Songs: Ohia - Songs: Ohia

As much as I love Jason Molina's music, I never really feel like I've cracked his early lo-fi days. There's a lot of hints of what Songs: Ohia would become, but it's not easy to hear it as the music of the same musician who wrote the albums towards the end of the Songs: Ohia monicker.

I picked up the debut Songs: Ohia record at the same time I got the Soujourner boxset. At that point, all I knew was Josephine and What Comes After the Blues - it wasn't the usual order of albums to hear (it'd be another year before I heard The Magnolia Electric Co record). I can't remember which I played first, but given the four discs of Soujouner, I suspect I played at least one of those first. I wasn't really expecting these songs to be quite so different to Magnolia, but I'd been brought in towards the end of his varied career and wasn't remotely familiar with the subtle twists and turns his vast recorded output went through. Part of me wishes I could have heard it all in a more sensible order, but most days I'm just glad I was introduced to his music by seeing him play live, and that I got to see him play live at all.

On Cabwaylingo Jason's voice is more nasal and high than it ever sounded again, which throws the listener off from the start (or, at least, this listener). It's not as warm as the version recorded as Vanquisher that appeared on the Journey On boxset; Crab Orchard afterwards sounds much more like the Molina I've spent many hours listening to. There are songs with a lot more bite to them though - Our Republic builds to something far bigger than most of the songs that preceded it, and Cotton Hill and Dogwood Gap are great examples of him dabbling in reaching beyond lo-fi. Tenskwatawa is a highlight, as is Little Beaver, although it shows just how little that I feel I've gotten into this album - if you'd mentioned those two song titles to me, I'm not sure I'd have known they were Molina song titles, let alone some of the songs on this album I like the most.

I bought this from the Secretly Canadian stall at the Independent Label Market in London. That was the first time I went when it was amazing; the second time was thoroughly disappointing in comparison and I've not been since. The Secretly Canadian stall had a bunch of Molina records and I regretted for a while not buying all of them (although it was wise to buy the Soujouner boxset then, because it sells for at least double what I paid for it now). I've probably since bought all the other ones they had, but I don't recall exactly which ones were there. This is the triple gatefold version of the reissue, unlike the single LP sleeve it's often found in now. The etching on the record says "edition of 500", but scrawled out, so I assume that was referring to an earlier pressing. It wasn't until a good number of months (possibly years) after I bought it that I found the download code inside.

Format: 12", triple gatefold
Tracks: 14
Cost: £15 new
Bought: Independent Label Market, London
When: 13/07/13
Colour: Black
Etching: Side A: "Edition of 500" (crossed out)
mp3s: Download code

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

Glen Hansard - It Was Triumph We Once Proposed... Songs of Jason Molina

I don't know a great deal about Glen Hansard. I've read a few bits in relation to Jason Molina, so know the back story of how their split record came to be. His is not a name I'd have come across otherwise though.

I didn't buy this record the first time I saw it in Truck Store. On the second time I saw it, I'd already become more of a collector of Molina-related records and decided it had a place in that collection. I'm glad I did, because Glen's take on these five songs is great and I play them often. (As it happens, I've since bought a lot of records of covers of Jason Molina songs and find great enjoyment in many of them).

Being in Love is from my favourite album, The Lioness, and Glen and Jennie Benford bring it to life in a wonderful way. Hold on Magnolia and Farewell Transmission are from The Magnolia Electric Co. The former comes across in a very different way - more reflective than Jason's. An interpretation might be that he was willing himself to hold on; Glen is then reflecting to the sad fact that he couldn't. It builds to a huge crescendo which Glen's voice carries brilliantly. Farewell Transmission is almost obligatory, and this is a nice version - slow and gentle, but allowing itself to drift into the big rock sound of the original towards the end; I've lost count of the number of covers I've heard of this song, which is a great problem to have. Vanquisher is a song from a 7" (and appears on the Journey On boxset), but also reappeared as Cabwaylingo on the debut album, along with the final song here, White Sulfur. The early days were pretty lo-fi, but Glen's voice works equally well with these songs - less soothing, but still strong. I remember someone remarking that White Sulfur was a curious note to end on, but perhaps choosing that because it means ending on the line "So then, I have to be going / Ok", a very casual way to leave it.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 5
Cost: £13 new
Bought: Truck Store, Oxford
When: 06/07/16
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Songs: Ohia - The Magnolia Electric Co.

I've been slightly putting off writing about this record because I just don't think I can do it justice. In the five years I've had a copy, this album has continued to grow on me and I still find new parts I love with each listen. Whilst I consider The Lioness to be my favourite Jason Molina album, I think it's safe to say that Magnolia Electric Co is the greatest. If people ask me where to start, it's almost wrong to suggest anywhere other than here; sure, he has released some incredible albums aside from this, but this is surely the canonical Molina album. Both ends of his career are represented here as the turning point from Songs: Ohia to Magnolia Electric Co. Start here. Play the album over and over again. Fall in love with it.

The second Farewell Transmission starts I get shivers down my spine. I've heard so many covers of this song that it's become a treat to hear the original. If this album is the starting point, then it's pretty fitting that the first song people will hear is his most famous and one of his best. I'm sure some would say it's over-rated, but I think it gets the praise it deserves for very good reasons. It's a perfect moment spread across seven minutes. The transition from that into I've Been Riding With the Ghost is perfect too, with the ghostly backing vocals brilliantly at odds with the hints of country throughout. Just Be Simple rounds out the trio of opening songs, all of which have become fan-favourites. When the first three songs in row are all easy additions to a theoretical Greatest Hits album, you know you're listening to something special.

Side B starts off a bit strangely with country singer Lawrence Peters taking on the vocals on The Old Black Hen followed by Scout Niblet singing Peoria Lunch Box Blues. It possibly shows that Jason wasn't necessarily thinking at the time that this album would be the landmark or turning point it would become; who would make such a choice on an album that would be hailed (by me, at least) as his greatest? The demos show how the songs sound with Jason singing - his voice sounds different on The Old Black Hen, perhaps a sign that it made sense for someone else to sing it; his version of Peoria is nice, but Scout's vocals add so much to it. The studio version hints back to Jason's lo-fi days, but with some drums tastefully brought to the front of the mix.

After the quiet end of Peoria Lunch Box Blues, John Henry Split My Heart opens up with a bombastic riff, briefly giving way to a few bars of piano and the opening lines, before launching back into the huge sound of the intro. The demo holds very few clues that the studio version would hit so hard. The outro, reprising the lines of "Long dark blues", is another perfect moment. Hold On Magnolia is the gentle closer that no one knew the album needed. Part of me wonders how the album would feel if it and John Henry were swapped around - perhaps it would have been too much to go from Magnolia into that start of John Henry. It's a reflective ending, and feels like a goodbye for the Songs: Ohia of old before fully becoming Magnolia Electric Co. Maybe it would have felt too forced to have both opener and closer feature the same lines. Maybe I'm reading too much into it. Jason's vocals are incredible on it either way.

There are moments throughout the album where you can hear Jason urging the other musicians on through the way he sings - halfway through Just Be Simple, towards the start of Almost Was Good Enough and, famously, at the end of Farewell Transmission. Much like with Ghost Tropic, you can picture them in the studio together at those exact moments, with Steve Albini doing some fine work behind the mixing desk.

You can dwell on the meanings of Jason's lyrics for endless amounts of time, but I've always found myself most strongly attached to individual lines - "Real truth is no one gets it right / Real truth is we're all supposed to try" and "I will be gone / But not forever" from Farewell Transmission (the latter the name I picked for my Jason Molina best-of I made for in the car - it was incredibly tricky boiling his work down to 80 minutes!). Also "If Heaven's really coming back / I hope it has a heart attack / When it sees how dangerous it is for guys like that", "Half I'm going to use to pay this band / Half I'm saving, cause I'm going to owe them" and "Hold on Magnolia" for its willing and repetition, but also when it's paired with "I think it's almost time". He was a great lyricist.

Anyway, I eventually bought a copy on my first trip to Truck Store in Oxford. I'd just accepted a job in the city and came up from London one Saturday morning to look at flats. Once I was done, I made the trip over to Truck to see what I was in for from what would become my new local record shop. I'd had a look at the website and knew that Karl, the guy who runs it, was a big Molina fan, so wasn't at all surprised to find a copy there that morning. Over the following years I filled a lot of gaps in my Molina collection there and have had some nice chats with Karl about them.

The reissue is lovely and much-needed - albums like this shouldn't be only available as second-hand first-pressings; they should be in every collection. William Schaff's artwork looks incredible and the demos, as mentioned, are not some fodder for the collectors, but fascinating alternative takes and nearly as important as the album itself. I was too late to get a copy with the bonus 10" (but will one day hunt one down), but luckily the mp3 download code includes the two songs from there. This is really very lucky because The Big Game is Every Night is another of Jason very finest songs. To think it was abandoned to be a Japanese bonus-track is mind-boggling. It's one of his longer songs, but feels effortless in its ability to keep your attention. It's a hidden gem in a career of countless gems.

A couple of years later I picked up a copy of the original cd pressing (in Amoeba Records) which also included the demos here, but with different names and in a different order - Farewell Transmission is called The Long Dark Blues (arguably a better name? Certainly a grander one),
I've Been Riding With the Ghost is I Made the Change and John Henry Split My Heart is You Can't Save Everything; Almost Was Good Enough is missing from both, but we have demos of Whip Poor Will (a song that would appear again years later on Josephine) and The Big Game is Every Night instead. I didn't know that they were the same demos when I bought it, but it makes sense that they would be, and I would have still bought it anyway.

I say this a lot, but I thoroughly and whole-heartedly recommend this album. No good record collection is complete without it.

Format: Double 12", gatefold, picture sleeves
Tracks: 17
Cost: £20 new
Bought: Truck Store, Oxford
When: 15/03/14
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Jason Molina - The Townes Van Zandt Covers

I have two copies of this record, a situation I entered into somewhat willingly. A good number of years ago, a Kickstarter appeared for a project about a carousel (I think) that I normally would have not even given a second thought about (as you can tell by the fact I'm not entirely sure it was even a carousel), except that one of the backer rewards was a Jason Molina record featuring some unreleased songs. My Molina collection was in its infancy, but I was keen to pick up what ever I could, so pledged for that reward. I think it was about £30 in the end, which was a lot; it wasn't clear that the record was only a two-song 7" at the time.

As is so often the case with crowdfunding, the project fell through and the money all sort of disappeared. There'd been a while where I was periodically checking for updates and getting concerned that nothing concrete had appeared - I can't remember how long that period was, but I remember having to dig through emails to figure out when the money first came out. Eventually, it all fell apart and I remember emails blaming various people - things look like they got ugly.

Secretly Canadian, the record label who released most of Jason Molina's music announced two things in 2016 - they'd be releasing those songs as a Record Store Day 7" and that they'd be sending out free copies to anyone who backed the campaign. I thought that was incredibly good of them - I imagine a lot of people lost a lot of money in that project (my £30 would seem negligible) but they had no obligation other than a desire to help the fans who had lost money; it was a great gesture. I had to prove that I had backed the campaign, so I sent off the screenshots.

I can't remember exactly when that was (I could look it up I suppose, but it seems clear I'm not going to - perhaps I'm too worried I'll see exactly how much I paid to that project and get annoyed all over again), but before the record arrived, Record Store Day came around. I think part of me was worried that the record wouldn't actually turn up, or there'd be some material difference between the two, so I decided to buy a copy on RSD anyway (what's another £8 on a day of expensive records!?). Plus, I was eager to hear the songs.

The two songs on the 7" were covers of Townes Van Zandt, a musician I'd never really heard much about, let alone consciously listened to. In the years since, I've always thought I should check out more of his music, but I still haven't; I probably will one day. I'll Be Here in the Morning is a lovely warm, live recording of a song that sounds more Magnolia Electric Co than it does Songs: Ohia, despite consisting of just guitar and voice. It's a nice song. Tower Song is a slower, sweet song. Both tend slightly more towards Americana than Jason normally does, but I guess that's the nature of the songs. Definitely worth a listen.

Anyway, as expected, a second copy appeared in the post a few weeks later. They are identical, except my free copy got damaged in the post and has the slight crease you can see in the top picture. I say "free", I technically paid about £30 for that second copy, but I didn't record it that way - in my mind I lost £30 to a crowdfunding folly and learnt an important lesson; I also got a free record - the two are related, but I drew a line under that £30 and decided not to be annoyed by it. Sometimes you just have to let things go - it makes life easier sometimes. I have no intention of selling either copy - like most RSD releases you can still pick up a copy for not too far from the original asking price (of course, it's hard to know which records will end up being worth much more vs those that are ten-a-penny after RSD). As it is, I have two copies to remind me of the dangers of crowdfunding.

Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £8 new / free new
Bought: Truck Store Oxford / Secretly Canadian Records
When: 16/04/16 / 19/05/16
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Jason Molina - The Black Sabbath Covers

Jason Molina released a huge number of records in his lifetime and, evidently, recorded enough for countless more. This is something to pleased about because I've nearly heard everything he released whilst he was alive, and I'm not ready to stop hearing new songs just yet.

When Secretly Canadian announced that they were putting out a 7" of him covering two Black Sabbath songs I ordered one straight away. It's hard to know with his releases whether they're going to be plentiful and readily available everywhere, or super-rare. I've erred on the side of caution recently and it mostly hasn't been necessary. In this case, that caution came at a price; namely the customs due on packages sent from the US (I've never really understood why some parcels do and some don't get charged extra, but it is a constant pain in the arse when buying from the States - between the shitty exchange rate, postage costs and customs charges it really is becoming expensive). I added a couple of other Molina albums to the order (What Comes After the Blues and Molina & Johnson LPs), so in my mind, the cost could be spread across the three. The LPs were still a bargain (I think they were on sale at the time), but this 7" was effectively £13, which is a lot for two songs.

It's even more for two songs when you discover that the songs together total only three-and-a-half minutes. Still, every extra minute we get to hear Jason sing is a minute worth paying for (and had I bought it more locally for £7 it'd still have been expensive and short). Those three-and-a-half minutes are, of course, lovely. Solitude works perfectly - it's slower than Molina’s usual “simple” songs, but with his gravelly voice it is every bit as dark as a Sabbath song should be. His voice struggles a bit on “crying” (which isn't a particularly difficult Ozzy-note in the original) but it's otherwise flawless. The cracks and hisses add to the warmth in true fashion. Snowblind is a bit more upbeat in the guitar-playing and a much more “rock” song for Jason. It is brutally short (a statement true of the song - 1:14, the single - 3:27, and Jason’s life in general).

The idea of Jason covering Black Sabbath excited me greatly - I knew of his early metal-years and wanted to hear how he'd approach songs by one of the first and finest metal bands. I was hoping he'd choose Sabbath songs I knew better (that is, from the first two albums) but these are wonderful and likely better than if he'd covered Iron Man or Paranoid. The b-side is etched with the ram's head from the cover (poorly photographed below) and the artwork is another excellent William Schaff drawing, the masking-tape cross a nice Black Sabbath reference.

Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £13.45 new
Bought: Secretly Canadian Records
When: 09/12/17
Colour: Black
Etching: Image of a ram's head on b-side
mp3s: no

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

Magnolia Electric Co. - Josephine

I'm ever-increasingly pleased that I was introduced to Magnolia Electric Co. when I was; they could have very easily passed me by and I would live the rest of my life having never seen Jason Molina play live. His music is the gift that keeps on giving and we should all count ourselves lucky that he wrote quite so many songs in his too-short life.

On a slightly-hungover morning on the 6th of September 2009 I was woken by a phone call from my friend Jon. There was a folk festival happening in Porthcawl Pavilion that day but it had massively undersold so the organisers were basically handing out tickets to people who they knew just to help fill up the room. Jon knew one of the organisers and was getting together a car-load of people. Three things made me go: I had nothing else to do that day; Adem was playing (who was pretty much the only name I knew on the bill) and I'd been enjoying his covers album, Takes; and finally, because I was leaving Cardiff soon to move to London so thought it'd be nice to spend the day on the beach with some of the friends I'd made there.

So I met up with Jon, Stubbs and another friend of Jon's and we drove to Porthcawl (which I'd never been to before). The Pavilion was a lovely setting for the bands playing that day - they'd laid out tables like a 1900's ballroom and there was a huge chandelier hanging overhead. We watched some nice bands (including Aidan Moffat and Adem) and had ice cream on the beach (which seemed particularly odd given that these were guys I'd gotten to know by going to sweaty punk shows). Magnolia Electric Co. were second to last that day and Stubbs was very excited; I remember him passionately telling me about the singer's old band Songs:Ohia and how the bands had transitioned with an album called Magnolia Electric Co. You know when someone is that excited about seeing a band that it'll be at least half decent.

Magnolia Electric Co. blew me away that day. I have three main memories of their set: a general feeling of amazement; Jason's incredible voice; and the drums. I can't imagine many people think of drums when they think of Magnolia Electric Co., but that day they sounded so incredible and were being pounded, all the while set to these beautiful songs. Maybe it was the acoustics of the room, but it worked for me. Map of the Fallen Skies on Josephine has some pretty heavy drums and always reminds me of that day. I have no idea whether they played it (or the names of any of the songs I heard that day) but it always makes me think back to that day late-summer Sunday in Porthcawl. I doubt Jon knows how grateful I am that he called me that morning and paved the way for me to discover Molina's music. I should probably say something to him.

After Magnolia finished we all sat there a little bewildered and agreed that they were incredible. Vetiver were still due to play, but we decided that nothing was going to top the last band and went home. I set about hearing more Magnolia Electric Co. and got Josephine on cd from my sister for my birthday that year. I knew from the opening minutes of O! Grace that I hadn't misremembered how good they were. Six years later and I'm still digging through the huge number of albums Jason Molina recorded and each one is incredible - I get so excited when I find another album of his because I can't wait to hear the music within. It's not been entirely trivial to find all his albums (Truck Records and a few trips to the states have helped) but I'm enjoying the cadence at which I get to hear them.

I discovered shortly afterwards that two of my friends had become huge Jason Molina fans (after seeing him on the same tour but at End of the Road Festival) and we were all equally excited when it was announced that he'd be playing a show in The Railway Inn in Winchester with Will Johnson from Centromatic. Just to spell that out entirely, The Railway was the only venue we had growing up, where most of our friends had played, where we had our first drinks and where Friday nights would frequently end up. Very rarely did anyone famous ever play The Railway so we all decided it was well-worth the trip back home. On top of that, I was really keen to see Will Johnson having first heard him on a split with another of my favourite bands, The Paper Chase. 

But Jason got ill and the tour got cancelled. Gradually over the next couple of years it emerged he'd been an alcoholic and was in rehab. Things were starting to look promising but then he died on March 16th, 2013. My heart sank when I heard the news because I felt like I'd only just discovered his music; I wanted to see him play again so I could have the same feeling of amazement I'd had before and I wanted to know the songs he played so I could appreciate them even more. I still have the ticket from that Railway show that never happened. It's sad that he died so early, but I can take some comfort in knowing that he wrote a lot of great songs whilst he was here and that I can keep discovering them for years yet. Fittingly enough, Josephine ends with An Arrow in the Gale, a song that feels like an opener; his last album was to be my first and opened me up to a wealth of incredible music.

Format: 12", insert

Tracks: 14

Cost: £15 new

Bought: Truck Store, Oxford

When: 08/01/15

Colour: Black

Etching: none

mp3s: Download code