Transmissions From The Molinaverse - November 25th
A regular update on all things JM
The last ever full band Magnolia Electric Co. show in Istanbul, fall 2009.
Photograph via Aylin Gungor
“I have something that I am pretty sure would be way too out-there to be on an album.”
Hey everyone,
Hope all’s good with you.
Back with you a little sooner than expected with a quick roundup of a handful of things we thought worth sharing with you all. There’s some nice words sent over to us by Jeremy of Temporary Residence Ltd on the ‘Travel In Constants’ EP, a little insight into some music we’ve been sharing recently, and then also some recommended watching and reading worth your time over the next few days.
Hope you all have a great week, however you’re spending it.
All the best,
S&D x
First things first, we mentioned some time last month that Temporary Residence Ltd have announced a beautiful repressing of Songs: Ohia’s ‘Travel In Constants’ EP on opaque yellow colored vinyl.
In lieu of that, we’ve since been chatting to Jeremy from Temporary Residence who has kindly sent us some context on the Travel In Constants series and his memories of Jason recording the EP:
Travels In Constants was conceived as a CD subscription series back in the late 1990s. This was, of course, when CDs were the dominant format for music, long before any online formats and long after vinyl had been pronounced “dead.” The concept of the series was to focus on the theme of distance and travel. This was sort of an evolutionary step from an earlier compilation series that I’d made called Sounds of the Geographically Challenged (for which Songs: Ohia also contributed a track). Rather than compilations, the Travels In Constants series would give each artist their own CD to an boundless creative control to produce a work inspired by distance and travel.
When I invited Jason to participate, he agreed without hesitation, and with a half-smile remarked “I have something that I am pretty sure would be way too out-there to be on an album.”
He was living in Chicago at the time, and he’d set up a 4-track recorded in his living room to document demos and sketches and various ephemera. It was the same setup that yielded his two Black Sabbath covers (which he’d originally recorded for a Black Sabbath tribute album that we would release without him after he decided that his tracks weren’t “up to par” with the rest of the compilation – a sentiment that I vehemently reject to this day). Anyways, what he ended up turning in for his Travels In Constants was a slow-burning meditation that still stands as one of my all-time favorite Jason Molina works.
Decades later when Temporary Residence Ltd. was preparing to celebrate its 20th Anniversary in 2016, we decided that a vinyl reissue of Travels In Constants was a perfect way to honor the occasion. It sold out fairly quickly back then, and has been out-of-print on vinyl for several years now. As we approach our 30th Anniversary (what is time?), it felt like a fine time to bring it back on a new color. That color, Opaque Yellow, was chosen by Darcie Molina.
‘Travel In Constants’ is now shipping, and you can order directly from the label here:
https://www.temporaryresidence.com/products/trr246
Meanwhile, over on the S&D paid subscriber tier, we’ve been continuing to share some unreleased recordings from the archive. Most recently, we've shared the first track of two from this tape of Songs: Ohia demos, featuring two loose original tracks, titled 'The Ticket Home' and 'The Blinding Dark'. Coincidentally, it’s interesting that Jeremy mentions Jason recording ‘Travel In Constants’ during his time in Chicago, as these demos were very likely recorded there too.
Head here to check out the first track:
Elsewhere, later this week marks 21 years since Magnolia Electric Co performed this show at Philadelphia's First Unitarian Church, PA, on a 2003 fall tour ⚡️🍂
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Footage via Banchee2006 (youtube)
Finally, thank you to subscriber Josh Smith for alerting us to this really great read on ‘Pyramid Electric Co’, written by Colin Reed Moon.
In particular we really loved and felt this quote:
“Molina gives us a gift: he makes us observers of the world in a way we’ve never been before. For forty-one and a half glorious minutes, we become aware that the beauty of the minuscule is also the beauty of the infinite, and we weep with it.”
Be sure to read the whole thing here:
