Goshen Electric Co - The Gray Tower / Ring the Bell

I play these two songs a lot, so much so that I paid to download the mp3s on Bandcamp to be able to listen to them even more. As an added bonus, the mp3s include and extended version of Ring the Bell, so there's even more loveliness to be had.

Goshen Electric Co is the name that the regular members of Magnolia Electric Co (who weren't Jason Molina) and Timothy Showalter (from Strand of Oaks) decided to record under. When this came out, they'd played a few shows together in the US as Memorial Electric Co or Songs: Molina, depending on how you choose to interpret the name the shows were billed as. This record came out around the same time that they took that show on tour throughout Europe. The shows, and the 7", were an opportunity for these people to keep playing Jason Molina's songs together and I was incredibly pleased that they did. I consider myself very fortunate that I got to see Magnolia Electric Co once (and very nearly didn't - I only got offered a ticket that morning because someone had a spare) but didn't know any songs at the time. I knew nearly every word when the tour came through Bush Hall in London in 2018.

Ahead of the shows they put out a video for The Gray Tower and I watched it a bunch of times. I wasn't familiar with Strand of Oaks at the time, but was very pleased with how Timothy took on the vocals. By the nature of both bands, they play it much more like a Magnolia Electric Co song than a Songs: Ohia song and it works amazingly; I love both versions - Jennie Benford's vocal round out the sparse original version so the two sound and feel very different. Ring the Bell from Didn't it Rain is a much less niche choice (The Gray Tower is only on a 7" and the Journey On boxset or as a demo called The Gray Tour on the Didn't it Rain reissue) and also becomes a much bigger sounding song (even more so on the nine-minute extended version). The extended one takes a lot of inspiration from the original, which itself is over six minutes in length.

As a result of this record, I started listening to Strand of Oaks and really got into them. I started off with their fitting tribute to Jason Molina, JM, and spiralled from there (JM even got an airing at the Songs: Molina show). Turns out I'd seen them at Primavera in 2015 on the recommendation of one of Matt's friends. I enjoyed them, but saw another nine bands that day and they got forgotten in the blur of great music. I'm now a huge fan.

Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £5 new
Bought: Gig, London
When: 27/09/18
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: none

The Loved Ones - Build & Burn

I wrote about The Loved Ones a couple of years ago when I wrote about their perfectly fine debut album. The following summer their name came up again - they played a fun set at Leeds Festival and they released their second album, Build & Burn. 2008 was the year I was doing my Tuesday-record-from-Spillers, but also my Monthly-record-from-Damaged year, so this was my purchase that month; at £9, Welly was basically giving it away.

The first half of Build & Burn is good - Pretty Good Year is a really strong opener and The Bridge is huge, possibly the best song they wrote. But the second side of the album it all goes to pot - Selfish Masquerade ruins everything with a piano and some slow ballad nonsense, and Louisiana is even stranger - some sort of country working song. It's hard to take them seriously when they're trying hard to do these sorts of songs. I Swear is another strong song to close the album, but it's always tainted by Selfish Masquerade and Louisiana.

I think I wanted The Loved Ones to just be a solid punk band, but they clearly wanted to be Springsteen. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be Springsteen, but you can't go from songs like the ones on the first half to those two strange ones. After this album they sort of just disappeared and Dave Hause began his solo career. I saw him a few times, although it was mostly by accident. I remember him doing a solo cover of either Remedy or Trusty Chords by Hot Water Music, which was fun but once again reminded me that I have no idea what any of the HWM lyrics are.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 10
Cost: £9 new
Bought: Damaged Records, Cardiff
When: 20/09/08
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: cd included

The Mars Volta - Live at The Electric Ballroom

I remember being pretty excited when I found this record. I was in London for a night before going to the airport. In a lot of ways, it was a bad time to go record shopping - I was going away for nearly two weeks, going to Heidelburg, Vienna and Lancaster before going back to my parents' house for just three nights before going back to Australia for another six months. Not only did I have to lug this, a couple of other records I bought in London (and the ones I bought on my travels) on a number of flights and trains, I also had only three days to enjoy it (I frantically recorded all the records I bought that fortnight onto tape before going back to Canberra, but somehow missed off a whole side of the Murder City Devils live LP, something I was annoyed to find out when I tried to play it in Oz). After buying this, I stayed at my friend Jo's house and we watched the Johnny Depp version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and had an early night ahead of my flight; there's a detail no one cares about.

Anyway, I was really into The Mars Volta at the time. I'd enjoyed Deloused in the Comatorium but really got into them on Frances the Mute (an album I'd still argue is their finest). During my first six months in Australia, they released Scab Dates which contained some incredible live recordings along with some frustratingly long field recordings of bollocks. This record - a straight-forward live recording from the sound-desk at a London show in 2003 - was then right up my street. The tracklisting is basically all of Deloused (in order) along with Concertina from the Tremulant EP (which I bought about six months later, just before I left Australia for good). On top of that, the sleeve stated that it was for promotional use only (but probably actually a bootleg) as well as singing the praise of being a purely analog recording, something I was pleased to see other people consider important, having had frequent and irritating conversations with my friend Tom about whether digital could be better than analog - see the last picture for the full text. I also bought the 12" single of Frances the Mute that day.

The quality of this recording is perfectly fine - you couldn't call it outstanding, but it does the job. What is perfect is the band, who are on incredible form. The thing that amazes me is that I saw them just two months after this recorded and they were terrible. I remember being really excited to see them at Reading Festival and they played what felt like two songs over a 45-minute set - two elongated jam-fests (which I might enjoy now to be honest, but wasn't in the mood for at the time). I can't have been the only person in the audience who was hoping to hear Inertiatic ESP. In hindsight, we were probably being treated to some early versions of songs from Frances the Mute, but we weren't to know. I saw them a handful of other times over the years and had far better experiences after that - their set at Southside Festival in 2009 was particularly brilliant. The version of Cicatriz ESP is far more enjoyable than the version on Scab Dates because you don't have to fast-forward ten-minutes of bollocks to get the huge climax. The recording of Televators is pretty breath-taking too - Cedric's voice on top form - and Take the Veil Cerpin Taxt is a superb closer. I think for a long time they'd take the stage and introduce themselves as a different band - on this particular show they came on stage with the line "Hello, we're Mudvayne", a nu-metal band that I'm sure most people have long forgotten. It's a strange blast from the past whenever I play this album.

Despite being a bootleg/promo/"unofficial release", copies of this album seem to be about two or three times more than I paid for it, which is always nice (although peanuts compared to how much the reissue of Deloused is now going for - and to think I complained about my copy costing £27, an annoyingly common price for an LP these days). A nice bonus was that the two records are on coloured vinyl - transparent yellow and blue. Whilst not strictly an official release, I'm very glad this is sat in my collection and that I decided to lug it around Europe rather than leave it in Selectadisc that rainy January day. I miss The Mars Volta, so it's nice to have a live recording of some of their best songs.

Format: Double 12", plain sleeve, insert, promo-only
Tracks: 9
Cost: £20 new
Bought: Selectadisc, London
When: 13/01/06
Colour: Transparent yellow and transparent blue
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Max Richter - The Congress OST

I have a number of Max Richter's soundtracks on vinyl, but The Congress is one of my favourites. It might be in part because it was the first I heard, but could also be because it came with mp3s, so actually got a fair amount of play. I've not seen the film, The Congress, nor do I have any idea what it's about. I really should check it out. The artwork certainly looks interesting.

The soundtrack is mostly quite a gentle affair, but does get going at times, which makes me more curious about the film itself (although clearly not curious enough to seek it out and watch it at any point in the last five years). It also makes it much more listenable as an album than a lot of soundtracks. The inclusion of two sung covers feels like it should ruin that flow a bit, but actually they fit in perfectly - Dylan's Forever Young never sounded so sparse as against Robin Wright's clear vocals and the distorted drums and Leonard Cohen's If It Be Your Will a nice closer. I was familiar with the first, but I've never spent much time listening to Leonard Cohen (except that time at Glastonbury when he was on before The Verve and seemed to play for literally years). There are also a couple of classical pieces included - one by Schubert and another by Chopin. Whilst I know nothing about classical music, I do at least recognise those names. Do people call it a cover when it's a classical piece?

Anyway, it's a nice little record. I remember it had been out a while before I found this copy - I remember thinking "I should probably get a copy of that". When I did find it I felt quite lucky to get the chance to buy it, since it was limited to 500 copies, although I might have over-estimated the popularity; Max Richter has done about a billion soundtracks and even I've stopped buying them. The sleeve still has the hype sticker Rough Trade applied to it on the front (because I've never got round to removing it) and it's on a nice, heavy white vinyl.

Format: 12", picture sleeve, insert
Tracks: 15
Cost: £25 new
Bought: Specialist Subject Records
When: 25/10/14
Colour: White
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code