- Over the last few years, there's been a lot of talk about the "San Francisco garage rock scene," primarily because of critically adored records and livewire shows from Ty Segall, Thee Oh Sees, the Fresh & Onlys, Sic Alps, Mikal Cronin, and many others. (Aaron Leitko wrote a 2011 Pitchfork feature about it called "Positive Destruction".) Suddenly, it seemed, the Bay Area was playing host to a renaissance of garage weirdos and studio wizards.
But all good things must come to an end. Sic Alps have dissolved. The Fresh & Onlys' Tim Cohen lives in Arizona. On January 1, Thee Oh Sees' John Dwyer decamped to Los Angeles. Ty Segall, who relocated there a year ago, helped him move.
Segall and Dwyer are two in an increasingly lengthy list of artists who have migrated to Los Angeles. King Tuff, Woods' Kevin Morby, White Lung's Mish Way, Jessica Pratt, Colleen Green, and Peach Kelli Pop have all reportedly moved to the city semi-recently.
I moved to Los Angeles 2.5 years ago. One salient point in the article is the the place lacks crufty tastemakers that need to be pleased. If you aren't in the movie or TV business, then you fly under the radar. Thus you are free to be in your (relatively cheap) pad, work on your project or figure out what your project will be while you work a day job, and still eat great food. If only the Fry's were on the Metro, we'd barely need cars.