Tony Jay - Hey There Flower

Tony Jay is a San Fran musician those who follow WOE will mostly know for his work as one half of Flowertown, a quietly constructed lo-fi outfit that channel the hazy paisley spirit that's long been fogging the waters in the Bay Area. On this solo outing, his third in total but first to be pressed to vinyl, Jay mostly reaches back into that same rich heavy-hued jangly history, bringing together a collection of narcoleptic pop nuggets that draws a root right back to VU (& Nico) while making nods to their most celebrated sons and daughers (Opal, Mazzy, Garbage and the Flowers et al). Hey There Flower was recorded alone at home, but thanks to the possibilities of remote recording, was able to recruit a good handful of the SF scene - Karina Gill (Cindy), Griffin Jones (Galore), Kati Mashikian (Mister Baby), Alexis Harper (Al Harper), & Hannah Lew (Cold Beat) - to provide backing vocals. It's their contributions on which the album hinges, lending a narrative intimacy to Jay's mostly skeletal arrangements that suggests community, friendship, shared experience. Alone in lockdown he might have been, but the scene sticks together, the emotional girders in that dark cave of lost time.