San Francisco is a music city.  Its musical heritage is as iconic as New Orleans' and as diverse as New York's.  And so while they sound only remotely like any of the famous San Francisco bands of yore, Big Light frontman Fred Torphy says that, when pressed up against a wall to describe Big Light's big rock sound, he'll often use the term psychedelic." "We're experimental, but we also like to keep things tight, songwriting-wise," says Torphy.  "Maybe that's where our love for Jeff Tweedy shines through." Quick to shoot down any actual Wilco comparison, Torphy says that Big Light is more directly influenced by the songwriting of Dire Straits, the arrangements of The Sea & Cake, and the sensibilities of Stephen Malkmus than the artists that people frequently lump them with. And even these references he'll only offer after being shaken down for them. "It's a lot of different things," offers drummer Bradly Bifulco.  "Many of our songs have distinctly different feels." Bilfulco says that the secret behind the band's consistent sound might be found in Torphy's songwriting, even though each song has its own "deliberately implied sonic idea." Although Big Light burst onto the scene only last year, their internal roots are deep.  Singer/guitarist Torphy and multi-instrumentalist Jamie Fordyce have been playing music together since they met as children on the beach in Rhode Island.  "We were rug rats together.  We started our first band when he was 8 and I was 10," says Torphy.  "I think we called it Steel Harmony.  Anyway, we played some Guns 'N' Roses tunes, and Allman Brothers..." Torphy and Fordyce both moved to San Francisco in 2005, relocating their band The White Thighs to the Bay Area where they added Bifulco.  Changing their name to Big Light, they recruited keyboardist Colin Hoops through the local music scene and recently expanded to a six-piece with the addition of multi-instrumentalist Dan Hurley ("Another childhood friend of mine and Jamie's," explains Torphy.)  And the rest, as they say, is history.  Big Light history.