Pete playing Jason's Danelectro. Raleigh, NC circa 2016. Photo by Amy Drever
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Hey everyone,
Hope you’re all good!
Today we wanted to take the opportunity to catch up with a few of Jason’s bandmates and share some of the music still being made by various Ohians / Magnolians at the moment.
Below we have music from Dan MacAdam, Rob & Dan Sullivan and Pete Schreiner with some words from them all.
Hope you enjoy digging into these.
All the best,
S&D
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Arriver
Arriver is a long-running Metal outfit founded by three veterans of Songs: Ohia's 1999-2003 Chicago lineup, Dan MacAdam and brothers Rob and Dan Sullivan.
On their fourth album, Arriver nods respectfully to the titans (Sabbath, Led Zep, Obituary, Napalm Death) but the observant will catch whiffs of Yes, Amon Duul II, Voivod, Drive Like Jehu, even Codeine amid the heady themes of psychedelic sci-fi by the likes of Ursula LeGuin, NK Jemisin, Andrei Tarkovsky and Moebius. At first blush Azimuth's prog-infused melange of heavy musics may show little relation to its members' contributions to Molina's work. But the thread is clear in John Henry's refrain, or in the heavy bits on Live:Vanquishers or Mi Sei Apparso. Molina was a metalhead after all, and chose metalheads as bandmates for a reason.
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NadNavillus
Over the last several years in addition to writing and recording a new album with Arriver, Dan Sullivan has returned to his songwriting project Nad Navillus.
Released June 2023, “Forgotten Portraits” is comprised of 9 songs composed around poems written by incarcerated people, sourced from Poetry Magazine. Influences of West African desert guitar, Chicago blues, indie-folk and rock, even hypnotic 70s-prog can be heard in the diverse arrangements, complementing Sullivan’s distinctive singing voice. “Forgotten Portraits” is by turn cathartic, confessional, meditative, haunting, and raucous; with contributions from Rob Bochnik, Keith Hanlon, Glen Hansard and others, mixed by Brok Mende. The Poetry Foundation was instrumental in helping secure permission to use the poems, and 50% of proceeds of sales will be donated to the Bard Prison Initiative. A video for “Gambler’s Remorse” will debut next week.
Also available on Bandcamp are two albums of older, previously unreleased music:
“From, Then,” was written and recorded the year after Nad Navillus’s 2002 Jagjaguwar release “Iron Night”. The six songs, immaculate studio recordings made by the band after months of touring, are contemplations on faith and conflict, reflecting the political climate of the early 2000s.
As the title suggests, “No Voice” is collection instrumental tracks and includes original solo-acoustic compositions, Reich/Glass-inspired electric minimalism, and a vocal-less version of “Show Your Face”, the title track from Nad Navillus’s 2000 debut on Jagjaguwar.
Sullivan has plans to continue writing, recording and performing as Nad Navillus with more releases planned for spring 2024.
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Thousand Arrows
Finally, we leave you with these lovely words from Pete Schreiner of Thousand Arrows.
Riding with Jason Molina’s Ghost
Was I riding shotgun with the ghost or was the Ghost riding shot for me? Thousand Arrows’ four albums, one EP and three singles may not have existed were it not for Jason Molina. As Jmo took turns driving and wending tales on our early tours, I’d administer the bent up road atlas and secretly scribble my lyrics from the passenger side.
By the time I started playing with Jason Molina in 2002, I had only written a few songs I was confident enough of to play for people. A handful for The Coke Dares, one or two for Sway Kiss, some small contributions in Panoply Academy and Turn Pale - but not that many.
I was already a Molina fan and first remember seeing songs:ohia perform at Ativin’s house in Bloomington, Indiana. One of my bands (Intro to Airlift or Panoply Academy) would have also played. I was always floored by the minimalism at play with Jason’s songs and recordings - what he could capture and translate across the recording and playback was astonishing in terms of raw emotion coming through the frequencies.
I started recording in middle school on a boombox and already sort of knew how to get a DIY recording to sound pretty good, but Jmo was releasing his recordings on Secretly Canadian - a major label in Bloomington ca. 2002. Jason obviously had an amazing magical gift for lyricism and storytelling, and for accompanying himself on guitar or keyboard. He also had a special way of recording himself that embraced the physical space and time he found himself in at the moment.
Working with Jason for a decade, I learned to lean into the particularities, and especially the anomalies, of the recording session - the room, the players, the instruments and the machines transcribing the music...expertise or ability didn’t matter as much as grit, empathic playing and hanging in there. It was the punk/DIY ethic at its core. If the take wasn’t 100% technically correct it wasn’t an issue. Did you get the magic?
My first session with Jmo was with Jim Zespy in Bloomington. Jason put a blanket over the drums, which we had already built a tent around. I met Mike Bridavsky through Zespy and I recorded my first two releases at Mike’s original location of Russian Recording in Nashville, Indiana (Jason and some of the Magnolia Electric Co. band recorded a few songs in this location, and later at the current location, for MECo’s It’s Made Me Cry 7”). Thousand Arrows’ When I Go 7” and self-titled first album came from my first sessions with Mike, and many of my amazingly talented friends played on both releases.
When I got the mixes for my first album I was equally excited and nervous to give Jmo a CDR. He was really encouraging, telling me anyone could write a good song but that I had made a
good album. It meant a lot and kept me working on my own “solo stuff.” I got more confident in my playing, my writing and engineering as I continued to tour and record with Jason and other groups in a range of cool studios and situations.
I picked up tips and tricks from big names at legendary studios, from reading Tape Op magazine, from recording with my friends (especially Special Guests bandmates, Josh Seib and Finn Swingley), and out of pure necessity. I love working within limitations to maximize the impact of whatever session is at hand. With that in mind I kept on recording and continued to put out small DIY releases as I traveled and worked with Jason and the band.
I didn’t pursue a record label very hard, continuing to self release records as a means to support tours and the urge for artistic expression. So my small releases were filed away and not very accessible beyond the few physical copies and Bandcamp. So when Chris Swanson from St. Ives & Secretly Canadian offered to help get my catalog onto the wider platforms, I was nervous, excited and humbled. As I listened back through my songs at this distance I was pleasantly surprised to learn that most, maybe all of them stand up. There are a few choices I’d make differently now, but overall I’m proud to have had these tunes come through me, and grateful that something compelled me to bring them out.
Part of that something was the rich musical camaraderie that drove the Bloomington music scene and the underground nationwide DIY network that we’d become a part of. Another part was working with Jmo and observing his constant output and organic musical decision making. I hope I did Jason proud with some of my songs and that you will find something special in one if you’ll have a listen. Thank you to St. Ives, all of my extended musical family, and Jmo - for bringing me into your circles, stoking my musical fires and for sharing yours with me.
Pete
September 13, 2023
Thousand Arrows music is now available on streaming platforms for the first time via Ben & Chris Swanson’s micro-label St Ives