and now you don’t need to put pants on to procure your copy of the upcoming magnolia electric co. ep. you can now purchase the “hard to love a man” ep directly from secretly canadian.

well whadayaknow! it’d seem that the upcoming ep (due out october 11th) is already in the hands of the band and can be procured from them at any of the shows over the next month or so… as a reminder, it features three non-album tracks recorded in april and a cover of warren zevon’s “werewolves of london” recorded in fall 2003.

the summer release date might have been a bit ambitious, but details are now out for the “hard to love a man” ep… secretly canadian has it scheduled for an october 11th release (cd only, no 10″ was mentioned)… four original tracks (most of them previewed over the past three months of touring) and their cover of warren zevon’s “werewolves of london” that you might remember from the tour two years ago…

before heading out on tour earlier this month, magnolia electric co. stopped by echo park studios in bloomington to record a new ep. right now it looks like it’ll be released by secretly canadian on cd and 10″ in july, just in time for them to head out on the road for more north american dates…

the huge tour in support of “what comes after the blues” begins tonight and if the three months worth of tour dates aren’t enough for you, you’re in luck. magnolia electric co. will return to the road in early august, after a short respite from their european tour (and a one-off show in chicago in july to play the intonation festival on the 16th or 17th). a rather extensive canadian tour followed by u.s. dates will keep them on the road until october.

after the successful reissue campaign for the first three (secretly canadian released) songs: ohia full lengths in fall ‘04, summer ‘05 will bring us the following three full-lengths. july 5th brings the vinyl re-releases of “ghost tropic”, “didn’t it rain” and “magnolia electric co.” no official word on whether the m.e.c. lp will contain the bonus demos cd in this new pressing, but i’m guessing no.

secretly canadian now has what comes after the blues available for pre-order… both the cd and lp are shipping now, so you can have yours in-hand a month before it hits stores…

initial dates for the european tour this summer have been announced and they include visits to the uk, sweden, norway and all sorts of mainland europe locales… check the tour dates section. if you don’t see your town mentioned yet don’t worry, there are more dates to come!

the title pretty much says it all- the new magnolia electric co. studio album will be called “what comes after the blues” and be released on april 5th, 2005 on both cd and lp by secretly canadian. many of the tracks have been played on tour over the past two years but only two appear on the just-released “trials and errors” live album (which is almost out of print, btw!)

jason molina will be part of a bill at the knitting factory in nyc this valentine’s day celebrating the release of “isn’t it romantic” (the poetry book that included a compilation featuring a magnolia electric co. track). also on the bill music-wise are mighty flashlight, mark mulcahy, megan reilly and lo fine. there will also be readings from a number of poets featured in the book.

the touring schedule for the first four months of 2005 is firming up- european dates are still to come. there will be two record release shows, the first for the “trials and errors” live album on january 15th in bloomington and the second for the new studio album on april 9th in chicago. see the tour dates page for more details…

as promised a couple weeks ago, secretly canadian is now selling both the cd and 2xlp version of the new live magnolia electric co. album “trials and errors”, recorded a year and a half ago in belgium.

“trials and errors”, the live magnolia electric co. release will be widely available on both cd and 2xlp this winter through secretly canadian. i don’t believe the cd will be included with the lp as rumored. don’t pay lots of money for this on ebay- it will be readily available if you just wait a month or two…

following up on news from last spring, “isn’t it romantic: 100 love poems by young american poets” is now available from verse press. this poetry anthology include a compilation with the new magnolia electric co. song “down the wrong road both ways”. other musicians appearing on the cd include richard buckner, vic chesnutt, nanang tatang (ida), david berman (silver jews), and many more. (ps. it turns out that amazon has it for much cheaper)

the first of the tour dates for the december chilly states tour are now available on the tour dates page… i’ll be updating as i get more details and/or dates.

so word is that “trials and errors” met up with the band in philly last night in cd form. i’m not quite sure what happened, as all previous reports mentioned it being a 2xlp (with the possibility of a cd inside, pyramid electric style)… in any case, it should be available at the rest of the shows this month.

the limited edition live 2xlp now has a name and formal release date (when it will appear in finer shops around the world)- it’ll be called “trials and errors” and make it’s way out on january 18th, 2005. it should be available at some point on the tour, though probably not the beginning of the tour. the new studio album (which is still without a definitive title) is scheduled to hit the shelves in early april.

there’s a tour of the northern u.s. in the works for the holiday shopping season (post-thanksgiving through mid-december) as the magnolia train pulls into chilly cities that start with a “d” or “m” like des moines, duluth, minneapolis, milwaukee, moorhead, and madison… then in april there will be a more extensive u.s. tour to coincide with the release of the new album… nothing is finalized (so some of those cities listed might not happen) if you have suggestions or want to set up a show, contact the kork agency usa. june will find the band in europe trying to hit all the stops- scotland, ireland, england, belgium, holland, germany, russia, spain, italy… prague, zagreb and a short scandanavian jaunt are also possibilities… again, there are no definites and if you want to help make something happen contact the kork agency europe a.s.a.p.

word on the street is that while magnolia electric co. will still be playing bloomingtonfest this weekend they will NOT be covering warren zevon’s “excitable boy” in its entirety as previously reported. they’ve been playing plenty of other great covers this summer though, so there may be another surprise or two in store yet…

magnolia electric co. has been tapped to play this year’s bloomingtonfest on august 28th. to celebrate the occasion, they’ll be playing warren zevon’s “excitable boy” album from start to finish. some of you might have heard them cover “werewolves of london” on the tour last fall… well i can pretty much guarantee you’re going to hear it again at this show! lots of other great bands are playing including- br. danielson, early day miners, windsor for the derby, the coke dares, the dirty projectors, elephant micah, fruit bats, the impossible shapes, joan of arc, the microphones/mt. eerie… you get the idea…