#Tony Molina

[bandcampsnoop]

12/6/24.

The Weddings are a duo from Tokyo, Japan that make sweet, simple indie pop. "10 Songs" somehow fits onto a 7". Some of the songs melodies and structure (including brevity) recall the work of Tony Molina, but really this share a lot in common with bands like The Pastels, The Motifs and Tenniscoats.

I can't help but think that The Weddings would share members with Glasgow based bands. This was released back in 2015 on Secret Home Party / Underground Government.

[punkrockmixtapes]

Listen/purchase: Running In Place by Ovens

[dustedmagazine]

The Lost Days — In the Store (Speakeasy Studios)

Photo by Alicia Vanden Heuvel

In The Store by The Lost Days

Tony Molina is the West Coast’s reigning king of concise, devastating power pop, with a string of sub-30-minute albums that approach Teenage Fanclub levels of hook-and-feedback alchemy. Sara Rose Janko’s Dawn Riding inhabits a more shadowy, folk-centric space, all intricate finger-picking and looming, Gothic doom. The pair made one album, Lost Demos, together in 2021, then Janko moved to New Orleans. When a mutual friend passed away, they reconnected and began working together remotely, recording songs in their respective homes and passing them to one another online for further embellishment.

The two shared a love for Bill Fox, the brash power pop auteur behind Cleveland cult band The Mice, an early influence on Guided by Voices, and a band that like Molina (and many others), sought the sweet spot between rock ‘n roll clatter and irresistible tunefulness. Here, Molina and Janko meld wistful jangle with rainbow-after-the-thunderstorm radiance but never linger. The whole album—ten songs—plays from start to finish in 14 minutes.

The two singers take turns on lead vocals. Janko wraps “What’s On Your Mind?” in dreaming softness, her voice lingering like morning fog, while Molina spins out twining guitar parts braced by a boom-ba-boom-chick backbeat imported direct from the 1960s. Molina moves to the front for rueful “Pass the Time,” a ringer for the softer side of Teenage Fanclub.

What’s remarkable about these songs, though, is how much they do with so little time. In “For Today,” Janko metes out a small, contained parcel of real life, confiding “Seems to me the hardest part of staying sober, is any time that you come over today.” Two guitars cross each other, one climbing a steep melodic line, the other tangled in reassuring chords. The song is just about perfect — wistful, wry, instantly memorable — and it lingers only just over a minute.

The title cut comes late in the album, but it’s the clear centerpiece, with swirling harmonies and chiming guitar tones and brief rambunctious eruptions of drums. Both Janko and Molina sing this one, and there’s a bit of organ in addition to guitar, so it’s got a full, enveloping sound that’s almost what you’d call epic. Even if it does last just a couple of minutes.

Lesser bands might belabor hooks this strong, throwing in a dilutive middle eight or 16, and coming back to the well for one more chorus. In the Store strikes a pose, raises a question and makes an exit. Song after song feels like a match flame, struck suddenly, burning bright, then flicking out into smoke, every second beautiful until it’s over.

Jennifer Kelly  

[sinceileftyoublog]

Dazy Live Show Review: 1/18, Sleeping Village, Chicago

BY JORDAN MAINZER

The first time I heard Dazy, I went in cold. My wife sent me a link to a YouTube video of a song she was digging, “Invisible Thing” from MAXIMUMBLASTSUPERLOUD: The First 24 Songs. I, too, was instantly hooked, from the opening blast of drum machine and the atonal My Bloody Valentine-esque guitars to the hooks and the singer’s voice, which toed the perfect line between choral and bratty. Listening more and doing some digging, I was pleasantly surprised to find Dazy was the bedroom rock project of James Goodson, the same publicist I’d worked with when covering bands such as Drug Church and Tony Molina. Like the latter, Goodson makes brief, punchy, catchy as hell pop rock, but I’d posit his output is even more varied. The standouts on MAXIMUMBLASTSUPERLOUD diverge a ton in tempo and mood, like the candied shuffle of “Crowded Mind (Lemon Lime)” versus the fuzzed-out vigor of “See The Bottom”. In March last year, Dazy collaborated with L.A. hardcore punk band Militarie Gun on his biggest shout-along yet, the anthemic earworm “Pressure Cooker”. In October, he followed it up with his proper debut album, OUTOFBODY (Lame-O), which emphasized what Dazy does best while adding elements of both Evan Dando’s sweetness and Britpop melancholia.

Wednesday at Sleeping Village was Dazy’s Chicago debut, and hearing the songs in a full band setting felt familiar and new at the same time. Dazy’s trademark concision was in full-form; slated to go on at 11:00 P.M., the band took the stage about 12 minutes early, in the middle of their 8th song 5 minutes past their original start time. But some of their most beloved songs got that extra bit of muscle and deliberation, like the comparatively slow drums of “Deadline” and the extra meat of the snares and cymbals on “Crowded Mind (Lemon Lime)”. As a frontman, Goodson proves just as effective as he is a one-man-band mastermind. I couldn’t help but notice that he sung Militarie Gun vocalist Ian Shelton’s verse on “Pressure Cooker” slightly differently than he did his own, cleverly subverting, then matching your initial expectations. The band finished a clean sub-30 minute set with the very song that introduced me to Dazy, speedy snares replacing the drum machine intro, the guitars taking on the full psychedelic wah wahs that you might think they have from Dazy’s work with Dinosaur Jr. engineer Justin Pizzoferrato. Dazy might continue to grow and expand their sound here and there, but their roots are firm.

[readjthompson]

Last night in Los Angeles: Ate some monkfish. Saw Tony Molina and The Ladybug Transistor live. Aged a little. Cool beans.

[manitat]

Tony Molina - Look Inside Your Mind / Losin' Touch

[mellow-island7]

Tony Molina // Wrong Town

[maquina-semiotica]

Tony Molina, "The Last Time" #NowPlaying

[sonicziggy]

"The Mask Of Silence" by Tony Molina https://ift.tt/rOcqJdy

[bandcampsnoop]

3/23/24.

Over a year ago, we posted about Guerssen Records reissue of the Bronco Bullfrog debut LP. Now Guerssen is reissuing their 2nd LP - "Seventhirtyeight". The band continues their harmony-laden power pop in the vein of The Raspberries (R.I.P. Eric Carmen), Badfinger, Superstar and Teenage Fanclub.

But anyone who enjoys Mo Troper, The Lemon Twigs or Tony Molina, will probably enjoy this. Bronco Bullfrog were based in Leicester and London, England.

[thehappywun]

The first show attended in 2023, as it had been nearly two months since my prior live attendances. This performance was the first rock show at the 4-Star Theatre on Clement St.,also with Stockton's wonderful Monster Treasure, Oakland's Kids on a Crime Spree, and the 650's own Tony Molina...and a shout out to DJ Kid Frostbite on the wheels of Technics SL-1200 MKIII steel, the other performances will will be appearing over the next couple of weeks, but I must say Galore are as alluring and charming as ever, the songs shimmer, weave and bob. The opening song sounds like a more fleshed out "Ten Hammers" with the shouted lyrics "Get go, get go, get go!"...followed by most of their new EP (out on Paisley Shirt Records) with the final song, the gorgeous, folk-like "Silence", closing out their proceedings.

[nottobeadickoranything]

[eddie-redmayne-italian-blog]

Red cast is back!!

14 years have passed since that wonderful show (Red a play by John Logan, Michael Grandage director). Today Ken and Rothko meet at the Drama League Awards!!

[alfven1]

Happy love with a sad ending