Album Reviews

- by Tom Dumarey

Tony Molina is a Bay Area vet who has been playing in everything from hardcore to pop bands for almost two decades. On his solo releases, he likes to mess around with all of those different sounds while trying to perfect the art of the micro song. I mean, this is the guy who covered a 52-second-long Guided By Voices song and managed to make it even shorter.

Which brings us to ‘Songs From San Mateo County’, Molina’s latest blink-and-you-might-miss-it release which is a rarities collection where he burns through 14 songs in just under 15 minutes. These songs come up to you with the chorus blazing and walk right out the door while the guitar solo is still going. The 14-second long ‘Intro’ is one riff played once and sounds like a pop-punk take on Queen. ‘I’m Not Down’ comes off as someone trying to write a Dinosaur Jr song and then abandoning the idea because it sounds like Dinosaur Jr. And then there’s ‘Fallin’,’ which sounds like an idea for a Weezer song that Rivers Cuomo had while writing ‘The Blue Album’. Scratch that, it sounds like ‘Only In Dreams’. But... you know, 7 minutes shorter.

I’m honestly not sure what to make of ‘Songs From San Mateo County’. I genuinely like a lot of what I hear. But by the time that thought sinks in, Molina already finished two more songs.

Track listing:

1. Intro
2. #1 Riff    
3. Not The Way To Be    
4. Can't Find My Way    
5. Don't See The Point    
6. I'm Not Down    
7. Fallin'    
8. Been Here Before    
9. Word Around Town    
10. Hard To Know    
11. Where'd You Go    
12. Separate Ways    
13. Don't See Me Now    
14. Outro