JASON MOLINA – Let Me Go, Let Me Go, Let Me Go (12″ & CD Album)

Secretly Canadian SC149: 28th August 2006
1. It’s Easier Now
“Behind these eyes a desert spirit, sea serpent heart inside a sunken ship”
2. Everything Should Try Again
“You don’t forgive the silence for not speaking up”
3. Alone With The Owl
“I stood beside the ocean not a single wave, beside the ocean not a single wave”
4. Don’t It Look Like Rain
“The wolf outside my door don’t need, anymore of my blood”
5. Some Things Never Try
“All those years had to darken me on every single side, ’til every part of me was a place to hide”
6. It Must Be Raining There Forever
“With all that blue that you carry around in your heart, it must be raining there forever”
7. Get Out, Get Out, Get Out
“I lived low enough so the moon wouldn’t waste it’s light on me, what’s left in this life that would do the same for me”
8. It Costs You Nothing (That’s What It Was Worth)
“If the truth don’t hurt, the truth don’t work, it costs you nothing, that’s what it was worth”
9. Let Me Go, Let Me Go, Let Me Go
“Owl above places of the dead, and I have to believe everything she said”

With Magnolia Electric Co the music was closely tied to the sound of Neil Young. On Jason Molina’s new solo album, while the voice is still reminiscent of Young, it also brings to mind Nick Drake at his most intimate. The lyrics are starkly confessional and chronicle a defeated spirit with lines like “I don’t think nothing now is gonna change” and “No matter how wrong it went, you don’t have much more room to forget”. Jason’s haunting voice paints pictures of darkness and death with every line.

Although this is a largely acoustic album, the creek of Jason’s chair, the wetting of his lips, voices in the background, his fingers drumming on the Guitar’s body and the echoing silence are like a ghostly backing band in itself. Since it feels like he’s in the room with you, the record is probably best experienced at night, maybe with headphones.

While this album is incredible, this is perhaps too bleak to be an ideal introduction to Jason Molina. If you’ve not heard him I’d grab a copy of last years more lushly produced ‘What Comes After The Blues’ album by Magnolia Electric Co.

Jason Molina – Get Out, Get Out, Get Out mp3
Songs: Ohio – Farewell Transmission mp3
Magnolia Electric Co – The Dark Don’t Hide It mp3
Magnolia Electric Co – Leave The City mp3
Magnolia Electric Co – Lonesome Valley mp3

The album is only available as a 12″ LP but the neat trick is, every one comes with a free CD copy. The down side is the CD doesn’t come with any artwork, so I decided to scan in the LP’s cover and make myself a mini replica. Click here to get it, then you’ll have to print it on some thick card/paper, cut it out, glue it and bingo you’ve got a cover for your CD. Since the photo is so nice I’ve also turned it into a desktop backdrop, which you can get by clicking here.

You can buy the album from the Websites below or from Piccadilly Records.

Magnolia Electric Co Website / Magnolia Electric Co MySpace Page
Secretly Canadian Website

THE ENERGY – Champagne Lifestyle (CD EP)

Vectix VECTCD01: 28th August 2006
1. Thursday Night Antics
“All jokin’ aside baby, you know I will, sleep with you, and leave you in the morning, to pay the bill”
2. I Love Your Shoes
“People point the finger at Muslims, because they wanna see ’em in the stocks, and there’s a real danger round our way, he tucks his trackies in his socks”
3. Fair Havana
“My Telephone is full of numbers I have rung, and it is not my fault if all your friends are highly strung”
4. Little Johnny
“Johnny said he was a Libertine, she said I heard Johnny, what’s that mean, he said I don’t know, but it sure sounds good, jump on the bandwagon, like I knew you would”

‘Thursday Night Antics’ is a finely crafted Pop-Rock single in the mould of Arctic Monkeys but it lacks a certain spark. ‘Fair Havana’ is like one of those great Acoustic B-sides that Noel Gallagher used to write. ‘Little Johnny’ is much more aggressive than the other songs and it takes the second prize.

The first prize goes to ‘I Love Your Shoes’, which is the bona-fide classic that you’ll need to buy this EP to get hold of. The line I’ve quoted above is so simple, yet it brilliantly takes the kind of poisonous tripe that’s regularly pumped out by The Daily Mail and contrasts it with the ‘Chav’ problem (Or as I call them… “Scum”). The title of the EP is taken from the superb opening line of this song “You’ve got your Champagne lifestyle, on a budget of Lemonade”.

If this EP is anything to go by then these guys have real potential, but they need to better define their sound to set themselves above the rest of the Indie crowd.

Jewels For Eyes (Demo) mp3
Petty Jealousy (Demo) mp3
Sort It Out (Demo) mp3
Run Katy Run (Demo) mp3

You can buy the CD and some T-shirts from The Energy’s site. Or you can digitally buy the whole EP or just a track or two from TuneTribe or IndieStore.

The Energy Website / The Energy MySpace Page

RED ORGAN SERPENT SOUND – Autobahn: Baseball Furies Remix (10″ Single)

Marquis Cha Cha FURIES001: 28th August 2006
“We drive fast, we fly first class, I get a rash, it makes me nervous, extra hard, take it easy man, my Guru said I’ll make it your vacation”

The last thing I heard of Red Organ Serpent Sound was their single ‘In Search Of Orgasmuz’ from almost exactly a year ago.  Then this one-sided white-label Remix 10″ turns up.  It’s got The Rapture style cowbells all over it, pulsating Bass, and strangely distorted vocals.  It’s a six-minute electronic beast that’ll have you reaching for the glow-sticks.

You can buy this remix from Piccadilly records.

Red Organ Serpent Sound MySpace Page