Bay Area musician Tony Molina is extremely good at a specific, dazzling thing. He makes sharp, meticulous old-school pop songs, and those songs are usually very, very short. It looks like he'll keep doing that thing on On This Day, the new album that he'll release this fall. I feel like Molina doesn't like everyone calling attention to how short his songs are, but On This Day has 21 songs, and its opening track is 16 seconds long. I have to mention that because it's awesome. I hope he'll understand.
Molina released his last solo album In The Fade in 2023. Since then, he reissued his old band OVENS, and the Lost Days, Molina's duo with Sarah Rose Janko, realeased their LP In The Store. Molina co-produced On This Day with his wife, Alicia Vanden Heuvel from the Aislers Set. They recorded it straight to analog tape in their home studio, with the assistance of longtime Molina collaborator Jack Shirley. The Ladybug Transistor's Gary Olson plays trumpet throughout the LP.
With so many short songs on the LP, Tony Molina isn't just releasing one advance single to go with the album announcement. He's sharing three. "FC '23," "Faded Holiday," and "Violets Of Dawn" are all impeccably crafted pieces of starry-eyed psych-pop. All three of them are great, but I especially like "Violets Of Dawn." It's a chiming, shimmering paisley jangle. At two minutes and 15 seconds, it's the longest song on the LP. This man will not waste your time. Below, check out those three songs, the On This Day tracklist, and the itinerary for Molina's brief and rare upcoming East Coast tour.
TRACKLIST:
01 "On This Day '24"
02 "FC '23"
03 "Faded Holiday"
04 "Lie To Kick It"
05 "Despise The Sun"
06 "No Place To Turn"
07 "Have Your Way"
08 "Take Some Time"
09 "Broken Down"
10 "Just As The Tide Was Flowing"
11 "Ovens Theme Pt 5"
12 "Livin' Wrong"
13 "Been Wronged"
14 "Transplant Blues"
15 "Ghosts Of Punishment Past"
16 "Out From The Dark"
17 "Don't Belong"
18 "Inside Your Mind Pt 2"
19 "Violets Of Dawn"
20 "Ovens Theme Pt 6"
21 "Meet The Author"
TOUR DATES:
10/16 - Washington DC @ Comet Ping Pong *
10/17 - Richmond, VA @ Cobra Cabana *
10/18 - Philadelphia, PA @ Foto Club *
10/19 - New York, NY @ TV Eye *
* with Jeanines & Lightheaded
On This Day is out 11/14 on Slumberland/Olde Fade/Speakeasy Studios SF.
