The Lost Days

The Lost Days' lo-fi, basement pop songs are played and sung with gentle care by the team of Tony Molina and Sarah Rose Janko. Their debut album, In the Store, is a tiny treat for lovers of jangling, fuzzy folk/rock made on a shoestring budget. Molina and Janko met at a memorial service for a mutual friend and, after professing admiration for each other's musical projects -- Molina's solo work and band Ovens, and Janko's group Dawn Riding -- a friendship was established that led to them joining forces and playing songs together at Janko's house in East Oakland. Inspired by the jangle of the Byrds and the lo-fi charm of Bill Fox's late-'90s albums, their sound was simple -- acoustic guitars and harmonies, for the most part. After some time spent playing for fun whenever they had time, they decided to record a handful of songs they had come up with. A five-song EP, The Lost Demos, was released on cassette in April of 2021. It features four originals composed by the pair and a cover of Daniel Johnston's "To Go Home." They spent much of 2021 working on an actual album, with Molina writing songs and sending them to Janko -- she had moved to New Orleans -- for her melodic input. Once the tracks were done they recorded them on 8-track tape at their friend Nick Bassett's home studio when Janko was back in California to visit. (She was also able to contribute vocals to Molina's In the Fade album, which was released in 2022.) In the process of getting it on tape -- and with Bassett's help on drums and keyboards -- the Lost Days' album grew from simple demos to more fleshed-out songs that included organ, drums, and electric guitar, calling to mind some of Molina's more melodic solo work. In the Store was issued by the San Francisco label Speakeasy Studios SF in March of 2023.
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