the cover artwork for jason molina’s “pyramid electric co” album has appeared on the secretly canadian website. currently schedule for a january 2004 release, songsohia.com should have a detailed page, including tracklist and lyrics, up very soon.

just back from spain, the magnolia electric co. is getting ready to hit the road for two weeks in november. the band this time: jason molina (guitar, vox), jason groth (guitar), pete schreiner (bass), mark rice (drums), mike brenner (lap steel), michael kapinus (keys, trumpet), and jenny benford (vox, mandolin, guitar). when the tour ends in chicago, the same group will head into electrical audio to record with steve albini.

some german promoters have mistakenly announced that songs: ohia/magnolia electric co. will be supporting arab strap on a number of dates over the next week. now that the band is back in the states, these are definitely not happening.

spanish label acuarela records just got back a supply of old out of print titles from a distributor, including copies of songs: ohia’s “our golden ratio” ep. they only have a small quantity, here’s your one chance to avoid ebay prices..

the magnolia electric co. will be heading into electrical audio in mid-november to record with steve albini. currently scheduled to be part of the session are jason molina, jennie benford, mike kapinis, mike brenner, mark rice, pete schreiner, and jason groth.

the magnolia electric co. will be taking on spain and portugal for two and a half weeks in october. see the tour dates page for more specifics. hitting the road will be jason molina, pete schreiner, mike kapinis, jason groth, mike brenner, and mark rice (aka, the band that will be going into the studio in november, minus jennie benford)

first the bad news- the release of jason molina’s “pyramid electric co.” lp has been pushed back to january 2004. as for the good news, each copy of the lp will contain a cd version of the album. the cd will not be available separately and the lp will be priced as a standard lp. the pressing is looking to be somewhere in the realm of 4-5 thousand.

details are not confirmed yet, but there are currently plans for four (!) tours in the fall.
- september should see shows in indiana, ohio, pennsylvania, west virginia, virginia, north carolina, south carolina, tennessee, georgia, lousianna and first ever show(s) in florida.
- the first half of october will most likely have the band in spain and portugal.
- early november is looking to cover the northeastern u.s.
- and the first two weeks of december will cover the mid-western u.s.
this is still unconfirmed, more details and a precise itinerary when they’re available.

jason molina and the magnolia electric co. have a lone date scheduled for july as part of the more than music festival on july 12th in columbus, ohio. also scheduled to appear over the two days- bonnie prince billy, young people, hrvatski, devendra banhart, and the evolution control committee (as well as about 30 other groups)…

no specifics concerning studio, producer, or players have been announced, but time has been left open in november to record the next electric co. lp.

during their european tour, songs: ohia took a day or so to accept an invitation to record an “in the fishtank” session. presumably it will see release via konkurrent at some point in the future, although no details are available at this time. previous fishtank sessions have featured guv’ner, june of 44, and paired low with the dirty three as well as tortoise with the ex. songs: ohia’s session was recorded on their own.

pyramid electric co. is set for release on august 19th via secretly canadian. it will be a vinyl-only release of a couple thousand and was recorded in late 2001 with mike mogis. it will be available through regular distribution channels, so it will be in your finer record stores as long as it is in print.

the limited edition cd version of magnolia electric co. is sold out in most places (although scattered copies were still around your better indie record stores last month). the bonus demo cd is included with every vinyl copy of the album, available from secretly canadian.

the demo cd tracklist:
1. the long dark blues
2. just be simple
3. the old black hen
4. i made the change
5. peoria lunchbox blues
6. whip-poor-will
7. the big game is every night
8. hold on magnolia
9. you can’t save everything

the japanese version of magnolia electric co. (on p-vine) contains one bonus track, “the big game is every night”. this version is different than the demo version- it was recorded with the full magnolia band during the album sessions. it is available at amazon.co.jp. the link is for the japanese version- they also carry the american version so make sure you order the correct one.

pyramid electric co. will be released as a vinyl only edition of a couple thousand this summer (june/july?). this was a session that jason recorded solo in late 2001 with mike mogis.

thanks to everyone who has voiced support for the site, i’m still trying to get everything together and it’s rather rough around the edges. but i figured too much time had gone by as it was and it was time to put up what i had… if you have any comments or want to contact me, i can be reached at ned@noloveforned.com.

i should also mention that i am not affiliated with songs: ohia or secretly canadian and thus do not have promotional copies to send out to your zine or radio station. contact secretly canadian for that.