Revisiting Tony Molina’s Dissed and Dismissed
Due to the way commercial music streaming platforms operate and pay their artists, it’s becoming more profitable and common for albums to be longer and for songs to be shorter. This brings up an interesting discussion: In an age where short-form content is king, how will artistic mediums reflect the cultural shift towards quick, engaging, and easily digestible forms of media?
Throughout his multi-faceted musical career, eclectic and accomplished San Francisco songwriter Tony Molina has had a unique and captivating approach to content length. Molina began his musical career as a teenager in hardcore bands throughout Northern California but has since expanded his sound into numerous genres and other group/solo projects (notably Ovens). However, regardless of what kind of sound you’re listening to in his vast music catalog, one thing has stayed consistent: very seldom will you find a song over 1 minute in length. In a 2018 interview with Tidal, when asked about the reason for his conciseness, Tony said: “The shorter the song, the less I am embarrassed for writing that clown ass shit in the first place.” Despite the bite-sized nature of his art, Molina’s music makes sure to waste none of its brief runtime, and similar to the way haikus are able to pack so much color into a moment, the “clown ass shit” he refuses to dwell on takes the form of brief, but extremely vulnerable introspective bursts of emotion.
In 2013, Molina fascinated listeners with the release of Dissed and Dismissed, a combination of Power Pop and Slacker Rock, and the first album released directly under his name. An album that has a higher number of tracks than minutes in its runtime may seem impossible, but with an astonishing total runtime of 11 minutes and 27 seconds over 12 tracks, this album manages to defy listener expectations- and in more ways than one. Often, both power pop and slacker rock songs consist of catchy riffs and repetitive lighthearted choruses. However, Molina takes the addictiveness of these sounds typically utilized by artists like Rivers Cuomo, Robert Pollard, and Alex G, throws in elements of pop punk and noise, and removes everything except the bite. If Weezer’s Pinkerton was a Long Island Iced Tea slowly sipped over an evening, then Tony Molina’s Dissed and Dismissed takes all 5 shots, pours them down a funnel into your mouth, shatters the bottle of sour mix against your head, and kisses your newly opened wound with tear-drenched, but smiling lips. The opening track, “Nowhere to Go,” begins with guitar feedback typical of power pop before erupting into heavy but melodic and layered guitar riffs that combine the dirtiness of San Francisco’s lo-fi punk scene and the energetic fullness of Rivers Cuomo’s songs. Molina’s vocals are reminiscent of the fuzziness and melancholy associated with Elliot Smith and Alex G, complementing the track’s final lyrics: “You've got to plan it on your own /At best it'll take its toll on you/There's nowhere else to go.” After a Beach Boys-esque balladic guitar solo, the track is over, and with that final line and a song length of only 48 seconds, Molina sets the standard seen throughout the rest of the album. Like a 12-course tasting menu prepared by a Michelin Star Chef, every track on this album is so dynamic and expertly polished that you won't need another bite. Molina manages to say everything he needs to say and absolutely nothing more. The subject matter of Dissed and Dismissed is exactly that: Life hits you where it hurts, but what can you do? Each track captures the exact moment Molina transitions from dwelling on a loss to accepting that there’s nothing he can do. In fact, 10 of the 11 tracks that feature lyrics end with some variation of the phrase “There’s nowhere else to go.”
The exception, however, is track 11 “Wondering Boy Poet,” an interpolation of the Guided by Voices track of the same name, and consists of the lyrics:
“Dream on, child of change
Throw your javelin through the sun
Pierce the heart of everyone
Though we push to slave the days
This is not reality
This is just formality
The cup is only being filled
For the chance to have it spilled
Flowing just like the days
Sailing just like the days.”
The song represents the subtle lesson being learned as the album progresses: Life is full of pain, but you can’t live in pain forever; you must learn to love within it.
By the end, Molina has asked some form of “What am I going to do?” so many times that it stops being a question and becomes a reassuring affirmation of acceptance. Dissed and Dismissed is meant to capture the melancholy hope that is found in the embracement of your hopelessness. This is a unique album that feels like reading a series of poems from Molina’s private journal that showcase the real-time progression of comfort replacing an anxiety attack. So the next time you’re stressed and asking yourself, “What am I going to do?”, find a pair of headphones, take a deserved break, and put on some Tony Molina.