonker’s voice is a hefty tweak on the standard country-twang, a vibrato yodel that punches out of the beautiful simplicity of his compositions, jumping from whisper to downright holler in an instant.  What I haven’t talked about yet is there recent collaboration with The Daily Choice favorites Mississippi Records on an, ahem, 8-track reissue of freak-folk hero Michael Hurley’s Blue Navigator.  Hurley’s gotten a lot of press in the music nerd market as of late, and this, a 1984 album originally released on Rooster Records, showcases why.  From what I can tell, its light and airy, buoyed by Hurley’s adept finger picking and his everyman’s voice, but weighed down by his strange and sometimes silly lyrics.  Absolutely enjoyable.

Throw in the upcoming re-released of the amazing III by Mt. Egypt (an artist I’ll be featuring heavily in an upcoming post) and you have a label the quite honestly fills all the gaps.  What’s better?  They’re relatively new, and we can only wait in eager anticipation for what they deem worthy of their touch next.

Check them out here.

Michael Yonkers – Swamp of Love

Mt. Egypt – Everything In Moderation

Michael Hurley – Who Ever Heard Of You

Tim Cohen – Haunted Hymns

December 20, 2010

The Daily Choice: Versatile Kyle – Sick Girl

by

All month long (aside from one recently discovered error) I’m exploring the sonic scene of San Francisco and the Bay Area beyond.  Quite a ride dear sir, quite a ride indeed.

—

I know, I’ve already written about Sonny Smith and his almighty Sunsets.  I’ve already proclaimed my love for his band and his songwriting and the simplicity of his lyrics and how they still manage to work their in to the soggy wood of your brain.  And yet, with Sonny Smith managing to impress me more and more each day I couldn’t help but give notice about the second volume of his newest art/music project, 100 Records Vol. 2: I Miss The Jams.  A while back Sir Smith nearly drowned in the Bay, and the closeness to death inspired him to, well, create.  Create and create and create.  To create so much music of so much variety, he was able to stock an entire jukebox full of 45s of his newly christened imaginary bands.

The amazing folk at Turn Up Records have released an amazing box-set of 5 “incredible” 45s chronicling 10 of the bands Smith crafted from thin air.  I personally love “Sick Girl” by Versatile Kyle, a sort of low-beat, bass-heavy rock ‘n’ roller but I’m also partial to Earth Girl Helen Brown’s “I Wanna Do It”, a sort of two-part harmony doo-wop jam.  Check out the whole album, find your own favorite song, and just be happy that somewhere Sonny Smith is busily filling notebooks with new bands, new songs, new gifts to us.

The album features members of The Sandwitches, Ty Segall, and a host of other San Francisco luminaries.

100 Records Vol. 2: I Miss The Jams is out on Turn Up Records in January and at local San Francisco stores in a limited edition boxed set now.

Sonny and The Sunsets and The Fresh and Onlys will play Amnesia on New Years Eve.

Versatile Kyle – Sick Girl

December 2, 2010

The Daily Choice: Tim Cohen – I Come Alive

by

To the side of my name over on the sidebar, trapped between parentheses, are the words “San Francisco”, intoning the fact that indeed I do, and have, lived in San Francisco for the last year and a half.  Looking back on The Daily Choice, my selections say otherwise.  For no other reason then an inability to focus, I’ve sort of strayed from showcasing the burning coal that is the San Francisco scene at this very moment.  Well, in the month of December, I aim to correct that.  Every day for the next month of yuletide charm I’m showcasing a band from San Francisco and the surrounding colonies in an effort to give myself a pleasant birds-eye view of what I’ve been missing in my own backyard.

—

I’ve written about The Fresh and Only’s many times here on Sound on the Sound, and will continue to do so, but I feel almost silly that I’ve yet to crow to the skies about their unbelievably talented, and prolific front man, Tim Cohen.  Don’t come in to a Tim Cohen album expecting a one-man take on the 60s-loving rock ‘n’ roll of The Fresh and Only’s, you’ll be disappointed, and then you’ll cry, and then you’ll have to spend money on soft tissue paper so it doesn’t scratch your pretty little nose. Cohen’s music has a sort of melancholy buoyancy to it, a f lounge-y strut bolted to the ground by a lead balloon.  It almost feels as if Cohen’s solo recordings are performed in a secondary character, a bass-crooning lounge performer who’s found himself in the company of a chorus and rinky-dink piano.

This track “Come Alive” is off Secret Seven Record’s San Francisco compilation In A Cloud, released earlier this year.

His most recent album is Laugh Tracks out on Captured Tracks.

Tim Cohen – I Come Alive