Magnolia Electric Co. - Trials & Errors

A few months ago I wrote about Magnolia Electric Co. on here for the first time. Any regular readers will have to start getting used to hearing about Jason Molina as my collection of his music only keeps on growing. It saddens me that soon there'll be no more to hear, but in the meantime I keep discovering more and more beautiful music.

Trials & Errors is a live album recorded in shortly after they formed (so to speak) in 2003 and captures the band in a way no other recording I've heard has. I was lucky enough to see Magnolia Electric Co. once and this albums leads me to believe that every show was as incredible as the one I saw. There's a furiosity to way they play the songs that reminds me why I first fell in love with them along with hints of their gentler moments which are why I keep finding more and more in their music. If someone were to ask me where to start with Jason Molina, I'd be tempted to say start here; sure there are other important albums, but this one I think will grab most potential listeners.

A few of the songs made it onto other records (or found their way here from other records) but there are so many great songs that didn't appear in any other form - 9-minuters like Such Pretty Eyes For a Snake and Almost Was Good Enough as well as my favourite on the album The Last Three Human Words. That they had such great songs that never made it onto a studio album terrifies me - what other incredible songs did they play live that no one will ever hear again?

I hadn't planned to buy this record when I did. After moving to Oxford I discovered that the guy who runs Truck Records is huge Jason Molina fan and I knew they'd be a great source of his albums. I'd bought a few from there before and saw this one on a day when I was buying a couple of other albums. I'd considered buying it but figured I was already spending enough money that day. I think he saw me studying it and really strongly recommended buying it when I got to the till. I was easily convinced - I mean, I knew it was going to be good, so the guy telling me it was awesome was enough to make me add it to the armful of records.

Needless to say, I'm very glad he did convince me. I'm sure I would have bought a copy eventually, but sooner if definitely better than later in the case of this album. It's just such pleasing music to fill my ears that I wish I'd heard it sooner. I really can't recommend this album enough.

Format: Double 12", insert
Tracks: 10
Cost: £17 new
Bought: Truck Store, Oxford
When: 11/04/10
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Thursday - Waiting

I first heard Waiting 12 years ago after getting the cd for Christmas. I'd bought a copy of Full Collapse from Hugh earlier that year and loved it; I think everyone would agree that Full Collapse is Thursday at their very finest. In comparison, Waiting was the messier younger sibling. I still remember being amazed at the difference - Geoff's vocals on the opener, Porcelain, warbled in this endearing way that somehow made me feel closer to the band. I guess Full Collapse was the polished, proper album, but Waiting made me realise that they had once been a scrappy local band (for some people) like the scrappy local punk bands we were starting to get into.

For me, Waiting had two truly great moments: Ian Curtis with its layered vocals and gradual build-up and Streaks in the Sky, which explodes onto the record full of angst after the gentle Intro (halfway through the record). In fact, for a long time, I considered Streaks in the Sky one of the finest examples of post-hardcore. It's a song I still love now. I have very fond memories of it coming up on shuffle during my first marathon and giving the extra boost I needed towards the end. Like a lot of songs, I wonder how it would stand up if I was hearing it for the first time now, rather than 12 years ago, but luckily I have nothing but fond memories of it.

However, a few months ago I began to wonder if I never actually listened to Waiting properly. I read an interview with Geoff about the record and he was talking about how Dying in New Brunswick was about the time his girlfriend got raped in a city she'd just moved to. I was amazed that for so many years I'd been listening to a song with an absolutely horrible back-story and I'd never once picked up on it (listening, but not hearing, it seems). Reading the lyrics now it seems so clear. I wonder how many other songs in my record collection have meanings I'm completely ignorant to (probably quite a lot). It was a strange feeling, but it's funny how something like that can change music you know so well.

I was pretty excited when Geoff's new label, Collect Records, announced they'd be reissuing Waiting on vinyl as I was pretty keen to add it to my collection. When it arrived in the post I was even more excited; they'd done such a lovely job with it - the pictures below don't quite do it justice. The small details, like the pouch for the 7" to live in, just show the level of attention that went into it. In a way, I kind of miss the old artwork that was on the cd; I quite liked the simplicity of it. However it's worth mentioning that the original issues of Full Collapse and Five Stories Falling had completely different artwork on vinyl too.

The 7" itself deserves a mention - the demos of This Side of Brightness and Dying in New Brunswick are fascinating. There's something missing from This Side of Brightness that I can't quite describe (a more musical person would have a better idea) and without it the song sounds naked. Maybe it's from 12 years of listening to it. On the final side is Mass as Shadows, an unreleased song from the era, making the reissue even more essential. It's a nice little song - slow and brooding but when it hits it certainly does the job - in fact it reminds me more of Slint than it does Thursday.

All in all, an excellent package of an album I've enjoyed for a long time. I definitely wish all vinyl reissues had the care and attention that this one had.

Format: 12", 7", picture sleeve, insert

Tracks: 12

Cost: £20 new

Bought: Banquet Records, Kingston

When: 04/04/15

Colour: Red

Etching: none

mp3s: Download code

Clint Mansell - Filth OST

I finally saw Filth for the first time last night. It wasn't a surprise that it was a pretty dark affair - Irvine Welsh doesn't tend to write light-hearted books and people rarely get Clint Mansell involved on the soundtrack unless the film is pretty messed up.

I bought the soundtrack about a year and a half ago having been a fan of Clint Mansell's soundtracks ever since watching Pi many years back. The fact that he was in Pop Will Eat Itself came as quite the surprise and never fails to amuse me - the same guy who wrote Can U Dig It? and BulletProof! also composed Lux Aeterna.

It was quite strange watching the film for the first time despite knowing the soundtrack so well. The most noticeable thing was that I knew something significant was going to happen long before it did because I knew the score was going to get more dramatic. It's not necessarily the best way to watch a film, but I don't think it took away from my enjoyment.

As a record, the soundtrack lived up to my expectations - I bought it knowing it'd make for an enjoyable, dramatic, instrumental album. I listen to a lot of instrumental music at work and it certainly works well in that setting; periodically grabs your attention but also encourages you. The main theme in particular, which reappears throughout with increased tension, is an excellent piece of music. Starting with Winter Wonderland is a great trick - lulling you into a false sense of security that what's about to come isn't going to be as unsettling as it is.

I bought the record a while after Record Store Day 2014, for which it had been released on vinyl. On RSD itself, my friend snapped up the only copy that Truck had but luckily Banquet still had a bunch of copies when I popped in afterwards. It's a pretty nice package (die-cut sleeves always impress me) and the blue vinyl is very thick. Mine has some unfortunate pops and crackling during a couple of songs, particularly on Smokey Bacon & A Kiss Goodnight where it actually makes the needle skip.

Format: 12", gatefold, die-cut sleeve

Tracks: 11

Cost: £16 new

Bought: Banquet Records

When: 24/05/14

Colour: Transparent blue

Etching: none

mp3s: no

Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley

A few months ago I decided I needed to make a more conscious effort to make my record collection and my "dream record collection" the same thing. One of the key aspects of that was having full back-catalogues of certain bands. I sat down and listed out the bands who I'd love to see all nicely lined up in 12" sleeves on my wall; adding Kyuss to that list was obvious.

I've lamented before not stocking up on Kyuss vinyl when I lived in Australia. It was so readily available and not particularly expensive. I figured they'd all been reissued and I'd have no trouble finding them back home. In the 9 years that have passed since then, I've still never seen any of the Kyuss LPs for sale in the UK. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong shops, but it seems like a strange thing.

A few months ago I found myself on a work trip to San Francisco (something I knew would happen eventually if I worked in a tech company for long enough). That gave me a chance to revisit some of the record stores I'd visited a few years beforehand. Amoeba was at the top of my list, but on the way there I stumbled across another vast record shop, Rasputin's. Much to my surprise, I ended up spending way more in there than I did in Amoeba. There were a few excellent things about Rasputin's but the highlights would be that they all of the Kyuss LPs and so many Electric Wizard LPs that they had their own section (again, something you don't see in the UK).

The thought crossed my mind of buying all of the Kyuss album and living the dream of seeing them all nicely lined up. However, there were a bunch of other albums I wanted to get too and I only had so much space in my luggage. On top of that, it just seemed too easy. I doubt that'll be my only work trip to SF, so I decided to just get one and treat myself on future visits. I had no doubts about which Kyuss album to get on vinyl first.

I once nearly got into a fight for saying that I thought Sky Valley was better than Blues For the Red Sun. I'm not the fighting type, but I do feel very strongly about Welcome to Sky Valley. The first Kyuss album I heard was Blues and something just didn't click. A couple of years later I bought a copy of Sky Valley on cd in an HMV sale and was immediately convinced that Kyuss were incredible. I often think that Sky Valley has some of the best Kyuss songs (which it does) but maybe it was also that this album was able to hit me where Blues didn't. I'm glad it did. I quickly bought the rest of their albums and rate them one of my favourite bands of all time.

I don't need to tell you what the highlights are here; there are so many great moments on this album. I think Movement I (Gardenia, Asteroid and Supa Scoopa) might be my favourite. It's lucky that the songs are grouped into movements because I don't think I could pick just one song. Right now, I'm struggling to write this because all I want to be doing is playing air-guitar to Odyssey. It feels like a shame that the album isn't spread across three sides on vinyl, one for each movement, but as far as I can tell, it's never been pressed like that. There's not much to say about the packaging, but the cd didn't have much inside either.

One thing I should mention about this particular pressing is how quiet it is. I'm not sure how they've managed it, but playing this record at my usual volume is way too quiet. And I don't mean too for Kyuss (which does sound better when played louder than normal) but too quiet for any album. I've had to crank my stereo to levels I'd never usually reach. That said, there is something satisfying about playing Kyuss with the volume turned far further round.

Format: 12"
Tracks: 10
Cost: £12 new
Bought: Rasputin's Music, San Francisco
When: 08/07/15
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no