The Lost Days craft lo-fi basement pop that Tony Molina and Sarah Rose Janko deliver through understated playing and vocals. Their first full-length effort, In the Store, offers a modest delight to admirers of jangling, fuzzy folk/rock captured on minimal resources.
Molina and Janko first crossed paths at a memorial gathering honoring a shared acquaintance. Mutual appreciation for their respective endeavors—Molina’s solo recordings and his band Ovens, together with Janko’s outfit Dawn Riding—sparked an immediate bond that soon found them performing together at her East Oakland residence. Drawing from the Byrds’ ringing guitar style and the unpolished appeal of Bill Fox’s late-’90s releases, the pair favored a straightforward approach built chiefly around acoustic guitars and vocal harmonies. After casual sessions conducted whenever schedules allowed, they committed several new pieces to tape. The resulting five-song EP, The Lost Demos, appeared on cassette in April 2021 and contained four joint originals plus a rendition of Daniel Johnston’s “To Go Home.”
Throughout much of 2021 they developed a proper album, with Molina composing material and forwarding it to Janko—who had relocated to New Orleans—for additional melodic contributions. Once the songs were prepared, recording took place on 8-track tape at Nick Bassett’s home studio during one of Janko’s returns to California. Bassett also supplied drums and keyboards. In the course of these sessions the material expanded beyond basic outlines, incorporating organ, fuller percussion, and electric guitar while echoing the melodic emphasis found in certain Molina solo releases. Janko likewise added vocals to Molina’s In the Fade, which surfaced in 2022. Speakeasy Studios SF, based in San Francisco, released In the Store in March 2023.
