Kelley Stoltz is obsessed with traffic cones. This much you should know about him. On his website, http://www.electriccity.org, there’s a gallery of images of cones. The cover of his latest release, Antique Glow, features traffic cones on a dim sunset-lit cliffside.

"I decided to do a photographic self-assignment, spending a day riding my bike around taking pictures of traffic cones,” explains Kelley. “I think they are one of those strange things of life -- they are everywhere but you don’t really see who puts them there or who takes them away. Plus you see ‘em in the weirdest places, on the beach, in a deserted lot -- they meant something to somebody once. It’s also interesting that they are of no worth to anyone. They can sit in a spot for weeks and nobody snatches them. I can't think of many other things that are so prevalent but have no inherent value. A coffee table picture book and kids story about them are in the works."

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Kelley Stoltz grew up in suburban Detroit and started his first band in 8th grade. He moved to NYC in 1994 to work as an intern for Jeff Buckley, sorting his fanmail. It wasn’t long until the Bay Area called, and Kelley bought a 4-track. He recorded The Past Was Faster for the Telegraph Company label in 1999. Antique Glow was self-released to friends 2 years later on vinyl, with hand-painted covers. And now, it’s in y our hands.

Hand painted? “I painted the LP covers as an inexpensive but creative alternative to printing just one image,” Kelley says. “I was inspired by this San Francisco artist, Judith Lindbloom, who handpainted every cover for a jazz fellow, Steve Lacy’s album. I was also buying albums at thrift stores and selling ‘em to stores to supplement my meager teaching income. I got the idea to use covers from thrift shops and add a pair of rabbit ears to Frank Sinatra... that type of thing -- but I painted or drew enough on the records to obscure the original images. I sold 200 of these LP's in shops and at shows."

It was through this LP that he caught the attention of the Jackpine Social Club label. “I think Kelley’s songwriting is just magical,” says Nick Tangborn, the head of Jackpine. “There’s elements of Nick Drake in it, spacey Pink Floyd stuff, a little post-punk, it incorporates all these great elements in a way that sounds really fresh.”

“This time, I wanted a real Phil Spector treatment on the record whenever possible,” says Kelley. “Or at least a lot of sounds drifting in and out, doubled vocals and all that good stuff. So it was out with the 4-track and in with a shiny-old-8-track-reel to reel recorder. Over the next year and a half I quit the day job and holed up in my room recording some hundred new songs. Like my first record, I play most all the instruments on the album.”

Kelley cites his biggest influences as Echo & The Bunnymen, The Monks, Drake, The Beatles, David Bowie and Lee Hazelwood. The mention of Bunnymen comes as no surprise to many Bay Area residents, who recently caught Kelley, along with Pavement and Preston School of Industry’s Spiral Stairs, performing the Echo record “Crocodiles” in its entirety at two sold-out shows in San Francisco. Kelley had previously recorded his own version of the record, playing every instrument himself, mostly from memory. It made the rounds of friends and a few Bunnymen fans and wound up in Spiral’s hands, compelling the guitarist and songwriter to head south from Seattle to perform the record live.