Ovens’ Self-Titled Album Is Coming to Streaming and Vinyl for the First Time
2009's Ovens is a must-hear for Tony Molina fans
Photo by Sean Hewitt
To best appreciate Bay Area guitar-pop wizard Tony Molina, one must first appreciate Ovens, the unsung band in which he laid the foundations for his solo sound. That’s about to get easier to do: Ovens’ 2009 self-titled double album, a 44-track compilation that currently stands as the band’s only full-length release, is coming to streaming and vinyl for the first time on Dec. 2 via Oakland punk and metal label TankCrimes. Two songs from the record, “Fired From The Vogue Pt. 1” and “Lame Song #224,” are streaming now.
A note included in the original, CD-only release of Ovens offers some context for the album:
These recordings were originally meant to be released individually over the years, but since we didn’t have the financial means to put out 3 LPs on our own, (or 4 if you include the album from 2005—it’s still not out yet!) we decided we were better off throwing all the tracks onto one CD for your listening pleasure.
Andee Connors, whose tUMULt Records originally put out Ovens, speaks to the band’s legacy and how she came to release their album in a lengthy statement. “These guys accomplish more in 30 seconds than most pop bands can pull off over the course of a full album. And they accomplish more in these 44 songs than most bands manage in their whole careers,” she says, recalling:
The band had been recording for years, full length after full length, and minus a super short run early on, the songs just sat there, unreleased and unheard, until the band had a backlog of 5 full-length albums. A friend of mine was always talking them up, hassling me to reach out, convinced I would love them, and when I finally did manage to get some music from these guys, well shit, I was 100% sold, onboard, obsessed and instantly the band’s #1 fan. Which is saying a lot. Cuz for a band that rarely played, and barely ever released anything, they engendered a rare kind of maniacal fandom.
“How these guys went so long without blowing up,” she adds, “still boggles the mind.”
