Molina & Johnson, The Echo Lab studio, Denton TX 2008 - Photograph by Matt Pence
Hey everyone,
Hope you’re all well & happy thanksgiving to those of you celebrating this week.
We’ve got a bit of a theme today as November marks the anniversary of a bunch of releases that Jason had a hand in bringing to life in some way or another.
There are no doubt some one-off / tour releases etc we have missed here but here’s a little run down of some records that came out in November across the years. We’ve included a snippet of Secretly’s original promo copy with each of these too.
Happy listening.
All the best,
S&D
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Ghost Tropic - 14th November, 2000
“The sound movement on GHOST TROPIC will seem sudden to some; without warning. To others, it’ll seem a very logical step in a very foreign direction. On its fifth proper full-length, Songs: Ohia has stepped outside the box and has delivered its most subtle record of fantastic depth to date. Indeed this is the most cohesive and “album-like” Songs: Ohia has ever been. The eight songs on the record sprawl out into one another, telling one long sonic tale, allowing very little room for chapter breaks or piss stops. In this regard, Lou Reed’s moody classic BERLIN comes to mind as a worthy fore-bearer. But it’s the strange ethnic flavor in which GHOST TROPIC is steeped that makes it stand apart from its predecessors, albums which were all received as crossing guards for the Great American lost highway.”
Links to listen ⬇️
Spotify | Secretly | Apple Music | Amazon Music
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Molina & Johnson - 2nd November, 2009
“Consider the collective catalogs of these two prolific masters of the new American folk songcraft: Magnolia Electric Co., Centro-matic, Songs: Ohia, South San Gabriel. Now, let’s just be honest. A little bit of artistic ego and one-upsmanship can serve a greater purpose. In this collaboration between Jason Molina and Will Johnson, each seem to hold the other’s talents to the fire and elevate both performance and creativity. In the friendly sharing of ideas, Molina and Johnson become two poets’ poets in a workshop to craft a singular, searing elegy.
Each artist’s familiar aesthetics and production styles find a new, intriguing middle ground on Molina and Johnson. Molina’s documentarian, record-the-room-as-it-is ethos finds a home in Johnson’s subtle atmospherics and production tweaks; and Molina’s powerful tenor croon finds a fitting dance partner in Johnson’s equally moving soft-gravel vox. While the individual performances from each are stunning in their own right, the musical mind meld that was captured is absolutely the occasion it should be. It was magic and, thankfully, captured for all of us to relive and enjoy.”
Links to listen ⬇️
Spotify | Secretly | Apple Music | Amazon Music
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The Black Sabbath Covers - 24th November, 2017
“Recorded in the Midwest in the late ’90s, the intimate takes on these songs serve as bittersweet artifacts of the late singer-songwriter, as well as an ode to Molina’s longtime love of metal. Here, he takes Black Sabbath’s songs and makes them singularly Molina, his own personal and artistic mythology looming large over visceral, brooding tracks.
Molina extracts Ozzy Osbourne‘s cooed vocals and transforms it into his signature high and lonesome sound, an eternal campfire howler on “Solitude,” from 1971’s Master of Reality. On “Snowblind,” taken from 1972’s Vol. 4, the influence of Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi on Molina’s catalogue of work suddenly becomes obvious. Side B of the 7″ features an etching of a black ram by longtime Molina album artwork artist, William Schaff.”
Links to listen ⬇️
Spotify | Secretly | Apple Music | Amazon Music
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Goshen Electric Co. - 7” - 2nd November, 2018
“Today, Goshen Electric Co. which features Strand of Oaks’ Tim Showalter at the helm of the Magnolia Electric Co.band, releases a 7-in. featuring re-workings of Jason Molina’s songwriting: “The Gray Tower” b/w “Ring the Bell.” The digital version also includes an extended, nine-minute version of “Ring the Bell.”
Accompanying the single’s release is the official video for B-side “Ring the Bell,” filmed in the studio. “Ring the Bell,” recorded in its first take, features a roaring guitar line butting against its steady drumbeat, a twinge of psychedelia, and thrums with – in Showalter’s own words – “pure vibe.” Showalter’s wail recalls Molina’s somber, choir-boy croon, just roughened with sandpaper.”
Links to listen ⬇️
Spotify | Secretly | Apple Music | Amazon Music
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Love & Work: The Lioness Sessions’ - 23rd November, 2018
“The Lioness is the first Jason Molina project to fully turn away from the battlefield folk and deconstructed Americana of earlier Songs: Ohia recordings. At the dawn of the 21st century, the album felt modern. It aligned Molina with a new set of peers — Low, Gastr del Sol, Red House Painters and, most importantly, the influential Scottish band Arab Strap, whose producer and members were crucial in the creation of The Lioness. The avant-garde tones and arrangements of Arab Strap are absorbed here into Molina’s songwriting to create what would become, for many acolytes, the archetypal Songs: Ohia sound. Love & Work: The Lioness Sessions, the box set reissue, will serve as the seminal log of the era, complete with lost songs, photos, drawings, and essays from those who knew Molina best.
Off the bat, The Lioness can be tricky listen. Doom-y elements abound — the chord choices, the guitar tones and the molasses movement of it all. But rather than an album about wrestling some inner darkness, this is a man finding new love. Newly fallen for the woman who would ultimately become his wife, here Molina crafted songs about submission and the rapture of submission. By the time we get to “Being In Love,” the ice has fully melted off a once frozen heart: “Being in love/Means you are completely broken/Then put back together/The one piece that was yours/Is beating in your lover’s breast/She says the same thing about hers.” It is the first — and likely best — love song of the new millennium. It remains stunning that this song, poetically on the level of William Carlos Williams and sonically both industrial and hymn-like, was penned by a 26 year old. It is a crucial piece of the modern lover’s musical lexicon.”
Links to listen ⬇️