I went to a birthday party for my wife and six or seven other friends and acquaintances last night. I guess people liked having sex in January in the late 70s-early 80s? In Canada at least, that’s how we keep warm in the winter! Anyway, I was foraging at the smorgasbord with a couple former co-workers talking about my recent change of facial hair which led us to our shocking shared experience of our dads shaving off their moustaches when we were kids. I guess nobody likes change. Tony Molina’s latest is great but to me a further departure from the punk-cross-between-Weezer-and-Metallica of his crucial earlier solo album Dissed And Dismissed, and his band Ovens, both of which have been influential on my own musical output.
Having recently shaved my moustache, which I have had with and without a beard since the early oughts, I often have people say “I didn’t recognize you”. Don't get me wrong, Molina’s voice and songwriting is still totally recognizable. It is certainly not as shocking as seeing your dad’s nude upper lip for the first time! As much as Molina might not like to hear it I think most people would say his songwriting has matured, which is fair since he has been doing this at least since Ovens released their 44 song opus in 2009. It has been a long transition tho as Molina has regularly released new music since then, more like if your dad just trimmed his moustache shorter and shorter over the span of 15 years until eventually one day it was gone.
Tony Molina is a king of musical homage. I made up a drinking game when I got the aforementioned Ovens record where you had to drink every time they ripped off The Beatles. I’m too old to get shit faced tho so I never actually played it. And he’s still at it with a hint of “Yesterday” in “Take Some Time”, but Tony seems more into The Byrds now. Which is great since I love The Byrds and am a fan of jangly 12-string folk rock. I definitely miss the feedback tho. I feel like he even taunts me with one little squeal and some fuzzy bass in “Have Your Way”, while as a fellow pessimist I’m satisfied to hear that lyrically things remain similarly cynical on songs like “FC ‘23” and “Despise The Sun”.
There's great variety in the music that Tony Molina has released since he was just a guitar slinger in hardcore bands 20 years ago. 2022’s In The Fade had some Byrds-y jangle. The 21 tracks from On This Day lack the feedback and fuzzed out chugging and guitarmonies found on most of his releases, replaced by AOR-reminiscent wind and brass arrangements. Even 2016’s Neil Young-esque, mostly acoustic Confront the Truth still has the more wailing “Banshee”. But alas they say variety is the spice of life, or at very least better than a hangover from some silly drinking game. All I’m really saying here is if you haven’t already, don’t just check out this Tony Molina record, check out all of Tony Molina’s records! And if you have one, your dad is still your dad with or without a moustache so maybe Molina hasn’t changed that much at all- the same old pessimistic guitar virtuoso who can bend classic pop and folk tunes to his majestic will.
