This week is a special Rock-a-Rama with none other than Tony Molina, fool. This week he talks about hella British ’60s baroque pop, four track heros, and even 

, his new record out on 8/12 via Run for Cover. West Bay all day! Read last week’s reviews 

 Hey bro. You didn't say you were gonna record this bro. This shit's gonna be used against me in court, bro. I don't know, man. No microphones, bro. No microphones.

CREEM: Sorry! Also yeah, I'm gonna screenshot all of our texts and post those too. Alex Jones style. I'm a cop, actually.

Do you want to talk about that self-titled Clutch record?

Oh dude, that shit is bad fucking ass man. I love that, man. I don't care what anyone says.

I feel like they're the champions of the door, bro.

I feel like they could be first wave. Me and my friends, we made a whole chart about the origins of door and how the first wave is hella Kyuss, Monster Magnet, and Sleep. Second wave is High on Fire, Nebula, stuff like that. Third wave is the Sword, Pallbearer. Clutch is the first wave—they gotta be first waved because they're part of the origins of the whole thing.

And what's crazy is that all the original door comes from hardcore. I think all the original door comes from BL'AST, Fu Manchu and Monster Magnet. 

 is like 1991 and that is super early door. Phil Caivano from Monster Magnet, that fool was in Murphy's Law. With Kyuss, obviously there's the BL'AST connect, but they were just all about Flag and the Cro-Mags. It's weird how BL'AST doesn't sound like that, but they kind of kickstarted the whole thing.

DUNCAN BROWN - Final Asylum / Resurrection Joe 7” (1970)

So Duncan Brown… Little Max (from Ovens) actually showed me that shit. Basically my whole life was me and (Ovens bandmate) Beau being West Bay guys and little Max and AK from Ovens just schooling us on 

70s shit since we were like, 18. So basically this came out in '68, it's called 

. That changed my shit because it was just everything I was looking for at the time—it's British folk with all the baroque and classical elements to it.

"there's this other song called 'Feeling Easy'—incredible, bro. Fucking cellos up in that bitch."

Blue Monday

CREEM: It's some really amazing classical fingerpicking.

It's just like that really good '60s British shit.

So I got that record and it changed my whole shit. And then I got the second album, which was '73 and that one's incredible too, but by '73 production in general was starting to get wild. I've always liked more late '60s production, you know? But this seven inch in 1970, between the two albums, is the best thing he ever did. It's unbelievable, gorgeous Beatles baroque chamber pop. It's got fucking strings. That shit really fucked me up. He's definitely one of my favorite musicians of all time and he's fucking underrated as fuck, bro. He was on Immediate, which was 

 label [the Stones manager]—one of the best record labels ever.

I think that in 2017 I went to Passover at Jasper's house, and I got hella drunk on Manischewitz. I made the whole party listen to that fucking Duncan Brown record, which is like, hella punishing, (laughs). But it actually wasn't—fools were hella down.

BILLY NICHOLLS - Would You Believe (1968)

So while we're on the subject of Immediate Records, another record that just fucking floored my ass was Billy Nicholls' 

 from 1968, which was the same year and label as the first Duncan Brown LP. This dude was like 18 when he made this shit and it was supposed to be a British response to 

, I believe. It's got all those really beautiful string arrangements and baroque things going on, but it's psychedelic pop with some incredible songs with that post-

CREEM: More classic British ’60s-style pop.

There's this song called "Come Again" that Del Shannon later recorded for his 

 record, and then there's this other song called "Feeling Easy"—incredible, bro. Fucking cellos up in that bitch. That's my favorite era of music, man. Billy Nichols, that record is like 8,000 fucking dollars or some shit. Even reissues are expensive to get—it came out a few years ago and it's like 100 bucks or something.

BILL FAY - Time of the Last Persecution (1971)

That's a fucking incredible record, man. Like it's a dark record, dude. I used to jam that and I got really into it and I'd play it for my girlfriend at the time and she'd be like, "turn this shit off." That shit is dark as fuck and I was like, "man, it really has that effect."

BILL FOX - Shelter from the Smoke (1997), Transit Byzantium (1998)

Bill is probably my top five favorite songwriters of all time. I’ve listened to Bill every day since 2019. I already knew who the Mice were when I was in This is My Fist in the early 2000s. Annie, the singer, she played the Mice for me. But I didn't know about the Bill solo stuff until about maybe like 10 years ago when I heard 

 in like 2012 or 2013. That's when I first got into it and then I stopped for some reason. And in 2019 I just had a whole resurgence of it and I just became obsessed.

"I'd play it for my girlfriend at the time and she'd be like, 'turn this shit off.'"

CREEM: I feel like there are parallels to Guided By Voices.

Yeah. And it definitely made me rethink music in the same way that Guided By Voices did hella years ago. Bill was a four track purist, all three of those records are recorded on a four track that he bought from his boss at his telemarketing job for like 100 dollars. And within a year he recorded a hundred songs in his apartment by himself. And that's what comprises the three records I named. I listen to it every day.

Those songs get into your fucking soul, you know? He just created this fucking vibe with his songwriting, vocals, guitar-playing, and the way he records everything. There's nothing like it. Honestly, it's like desert island, top five for me, bro. Straight up, I was listening to Bill this morning.

IDLE RACE - The Birthday Party (1968) and S/T (1969)

The first two LPs, I think it's '68 and '69 and it's 

 before he was in the Move and ELO. He was in high school—literally like 17 or 18. He did that first record and it's just fucking incredible ’60s pop. It doesn't really go psychedelic, more just like really intricate pop songwriting and really cool production. A lot of Mellotron. It's just crazy to see his melodic genius at work, being that young. You can see the progression for sure.

CREEM: ELO is classic, almost unsung in a way.

I think the fucking first ELO record is one of the greatest records ever made. I don't really like synthesizers outside of funk and rap music. I'm not really a big fan. I prefer more natural sounds and not some digital bullshit. But I love ELO, and with the Idle Race, you see the beginnings. I mean, their first seven inch "Imposters of Life's Magazine", that song is fucking insane. And that fool was a kid. It's just like, I don't know how he did it. That fool was a genius. It's crazy.

There's a story about how, when Roy Wood wrote “Blackberry Way,” he wrote that song after getting fucked up at the pub one night. They got hella faded and then they went back to Jeff Lynne's parents’ house and recorded that shit on a two track—a demo of it. I guess when Jeff Lynne was a kid, he had a Mellotron in his parents' living room. They put blankets over it to muffle the noise and did a demo of it late at night, hella faded. They were fucking kids! Those dudes, their talent is so immense.

CREEM: They were from Birmingham, which at the time was known more for Black Sabbath.

Birmingham gets credit for inventing heavy music but the thing is for '60s pop it's also like one of the main zones because of Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne.

So like back when we were kids there were three big influences growing up, the West Bay Coalition bands, the Donnas and then there was Los Rabbis. Los Rabbis were a punk band and were just hugely, hugely, hugely influential on us. They basically taught us what real DIY was like, and what true underground means. They were very "don't do that, that's sell-out shit." Not that they would tell us what to do, but they taught us shit. And they were four track purists—we learned about home recording from those guys.

CREEM: How does Los Rabbis lead to Broken Strings?

So Dean from Los Rabbis went away to college in Ohio and then Adam and Mike, the other half of Los Rabbis, started a band called Tommy Lasorda. And Tommy Lasorda were like our older brothers. These dudes literally would pick me up from my parents' house and take me to go see the Melvins. Many of the early Ovens shows were with them and they're just the best man. Amazing four track pop but made by dudes who were obsessed with the Melvins.

But fast forward a few years, Adam did this solo record—again all on four track—by himself. And I wanna say it's like the West Bay's 

. It's so important. Like, one of my favorite records of all time. The dude knows how to write a song and he doesn't have any peers. He's just a master. That record is just something I keep with me all the time. It's hard to get a copy because there were only 300 made but the people who have it love it. It's like a deep head joint; almost a cult record.

I think the fans are gonna like it. It's got some variety. It's not like a straight theme, like 

. It's got all the elements, the way the Ovens did. There'd be distorted fuzzy guitars on one song and then the next one is finger picking. It was a lot of fun to make. Previous records, I was really stressed out making that shit. It never sounds good enough.

It was the first time going to Jack Shirley's new studio because he moved from Palo Alto to this big ass spot in fucking East Oakland. We started it in March of 2020, and didn't get to resume the sessions until like summer 2021. And by then, Jasper had moved to New York, so he's like 3,000 miles away. So planning was hard and it just took forever.

It's weird. It feels old already, because I've made two LPs since that record. But it's got to me personally, it's got that kind of Ovens feel to it. You know, I like getting back to that. And I have good memories from back then.

CREEM #004

CREEM #003

Clay HicksonCREEM Goes Glam T-Shirt

Clay HicksonCREEM Goes New Wave T-Shirt

LOADING...

The creem magazine archive

Subscribe to CREEM

LOADING...

THE CREEM NEWSLETTER

Your Bag

Why look at a shopping cart if you didn’t put anything in it?