Tribute albums are a strange undertaking, funny to love something so well then want to change it, to interpret it for yourself. Anyone who has ever performed or recorded someone else’s song understands that to cover a song is to find some way in, deeper than you could from just listening; it’s a way of knowing a song intimately, to make it your own and to love it.
Jason Molina’s songs seem so passionately torn from his very heart in such a way as to make us smell the fleshy vitality. They are small and personal, as though a tiny secret whispered in our ears, yet speak to such enormous truths and overarching perceptions. They revealed an author in ways we might not even come to know ourselves. To hear Jason’s albums is to understand and fully believe his authenticity.
No one is under the impression they’re going to improve on the genuine article but with these songs we say, “Thanks for showing us what you saw, what you felt. We see it and we feel it and we fucking agree. With the whole of our hearts. Thank you, Jason, for the beauty you brought to this world.”
LP1 side A
1. Peter Hess & Eoin Russell Tenskawatawa (3:07)
2. Guy Capecelatro III Soul (5:53)
3. Annie Fleming & Viking Moses Farewell Transmission (7:30)
4. Bob Corn & Matteo Uggeri Lioness (4:23)
5. Paul Watson North Star Blues (4:05)
LP1 side B
6. Tiger Saw Being in Love (3:15)
7. The Black Hare Ocean’s Nerve (4:50)
8. Jesse Poe, Peter Hess & Joel Hamburger Just be Simple (4:06)
9. Marissa Nadler It’s Easier Now (3:48)
10. Stephen Bartolomei Long Desert Train (7:28)
LP2 side A
1. Nad Navillus Be Your Own Guide (4:23)
2. The Verms Impulse (Declarer) (2:47)
3. Mara Flynn Calling Bird (3:30)
4. Jesse Rifkin The Body Burned Away (4:13)
5. Brendan Quinn There Will Be Distance (6:41)
LP2 side B
6. Sharron Kraus Ring the Bell (5:58)
7. Thalia Zedek Band Hold On Magnolia (7:33)
8. Jason Anderson The Dark Don’t Hide It (2:38)
9 . Small Sur Two Blue Lights (2:58)
10. Jesse Poe, Thalia Zedek and The Static & Distance Band I Can Not Have Seen the Light (3:43)
Two Blue Lights
Didn't It Rain is a benchmark record for me. I loved it upon first listen for how alive it felt and when I learned later on that it was actually recorded live, I was both inspired and incredibly relieved. The record I had always wanted to make had already been made. I could just enjoy it rather than worry about making it myself.
"Two Blue Lights" clocks in at just over two minutes in length, which is notable if only because the second shortest song on Didn't It Rain is just nine seconds shy of six minutes. However, its presence, harrowing, cold and almost violent in its sparseness, is felt long after the final notes ring out. I've yet to grow tired of the confused emotional state I'm left in after listening to it on repeat -- six or seven times while writing this small handful of sentences -- and I don't imagine that I ever will. RIP -Bob Keal of Small Sur
Two Blue Lights from Didn't It Rain
Performed by Small Sur
Vocals by Bob Keal
Piano by Andy Abelow
Recorded and mixed by Andy Abelow
Bio
Small Sur is a band from Baltimore, MD.
Links
Long Desert Train
Long Desert Train comes from Jason Molina's mysterious Pyramid Electric Co. album. Pyramid was recorded in my home state of Nebraska. The Pyramid sessions were alluded to in the liner notes of the first, magnificent, Magnolia Electric Co album. When I finally got ahold of the record, it sounded like a revealing of Jason's private ghost, his muse. The songs are unfiltered, sung in a stream of consciousness, and ever so spare. The echoes dwell, the sadness hangs, and yet the command and poise in Jason's voice deftly guides his listener through haunted spaces.
"Long Desert Train" hit me hardest while driving late at night from Omaha to Lincoln back in 2004. I was on my way to record guitar at the studio where Pyramid was recorded. Something about the interstate lines, the purple-black haze of the night sky, and the rhythm of the tires compelled a sort of trance. I listened to the song a few times, and felt that swell my throat. I think I even circled the studio a couple times to let the song finish and sink in.
Covering "Long Desert Train" turned out to be quite a challenge. Jason's lyrics and delivery give a sense of eavesdropping on half a conversation, listening through the walls. The cadence is so wholly his, and so for this rendition, I had to submit to it. In doing so, I'll think of it as Jason guiding me through his terrain, taking me on that long night drive once again. I'll sing along this time, still with a swell in my throat.
Stephen Bartolomei April 2014
Long Desert Train from Pyramid Electric Co.
Performed and recorded by Stephen Bartolomei
Bio
Stephen Bartolomei is a singer/songwriter/record engineer originally from Omaha Nebraska. He currently resides in New York City. Stephen's most recent album, "All The Ghosts", was released as a limited edition vinyl LP earlier this year.
Links
bartolomei.bandcamp.com
stephenbartolomei.com
The Lioness
I met Jason Molina one time. It happened in my village San Martino Spino as I booked a show for Songs: Ohia. The show was in a beautiful place named Barchessone Vecchio. The show was been recorded and became a Songs: Ohia record named "Mi sei apparso come un fantasma".
Yes, italian language! At the time my brother was constantly listening to the record "Lioness", where his favorite band Arab Strap was Jason's baking band! And I got "familiar" with those songs and with Jason's music.
So, when Jesse asked me to be part of this project I was more than happy.
I answered to him saying, that I could try to play and sing "Lioness", my favorite one. I did try and it worked out. Yes, I was able to play and sing that song! I decided to record it with Matteo Uggeri and his binaural microphones and we decide to do the recording walking around the Barchessone Vecchio, the place where Jason played that show i booked. It was a rainy day and my friend band Maybe Happy sang backing vocals. Then I recorded another version of the song with my friend Giorgio Borgatti at his house, who also did play keyboards on it.
The Lioness from The Lioness
LP version:
Bob Corn plays acoutic guitar and sings.
Giorgio Borgatti plays Rhodes.
Recorde by Giorgio Borgatti.
Digital version:
Bob Corn plays acoustic guitar and sings.
Maybe Happy sings.
Matteo Uggeri plays his microphones.
Recorded by Matteo Uggeri.
Bio:
Bob Corn is the stage name of Tiziano Sgarbi. He grew up in a little village in northern italy’s countryside where he still lives. It’s more than 15 years than he is involved in the rock music scene, doing different things: organizing shows and festivals, booking tours, driving bands around, running a little label. trying to do these things in a real d.i.y way: music and people in the first row!
He started to make his own music at the end of 2001.Simple music line with an acoustic guitar and singing words about people and love.
He likes to call his music "sadpunk".
He put out seven records three 7"split with Larry Yes , Powerdove, Movie Star Junkies, and he played more than 1000 gigs sharing the stage with unknown bands or with his favourite artists (mike watt, dinosaur jr, calvin johnson, explosions in the sky, bonnie "prince" billy, xiu-xiu, )!
Matteo Uggeri studied design in Milan and started his musical activity in 1996: over the years he worked with Italian and foreign artists exploring different musical territories, from the dark and rarefied ambient, to concrete music (with M.B. and Fhievel), to EBM (with Telepherique), to the kraut rock (with the Dutch collective De Fabriek), to electro-acoustic (with Andrea Ferraris, Andrea Serrapiglio and Mujika Easel) to folk (with Bob Corn). His main interest is by the way in field recordings and mixing techniques rather than in live music.
Beside all of this, since 2001, he constantly works on the Sparkle in Grey project, a four member band with whom he published unclassifiable and eclectic records with his own graphics artwork and drawings.
www.greysparkle.com / matteouggeri.bandcamp.com
Links
www.fooltribe.com
www.upupaproduzioni.bandcamp.com
Calling Bird
I just love the lonesome, haunting simplicity of this song...
Calling Bird from Secretly Canadian VARIOUS ARTISTS | THE UNACCOMPANIED VOICE: AN A CAPELLA COMPILATION
Performed and recorded by Mara Flynn
Bio
Mara Flynn released two albums as "Milksop Holly" (1999 and 2000 on Shimmy Disc) and has sung on albums by Guy Capecelatro III and Jad Fair. In 2011, Burst & Bloom released her debut solo album "small as a heartbeat" and her follow-up, "wide open" in the summer of 2013.
Links
http://burstandbloomrecords.com/artists/mara-flynn/
http://burstandbloom.bandcamp.com/album/wide-open
It's Easier Now
I think that Jason Molina's songs had a real purity and honesty to them that immediately grabbed the listener. This song is no exception. I'm happy to be part of this tribute to his work, so that more people in the future can discover all of the beautiful songs that he wrote.
It's Easier Now from Let Me Go, Let Me Go
Performed by Marissa Nadler
Bio
Marissa Nadler is a songwriter and musician based out of Boston. She is currently signed to Sacred Bones Records and Bella Union Records. She just released her sixth full length album, JULY, which was produced by Randall Dunn, who's worked with Earth, Wolves In The Throne Room, and many others.
http://www.marissanadler.com
https://soundcloud.com/marissanadler
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Marissa-Nadler/300932499775
https://twitter.com/marissanadler
The Dark Don't Hide It
I remember Didn't It Rain being the only thing I played in the car that Calvin Johnson approved of (he HATED the mix I made with Kyrie by Mister Mister). I remember helping Phil Elverum put in a deck at his cabin whilst chain-listening to Just Be Simple. I remember meeting the man himself in a weird Boston parking lot and wishing I could write with even a shred of his clarity and grace. Hold on, Magnolia, indeed. We'll see you on the other side.
The Dark Don't Hide It from What Comes After the Blues
Record and performed by Jason Anderson
Bio
Jason Anderson is known for being the man behind Wolf Colonel. Anderson had started up Wolf Colonel in the fall of 1996. After playing many gigs and grabbing the attention of K Records' guru Calvin Johnson, Wolf Colonel released three albums on K. Being a multi-instrumentalist, Anderson has stretched his arms to many areas, most notably he was the drummer for Yume Bitsu and the Microphones, guitarist and drummer for Calvin Johnson & the Sons of the Soil; he has accompanied Little Wings and David Dondero, and has recorded and played with Blow and Mirah. In 2004, Jason Anderson decided to release a record under his own name. Where Wolf Colonel hits on the pop/rock side of styles, Jason Anderson's New England is a much more loose, intimate affair, touching on folk and country. New England was released in March 2004 on K Records.
Links
http://jasonandersonmusic.com/
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/jason-anderson-mn0000219314/biography
Ring the Bell
I didn't know Jason Molina's work well before Jesse asked me if I would like to contribute to this album, but the high regard he was held in by my friend the artist William Schaff, who created artwork for albums by Molina and myself, meant that I leapt at the chance to listen to more of his songs.
I immersed myself in Molina's back catalogue and discovered one of the most personal and uncensored songwriters I've come across. How personal his songs are makes covering them difficult. I struggled to find a song I could prise from his grasp and make my own.
'Ring the Bell' was a song I kept coming back to. Like the serpent's eye in the song, it seemed to follow me around and draw me back in, into its odyssey.
'Ring the Bell', from Didn't It Rain
Performed and recorded by Sharron Kraus
Bio
Sharron Kraus is a singer of traditional folk songs, a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. As well as drawing on the folk traditions of England and Appalachia, her music is influenced by gothic literature, surrealism, myth and magick. Her songs tell intricate tales of rootless souls, dark secrets and earthly joys, the lyrics plucked as sonorously as her acoustic guitar.
She has released five solo albums, the first of which, ‘Beautiful Twisted’, was named by Rolling Stone in their Critics’ Top Albums of 2002. As well as her solo work, Sharron has recorded an album of traditional songs - ’Leaves From Off The Tree’ – with Meg Baird and Helena Espvall of Espers, written an album of songs to celebrate the seasons of the year – ‘Right Wantonly A-Mumming’ – which was recorded with some of England’s finest traditional folk singers including Jon Boden, Fay Hield and Ian Giles – as well as recording and performing as a duo – Rusalnaia – with Ex Reverie’s Gillian Chadwick, with Tara Burke (Fursaxa) as Tau Emerald and with Irish free-folk collective United Bible Studies.
Links
Being in Love
Jason Molina was certainly my biggest influence when I started Tiger Saw in 1999. I remember reading a review of the first Songs: Ohia record in a magazine (was it Puncture?) while spending a winter in Lawrence, KS, and it sounded intriguing. I picked it up, then the next, and then all his dozens of releases. Every Songs: Ohia release both built upon and discarded the foundation that the previous had established. It was hard to believe that each record could be better than the last. But it was. I loved the duets with Edith Frost on ‘Axxess and Aces’. The collaboration with Arab Strap and Ali Roberts on ‘The Lioness’ was so surprising and rewarding. ‘Ghost Tropic’ was initially confusing, but now it’s one of my favorites. ‘Didn’t It Rain’ is so sweet. All leading up to the ‘Magnolia Electric Co.’ album, which, to me is a perfect album. The guest singers. The amazing band. Epic arrangements. Every song hits so perfectly. I proposed a book-length analysis of the album to 33 1/3 Press series of books about albums. I think they thought it wouldn't sell enough, so the book was never written.
Personally, I was lucky to have met Jason for the first time in 1998, when Songs: Ohia was touring on the 'Impala' record. I interviewed the band for my zine. I found them all to be a lot funnier in person than their cryptic, serious music would suggest. They loved heavy metal, and were silly, ordinary guys. They loved the road, and were actually relatable. I ended up interviewing Jason four times.
Jason and I kept in touch. When I started Tiger Saw, I sent him our demo. He sent me back a hand-written note full of encouragement. I would get several notes or postcards like this over the years. I’ve always treasured them. At one point, I bought a piece of artwork from him, and he sent me two.
Tiger Saw played a few shows with Songs: Ohia and Magnolia Electric Co. The bands were always great, and Jason was always so kind and supportive to us. I’ve met some great friends through these shows. The effects my relationship with Jason have had are unquantifiable.
In 2004, we almost had a studio collaboration, but it was called off at the 11th hour due to scheduling conflicts. I had always hoped that we might get the chance to do it another time.
Jason was one of the first musicians I looked up to who would treat me as a peer, a friend, and give me the encouragement to always “work hard”, as he would sign off on his letters. His career was the one I always strived for. In my life, I’ve seen a lot of musicians die too young. This is the first to really hit me deeply on a personal level. This can only add another level of sadness to an already blue body of work.
He had been struggling with his health for the last few years, and each new year without a new release always seems off. He was so prolific, and he and his music meant so much to me. I know so many people in our community will be devastated by this loss. I don’t know what else to say, other than thank you Jason for sharing your art with us all, and for the kindness you always showed me. Rest in peace.
-Dylan Metrano, March 18, 2013
Being in Love, from The Lioness
Performed and recorded by Tiger Saw
Bio
The ever-changing collective Tiger Saw was founded in Newburyport, Massachusetts in 1999 by Dylan Metrano. Over five albums, they’ve explored a beautiful, hushed, slowcore sound; indie pop sing-alongs; and “basement soul”, a DIY take on soul / rhythm & blues. Tiger Saw has toured extensively on three continents and is known for playing unorthodox venues from beach bonfires to treetop sing-alongs, as well as basements and barrooms from coast to coast.
Links
www.tigersaw.com
(photo by Jonathan Donnell)
Constant Change (Be Your Own Guide)
I played this song many, many times with Jason, or Sparky, as I knew him, between 1999 and 2002 and it was one I always connected with. It is perfectly nostalgic and restless, never hopeless, and it almost dares you to underestimate its message: we are all on our own, and must negotiate a world where nothing is promised and everything is in flux. Our version of it appears on the live album we made in 2000, Mi Sei Apparso Come Un Fantasma. We always called it “Be Your Own Guide” (and a version with this title appears on an EP Sparky made with Ali Roberts and Will Oldham) but then for some reason it was given the title “Constant Change” for the live record. One thing in particular I love about the songs Sparky wrote in that period is how malleable they are. They could take on a very different character depending on whom was playing in the band, the mood of the audience, how much we had to drink…there was always plenty of room for me to stretch my legs on guitar and Jason was very trusting with our treatments. This version is very much my own but I like to think Sparky would approve. It was recorded by Greg Norman, who assisted on the Magnolia Electric Company session, and recorded much of my 2002 release Iron Night.
I played some of the best music of my life with Sparky, and I don’t think I really knew what it was to connect with an audience before I played with him. He was hilarious and beguiling and prolific and impossible to nail down. He is missed.
Constant Change from Mi Sei Apparso Come Un Fantasma
Performed and recorded by Nad Navillus
Bio
Dan Sullivan began performing and releasing music as Nad Navillus in 1993, eventually releasing two records on Jagjaguwar in 2001 and 2002. Around this time he was a regular touring member of Songs: Ohia, and played guitar on the 2003 release “the Magnolia Electric Company”. These days Dan lives in Chicago with his wife where he owns and operates Navillus Woodworks, a custom fabrication and furniture design business, and plays in the heavy metal/progressive band ARRIVER.
Links
www.navilluswoodworks.com
www.arriverchicago.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Sullivan_(musician)
Through the Static and Distance — The Songs of Jason Molina
1997, I was 22. Working at the Record Exchange in Blacksburg, VA. Finishing my tour of duty in that tiny town, not that I knew it at the time that I unpacked a black LP screen-printed silver; immediately intrigued. The feel of the paper. The weird tension in the nature-at-night cover image that I found myself strangely reflected in, or perhaps it was the colloquial familiarity of the title of a state that for me was shorthand for familial oppression and the sun-faded blue dugout colors of depression. I remember placing #222 of 500 on the backroom turntable while I unpacked the rest of the shipment. What was waiting was a whole new life for me. One that I still am trying to understand. Still trying to unpack.
Ten seconds clicked by and I was hooked. Rich warmth, presence, a realness of a sound sought for, not the bleak realness of inattention, but a realness of wanting to make something materially beautiful and immediate. Three seconds later that magical world was shaken by the voice of Jason Molina.
I remember glancing to my right as if he was sitting there unpacking the new arrivals with me. A voice so clear, so astute, so real, it, well, it bothered me. And it kept bothering me. I took #222 of 500 home with me to prove in the inherited high-fi of my father that this music couldn't work. Yet it only wormed deeper. Completely unstable and all over the place while honing in on deep dead center. No matter how I rolled off the bass, the deepness remained. A slow motion tornado of familiarity was turing it’s way into my life. Short phrases were becoming clear and anticipated. And in the clarity of a home built around a stereo, the reality of the voice that had startled me into purchase was beginning to undo my own ideas about things. About what a voice was. What was real. And what could be.
I don’t know what it is that made other people start to play music or to write songs, I am sure it so very different for so many; but my own take is that you hear something that you want to emulate, and somehow feel like you could maybe even touch, if only for a beautiful fleeting moment. A feeling of “that could be me”, of “I want that to me”. A challenge to be who you actually are.
Not a few months later, I’d find myself living in the middle of nowhere, cut off from unpacking new records, left to the humidity of a part of Virginia where the forests and highways met reedy tributaries to the salty coast. I had transferred what has become known as the “Black Record” to a black cassette and listened to it in my white '62 Ford Falcon nearly without stop. It’s hard to hear that record now and not hear the ambient wall of night sounds and wind split by rusty side mirrors, or remember how it gave me the courage to record my own first song. I had played my whole life, but everything that I had hoped to emulate to that point was always something unreachable, something not real, a reality I dreamed of, instead of one I could possibly be or perhaps was.
With something that looks like one candle lighting another, I wrote a song, more concerned with wanting to bring it to life than wanting to perfect it. I wanted to make it a real thing, to record it, to hear it play back to me, something that could startle me, shove a mirror to me in a dark room as if I was maybe sitting there next to myself unpacking new arrival LPs in some record store backroom.
I had nothing to record with- no mics, no cables, no gear. But Jason somehow pushed me through that, the reality he revealed told me that I didn’t need anything except me, nothing except the need to do it. So I took two landline phones and made a microphone by hanging one over a ceiling fan and then using an attachment for recording phone interviews into the second, recording the guitar and vocals through a dangling and slowly rotating landline. Who knows what happened to that cassette? God, it must have sucked, but I had been infused with the courage of a peer, so I pressed on. A few months later I’d form a band, and within another year sign to a label.
There were so many records that gave me the itch, that convinced me to bang away on my garage-sale guitar, taught me how to stand, how to dress, how to be, so many that formed me, but there was no other record that so gently and strongly put its arm around my shoulder and said, “Listen Poe, you can do this. Just do it. Don’t look, just, listen, just trust me.”
The best art is that which seems the most effortless. And as real and effortless as Jason made it seem, I can’t say I ever fully got there. I tried, but he just kept raising the bar. Like an older friend, who even though each year you add another year, is still always one ahead of you. And he always was, way ahead. Challenging me, showing the brokeness, the work, the love, the ability to love your own broken work and fold it into something lovable. Even recording his songs for this tribute, there was so much learned, the challenging lessons of his work. As the curator of this tribute, I not only had the privilege of choosing the artists who I knew would fold that work into beautiful new shapes, but also the privilege of hearing the struggle of those artists working through these songs, matching Jason’s unique phrasing, the realness, the intensity of subject, the matchless immediateness of it. The work.
“There is love and work and lover’s work.” A year later, as these LPs go to press, I feel that I couldn’t love Jason’s work anymore than I do now, and yet that I’m somehow no closer to his work now than I was on that humid summer of courage.
There are others on this record and in Jason’s life who are better fit to curate this double LP or write these liner notes than I. True friends, those who recorded with him, toured with him, played with him, knew him as a man; I only met him once. He stood in front of me in the southern parlor of a sweaty old row house in Richmond, VA where he had just played with Drunk, looking up at me with sparkler eyes, and just a few words between us, but now, after a year of laboring through this release, a decade of loving his music, of trying to pay tribute to his work, of trying to understand the loss of his voice, I can somehow only seem to see that man looking up at me, with sparkling knowing eyes, saying, “come on Poe, there’s so much work to be done.”
To Jason, thanks for letting me win.
To all of the people who made this record happen, thank you for giving yourself and your selflessness in giving it. To those who have never heard these song before, I hope our humble tribute makes you want to know why we cared so much, to understand why Captain badass burns on in all of our souls. I hope it gives you the courage to share the work of Jason Molina with others. To share it with the you that you actually are. The courage to do your own work, whatever it is and to love it. There is so very much of it to be done.
- Jesse Poe 2014
Image by Anita Sto
Declarer
A friend introduced me to Songs: Ohia and I listened to Hecla and Griper over and over again. I liked the way Jason Molina sang and played, every note so, last chance. I had a writing teacher who used to say, “If it’s not worth your life, skip it.” I thought of these songs in that way. There seemed to be nothing trivial in what he was doing.
Declarer from Hecla and Griper
Performed and recorded by the Verms
Bio
The Verms are from San Francisco, and have one batch of songs out on Burst and Bloom and another possible EP floating around virtually.
Links
http://theverms.com/
http://burstandbloomrecords.com/artists/the-verms/
The Body Burned Away
I've had insomnia for most of my life, and have sought out a number of cures. Songs: Ohia's "Ghost Tropic" was a good one, and it worked its magic on me almost every night for the better part of three years. Many of Jason Molina's records, beautiful as they were, got me a little too in touch with my own fears and sadnesses, but "Ghost Tropic" was something else entirely. It took me out of my own head and into its own magical world, somewhere in between the dark ambient of Brian Eno's "On Land" and the wistful exotica of Martin Denny's "Forbidden Island." The lyrics are a little stranger than Molina typically got, full of dream logic and almost Biblical, something like Lorca or Rimbaud. Listening now, the whole record almost feels like that one moment in "100 Years of Solitude" when Remedios the Beauty floats up to heaven in the middle of folding laundry because she is just too beautiful to exist. A very special masterpiece from a man who seemed to make nothing but masterpieces, made all the more significant to me by the fact that I've never made it all the way to the end without falling asleep.
The Body Burned Away from Ghost Tropic
Performed and recorded by Jesse Rifkin
Bio
Jesse Rifkin has released two albums of experimental folk music as The Wailing Wall, followed by one album of glammed-up prog rock with his band Jane Eyre. He is currently at work on a fourth album, the first under his own name.
Links
http://janeeyre.bandcamp.com/
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/low-hanging-fruit-bonus-version/id372282994
So You Can See To Go (There Will Be Distance)
I discovered Jason Molina's music in some ways too late, as it was in the press coverage of his death that I first heard it. In other ways it was just in time. I was in a dark place in my life, and as I dug into Jason's back catalogue, I found music that was simultaneously intensely personal, and universal. It helped. It really did.
Eventually, I became obsessed with this song in particular. The words, the unusual structure, it just wouldn't let me go.
So You Can See To Go (There Will Be Distance) from Our Golden Ratio EP
Recorded and mixed by Brendan Quinn
Performers: Brendan Quinn (Guitar, Piano, Voice, Noises)
Mark Bennet (Guitars, Drones)
Photo Credit: Guillherme Zühlke O'Connor
Bio
Brendan Quinn's preschool violin lessons metamorphosed into teenage years replete with ear-splitting electric guitar and hardcore punk. Maturity heralded an expedition into psychedelia, noise, and traditional English, Irish and American folk songs, from which he has not fully returned. His work draws upon diverse themes: the hours before dawn, outer (and inner) space, surrealism, and abstraction. Listening to his lyrics, you'll find concrete images, archetypal characters, and emotional yearning, all weaving through melodies and atmospheres both familiar and eclectic.
In addition to his solo work, Brendan is a member of psychedelic pranksters Abunai!, whose Terrastock performances have seen them traveling as far from their native Boston as London and Seattle. Abunai!’s releases have been praised by critics in publications such as Rolling Stone, Magnet, and Alternative Press. He is also the driving force behind London's Divisionists.
Now based in London, Brendan's solo recordings are created in his home studio, often with contributions from friends and fellow travelers.
Links
http://mountwatatic.bandcamp.com/
http://abunai.com/
http://www.divisionists.co.uk/bio/brendan.html
Hold On Magnolia
I was on the road and the final deadline for choosing and recording a song for this record was imminent! Me and the band listened to Jason in the van non-stop for 3 days. He wrote so many amazing songs and it was so hard to choose. The tour was almost over and I was sick as a dog. I kept coming back to "Hold on Magnolia", one of Jason's many road songs. With it's haunted lyrics and aching melody it seemed to fit our mood like a glove.
Hold On Magnolia from Magnolia Electric Co. - Magnolia Electric Co.
Performed by
David Michael Curry - viola
Mel Lederman - piano
Eric Provonsil - lap steel
Jonathan Ulman - drums
Thalia Zedek - guitar and vocals
Recorded and mixed by David Michael Curry, April 2014
Bio
Thalia Zedek is a singer and guitarist. Active since the early 1980s, she has been a member of several notable alternative rock groups, including Live Skull and Uzi both of which, according to Spin magazine, "made big noise in the underground",[1] and Come. Critic Heather Phares writes that Zedek's music can be defined by "the permanent, aching rasp in her voice, her guitar's bluesy bite, the startlingly clear-eyed lyrics about life and loss."
Links
Photo by Lana Caplan
North Star Blues
I only saw Jason once but his music moved me.
North Star Blues from What Comes After the Blues
Performed and recorded by Paul Watson and Jonathan Vassar
photo Scott Irvine
Bio
It’s no wonder that a musician born in Monkey’s Eyebrow, Kentucky, plays words like a Surrealist and cornet like he’s trying to reconcile Kurt Weill and Sonny Boy Williamson. Perhaps the place-name of origin gave Watson an inherent appreciation of irrational juxtaposition. His style can certainly be traced to his role as an implicit purveyor of avant garde experimental music in the bohemian hot house of Richmond, Virginia in the late 70’s.
Links
Orthotonics, And the Wiremen, Half Japanese, House of Freaks, FSK, Sparklehorse, Tanakh, Bee & Flower, etc, etc.
Just Be Simple
There are certain songs that just hit you in that spot that you say, “Damn did I dream that? Is that me you are talking about?”. The kind of song that jumps in your ears and replaces your own skeleton with it’s own words and sounds.
When I first heard this beautiful beautiful beautiful song, it stung straight through with a clarity of who I was, and that new skeletal presence now forever inside me just stretched a bit further than my own skin, smoothing out wrinkles and giving me growing pain aches again. I felt tight, alive, like my bones might pop through my skin.
I remember learning it on the guitar a decade ago and playing it late nights to myself, and later on at shows when I ran out songs of my own and ran into courage to try to give voice to something that has been previously put to tape perfectly. Perfectly, without a single flaw from sound to intent.
I remember wanting to do a cover of some rock ballad when I was a boy, maybe 15 or so, and a professional musician 3 times my age, admonished that if I wanted to cover a song, I should first be able to listen to it 30 times in a row without getting tired of it before I could think of sharing it with others. With this song of Jason’s, I could scrounge up an old Radio Shack endless loop cassette, put this track on there, and then drive coast to coast.
Even hearing it now (over and over) while I write this, it still gives me chills to hear Mike Brenner’s lonesome lapsteel on top of warm warble of Jim Grabowski’s Wurlitzer. Those two sounds start and you just know you are not going to be able to get away from this song. And when the words come, well, you are stretched to except who you are, how life is, and how despite ourselves, just how beautiful it can be, when we let it. Just Simply beautiful.
About the recording: I had envisioned doing a very very sparse skeletal piano version of this, and then had the fortune of meeting Peter Hess (Clarinet) from the very first Songs: Ohia record, we decided to do the track together. Peter suggested we record it at a GödelString Studio halfway between our houses in Brooklyn, with his friend Joel. When I discovered that Joel was originally a pianist on versions of early Songs: Ohia tracks that never made it to release, I knew it had to be, and turned the piano over to Joel. Joel sat down at the piano and the 3 of us hit record after a once through (well actually Stephen Bartolomei hit the record button). It was a great honor to play such a special song from such a special man, and to play it with people who had played with him, gone to school with him, etc. and even more to record it in the way that Jason would have wanted, straight to the point, sit down play it, do it, record it and if it’s good…..then share it. Thank you to Joel who recorded it and for he and Peter who played on it, wonderful to share this with you and you all.
Jesse 11/04/14
Just Be Simple from Magnolia Electric Co. — Magnolia Electric Co.
Performed Jesse Poe, Peter Hess & Joel Hamburger
Recorded by Joel Hamburger (with assist from Stephen Bartolomei) at GödelString
Bio
Jesse Poe is a singer/songwriter who led the musical collective Tanakh.
Links
Soul
As with many of the prolific artists I so love, the songs that don’t make it to albums proper often become my very favorites. When choosing a song to cover for the Jason Molina tribute, I listened to my homemade compilation of singles, b-sides and rarities: scratchy vinyl and wildly disparate recording qualities all burned to disc. I was amazed at how a song from one of his very first recordings, almost 20 years ago, could seemingly foretell such a sorrowful ending. Though so many of his songs spoke to a sadness and longing, as only a small handful of other writers could, Soul seems to capture a specificity that continually stops me cold. “I tell all my friends that I'm bound for heaven And if it ain't so, you can't blame me for living.” If there was some way for me to believe in heaven or something like heaven I’d wish that a man like Jason Molina could end up there despite the living.
Soul from Songs: Ohia Single Nor Cease Thou Never Now
Performed and recorded by Guy Capecelatro III
Bio
Guy picked up the guitar when he was 10 years old, allegedly “never getting any better at it” after 20-something years of playing. Growing up in Mamaroneck, New York, high school memories are “driving to the Bronx at lunch time for bags of crappy pot sprayed with hairspray to make it seem more bud-like.” He left that all behind in order to study philosophy at Plymouth State College. Quitting after two years, he traveled around the U.S., hitting 42 of the 50 states. He moved into Portsmouth in 1987, resuming his studies at UNH while enjoying public transportation (though he had a car) as it “provided a lot of fodder for stories because freaky people take the bus,” and graduated with his philosophy degree in 1989.
Between 1988 and the birth of his record label Two Ton Santa, Guy was in the bands Fancy Pants, Toast, Size of Guam, The Driveways, Up-a-Tree, Beekeeper, The Pants, Bob & Guy, and The Crotch Wax Menace, “and probably some others I’m forgetting as well,” he guesses.
Sometimes, it was a one- or two-gig existence for the band, sometimes not. Sometimes, it was just a matter of trading musicians in and out of bands because everyone was connected to the same people and places. He played with the country band The Buckets, now based out of San Francisco, and comprised of Ray Halliday, Mary Lou Lord and Carrie Bradley. He headed up Two Ton Santa (the band, not the label), a two bass, drums and guitar ensemble with one singer. Guy’s band Milk of Magnesia, “a psychedelic band, almost,” opened their first show at The Rat with a faux imbibing of magnesia milk, inspiring audience members to volunteer their own drinking efforts, only they swallowed the real thing, which Guy seems to think they enjoyed quite a bit.
With his ingenious talents spanning the flowerbeds and the nervously approached stage, one might never guess this songwriter/performer/landscaper also has a mean forehand in Ultimate Frisbee, once raced Motorcross bikes, and was on the wrestling team in high school. Between all that, running Two Ton Santa Records, and cameos at The Friendly Toast, he continues to write his mostly abbreviated songs, which he lovingly describes as “little story vehicles” – “like a paper boat. Sliding into the ocean. On fire.”
-The Wire
Links
http://burstandbloomrecords.com/artists/guy/
http://www.dromedary-records.com/artists/guy-capecelatro-iii
The Ocean's Nerve
Michael spent his younger days driving around in the car listening to Molina, whereas a lot of the Songs: Ohia catalogue was unfamiliar to Gemma. Ghost Tropic stood out as an obvious starting point for this project; both because of the sound of the album and the fact that Michael's friend Alasidair Roberts had played on the recordings. A further link being that Gemma had lived in and helped to build a recording studio later used by Roberts, with the community in Scotland through whom she met Jesse Poe, curator of Through the Static and Distance, who had brought Alasidair Roberts there to record with Will Oldham, Isobel Campbel, Alex Nielson and a few others. Something of the raw, fibrous spirit of the song touched us both and spoke to recently-relocated head-spaces.
The Ocean's Nerve from Ghost Tropic
Performed and recorded by Michael Tanner and Gemma Williams
Harp by Aine O'Dwyer
Bio
The Black Hare are Michael Tanner (Plinth, United Bible Studies) and Gemma Williams (Woodpecker Wooliams, Becky Becky). With Michael upping sticks and leaving his Dorset home after 15 years, and Gemma killing off her Woodpecker alter ego, the two friends braved each other's idiosyncrasies to move to a crooked, old Lewesian cottage at the foot of a South Downs' nature reserve. The Black Hare is the sound of the two finding common ground.
Links
Michael: iamplinth.bandcamp.com
Gemma: woodpeckerwooliams.com
The Ocean's Nerve
Michael spent his younger days driving around in the car listening to Molina, whereas a lot of the Songs: Ohia catalogue was unfamiliar to Gemma. Ghost Tropic stood out as an obvious starting point for this project; both because of the sound of the album and the fact that Michael's friend Alasidair Roberts had played on the recordings. A further link being that Gemma had lived in and helped to build a recording studio later used by Roberts, with the community in Scotland through whom she met Jesse Poe, curator of Through the Static and Distance, who had brought Alasidair Roberts there to record with Will Oldham, Isobel Campbel, Alex Nielson and a few others. Something of the raw, fibrous spirit of the song touched us both and spoke to recently-relocated head-spaces.
The Ocean's Nerve from Ghost Tropic
Performed and recorded by Michael Tanner and Gemma Williams
Harp by Aine O'DwyerBio
The Black Hare are Michael Tanner (Plinth, United Bible Studies) and Gemma Williams (Woodpecker Wooliams, Becky Becky). With Michael upping sticks and leaving his Dorset home after 15 years, and Gemma killing off her Woodpecker alter ego, the two friends braved each other's idiosyncrasies to move to a crooked, old Lewesian cottage at the foot of a South Downs' nature reserve. The Black Hare is the sound of the two finding common ground.
Links
Michael: iamplinth.bandcamp.com
Gemma: woodpeckerwooliams.com
Farewell Transmission
Farewell Transmission from Songs: Ohia - Magnolia Electric Co.
Performed and recorded by Annie Fleming & Viking Moses
Bio
Annie Fleming is a San Francisco-based singer who performs with the band Assateague. She makes her phonographic singing debut with this tribute to Jason Molina. Fleming's voice emotes haunting fragility and longing, as if recalling increasingly distant bygones while facing a darkened horizon.
Farewell Transmission
Jason had always been generous with his attention and other resources, giving people a chance to be seen and heard, while he himself was just making his own start. When I listen to his songs, for instance his lyric "I'm gonna help you if i can", there burns a reflection of who Jason was, and this sentiment has a profound influence on me to be more conscious and outwardly giving to others through my own growth.
-Brendon Massei of Viking Moses October 2014
Farewell Transmission from Songs: Ohia - Magnolia Electric Co.
Performed and recorded by Annie Fleming & Viking Moses
Bio
Brendon Massei is a talent developer, record producer, and songwriter who performs internationally as Viking Moses. Strongly lyrical songs are played out through tunes that flirt with pop, soul, and Americana, all strung together with a unique pulsing guitar, and by Massei's robust voice, which ebbs from delicate whispers to throaty howls.
Tenskawatawa
Peter and I hoped that a clarinet melody with pedal steel accompaniment would create a beleaguered mood reminiscent of Jason's young, self-accompanied sound. All of the early songs feel like old friends to us and when 'Citadel' (the working titles were simple like 'Vanquisher', and 'Hayfoot') was suggested we both knew it was a great choice. The measured harmony and jauntily-articulated melody is classic Songs:Ohia. The lyrics are devastating and evocative of the timeless, veristic Americana that Jason conjured, simple and profound. We wanted to record an instrumental because the missing voice hasn't fully sunk in. We rehearsed once in Peter's kitchen, played the arrangement at Jason's memorial and recorded this take soon after.
Eoin Russell 04/04/14
Tenskawatawa from Songs: Ohia Self-Titled (The Black Record)
Performed and recorded by Peter Hess (clarinet) and Eoin Russell (pedal steel)
Bio
Peter and Eoin appeared on the original recording of this song with Jason in 1997.
Tenskawatawa
Peter and I hoped that a clarinet melody with pedal steel accompaniment would create a beleaguered mood reminiscent of Jason's young, self-accompanied sound. All of the early songs feel like old friends to us and when 'Citadel' (the working titles were simple like 'Vanquisher', and 'Hayfoot') was suggested we both knew it was a great choice. The measured harmony and jauntily-articulated melody is classic Songs:Ohia. The lyrics are devastating and evocative of the timeless, veristic Americana that Jason conjured, simple and profound. We wanted to record an instrumental because the missing voice hasn't fully sunk in. We rehearsed once in Peter's kitchen, played the arrangement at Jason's memorial and recorded this take soon after.
Eoin Russell 04/04/14
Tenskawatawa from Songs: Ohia Self-Titled (The Black Record)
Performed and recorded by Peter Hess (clarinet) and Eoin Russell (pedal steel)
Bio
Peter and Eoin appeared on the original recording of this song with Jason in 1997.
Peter— What I do. I play saxophones, clarinets, flutes and percussion. I write music. I arrange and orchestrate. I try not to put music into boxes but I play jazz and new music, experimental and improvised music, new classical music, Balkan and rock music. I perform with many different groups, and play horns and more on records and soundtracks for all sorts of people. In my studio I track winds for television, web, theater and film, including HBO’s Bored to Death, Make ‘em Laugh on PBS, MTV’s Road Rules, and a half dozen indie films. See the music and discog pages for more information about the bands I play with and the records I’ve made with them.
• soprano, alto, C melody, tenor and baritone saxophones
• Bb, A, G, Eb, bass and contra-alto clarinets
• flute, alto flute, piccolo
Peter Hess has lived in Brooklyn since 1997, and plays saxophones, clarinets, and flute. He is a member of ASM, the World/Inferno Friendship Society, and co-leads Guignol. He can be heard on over twenty recent jazz and independent rock releases, including records by Balkan Beat Box, James "Jabbo" Ware, Songs;Ohia, Big Lazy, Amy Kohn, World/Inferno, and the late Canto-pop superstar Roman Lo.
Links
http://peterhessmusic.tumblr.com/
I Can not Have Seen the Light
This track is group effort and the last track of the Double LP. The artists involved in the tribute wanted to contribute something very special by joining together in harmony with each other. A farewell song sung together.
Farewell Sparky, you are missed.
I Could not Have Seen the Light from Magnolia Electric Co.— What Comes After The Blues
Performed by Jesse Poe, Thalia Zedek and The Static & Distance Band
Recorded by the artists and mixed by Stephen Bartolomei
Burst & Bloom
Burst & Bloom is a small record label and press based in Portsmouth, NH. Since 2009, we've had over 35 releases, including albums and books by Hello Shark, Tiger Saw, Guy Capecelatro III, Mara Flynn, Audrey Ryan, and more. Burst & Bloom is committed to helping foster creativity and community with its artists throughout New England and beyond.
https://www.facebook.com/burstandbloom
HAINT RECORDS
Haint Records is a vinyl label started by Jesse Poe and Kevin Ley. Through the Static and Distance: Songs of Jason Molina, a joint release with Burst & Bloom, is the first of their releases. A number of coming releases in 2015 will range from remastered 78’s collections, unreleased modern classical, reissues of hard to find LPs from the 90’s. For more information about Haint or submission please contact us directly at: jessewpoe @ gmail.com
Magnolia Electric Co. - Magnolia Electric Co.
Released 3/04/03
Secretly Canadian, SC076
Available as CD/LP
Tracks 1 and 3 from this record were paid tribute here on Through the Static and Distance: Songs of Jason Molina
1. Farewell Transmission performed by Annie Fleming & Viking Moses
3. Just Be Simple performed by Jesse Poe, Peter Hess & Joel Hamburger
For more information on this amazing record please visit here.
Songs: Ohia - Didn’t It Rain
Released: 3/05/02
Secretly Canadian, SC065
Available on CD/LP
Tracks 3 and 6 from this record were paid tribute here on Through the Static and Distance: Songs of Jason Molina
3. Ring the Bell performed by Sharron Kraus
6. Two Blue Lights performed by Small Sur
For more information on this amazing record please visit here.
Jason Molina - Pyramid Electric Co.
Released 1/20/04
Secretly Canadian, SC083
Available on LP (with bonus CD)
Track 7 from this record was paid tribute here on Through the Static and Distance: Songs of Jason Molina
7. Long Desert Train performed by Stephen Bartolomei
For more information on this amazing record please visit here.
Songs: Ohia - The Lioness
Released: 1/17/00
Secretly Canadian, SC030
Available on CD/LP
Tracks 4 and 5 from this record were paid tribute here on Through the Static and Distance: Songs of Jason Molina
4. The Lioness performed by Bob Corn
5. Being in Love performed by Tiger Saw
For more information on this amazing record please visit here.
Secretly Canadian VARIOUS ARTISTS | THE UNACCOMPANIED VOICE: AN A CAPELLA COMPILATION
Secretly Canadian, SC007
Released: 06/01/00
CD/Digital Download
Track 22 from this record was paid tribute here on Through the Static and Distance: Songs of Jason Molina
22. Calling Bird performed by Mara Flynn
For more information on this amazing record please visit here.
Magnolia Electric Co. - What Comes After The Blues
Released 4/05/05
Secretly Canadian, SC102
Available on CD/LP
Track 1 and 8 from this record were paid tribute here on Through the Static and Distance: Songs of Jason Molina
1. The Dark Don’t Hide It performed by Jason Anderson
8. I Can not have Seen the Light performed by Jesse Poe, Thalia Zedek and The Static & Distance Band
For more information on this amazing record please visit here.
Songs: Ohia - Mi Sei Apparso Come Un Fantasma
Released: 9/15/01
Paper Cup, PAC-101
Out of Print CD/LP
Track 5 from this record was paid tribute here on Through the Static and Distance: Songs of Jason Molina
5. Constant Change (Be Your Own Guide) performed by Nad Navillus
For more information on this amazing record please visit here.
Songs: Ohia - Hecla & Griper EP
Released: 12/01/97
Secretly Canadian, SC008
Available on CD/LP
Track 4 from this record was paid tribute here on Through the Static and Distance: Songs of Jason Molina
4. Declarer performed by The Verms
For more information on this amazing record please visit here.
Songs: Ohia - Our Golden Ratio EP
Released: 10/1/98
Acuarela, NOIS
Out of Print CD
Track 1 from this record was paid tribute here on Through the Static and Distance: The Songs of Jason Molina
1. So You Can See To Go (There Will Be Distance) performed by Brendan Quinn
For more information on this amazing record please visit here.
Songs: Ohia - Nor Cease Thou Never Now — 7"
Released: 01/96
Palace Records (Drag City)
Out of Print 7″ (limited to 1,000 copies)
Re-released on: Songs: Ohia Journey On: Collected Singles Secretly Canadian
Side B from this 7" was paid tribute here on Through the Static and Distance: Songs of Jason Molina
Side B Soul performed by Guy Capecelatro III
For more information on this amazing record please visit here.
Songs: Ohia - Songs: Ohia (aka The Black Album)
Released: 4/01/97
Secretly Canadian, SC004
Available on CD/LP
Track 5 from this record was paid tribute here on Through the Static and Distance: Songs of Jason Molina
5. Tenskawatawa performed by Peter Hess (clarinet) and Eoin Russell (pedal steel)
For more information on this amazing record please visit here.
Songs: Ohia - Ghost Tropic
Released: 11/13/00
Secretly Canadian, SC040
Available on CD/LP
Track 5 from this record was paid tribute here on Through the Static and Distance: Songs of Jason Molina
5. Ocean’s Nerves performed by Black Hare (Michael Tanner and Gemma Williams)
For more information on this amazing record please visit here.