Tony Molina – “Nothing I Can Say”

Tony Molina – “Nothing I Can Say”

For about the past decade, Tony Molina, a veteran of the Bay Area hardcore scene, has taken a big left turn and started writing insanely catchy, crunchy, economical power-pop jams. Molina still regularly plays hardcore festivals, even if his songs sound like old-school pop gold. He also still messes with hardcore song lengths. So these little bursts of melody tend to be extremely short — minute-long songs, entire albums that go by in 10 minutes. And now we’re about to get another one of those.

Later this summer, Molina will release the new album Kill the Lights. It’s the follow-up to 2016’s Confront The Truth EP, which was the moment where Molina started playing around with acoustic arrangements, making his songs lusher and prettier. If Kill The Lights opener “Nothing I Can Say” is anything to go on, he’s still pushing in that direction.

The 71-second “Nothing I Can Say” is a starry-eyed mid-’60s folk-rock jangle, with expansive backing harmonies and chiming, intricate guitar leads. It is gorgeous. I hope I’m not invalidating Molina’s whole project when I say that I wish it was longer. Check it out below.

Kill The Lights is out 7/26 on Slumberland.

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