Transmissions From The Molinaverse - March 26th
A regular update on all things JM
Photograph by Joe Blanchard
Hi everyone,
Hope you’re all doing well.
We’re back again today with a bumper edition, rounding up some interesting bits and pieces that have caught our collective interest over the past couple of weeks. Today we recommend some new music releases and Molina covers, dig into some notable show and album anniversaries, recommend some reading, along with highlighting our ongoing series The Archive Tapes where we’ve been putting out some of the unreleased music and demos Jason left in the archives at Secretly.
Hopefully you enjoy reading, and as always if there’s something you’d like to share with us here, please do in contact either by replying to this email or alternatively find us at Molina@secretlycanadian.com.
All the best,
S&D x
From the archives…
The Archive Tapes
On the paid tier of S&D of late we’ve been continuing our series The Archive Tapes, where we’ve been busy sharing some unreleased music recorded throughout Jason’s life and career. As we’ve previously stated, this is not the end of JM releases on streaming or through download / vinyl but is an additional space where we can regularly share these raw, intimate recordings with Jason's fans.
Jason left over 300 tapes in the archive at Secretly and we've long been trying to figure out the best way to share some of this collected work. Thus far, this series has felt like a really nice way of doing that, and we’ve also loved hearing how many of you have been connecting with these songs.
We’ve had a really great response to the latest tape we’ve just been working our way through, which we estimate to be from early 2002 and the beginnings of the Magnolia Electric Co. era.
Check out The Archive Tapes here:
Recommended Listening
Cumulus - ‘Lose Your Mind’
We recently came across some nice new music from Seattle’s Cumulus. The songwriting project of musicians Alexandra Lockhart and William Cremin, Cumulus have recently announced their fourth LP We’ve Got It All which arrives on April 18th via Share It Music. Alexandra has often referenced Jason as a big influence on their work, as seems to be the case again here:
“Written in between long drives and voice memos, solo walks in the woods, and writing sessions in a cozy Seattle basement practice space, We’ve Got It All is a reflection on the most important things in life that carry us through the most difficult times. It is songs inspired by childhood friendships, a hello from a neighbor, bookish escapes, winding highways, family connection, and of course, always, music. In the vein of Lockhart’s biggest songwriting inspiration Jason Molina when he said “The real truth about it is no one gets it right /The real truth about it is we're all supposed to try…” the song “Boxes and Letters” holds the thesis statement and titular line of the record: “Take a deep breath of the cold air and watch the leaves fall, for a minute we’re pretending- we’ve got it all- figured out.””
You can listen to latest single Lose Your Mind and pre-order the album below:
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Will Johnson - ‘All Dragged Out’
Elesewhere, last week Jason’s collaborator and friend Will Johnson shared the second single from his forthcoming album Diamond City which arrives on April 4th via Keeled Scales, the excellent All Dragged Out - “a song that is both lonely and hopeful, with a Casio rhythm section to boot” .
Here’s a description of the record that may appeal to many of you, as it definitely does to us:
“In the tradition of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska, Neutral Milk Hotel’s On Avery Island, or PJ Harvey’s 4-Track Demos album, Diamond City comes with an understanding that rock songs are sometimes more interesting, powerful, and dateless in their rawest, initial form.”
You can pre-order the album from Will’s bandcamp here:
This month in Molina…
Every year, March always seems to be an incredibly busy month in terms of notable dates when looking back through all our archives and anniversaries of live shows and recordings…
Shows
We’ve previously pointed to some great early Songs: Ohia footage from March shows like this 1998 house show and this one in Columbia, SC, however this time around we remembered this particular recording from a later show on March 16th 2003 at Rubber Gloves, Denton TX. Part of a 2003 Songs: Ohia Winter/Spring tour, this one landed at that very tail end of the S:O era where in some senses at the same time it’s also really the crossover and birth of Magnolia Electric Co.
We particularly love Jason’s performance of ‘Whip-Poor-Will’ in this:
Album anniversaries
March is also always a very busy month of Molina-related album anniversaries. Here’s a quick roundup!
1st March, 1999 - this day 26 years ago in 1999, saw the release of Songs: Ohia's The Ghost
4th March, 2003 - On this day 22 years ago in 2003, The Magnolia Electric Co. was released:
5th March, 2002 - this day 23 years ago saw the release of Songs: Ohia’s Didn’t It Rain:
15th March, 1999 - on this day 26 years ago in 1999, Songs: Ohia's Axxess & Ace was released:
Recommended Reading
Blue Factory Flame: Jason Molina’s Influence Upon Internal Doubt
“By the time his voice dissolves into my snow-lined driveway, I feel like I have an inky evaporation steaming from my floured shoulders into the frigid night air. In this sense, I think what Molina’s discography particularly offers is a refuge to cherish our dread. Allowing space for my nuanced thoughts to come to the surface of my mind without judgment is a sweet release. I also use the word cherish because his music is enchanting. The temperature of his voice and guitar echoes the sort of twisted glory there is in feeling the spectral sides of ourselves. What fascinates me about experiencing these morose states through Molina’s music is the forgiveness and, in turn, self-acceptance that can be fostered by embracing our internal burial ground. Molina’s continuous devotion to configuring his fears and dreams into a common message of perseverance continues to be a lighthouse, or rather, a blue factory flame, for individuals seeking solace from the invisible.”
Over the past few days we stumbled across this recent written piece by writer Liam Nigro, cataloging his discovery of Jason’s music and describing the ways in which he connected personally to a selection of songs from across Jason’s discography.
You can read the whole piece via Fourteen East Mag here: https://fourteeneastmag.com/index.php/2025/03/14/blue-factory-flame/
The Covers
Slaughter Beach, Dog covers ‘Just Be Simple’
Finally, here’s something from all the way back in 2018 we’ve recently rediscovered…
Over this way we’ve been big fans of Philadelphia’s Slaughter Beach, Dog for a little while now. The indie-folk-rock project helmed by Jake Ewald (also of Modern Baseball) have been consistently putting out great records for several years, and Jake himself has cited Jason as an influence on his writing at various points. In the early Bandcamp release days of the project, Jake recorded a studio cover of ‘Just Be Simple’ which has since been taken down. However, we recently remembered this acoustic session version he also recorded back in the day. Check it out here:
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Finally, you may remember Julien Baker & Torres covering a small snippet of ‘Farewell Transmission’ during the pair’s Mercury Lounge NYC shows last year. They’ve since continued to include this section in subsequent live appearances, including this SXSW Luck Reunion show earlier this month:
Magnolia Electric Co.