Los Angeles dudes Francisco the Man premiere an exclusive listen to their forthcoming In the Corners 7″ single accompanied by the b-sides “929” and “Taking Punches”. Having just had a live introduction to the SoCal quartet of Scotty Cantino, Néstor Romero, Abdeel Ortega, and Brock Woolsey at Bender's for the Noise Pop festival; we had to hear more from the group's tight power garage licks. As their headlining gig exploded through the walls and out to the streets of South Van Ness, friends and new fans attempted to wrap their head around the group's sound. LA garage? Power indie dream pop? Asphalt gazers? Francisco the Man may be best defined by their well calculated inner projections put to a sound that heralds from the corners and margins from the Southern California suburbia-scape. Frontman Scotty Cantino's cantations of notes and thoughts about other thoughts are put toward a series of developed, set sound structures meant to be enjoyed, felt and heard at the maximum volume allotted.
The title single “In the Corners” is the sound a group moving out from the shadows and the basements of the parents and into the spotlight. “Poison in the water of my mind, wish you would come over for tonight at least just for a while man I need some sleep,” Cantino expresses desire to share companionship and thoughts with another, “do you mind if I come over, pass the night, to hide in the corners of your mind, anything to help me just past the time”. Thought mapping and sentiment sharing is grounded through the group's full force guitar armada that sneaks in a seamless keyboard as if it was a stringed instrument. The chorus continues through the existential thought processes with the inquisitive stoner line of questioning with, “'cause every time that I get high, I close my eyes and I ask why”, that eschews the “tightrope walking” and “bullshit talking” for that proverbial pause to “look for another beer”.
The next cut “929” continues the band's thinking aloud while the music and lyrics bring sentiments of anticipatory excitement. “I was running around my house to find my cigarettes waiting for the telephone to ring, I was waiting for the guys to crash the 929 so we can take the bus downtown if no one wants to drive”. The track's pepped up tempo runs with a speed never imaginable on the congested freeways of LA or the city's slugglish bus systems but is a power chord heavy anthem for “feeling good” or “feeling sad”, as the song is wrapped in the “tonight, tonight” moment of unfolding adventures and events that beat staying indoors and waiting for the signals to change. “I have been laying around my house dreaming about the days, of the things I thought would never change”
The final track on the b-side “Taking Punches” tops off the band's personal cataloging of thoughts and feelings. “Wish that I was younger so I wouldn't have to worry and wonder all the time, wish the nights were longer so we could stay up later and talk about our lives…” From reflections on turning back or stopping the clocks to thoughts about other thoughts; the band gears up for the chorus where the voices sail off in a “way out” sonic ship that trails in the echoes from the pronunciation and effects placed on the sustaining ring of the vowels. From questioning the questions the band has had their entire lives, the drive is to figure it out and get out with admissions of lives lived in intuition in the following titular lyric: “Taking all the punches, living off of hunches most of the time”. Maybe the rough life lived on gut-felt-faith ain't so bad after all.
Francisco the Man's new single In The Corners 7” will be available March 19 in limited pressings of 500 copies on Coke bottle green vinyl available from Small Plates Records.
