Perpetually busy and apparently even writing tunes in their sleep, the collaboration of Shayde Sartin and Tim Cohen, who struck up a friendship while working at Amoeba Records, seems to be boundless in its inclinations to include any and all rock sounds from in and around the Bay area. Having worked in the past with the Skygreen Leopards, the Dutchess and the Duke amongst a few others has granted the two – and their live ensemble augmented by no less than four other players – a credence that not too many other new bands possess. But the Fresh & Onlys don’t seem like a ‘new’ band. Instead, the group comes off as a well seasoned combo of adept performers – and they are.

For that very reason, the folks at Light in the Attic saw fit to tap the Fresh & Onlys to back up Rodriguez on a west coast jaunt recently. Gaining an even greater exposure through backing this reconstituted legend probably hasn’t hurt the band in spreading its renown. But the vast amount of recorded work that the Fresh & Onlys has completed in just over a year’s worth of existence has at least a part in this up and coming credibility. And while the Fresh & Onlys are readying a new full length for the Woodsist imprint, taking a look at the band’s self titled work on Jim Dwyer’s Castel Face Records reveals a fully formed psych combo supplementing its sound with anything from pop sugar to punk aggression.

As the debut long player for this ensemble, the Fresh & Onlys first disc isn’t void of blemishes, but by and large, everything here succeeds at what it aims for. The sadly titled “Love & Kindness” might seem like a bad idea even at its inception, but the lopping bass and drums that propel this work forward could in fact allow for any sort of granola related lyric – it’s that engaging. And while there’s no shortage of throw back style tunes from this self titled disc – “Endless Love” and “Imaginary Friends” even seem like authentic, if not screwed up, sixties’ originals. But some of the punkier numbers that the band works up, like “Only One I Want,” come off as well as anything else.

The congratulatory nature of all of this might seem skewed, but when the band launches into the harmonica dashed track that is “Nuclear Diaster,” the vocal short comings inherent in the group are exaggerated to crazy heights. The tune still doesn’t suck, but utilizing a singer to hit the right notes at the right time is usually pretty important. What saves this track from being utterly unlistenable, though, is the syrupy reverb dousing every corner of the music. It might be there only to mitigate the missteps, but the approach works better than a straight production might.

So, if the Fresh & Onlys don’t burn out from over stimulation, that Woodsist disc should be pretty entertaining. But what remains ahead for not just this group, but the slew of garage related, ‘60s throw backs from the Bay might surprise even those involved.