 by Rob van Alstyne
Jason Molina was born with the kind of high and lonesome tenor any Neil Young-ophile would kill for. Just like Young, it took Molina awhile to come around to embracing his voice (he spent his formative years as a sideman, playing bass in various heavy metal and classic rock cover bands around his native Ohio). For the last decade, however, Molina’s been front and center, unleashing a series of dark and dense albums at a dizzying rate under the moniker Songs: Ohia, and, more recently, The Magnolia Electric Company. In 2003 Molina finally assembled the stable backing band he’s always longed for, and has been indulging his classic-rock jones to full effect ever since.
Download an mp3 of The Magnolia Electric Company’s song Farewell Transmission.
 The
snarling five-piece rock beast captured on the band’s new limited edition
live album, Trials & Errors, bears little resemblance to the tremulous
balladeer I remembered seeing live playing a solo electric set at the 7th Street
Entry just a few years earlier. Molina sees the benefits of both experiences
musically, but is clearly in love with currently having a band at his command.
“There are certain luxuries you have when you play solo,” explains
Molina via telephone from his current home in southern Indiana. “You can
really experiment a lot on the fly and there’s no one else riding on what
you’re going to throw out there. But with the group of musicians I’ve
been playing with here in Indiana the last few years they’ve all been
in other bands and have a lot of experience touring. So I still get to have
a lot of that great improvisational feel out of playing live even though there’s
a lot more musicians up there. We’re working with a certain framework
to the songs, but there’s always some creative wiggle-room. I’ve
always wanted to have a steady band before but geographic limitations kept me
from doing it. It took me awhile to learn that it’s a lot easier being
in a band where everyone lives within an hour of each other—as opposed
to like six or seven hours.”
Trading windy guitar passages over loping rhythms, Molina’s songs are
brought into magnificent wide-lens focus by his band throughout Trials &
Errors, whether reinterpreting old chestnuts from his vast back catalog
or performing brand new material. If the musical parallels with vintage Neil
Young and Crazy Horse weren’t already apparent to the informed listener,
Molina goes a step farther by liberally sprinkling in lyrics from Young classics
like “Out On the Weekend” into his own material—not exactly
the move a musician would make if they were looking to avoid comparison.
 “[Neil
Young] just happens to make music that everyone in the band likes,” says
Molina when I mention his seemingly constant comparison point in the music press.
“It’s the music I put on when I’m at home—whether that’s
cool or not. I’m really used to the [comparisons with Neil Young] by this
point, but I’ve never really gotten comfortable with it. It comes with
the job unfortunately. It seems like I get compared to something different with
each record. I’ve seen comparisons to both Lynyrd Skynyrd and Leonard
Cohen before, and that seems like quite a leap to me. When critics have to make
comparisons that wide-ranging I figure I must be doing something right.”
A stark lyrical anti-romantic given to apocalyptic relationship proclamations
(“I might as well go upstairs with you, it wouldn’t be the first
time I’ve made a mistake in my life / And beside, you’ve got such
pretty eyes for a snake”), it’s clear that whatever affinity Molina
still holds for AC/DC, his songwriting voice is operating on a slightly more
sophisticated level than say, “Love At First Feel.”
Whether releasing molasses-slow solo guitar and voice albums like the recent
Pyramid Electric Co. or finding his inner guitar hero onstage with his
new band, Molina remains a restless creative spirit, releasing full-length albums
at a yearly pace. Always looking ahead towards the next project.
“I’m not really in danger of burning out because I’m always
burnt out,” jokes Molina. “Since I started putting out records I’ve
always tried to just keep doing it, and doing it differently. Not necessarily
better, but differently. I never really step back and say, ‘oh that was
kind of good—let’s try and top it.’ I think that’s where
you can get yourself into trouble. I just try to make good cohesive records
with songs that seem related to one other lyrically and sonically. I spew out
plenty more songs than the ones I end up releasing. I just recently moved and
I found filing cabinets full of like 40 spiral notebooks and reams of loose-leaf
paper with songs and lyrics that I had written—some of it this year—and
already managed to forget about. For me the focus has always been on just being
slow and steady with the work.” ||
The Magnolia Electric Company plays on Sat., Dec. 11 at the Seventh Street
Entry with the Winter Blanket and Valet. 9 p.m. 21+. $6. 701 First Ave. N.,
Mpls. 612-338-8388.
Find out more about Jason Molina and the Magnolia Electric Company on his official
website at MagnoliaElectricCo.com.
Download an mp3 of The Magnolia Electric Company’s
song Farewell
Transmission.
|
